HRDG Employee Development Sub Group: Awards
To seek approval from Regional Management Board for:
This report provides background information supporting proposals for regional work on NVQs. RMB are also asked to support ongoing work to rationalise resources associated with the implementation of fire service NVQs. This includes work to standardise practice across the region in respect of administration and approved centres. Due account is taken of the substantial differences in activity and progress in this area which exist in fire authorities across the region. Approval of the proposed work toward adopting best practice will be cost effective and advance expectations for the regional agenda outlined the National Framework Document 2004.
Constituent members of the South East Fire and Rescue Services Regional Management Board.
RMB are asked to approve the following recommendations:
Approval of these recommendations enables regional resources associated with the management and application of NVQs to be progressively rationalised. The standardising impact of work in this area will also assist with issues of consistency of application and quality assurance across the regio. LEAD/CONTACT OFFICER:
Steve Buck BACKGROUND PAPERS: Fire & Rescue National Framework Document INTRODUCTION Awards based on the National Occupational Standards for the fire industry are a key component of the IPDS. All types of award including vocational, Further Education and Higher Education qualifications have relevance to the fire industry provided that they meet the requirements of the relevant national occupational standards associated with each role. One of the most common types of award to be used will be Fire Service National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and this report is specifically concerned with improving regional arrangements in this area. Fire Service NVQs provide a framework for achieving an externally recognised, nationally benchmarked qualification linked to the agreed service rolemaps. The activities involved in securing qualifications of this kind require external validation which automatically underpins quality assurance processes demonstrating effective implementation of the IPDS. Regional collaboration on this issue represents an opportunity for progress against Government expectations for regional management boards as set out in the National Framework Document 2004, and the purpose of this report is to seek approval for proposals to advance that agenda. BACKGROUND Within the South East region there is a wide range of experience and good practice in providing opportunities for staff to secure NVQ awards. Four of the nine fire authorities in the region have mature arrangements in place to deliver NVQs, and three of those authorities have secure approved centre status. Note: ‘Approved Centre’ status is where the management arrangements in an organisation have been externally validated by the examination awarding body and found to be sufficiently robust to enable them to directly award qualifications. The proposals in this report should assist in the establishment of arrangements to maximise the efficiency in use of resources in this extremely important activity. ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY NVQs are nationally recognised qualifications locally managed in FRAs. It is not a requirement for FRAs to offer access to these qualifications. What is necessary is for FRAs to develop managerial systems associated with implementation of the IPDS which have a robustness and quality such that the qualifications could be provided as a by-product. The rigour and probity of management and administration arrangements which have to be in place for approved centre status to be secured are substantial which, in effect means that significant organisational resources are associated with this activity. In addition, although the qualifications are based on common standards, the guidance in application of assessment, recording and other administrative matters are generic which has inevitably led to differences of approach across the region. The implementation of NVQs can be carried out using a model of an approved centre offering facilities for a partner organisation to provide NVQs with verification arrangements being carried out by staff from the parent organisation. This ‘satellite’ arrangement already exists in the SE region between FRAs which are approved centres and those who are not. The advantages of this approach are that the satellite FRAs are able to develop expertise over time under the umbrella of the parent organisation, and where this arrangement does exists there is a common approach to management and administration. A reasonable long term aspiration for the SE region should be to have one approved centre with eight satellite FRAs using common management arrangements and a proposed diagram of organisational arrangements has been set out in Appendix 1. Obviously this approach would need to be resourced on a collaborative basis, but it is anticipated that the outcome would be an efficient, standardised approach with overall savings for the region. The model set out in Appendix 1 is based on existing arrangements in place in Scotland. The medium term aspiration should be to standardise administration arrangements to enable the long term vision to be realised. Subject to approval of recommendations in this report, the working group will be tasked to scope the work associated with standardisation of administration procedures and explore potential for external funding to assist in carrying out this work. One particular outcome of this work should be identification of potential for savings from adopting the proposed regional model. The immediate actions to be taken should be to require any FRA in the SE region who is intending to offer NVQs to become a satellite to an existing approved centre as opposed to seeking approved centre status. OPTIONS [1] Do nothing and continue with current arrangements. [2] Start work toward rationalisation of resources used on NVQs by standardising approaches across the region. IMPLICATIONS Option [1]
Option [2]
CONCLUSION The proposals set out in this report represent an important step towards establishing regional arrangements for running NVQs and advancing the agenda set out in the Fire & Rescue National Framework Document 2004. PROPOSED SE REGION
NVQ PARTNERSHIP MODEL
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