Introduction
In recognition of the significant role that technology can play in a modern fire and rescue services (FRS), we are actively seeking ways to exploit emerging technology across the service to improve our communication and process efficiency.
This strategy sets out a framework of how we will progress that agenda together with setting out some of the external influences that we need to consider. These include our active engagement in digital and data workstreams that are underway in the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) and which are attempting to standardise data and technology approaches within FRS across the country. This will ensure best practice and best value to the communities that we serve.
In addition, we will consider best practice guidelines from central Government together with other partner agency collaborations wherever possible. We will also look to align ourselves with established and accepted best practices and working patterns from across the technology sector.
The underpinning focus throughout our digital journey will be on maximising the effectiveness and efficiency of our workforce to ensure the best possible service and levels of engagement for our communities.
Section 1: Service key principles
Our culture plays an integral part in enabling the service to achieve our priorities of:
Preventing fires and other emergencies from happening
Protecting people and property when they happen
Responding to fires and other emergencies quickly and competently
Valuing our people
Delivering value for money
Our service “STRIVE” values underpin everything we seek to achieve, which fundamentally aligns to the fire and rescue service national code of ethics:
Service
Trust
Respect
Integrity
Value
Empowerment
Through the key objectives set within the digital strategy, we aim to support the creation of a positive, inclusive culture that encourages innovation and continuous improvement. Achieving the right culture will enable us to deliver the best services and be an outstanding fire and rescue service for our communities and visitors.
To help achieve this, we will align our digital landscape with these organisational values to ensure that:
Our workforce can make effective use of technology to communicate, safely store and share information
Our workforce can work effectively from anywhere using the most appropriate device for their role, intrinsically increasing our efficiency
Our workforce has easy access to data and intelligence relevant to their role and that the information is current to help increase safety and reduce risk
Our workforce is digitally engaged in the organisation and champion a digital first culture
We strive to reduce paper, printing and increase our process efficiency through digitisation and automation
Our digital solutions focus on the needs of our communities and that they are able to engage with us in a more digitally enabled and accessible way
Section 2: Digital horizon
Government Digital Directive
The strategic direction across UK Government is now Digital by Default, Cloud First. This requires public sector organisations to consider and fully evaluate cloud solutions first before considering other options.
What Is The Cloud?
The cloud allows users to access the same files and applications from almost any device, because the computing and storage is on servers in global data centre accessed through the internet, instead of locally on the users own device or network.
Why Is It Called The Cloud?
In the early days of the Internet, technical diagrams often represented the servers and networking infrastructure that make up the Internet as a cloud and the phrase stuck.
Furthermore, the Government Functional Standard for Digital, Data and Technology outlines the following key principles:
Digital services align with government policy and meet clearly identified user needs.
Management and governance are proportionate and appropriate to the work and risk profile of the organisation.
Business processes are evaluated as part of a technical or digital project or programme so that they meet the needs of the business and the end users.
Delivery teams comprise appropriately skilled people, with the expertise required to undertake their assigned work.
Digital services are designed as end-to-end services, from a citizen’s or user’s viewpoint.
Appropriate levels of security and privacy are designed as an integral part of the digital service.
Digital and technology components are designed using mandatory government open standards where needed; and are adaptable, interoperable and shareable.
Performance data and analytics are shared or published where possible to improve policy development and government transparency.
Data is collected, stored, used and deleted in the appropriate and ethical way.
Public service codes of conduct and ethics and those of associated professions are upheld
This is further explored in the following definitions that we will use as reference guides throughout our digital journey:
Technology Code of Practice: The technology code of practice – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Government Service Standard: Service Standard – Service Manual – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Data Ethics Framework: Data Ethics Framework – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
To embrace these standards, we will ensure that the customer (both internal and external) is at the heart of everything we do and that the customer experience is optimised at every point of that journey. We will also engage with partner agencies in an efficient and automated way to ensure that customer transition and data exchange between agencies is smooth, seamless and complete to ensure effort is minimised wherever possible.
Section 3: LFRS digital landscape
In accordance with government guidance, as well as maintaining a fit for purpose on-premise network we are making the shift to cloud technology wherever there is a suitable use case for it, wherever it ensures best value for money while also improving service quality and availability.
Horizon scanning and innovation
We will ensure that we consistently evaluate new products, features and technology with a view to embracing them across the service to continue our drive for innovation, service improvement and operational effectiveness and efficiency.
More specifically, to establish whether there are any real-world use cases where emerging technologies can provide advantage to either efficiency or quality across our service portfolio, we are evaluating thing like:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Sets of logic, rules and algorithms programmed into computers and other devices to provide smarter, more enriched and engaging experiences. Some examples include Siri, Alexa, Google and other smart assistants, or chatbots on consumer websites.
Machine Learning (ML)
Taking AI to the next level are self-improving algorithms that are able to “learn” from data, identify complex patterns and make decisions with minimal intervention. Examples include spatial awareness of self-driving cars, or the ability to recognise objects in photographs and images.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Essentially using elements of both AI and ML to automate common, repetitive and largely manual processes. If you remember recording macros in the 1990’s to automate spreadsheet tasks, think of RPA as far more powerful versions that are not limited to spreadsheets.
Internet Of Things (IoT)
Essentially the ability to connect any device to a network or the internet, so that it can exchange data and trigger processes or actions. Examples include smart thermostats, or printers that are able to order ink when it detects that it’s running low.
Section 4: Seven digital themes
We have reverse engineered the organisation’s strategic objectives and identified seven key themes that will help us to enable delivery of them:
Delivery
Delivery Partners
Gold Partners
DT Pro Dev Team
DT Business Analysts
Business Developers
Delivery Departmental Empowerment
Apps
Digital Data Collection
Process Automation
Automatic Notifications
Data Accessibility And Self Service
Data Warehouse
Business Intelligence Platform
Data Resilience
Efficiency And Automation
Integrated ecosystem
Apps
Digital Data Collection
Process Automation
Automatic Notifications
Collaboration And Sharing
Partner and Sector Collaboration
Digital Solution Sharing
Data Sharing Tools
Identity Management
Conditional Access
Cyber Security Controls
Information Governance
Securing Content
Identity Management
Conditional Access
Cyber Security Controls
Information Governance
National Alignment
Government Directive
NFCC Standards
Sector Collaboration
Theme 1: Delivery
To deliver cost effective digital solutions across the service we will:
Implement the following delivery model:
Delivery partners
Whenever we need to implement at pace or if we need specialist skills or knowledge that fall outside of our workforce, we will engage with 3rd party specialist partners. We will do this in an open and transparent way and will use compliant routes to market such as G-Cloud (Digital marketplace), Crown Commercial Services or approved procurement frameworks.
Pro DT team
We will maintain a core establishment of experienced technical experts who will engage with customers across the Service to develop and build professional, integrated solutions using the most relevant technology. We will integrate off the shelf products or inter-agency collaborative solutions where this is appropriate and more cost effective or will develop bespoke solutions to cater for a specific requirement which enables delivery of a quality service to our communities.
Business developers
We will develop and skill a cohort of power users, or business developers, at more local levels that are able to make use of low code products and workflow tools to produce digital solutions
Continue to mature our Agile development methodology, using established tools and techniques to embed principles that underpin:
The Agile Manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
Source: Agile Manifesto for Software Development | Agile Alliance
Work with our Project Management Office to align this methodology with the Axelos published PRINCE2 AGILE standard.
Theme 2: Departmental Empowerment
To help embed the Service key principles we will:
Engage with the organisation to champion a cohort of business (or citizen) developers at more local levels, that are able to make use of low code products and workflow tools to produce digital solutions that help to automate processes and create efficiency in their own area.
This will reduce the volume on the pro team, add to the development resource pool and will help to empower departments to create their own business solutions under proper guidance and governance.
Make available common data sets to consume through these solutions that will further enable departments to be self-service enabled and to maximise efficiency through technology at a local level.
Theme 3: Data Accessibility And Self Service
To encourage a culture of integration and self-service we will:
Create a cloud-based service wide Intranet that is accessible on any device from any location, giving our workforce easy access to data and intelligence that is relevant to their role.
Utilise the cloud to create and publish core data sets that are made available throughout the organisation and will ensure consistency and uniformity across reporting and line of business systems.
Further extend these data services by using integration to enable seamless communication between our line of business systems, to ensure that data and information relating to the services we provide to the community are consistent and efficiently used across the organisation.
Create a cloud first data warehouse to ensure all of our data that serves our Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reporting is available and current.
Implement a Business Intelligence platform that will compliment this and make it possible for users to create their own reporting solutions with contextualised data that is relevant and accurate at a local level. It will also ensure that every user has access to the most up to date data across the service to assist with accurate and informed decision making.
Continue to enable a mobile workforce, ensuring that every user has a device that is suitably enabled to perform their role with maximum efficiency, placing the focus on improving our service to the community.
Help to achieve this by creating our service portfolio to be mobile enabled using cloud hosted services to communicate with mobile devices through:
Native mobile apps (developed by the pro team to align with a specific feature)
Low code mobile solutions (developed by the pro team or business developers)
Mobile data analysis and reporting tools
Theme 4: Efficiency And Automation
Wherever possible we will:
Look to introduce emerging technologies to create efficiencies in traditionally labour inefficient and manual process.
This will include:
workflow tools and RPA to automate processes
AI to more easily signpost our workforce to relevant content and support
perimeter integrations and interfaces to create a seamless flow of data and content between on-premise and cloud-based solutions
Make these tools available to our cohort of business developers.
Theme 5: Collaboration And Sharing
To foster a culture of collaboration and sharing we will:
Actively seek to engage with partner agencies and the wider FRS community with a view to building and delivering digital solutions.
Make any solutions we build available to our partner agencies and will seek to adopt solutions developed by them in return, where they align with our processes and demonstrate best value for money.
Leverage the tools made available through our cloud ecosystem to share content easily and securely with partner agencies, following the security controls set out below.
Theme 6: Securing Content
Working with our Security, Information Governance and Records Management teams we will:
Use our cloud-based security and content control solutions to ensure that:
Our data and content are secured in transit and at rest using relevant and current cyber security measures (security and encryption, Data Loss Prevention, Information Protection)
Only content relevant to the role of our workforce is accessible to them
Our data is classified and controlled across the organisation according to its content and sensitivity
Our data and content are archived and removed relevant to our processing needs and in accordance with legislation
Ensure that the sharing of data and content with partner agencies is done in a secure and controlled way and that this content is removed or archived when it is no longer relevant.
Ensure that our cloud-based data and content is backed-up and resilient and that adequate tactical plans are in place to ensure business continuity across our service portfolio.
Theme 7: National Alignment
Wherever possible we will:
Seek to align our digital solutions with partner agencies and government standards such as Government Digital Services (GDS).
Actively seek involvement and alignment with National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) Digital and Data initiatives, workstreams and published standards.
Make any interfaces that we create, through which we exchange data, compliant with government and NFCC data service standards.
Section 5:
In order to ensure that our digital strategy is relevant and successfully aligns with the organisation’s objectives, the following matrices outline elements of the digital strategy that will help to deliver our other organisational strategies. These enablers refer to the 7 digital pillars defined earlier in the document.
Prevention Strategy
Strategic deliverable | Digital theme enablers |
---|---|
| Data accessibility and Self Service Collaboration and Sharing Securing content |
| Data accessibility and Self Service |
| Delivery (HFSC refresh) National alignment (NFCC) |
| Delivery Departmental Empowerment |
Protection Strategy
Strategic deliverable | Digital theme enablers |
---|---|
| Collaboration and Sharing Securing content |
| Data accessibility and Self Service |
| Delivery (RBIP / AG solution) Data accessibility and Self Service |
| Departmental Empowerment |
| Delivery (PORIS, BFSC, RBIP) National alignment (NFCC) Departmental Empowerment |
| Data accessibility and Self Service |
| Data accessibility and Self Service |
| Data accessibility and Self Service |
Response Strategy
Strategic deliverable | Digital theme enablers |
---|---|
| Collaboration and Sharing Securing content
|
| Data accessibility and Self Service |
| Data accessibility and Self Service |
| Delivery Departmental Empowerment Data accessibility and Self Service |
| Departmental Empowerment Data accessibility and Self Service |
People Strategy
Strategic deliverable | Digital theme enablers |
---|---|
| Departmental Empowerment Collaboration and Sharing |
| Departmental Empowerment |
| Departmental Empowerment Collaboration and Sharing
|