South Wales Fire and Rescue Authority has announced its draft Risk Reduction Action Plan  2012 - 2013, which outlines the strategic challenges facing the Authority in how it delivers its services to the public of South Wales for implementation from April 2012.  The Plan builds on and compliments ‘A Safer South Wales’ - the Authority’s first Risk Reduction Plan which was published in 2007 and its subsequent annual plans.  

Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Huw Jakeway said;

The Risk Reduction Action Plan 2012/2013, sets out for consideration and comment how we intend to use our resources to maximum affect, enabling us to continue to deliver the vital services that we provide to the communities of South Wales”.

Each year the Authority set improvement objectives to identify the priorities for reducing risk to the communities in South Wales.  Outlined are the improvement objectives for financial year 2012/2013, and where we intend to focus its resources.  All of the proposed actions outlined in the risk reduction planning and performance management framework directly link to the achievement of these objectives, ensuring that the Service efforts are focused on maximising opportunities to continually make improvements and protect the communities served by SWFRS. 

Among the issues the 2012/2013 Plan addresses are the improvement of the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service’s organisation’s emergency response, the reduction of risk in the community, the review of working patterns and structures as well as business processes and ICT systems to  maintain efficient working in what are difficult economic times

The 2010/2011 Risk Reduction Plan outlined nine key projects which we felt would enable us to continuously improve the ways in which we work and maintaining our high standard of service delivery whilst taking into account the financial challenges the organisation faces.  We undertook a rigorous consultation exercise with our communities, stakeholders and employees on those proposed projects and as a result of listening carefully to the views expressed changes were made.  We have an ongoing commitment to delivering outcomes against these projects and as such, particularly with the current constraints on resources and budgets we have decided to continue to focus on successfully completing these projects. As the projects are on-going, proposals and recommendations will be made, when a full review has been completed by each of the programme boards.  Proposals and recommendations will only be implemented following a full consultation and negotiation with affected groups and representative bodies.

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service is held in high regard by the public it serves, due to the first class service we provide to our communities through  the commitment and professionalism of our staff.  We need to continue to seek new and innovative ways of delivering our service, whilst still focusing on Firefighter safety and maintaining our high standards of service delivery and ensuring public safety at the heart of our decision making” said South Wales’ Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Huw Jakeway.

DCFO Jakeway continued;  "We will continue to build upon the successful feedback we have received from the Wales Audit Office, who stated in their Annual Improvement Report ‘that effective leadership and robust corporate arrangements provide a sound foundation for improvement in performance’.  In other words, they felt that we are likely to improve things for the people who live in our area because we have sound leadership and are well managed”.  

He concluded  “In the current economic climate, we along with other public services face unprecedented challenges and we continue to look closely at the ways in which we deliver services to ensure we are doing so as efficiently and effectively as possible, whilst making the most of opportunities to work with others in collaboration to reduce risk.  As always, we remain committed to making sure we continue to give the best possible service to make our communities in South Wales the safest place to live, work and visit”.