fire service research fitting-in

Fire service research, the fitting-in website where academia and the fire service can meet - a resource for research and consultancy for the fire and rescue service and firefighters - Organised by Dr Dave Baigent this site provides a place to share your own research, to look at what others have written about the fire service and to see our commercial offerings.

Academics are not the experts, fire and rescue service managers are the experts. What fitting-in can do is to help managers to recognise their expertise and to further understand the issues through that recognition.
Home Main Index Contact us Draft papers for reading Recent index of contrbutions Older index of contributions Reports Consultancy Snapshot Audits Workshops on fire service culture Problem solving by fitting-in Elite briefing/workshops Impact Assessments Equality Action Plans CV & References Have you seen Ethos? One Decade On - Survey on women firefighters New CFOA President Minister's speech Audit Commission on equality Melbourne DiversityConference How do I send my writing to fitting-in for publication What does fitting-in publish How do I do research - some basic tips Writing a bibliography Home Testimonials/References Reports from Government Diversity Strategy Public Service Degree online or face to face Contact us	Things are changing at Since 2001 Fitting-in has provided a free space for the fire and rescue service and academia to meet and share research. This free service continues and people are invited to send their work to be published on this site. But there is now something new on offer and this has been prompted by Chief Fire Officer Steve McGuirk who challenged my research as being “long on rhetoric and short on answers.” At the time, I argued that it was the academic’s role to provide the evidence and for principal managers - the leaders of the Fire and Rescue Service - to provide the answers. I now recognise that I was wrong – there is much more that I can do to assist leaders! I can get out of the ivory tower and use my developing perspective on fire service culture (gained in moving the 180 degrees from firefighter to academic) to actually bring the evidence from academia and work with the experts – those chosen for their decision-making skills who are dealing with the thorny issues on the ground. Can I come and talk to you about our snapshot audits, our elite-briefing led workshops, or about our extensive research and training portfolio? Our work in this area drew the following comments from Merseyside Fire and Rescue about the Ethos research, communications and training project that invoved all our skills "The Service are delighted with the research and reports produced by "Fitting-in. We believe that your original hyphothesis and work undertaken in Merseyside has resulted in a ground breaking piece of work that can only serve to inform the wider fire and rescue communities." Snapshot Audits are a new concept developed especially for the MFRS and now available for the wider FRS community. If you want to respond to something new, carryout an impact assessement, or look afresh at an old difficulty then ask how fast we can turn around our research in an efficient, rigorous and economic way. Fitting-in can also cater for your traditional research needs and you may wish to tap into our expertise on cultural audits. Elite Workshops are stand alone one day packages for senior managers and authority members on a whole raft of areas. Subjects covered include fire service culture(s), the employment of women as firefighters, change management, initial training. We can offer a whole host of education and training packages. These workshops have a primary aim of seeking solutions and will be customised to your requirements - they can also be used as team building days for your senior managers. We also offer a workshop for people who are having difficulty in understanding how equality works and what diversity means; people who may need to spend some time reviewing their attitudes Looking for argreement on budget cuts? It is part of New Labour's ideology to continually push for more efficiency by using the budget as a leaver for change. The pressure on FRS budgets is therefore likely to continue. Whilst FRS's will no doubt have planned for such an outcome we have something to offer. We will individually interview your strategic thinkers about how they think the budget can be managed. Then we will facilitate a workshop based around our findings (their ideas) with a view to gaining a consensus on the way forward. Further support will always be available through research and consultancy for any projects undertaken as a result of any work we carry out for you. References: I have been involved in similar work before - see what Merseyside Fire and Rescue, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Fire Services and Tom Carroll (retired Chief Fire Officer and Past president of CFOA ) and others have said.
	"The Service are delighted with the research and reports produced by "Fitting-in. We believe that your original hyphothesis and work undertaken in Merseyside has resulted in a ground breaking piece of work that can only serve to inform the wider fire and rescue communities." This is what Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service had to say about the Ethos research, communications and training project (2007) For further information or just to talk about what fitting-in can provide ring Dr Dave Baigent (GradIFireE) 07802 495 329, email or write to 17 Headley Gardens, Cambridge, CB22 5JZ Academic theory without practise is a waste - research without theory may just be dumb Bringing research in the fire service straight to you Site under reconstruction 10-5-08 please notify me of any errors Contact us z