FIA Guide to the UK Fire Safety Industry FIRESA Council Feature
latter both in terms of the current
landscape and into the future.
FIRESA Council is active on the
NFCC’s own Customer and Supplier
Engagement Group which is itself an
element of its Fire Commercial
Transformation Programme. This
provides a forum for discussion on a
number of aspects of the customer-supplier
relationship, of which more
efficient and cost-effective procurement
is a particular concern.
With the Fire and Rescue Services in
England acting largely autonomously
and tending to be divergent rather than
collaborative, it’s essential that we assist
in bringing to an end the plethora of
duplicate procurement frameworks and
encourage instead multi-supplier
national frameworks that are used by all
Fire and Rescue Services. To this end,
we’ve pledged our support for (and a
contribution towards) a Best Practice
guide on the procurement cycle for the
Fire and Rescue Services.
With opportunities for suppliers
impacted domestically by a decade of
public sector cuts that have severely
affected Fire and Rescue Services, it’s
very important that the FIRESA Council
engages with the FIA’s Export Council
and, through that, with the Department
for International Trade’s Defence and
Security Exports (DIT DSE) division of
which fire is a key component. Our
relationship with the DIT DSE continues
to grow and has been augmented by the
appointment of Mike Dayson as
principal fire and security advisor as
well as the secondment of FIRESA
Council member Sarah Adamson to this
Government department in the role of
first response specialist.
Working Groups
In order to maintain focus on specific
work items, the FIRESA Council
recently created two Working Groups
focused on personal protective
equipment (PPE) and events. Chaired by
Ian Callaghan, the PPE Working Group
gathers industry experts in that field
including Abby Hannah who acts as
FIRESA Council representative to the
NFCC PPE Committee. The remit of
this Working Group includes pursuing
research on firefighter contamination.
The Events Group, which is chaired
by Paul Cartwright, collates the detail
around (and examines a range of) UK
events including exhibitions and
seminars with which the FIA may
engage. This focused attention plays an
important role in widening the scope of
our third party activities to include, for
example, charitable organisations and
non-public sector Fire and Rescue
representative bodies.
Our other activities include responses
to relevant Government and other
consultations, encouraging new Fire and
Rescue sector companies to join the FIA
(including Fire and Rescue Service
trading companies) and, not least, our
provision of FIA delegates to a range of
British Standards Institution, CEN and
ISO Standards Committees which
enables industry experts to contribute
their thoughts towards new and revised
standards relating to various types of
firefighting equipment.
In these times of Britain’s exit from
the European Union and the ongoing
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,
we’ve provided information to our
members on both subjects and also
offered salient advice to the Fire and
Rescue Services themselves on suppliers’
responses to these issues.
With the past year and more having
necessarily been spent in a very different
business and social environment, the
FIRESA Council’s recent work builds
not only on existing successes, but also
strives to expand its influence and
contributions across the Fire and Rescue
Service and wider fire safety sectors. We
continue to offer our full support when
playing our part in the evolution of Fire
and Rescue Services in the UK on behalf
of the FIA’s firefighting suppliers.
Finally, we strongly welcome new FIA
members from the Fire and Rescue
sector to join us in our work and help to
shape a future within the Fire and
Rescue Services that works for everyone,
as well as enjoy the benefits that FIA
membership brings. Fire and Rescue
Service personnel and other
stakeholders are also invited to contact
us on Fire and Rescue Service-related
matters for impartial advice that’s wholly
independent of any one supplier. •
Dave Smith is Secretary of the FIRESA
Council and Export Manager for the
Fire Industry Association
(www.fia.uk.com)
13
/(www.fia.uk.com)
