Recommendation 3: Ensure effective support to Assistant Chief Fire Officers (ACFOs), Commanders, Brigade Management Teams (BMTs) and Group Officers: FRV Secondees are supported to provide the critical middle management expertise to achieve the strategic objectives of CFA
| 3.1 Development of Volunteer Consultative Committees at the District levels which reflects the diversity of the community, and which is used as the avenue for engagement from Brigades to CFA Headquarters |
| Actions |
| 3.1.1 Establish working group to determine the best model for ensuring inclusive and effective consultation occurs consistently across the State |
| 3.2 Ensuring that ACFOs and Commanders are welcomed, inducted and supported in their roles within CFA, to support the values, ethos of volunteerism and to understand how to develop a volunteer friendly culture within CFA |
| Actions |
| 3.2.1 Engage with substantive (permanently seconded) and acting (temporary secondees) ACFOs and Commanders to understand current barriers to feeling welcomed and embedded within CFA, and their ability to support volunteerism and lead a volunteer friendly culture e.g. access to systems, information, training & development etc |
| 3.2.2 Confirm and review existing induction processes and materials is currently available to ACFOS and Commanders |
| 3.2.3 Engage with FRV to build FRVs understanding of CFAs needs in this space, and work collaboratively to support FRV to develop effective mechanisms to promote the opportunities available to their staff as CFA secondees, and ensure appropriate development pathways to support their employees to succeed within a volunteer context under the secondment model |
| 3.3 Reviewing the current regional and district support to BMTs and Group Officers, to ensure that their needs are being addressed and that they are able to work with their communities effectively |
| Actions |
| 3.3.1 Identify and communicate existing support and resources available to BMTs and Group Officers and communicate how they can access these |
| 3.3.2 As part of the operating model review, undertake an organisational RACI to ensure roles and responsibilities are aligned to the new operating model |
| 3.4 Addition of training, particularly for BMT members, Group Officers and District and Regional members, which incorporates a focus on the development of leadership attributes, managing teams, conflict resolution, and difficult conversations |
| Actions |
| 3.4.1 Deliver the Volunteer Leadership Development Project |
| 3.5 Ensuring that access to training is equitable, and where members have not been able to access training, they are able to seek a review of the decision |
| Actions |
| 3.5.1 Develop a comprehensive technical capability framework |
| 3.5.2 Develop a comprehensive leadership capability framework |
| 3.5.3 Develop training pathways for operational roles for staff and volunteers |
| 3.5.4 Identify and review existing processes for publicising training changes to Regions for delivery |
| 3.5.5 Regions and Districts to identify best practice for the promotion of upcoming training courses and training schedules and review and update their own processes accordingly |
| 3.5.6 Regions and Districts to Identify and review existing processes for scheduling and enrolling into training, sharing best practice to enable equitable access for members to progress through training pathways |
| 3.5.7 Identify and review existing processes for scheduling, publicising and enrolling into professional development programs |
| 3.5.8 Develop operational doctrine that clarifies skills maintenance and skills refresher requirements for operational roles |
| 3.5.9 Develop operational doctrine for operational endorsements |
| 3.5.10 Implement, review and maintain a quality management system and related training policies to guide training matters |
| 3.5.11 Develop course requirements - including pre-requisites where relevant |
| 3.5.12 Develop a decision-making framework to guide and inform training requests and approvals and reviews of such requests |