Hi, All
As you may recall, the Board has endorsed a new department in CFA for: Operational Training and Volunteerism
The Operational Training and Volunteerism department will be headed up by an Executive Manager who will report directly to the CEO. The Executive Manager will provide leadership, advocacy and consultation and planning in implementing a range of strategies and programs to support volunteer engagement and sustainability, along with the strategy and vision for CFA’s operational training, development program and facilities.
Also, the new role of Executive Manager Performance and Assurance has been created.
The appointment will ensure that CFA has an ongoing quality assurance and review approach which is critical in addressing the initial areas of focus of the Royal Commission and other change priorities for the CFA. The Executive Manager Performance and Assurance will report to the Director of Finance and Administration.
The Performance and Assurance group will also work with the Chief Officer and his team to review and improve process and service delivery outcomes. The group will be particularly active across all relevant and priority aspects of CFA’s operational service delivery in the lead up to the 2011 fire season.
We will be advertising these positions in People Moves this week and in this weekend’s Age.
We will continue to consult and work with staff, volunteers and key clients in identifying the key transitional issues and arrangements.
Attached are the Position Descriptions for these two new positions.
If you have any enquiries in this regard, please contact DHR Paul Garvey on 9262 8294.
In respect of the process to find a new Chief Officer, I wish to inform you of our progress.
As you will know, the Government adopted the recommendation for a Fire Services Commissioner (FSC); this position is not to be confused with CFA’s requirement to have a Chief Officer. The Bill to outline the FSC role was tabled in Parliament recently.
Now that the FSC’s role is more clearly understood, we must talk to the Chief Officer applicants about the impact this role will have on the position description we originally gave them. For example, we talked to candidates about our Chief Officer being the State Controller for bushfire but this is now a function of the FSC. Also, we saw the Chief Officer driving the CFA Operational Reform agenda whereas it is a function of the FSC to set the future reform agenda. So we will talk again to applicants, and look again to see if others wish to join the field.
This does mean an appointment will not occur as soon as we hoped; but it is unavoidable. At the outset the Board said they would seek to get the best possible person for the role and we will continue to go down this path.
Can I suggest you also ignore all the ill-informed rumours that are about concerning people being offered the role already; we will let you know when the Board appoints a new Chief Officer.
Also, can I ask you to continue your support for Acting Chief Officer Steve Warrington, as he works closely with the Fire Services Commissioner, and leads our preparations towards the coming fire season, and as he implements changes arising from the Royal Commission.
Two CEO’s Blogs will be posted on CFA Connect later today.
Regards
Mick Bourke
