The Center for Public Safety Excellence's Commission on Fire Accreditation International has been in existence for more than 10 years. During this time more than 100 fire service agencies have become accredited, and several hundred more are in some phase of the process.

In the seventh edition of the CFAI Fire & Emergency Service Self-Assessment Manual, much of the information isn't just about accreditation; it's also about the work of managing and leading a modern fire service agency. The manual contains six sections, including Fire Service Accreditation; Principles, Objectives and Background — An Overview of the Self-Assessment Process; Strategic Planning, Risk Assessment and Standards of Cover; the Categories and Criteria; Research and Information Collection Guide; and the appendices that include Annual Compliance Reports, Glossary of Terms and Emergency Vehicle Safety.

In the front of the manual is the CFAI's mission statement, which reads: “The mission of the Commission on Fire Accreditation International is to assist the fire and emergency service agencies throughout the world in achieving excellence through self-assessment and accreditation in order to provide continuous quality improvement and enhancement of service delivery to their communities.” In other words, this is a model by which virtually any fire service agency can assess itself and support an organizational culture of continuous improvement.

Fundamental question

As the manual points out, the self-assessment process will help a chief fire officer answer three basic questions about his or her agency:

• Is the organization effective?
• Are the goals, objectives and mission of the organization being achieved?
• What are the reasons for the success of the organization?

In short, the self-assessment process is asking one fundamental question: Is the agency credible? Among several definitions for credible in the Oxford Dictionary is “believable; worthy of belief or support; convincing.” These are terms everyone would want attributed to his or her organization, and in the final analysis, one thing we all want for our organizations is for them to be deemed credible.

In the case of fire and emergency service accreditation, there is no better way to be deemed credible than by an outside panel of peers who have reviewed the self-assessment document and conducted a site visit to review every facet of the department's operations. Finally, an 11-member commission reviews the entire process before deeming the organization to be credible.

Some of the benefits of going through the self-assessment process using this model include:

• Promoting excellence within the fire and emergency service organization.
• Encouraging quality improvement through a continuous self-assessment process.
• Providing a detailed evaluation of the department and the services it provides.
• Identifying strengths and weakness within the department.
• Fostering pride in the organization from department members, community leaders and residents.

This list really boils down to the types of activities that modern fire agencies are supposed to be doing all the time. The difference is that the accreditation process provides a model with which to do these activities while allowing the agency to address the management activities in a complete and comprehensive way.

The real benefit of the process is not in becoming accredited but in conducting the self-assessment. Performing the self-assessment in a straightforward manner provides an agency with a comprehensive organizational analysis prepared by those who should know the organization the best: the people who work there and who have the most to gain from its improvement.

Self-assessment challenges

The CFAI's cornerstone is the voluntary nature of self-assessment. The self-conducted performance evaluation will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of fire service agencies, provided that the findings from the self-assessment are applied to planning and implementation activities. Following the self-assessment, a team of outside experts conduct a peer review to validate the self-assessment and make recommendations for improvement.

Having been through the process several times with my own department, I can say that the specific strategic recommendations made by the peer-assessment team are invaluable as you strive for organizational improvement.

There are 10 major categories in the self-assessment model:

• Governance and administration.
• Assessment and planning.
• Goals and objectives.
• Financial resources.
• Programs.
• Physical resources.
• Human resources.
• Training and competency.
• Essential resources.
• External system relationships.

Of these categories, a number of agencies find assessment and planning to be the most challenging. In short, a community risk assessment and a long-range plan or strategic plan must be completed and submitted to the agency's policy-makers — the mayor and city council. The manual offers excellent guidance on completing a community risk assessment and developing a strategic plan. A number of organizations have completed the self-assessment in such a way that a strategic plan unfolds at the end of the self-assessment.

The risk assessment should include an evaluation of available fire flow; an evaluation of the probability that a particular event will occur; an assessment of consequence if it does occur; an evaluation of occupancy risk, which is an assessment of risk to life and property; the establishment of fire management zones or demand zones; and an overall profile of the community risk. Risks for properties or complexes are generally broken down into high-hazard risks; special risks, such as isolated high-rise buildings, hospitals, prisons, and major hazardous chemical or industrial plants; moderate risks; low risks; and remote or isolated rural risks.

Standards of response coverage is another area agencies have found challenging. Completing this part of the process requires the agency to address the issue of service levels. The agency must be prepared to deliver a level of service commensurate with its responsibilities, risks and adopted service-level objectives. The key elements of standards of response coverage include an overview of the agency's current legal jurisdiction, responsibilities and deployment capabilities. Standards of response coverage also require an assessment of response time and on-scene performance expectations.

Beneficial process

The heart and soul of the accreditation process is completing the self-assessment. The 10 categories are broken down into 45 criteria, each of which is further broken down into 244 performance indicators. The performance indicators are intended to define the level of achievement or performance for each task to be measured.

This is where the work comes in. For each of the 244 performance indicators, the agency is required to develop a description of how it does something, an appraisal of how well that is working and a plan for how the agency intends to improve in the future. Additionally, if there are any exhibits or reference materials that support how that activity is done and how well it is done, they become a fourth part of the response to each performance indicator.

Not every one of the 244 performance indicators has to be evaluated as credible, but there are 77 performance indicators that are considered core competencies. These indicators have been deemed critical elements necessary to be a credible organization, and they must be met to achieve organizational accreditation.

To some, the work of seeking accreditation through self-assessment and peer review appears to be an enormous challenge, while to others it appears to be the type of work that a governing body assumes the fire department is doing already. It's a challenge, but it's much more than that.

Look again at the 10 major self-assessment categories. Are there any that policy-makers do not assume can be described, complete with an assessment of effectiveness and a plan for the future? This is the work and responsibility before all chief fire officers today — to assess effectiveness and plan for the future. The fire and emergency service self-assessment process offers the most comprehensive and standardized way to accomplish much of the chief fire officer's responsibility.

Each chief fire officer should take a new approach to conducting organizational analysis and knowing how effective an organization can be. Each should take on the challenge of fire service accreditation and be the person who raises the bar for an organization in terms of comprehensive self-assessment and validation through peer review. The work that's required is the work that others already expect of chief fire officers. Yes, it is challenging, but it is also beneficial for the organization and rewarding when accomplished.

Cliff Jones is chief of the Tempe (Ariz.) Fire Department, where he has been a member for more than 35 years. Selected by FIRE CHIEF as the 1997 Career Fire Chief of the Year, Jones has attended the Harvard University Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government and serves as an instructor in the Arizona State University Fire Service Management Program in the areas of leadership, program management and fire service administration. He currently serves on the Center for Public Safety Excellence's board of directors and has an associate's degree in fire science, a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in public administration.