Where next?
Our action plan builds on the changes we’ve made over the last four years:
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Continue to support colleagues to make best use of technology as it advances. |
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We will focus on improving data provided to firefighters and incident commanders both when in transit and at the incident ground. This is to be done through the deployment of devices, and the progressive evolution of our software and the implementation of Emergency Services Network. |
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To improve communications we will focus on data transmission of incident messages, instead of voice. |
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Digital data capture systems for risk assessments and for decision logging will be developed. |
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The flow of information through the Service from survival calls will be improved. |
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A central repository for all incident data to better support our operational assurance process will be developed. |
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Station end software will be upgraded and advances in on-call alerting technology will be considered so we can move away from pagers which are very old technology and getting harder to support. |
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Access to the National Guidance Portal will be provided when this becomes available. |
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Working at a national level with the National Fire Chiefs’ Council we aim to lead work with the fire technology market to respond to Grenfell and other events, driving suppliers to bring their offerings up to date and assist with the modernisation of fire services. |
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We will continue to contribute resources to the project to replace the Airwave network and maximise the opportunities provided by its replacement when available. |
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We will develop a system for fire investigation case management. |
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Following the announcement to close the current site at Kent Police headquarters, our Control Room will be re-located to an appropriate site working collaboratively with our Police partners in the design of our future 999 call handling provision. |
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A review of the technologies within the Control Room will be undertaken to determine future systems required to enable a partnership with another fire service for additional resilience. |
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“Multi Agency Incident Transfer” will be deployed, when it becomes available, to quicken the mobilising of resources between emergency services. |
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A means for external customers to book home visits online will be enabled. |
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Innovation in the control room, including smart phone video feeds and social media alerting will be explored. |
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The out of date incident commanders training system will be replaced. |
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The Command Support Units will be upgraded with a focus on connectivity to improve data sharing. |
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