Our Corporate Plan and CRMP

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All Fire and Rescue Authorities are required to produce a CRMP. This plan must consider all foreseeable fire and rescue related risks that could affect our communities. These risks include those traditionally associated with Fire and Rescue Services such as house fires, road traffic collisions and chemical spills. They also include other less common hazards such as wide area flooding, terrorist attacks and building collapse.

We have a plan that explains how we will reduce or manage these risks. We do this either by changing the way we work, collaborating with other agencies, or by building new capabilities. We understand the impact such incidents have on the lives of people in Berkshire so our aim is to prevent emergencies from happening whenever we can. We do this by providing education and support to people who need our help and by enforcing fire safety law. When emergencies do happen we respond as quickly as possible. This CRMP will explain what we believe to be significant risks to the people of Berkshire and provide an overview of how we intend to manage them with the resources we have at our disposal.

Our Corporate Plan explains how Royal Berkshire Fire Authority (RBFA) intends to meet its goals and achieve its objectives. The Corporate Plan describes how we make decisions, allocate our resources and ensure we are an effective and resilient organisation. Our corporate planning process makes sure that our operations are orderly and that everyone is working towards the same goals. The Corporate Plan also helps us to identify challenges and gives us the tools to overcome them.

RBFA has a number of legal powers and duties that derive from a range of Acts of Parliament, Frameworks and national standards:

The Fire and Rescue National Framework for England explains the priorities that Government sets out for RBFA.

In order to comply with the National Framework a CRMP must:

• Reflect up to date risk analyses including an assessment of all foreseeable Fire and Rescue related risks that could affect the area of the authority.
• Demonstrate how prevention, protection and response activities will best be used to prevent fires and other incidents and mitigate the impact of identified risks on its communities, through authorities working either individually or collectively, in a way that makes best use of available resources. 
• Outline required service delivery outcomes including the allocation of resources for the mitigation of risks.
• Set out its management strategy and risk-based programme for enforcing the provisions of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in accordance with the principles of better regulation set out in the Statutory Code of Compliance for Regulators, and the Enforcement Concordat.  
• Cover at least a three-year time span and be reviewed and revised as often as it is necessary to ensure that the authority is able to deliver the requirements set out in this Framework.
• Reflect effective consultation throughout its development and at all review stages with the community, its workforce and representative bodies and partners. 
• Be easily accessible and publicly available.  

The Framework sets out the following priorities for RBFA:

• Make appropriate provision for fire prevention and protection activities and response to fire and rescue related incidents.
• Identify and assess the full range of foreseeable fire and rescue related risks their areas face.
• Collaborate with emergency services and other local and national partners to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the services they provide.
• Be accountable to communities for the services they provide.
• Develop and maintain a workforce that is professional, resilient, skilled, flexible and diverse.