FiReControl
Department of Communities and Local Government
Background
Improving the quality of resources and equipment for the Fire & Rescue Service to meet future challenges is a priority for the UK Government, which is investing more than £350 million in a programme to develop a network of nationally linked control centres across England.
The FiReControl project will deliver nine regional control centres, able to receive emergency calls and mobilise resources.
Project
The challenge is to develop new command and control systems to enable improved performance, increased resilience, enhanced capability and improved efficiency.
CCD has provided the Human Factors team to the FiReControl project from concept to delivery, enabling us to provide a consistent resource and ensure continuity between phases.
Implementation
In the early phases of the project we were involved in defining the project requirements, covering software development and usability as well as the hardware which would be used by operators in the control centres, fire stations and on fire appliances. A critical part of the FiReControl project has been a change process of developing new and consistent business processes - our Human Factors engineers were part of the team that delivered this.
The project moved into the implementation phase with the appointment of a main contractor (EADS) and we supported the bid process, providing a technical evaluation of the tender submissions.
Outcomes
Since EADS were commissioned, we have continued to represent the client in managing and assuring the design and assurance submissions from the contractor for human factors. In the coming months, we will provide support to the testing phase of the project including supporting the critical user acceptance testing.
CCD has played a critical role on the FiReControl project in delivering engagement with the end users. This was a complex task in FiReControl as the "users" are actually spread across the country's 46 Fire and Rescue Services.
We have worked closely with the various FRS-seconded staff within FiReControl. Our working practices have also delivered a number of activities involving and engaging with end users - these have included simulation trials, consultation and focus groups as well as the delivery of visualisation packages, allowing wider communication of the project design.
Find out more
More information about the FiReControl project can be found at www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firecontrol/