[NB. Before continuing it must be stated that given the present Political Party Conference season, investment-auto-motives continues to remain resolutely apolitical.
Appalled by the left's seemingly successful deliberate ploy to ferment identity politics through enormous cultural capital so as to actually further fragment society, then to apparently serve the unified marginalised social interests of all such segments so as to gain a combined en mass politicalised power.
Similarly dismayed by the still apparent smug hypocrisy of the typically comfortably off and highly nepotistic right, which praises the advantages of an only slightly reformed neo-classical economics model, still not properly safeguarded against a current and future repeat of high-finance abuse.
Common-sense centricism in society and economics - to nurture vital stability - still has yet to come into being, but is desperately needed asap].
To continue with this now very prescient web-log....
Appalled by the left's seemingly successful deliberate ploy to ferment identity politics through enormous cultural capital so as to actually further fragment society, then to apparently serve the unified marginalised social interests of all such segments so as to gain a combined en mass politicalised power.
Similarly dismayed by the still apparent smug hypocrisy of the typically comfortably off and highly nepotistic right, which praises the advantages of an only slightly reformed neo-classical economics model, still not properly safeguarded against a current and future repeat of high-finance abuse.
Common-sense centricism in society and economics - to nurture vital stability - still has yet to come into being, but is desperately needed asap].
To continue with this now very prescient web-log....
“Back to Basics” to
Re-Configure Tomorrow.
The Emergency Services
that are taken as common-place in UK society are in historical terms
only a relatively recently created infrastructure; evolved along with
the expansion of civic power and pride from essentially the very
start of the 19th century onwards as a social dividend
from the results of industrialisation, urbanisation and social
stability.
[NB Prior to this
evolution of the Municipality in what was largely a feudal agrarian
system no professionalised infrastructure existed, much left to the
responsibilities of 'squires' and local 'common-folk' with very
differing requirements, outlooks and capabilities, and little or no
connection to the upper olde county heirachy. The format being
'watchmen' and 'constables''].
Today's modern services
and their organigram structures began not in London, but in
Scotland's Glasgow in 1800 with a Parliamentary Act.
Police -
This with the formation
a central and professionalised police force to deal with the problems
of a burgeoning port (drunkeness, theft, prostitution etc); though
operating largely on a part-time reactive basis. It was 29 years
later that Robert Peel, in situ as Home Secretary, would create
London's Metropolitan Police.
This structure
thereafter copied throughout the country on a county and borough
basis in the following two decades to create a nationwide standing by
the mid 1850s. The Peelian qoute that “the police are the public
and the public the police”. Vitally to extinguish the public's
previous fearwith the power based relationship - open to both abuse,
blackmail and bribery – the 'Met' was based from first principles
of cooperation and trust nurtured from a meaningful selection process
for the right character, so providing the approval, respect and
affection of the public : “policing by consent”.
This would thereafter
prove the functioning basis for all territorial, nationwide and
specialist polices services, from 'the Met' to 'Transport Police' to
Specialist Police Units (eg Diplomatic Unit). Each of these with
a plethora of focused responsibilities, from Community sections to
Criminal Investigation Departments to road-centric 'Traffic'.
Quite obviously these demand numerous technical enablers, equipment ranging from C3/4 IT for Databases to a wide spectrum of vehicles, from pedal cycles to rapid response motorcycles and cars to a diverse range of task specific vans to the helicopters of cross-services 'Air Support'
Quite obviously these demand numerous technical enablers, equipment ranging from C3/4 IT for Databases to a wide spectrum of vehicles, from pedal cycles to rapid response motorcycles and cars to a diverse range of task specific vans to the helicopters of cross-services 'Air Support'
[NB the crux of this
weblog is to focus upon motorised ground vehicles, specifically vans
but also with basic thoughts on cars and motorcycles].
Ambulance -
The seeds of today's
NHS service was through the private initiative of London's
Metropolitan Asylums Board with its creation of six ambulance
stations strategically positioned around the capital city. At the
time almost all of London was within a three mile reach of one of the
six locations. The first motorised vehicle was introduced in 1904 for
a single occupant patient. Capacity and capability grew as suitable
commercial vehicles became available, so allowing for greater
hospitals income and thus re-investment in growing fleet.
In 1930 it was
regulated that local county councils would take on strategic and
administrative responsibilities. Additionally, in the late inter-war
period, the government created the Civil Defence Service with its own
separate national (not local) ambulance fleet. The formation of the
NHS in 1948 combined the efficacy of both the locally run and
nationally run fleets made available to anyone in need under the
auspices of the new welfare state. But things were still
administratively fragmented for many parts of the UK, with London's
own ambulance authority arriving nearly twenty years later in 1965,
after enveloping nine different services. In 1996 the service became
the remit of various regional hospital trusts.
The Hospital Trust's
own 'business models' have evolved to suit changing society, and
whereas ambulance transport was once defined as 'life threatening' or
major issue transit to hospital the types of cases and needs have
themselves become broad, notably because of an ageing population and
the growing 'ferry transport' needs between treatment centres.
Different locational and treatment situations have been better
catered for with a range of responder vehicles. So whilst the typical
ambulance is still that of the Standard Emergency Unit, other
vehicles which have come into being include: Quick Response Unit
(car, motorcycle or bicycle), Patient Transport Unit, Specialist
'Off-Highway' Unit (4x4 or ATV), 'Medevac' Helicopter.
The Standard Emergency
Unit is the typically understood ambulance and is mostly in
medium-sized van form, as had been the case since the establishment
of the NHS in 1948 and massively strengthened in the 1950s, and the
van used because of overall internal volumetric size, good road
conditions and the desire from early NHS days to best equip the
vehicle.
[NB Internationally
depending on national procurement policy to support national
companies, road surfaces or local budget availability beyond vans
ambulances also span light trucks, medium trucks and high roof, long
tail converted estate cars]
The government's
expansion of the health industry as a past, current and future strong
growth economic sector – long before since depicted in the
Industrial Strategy Boards conclusions - inevitably led to the NHS's
own in-house drive toward departmental expansion and multi-aspect
service provision and improvement.
Fire and Rescue -
Today's 'Fire and
Rescue Service' likewise evolved from similar localised requirements,
and whilst increasingly professionalised in the latter half of the
19th century on a borough basis, did not actually become
legislated and so empowered until a century after the Police.
Formed on a nationwide basis in 1941, so as to quickly relay best practice and shared capabilities after 'the Blitz' for all cities and towns. This started and maintained with the Acts between 1938 and 1959 and the regionally centric 1999 issuance for Greater London., Thereafter with new legislation in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Governmental responsibility has shifted over time from the Civil Defence Service to Communities and Local Government, which oversees what is effectively still a county and city based system, itself apportioned as either 'Command', 'Area', 'Division', 'Borough' depending upon scale and practice, with over time increasing administration undertaken by Local Authorities.
Formed on a nationwide basis in 1941, so as to quickly relay best practice and shared capabilities after 'the Blitz' for all cities and towns. This started and maintained with the Acts between 1938 and 1959 and the regionally centric 1999 issuance for Greater London., Thereafter with new legislation in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Governmental responsibility has shifted over time from the Civil Defence Service to Communities and Local Government, which oversees what is effectively still a county and city based system, itself apportioned as either 'Command', 'Area', 'Division', 'Borough' depending upon scale and practice, with over time increasing administration undertaken by Local Authorities.
Vitally, whilst the public only really sees FRS's persona as fire tenders / appliances / trucks on the street, the responsibilities of the historical fire services has extended into the fire certification of buildings; this issue now back under the spotlight with the apparent change and 'degredation' of responsibilities and standards, as privately run authorised agencies replaced the reach of the regional FRS itself.
In 2002 a Review was undertaken by Sir George Bain with intention of modernising the service via “recommendations on the future organisation and management”, leading to an Act on 2004. The Bain Report did much to reorientate and reform including manpower, budget and responsibility alterations (given criticism about the costs of keeping a typically dormant or in-training retinue of people and equipment, and the proclivaty of firemen to also have other second jobs given generous on-off shift schedules). However, one other key aspect of the Report concerned “Emergency Preparedness” of the service with focus upon natural and man-made issues from flooding to terrorism (including chemical, biological and nuclear threats).
This then extended the
remit of the FRS to create a 'readiness' into fields previously
concentrated within the military - under the scantily termed 'Fire
Resiliance' programme – but was also seemingly adequately provided
for with extensive new equipment and vehicles.
The first of these
efforts included the 'New Dimensions' programme within which three
new types of vehicle were provided: an Incident Response Vehicle, a
Detection/Identification/Monitoring Vehicle and critically the first
modern example of an interchangable and so task specific 'Carry-Pod'
transported by a standard a 'Prime Mover' (Medium Truck) Vehicle;
itself adopted from decades of Military use by American, British and
NATO forces. The two types of 'Pods' were for Search and Rescue
command co-ordination and as a water tanker.
The programme ran from
2004 until 2016 when the vehicles were decommissioned, presumably
because of a mix of increased substitutional capabilities elsewhere,
retracted project funding and a likelihood that the vehicles were
only rarely used by individual FRS groups, if indeed at all by some.
Nonetheless, the
instigation of the 'Prime Mover' and 'Carry Pod' approach was
usefully revolutionary in its innate philosophy.
[NB Indeed instead of
retracting the idea, the Brigades should have been given the remit of
suggesting more than the two overtly very basic (and themselves
easily substituted) 'Pods' provided.
The programme should
have been implemented not 'top-down' as a seeming political exercise
merged with seeming operational enhancement, but the start of a
'bottom-up' (user-incorporated) approach to innately enhanced
operational flexibility and improved overall capability].
Summary -
The evolution of the
UK's Emergency Services has by natural default been in reaction to
the societal needs of the day, ranging across a massively diverse –
and seemingly growing - spectrum of activities.
Unfortunately it seems
that is reactionary politics that drives change, whether that be
service agglomeration as seen with the copy+ of 'The Peelers' the
fire-fighting regimes of The Blitz to a new 21st century
'Readiness' against potential Terrorism. All within the opportunities
and confines of general operational budget expansion when national
coffers allow, and conversely, budget retraction when 'austerity'
prevails.
However, the everyday
disjuncture within the socio-economic realm means that typically the
greatest social need and so operational services span will come
during periods of economic retraction such as post '9/11' and ever
since the 2008 Financial Crisis.
Unfortunately history
illustrates that the Emergency Services themselves suffer from a lack
of proper long-term planning, with seemingly instances of forced
operational change instigated not by foresightedness, but by
political and budget expediency and problematic PFI; the
'lend-lease-lend' practice of London's and Lincoln's Fire Brigade's
appliances via the failed company AssetCo one obvious instance.
What is required is
proper centralised long-term planning to eradicate the inefficiencies
of the Emergency Services systems far beyond the facets of IT
integration, and toward a truly rationalised basis underpinned by a
'First Principles Design' approach that identifies the strategic and
operational aspects served by product and service Commonality vs
Co-Functionality (matrix) vs Specialisation.
With a recognition of
the need for efficient multi-tasking the 'New Dimensions' project
provided a small glimpse of an approach of what should have led to a
new philosophical age regards general equipment, and very
specifically fleet vehicle, Purchasing policies.
One of long-termism
with greatly amortised capital expenditure in vehicles that allows
both improved productivity from a human resources perspective and
improved upfront and overall vehicle life-cycle benefits vs costs.
Both areas much aided
by expanding and exploiting the Emergency Services' Research and
Development ties with the automotive and specialist engineering
arenas, and to strengthen ties with Military and alternative
Commercial sources to seek-out new-era product design approaches that transform the all round
quality of any 'COTS' (commercial off the shelf / factory) purchased
vehicles, also transform the time/quality/cost vagueries of the
ad-hoc and piecemeal body on frame UK coach-building sector, and
possibly create a new industrial and automotive sub-sector for
product and services export in a post-Brexit world.
Long term operational
success and efficacious budget management will rely upon :
- Scale Efficiencies in
collective purchasing, product designs and operations
- Standardisation of
vehicle architectures, powertrains and on-board Ops systems
- Modularisation of
vehicle architectures and fitments/equipment
- Expansion of 'Matrix'
capabilities for 'First Responders'
- Expansion of 'Core'
capabilities of Specialist Units
- Redesignation of
nationwide responsibilities to new central organisation
- Creation of
substantive R+D agency to liaise with industrial sectors and firms.
It has been “Considered
Re-Configuration” that has slowly evolved the Police, Ambulance and
Fire-Rescue Services, but usually done after watershed events.
Now much effort should be put into designing the 'Intelligently Simple' Public Service Infrastructure of tomorrow.
Now much effort should be put into designing the 'Intelligently Simple' Public Service Infrastructure of tomorrow.
[NB And for the sake of
clarity in doing so, the use of plain and proper English instead of the tiresome and prolific use of 'management speak' and jargon].
