This report is published in accordance with the Fire Services Implementation Monitor’s (FSIM) functions, as outlined in section 141 of the Fire Rescue Victoria Act 1958. It provides commentary on the Country Fire Authority’s (CFA) and Fire Rescue Victoria’s (FRV) respective outcomes frameworks results for the fourth quarter of the 2023-24 financial year.
In this quarter, CFA reported on all 36 quarterly and annual outcome metrics (see Appendix A) and FRV reported on 41 quarterly and annual outcome measures (see Appendix B).
FSIM has reported on select results against the below criteria:
- demonstrates a notable achievement:
- CFA: Increase in the number of volunteers involved in corporate governance arrangements at regions and districts (indicator 4.2.1).
- FRV: Successful recruitment and retention of women firefighters (measure 3.2.1f).
- continuing off-track trend over repeated quarters:
- CFA: Decrease average time spent suppressing structure fires (time spent on scene of incident) (indicator 2.2.3).
- FRV: Percentage of response to structure fire incidents within 7.7 minutes (target 90 per cent) (measure 2.1.3a).
- significant change from the previous quarter (positive or negative):
- CFA: Decrease in workplace injuries (staff and volunteers) (indicator 3.1.2) – reflecting a positive change.
- FRV: Total operational fleet availability (measure 2.1.3b) – reflecting a negative change.
Issues impacting data quality and data availability
Data quality for some FRV measures is impacted by industrial action in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years. FRV advise that data quality for impacted measures is expected to improve from Q1 2024-25 onwards, provided there is no further industrial action. However, data quality for measures that are reported as a rolling 12-month average will still be affected in 2024-25 where there are overlaps with the industrial action time period.
Reporting on certain FRV measures is also impacted by the unavailability of Australian Incident Reporting System (AIRS) and Firecode data. FRV anticipates that AIRS data will be available for reporting from Q1 2024-25. In the interim, FRV continues to use validated Triple Zero Victoria (TZV) Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) data to report on impacted measures.
FRV further advise that FireCode will not meet its previously reported restoration timelines of June 2024 and September 2024, and that Firecode is now expected to be restored in November 2024. FRV notes that the restoration of Firecode by November 2024 could be further impacted by a range of factors. In the interim, FRV will use an alternate system to report on impacted measures from Q1 2024-25 until Firecode is restored for reporting.
FSIM notes that nearly two years on from the December 2022 cyber-attack, FRV continues to work on restoring impacted systems and using interim solutions to report on impacted measures. FSIM will continue to monitor progress and looks forward to FRV fully restoring its two impacted systems for reporting on its quarterly outcomes results.
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