Strategy of the Estonian Rescue Board 2015-2025

STR ATEGY OF THE ESTONIAN RESCUE BOARD2015 -2025

STR ATEGY OF THE ESTONIAN RESCUE BOARD2015 -2025

Tallinn 2014

In order to successfully operate in a complex environment, tools must be used – be they a diving mask or a strategy.

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Foreword 4

Changes in the operating environment of the Rescue Board 6

1.1 Globalisation 81.2 Technological progress 81.3 Socio-economic environment 101.4 Public opinion and society involvement 11

Organisational challenges 122.1 Important environmental factors 142.2 Strengths and weaknesses of the Rescue Board 16

Mission, values and vision of the Rescue Board 183.1 Mission 203.2 Values 213.3 Vision 21

Objectives and strategic choices of the Rescue Board 22

4.1 Objectives 244.2 Strategic courses of action 37

Implementation, monitoring and updating 40

Table of conTenTs

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Dear reader

The Estonian Rescue Board has achieved remarkable results since its estab-lishment in 1992. At the same time, a changing world also requires new methods of operation in order to maintain effectiveness. The Rescue Board needs a strategy that would enable it as a unified organisation and together with its partners to set targets for the future and renew agreements. This strategy is a first-time compact package of strategic decisions that plans out the Rescue Board’s activities in the ten year time frame. Until now, targets extending beyond four years have been excluded from our planning horizon and planning has mainly depended on the existence of resources rather than requirements and targets. Nevertheless, the strategy is closely connected to and in accordance with the foundations of safety policy, sectoral development plans and other governmental planning documents.

The unifying plan establishes the foundations for effective cooperation that will form the basis for our future success. A successful cooperation extends beyond words to actions. The better we plan our actions and time, the greater the probability that our collective objectives become reality. Just like we expect our partners to participate in implementing our objectives, we must be prepared to assist our partners in implementing their objectives. We must be able to find common interests and benefits to both parties.

Each of us is needed to implement the strategy. We would like everyone to know and carry out their role in ensuring safety. By everyone we mean private individuals, companies, local governments, government agencies, volunteers and Rescue Board employees.

FORewORd

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The strategy enables us to carefully consider who we are working for and what their requirements are - only this way we can provide public services of truly high quality and to serve the citizens as a government agency.

A strategy is not an end in itself. A strategy is like a compass that guides us in the right direction. The actions we undertake in the following years will be distinctly based on the objectives provided in our strategy and we carefully ensure that we stay on the right course. However, this will not mean that the course is set in stone. If the environment changes and the conditions around us change, we must also adjust the course. The key to our vision today is flexibility and adaptability and therefore I believe that we will be able to enhance the strategy multiple times during the coming years.

I would like to thank all of the employees and partners of the Rescue Board who contributed to the development of the strategy.

Kuno Tammearu,Director General of the Rescue Board

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Abandoned buildings in cities is a sign of society’s level of development.

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changes in the operaTing environmenT of the rescue board

1.1 Globalisation

Economic globalisation, the persistent increase in international economic integration, has substantially reduced the capability of individual coun-tries, including Estonia, to influence their own economic development. As the economy affects all other fields, globalisation causes problems to the entire society, including the Rescue Board´s area of responsibility, which are increasingly complex to solve. The economic condition of the major markets worldwide directly influences Estonian companies and thereby the state of Estonia and its state budget, as well as the economic well-being of residents, which in turn affects people’s behaviour and the capability of Rescue Board to provide services.

There are also cross-border problems that go hand in hand with globalisa-tion, from armed conflicts and terrorism to large-scale natural disasters, the consequences of which Rescue Board must deal with. As the prob-ability of new problems that arise increases, international cooperation becomes increasingly important with regard to prevention and response.

1.2 Technological progress

Technological progress improves our effectiveness and at the same time renders us and the organisations connected to us more vulnerable because we become increasingly dependent on various technological

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solutions that are not under our control. Failures in centralised informa-tion and energy systems substantially affect the functioning of the entire society and safety of citizens.

By being skilled in using technological achievements, we can significantly improve the safety of the country’s population both using new channels of communication (prevention work), as well as using contemporary monitoring and alarm systems and rescue equipment (response). New intelligent buildings are capable of monitoring safety and provide notice of any occurring hazard, contemporary rescue equipment are better at protecting rescue staff and simplify their work.

Effective work using a growing volume of information is becoming of increasing importance. When the growing volume of information is pro-cessed correctly and effectively and if this is used in the operations, then safety can be considerably improved for residents in the society.

Drones could be very helpful in the future in resolving more complex rescue events.

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1.3 Socio-economic environment

Similarly to other developed countries, the structure of the population in Estonia is changing. The population is ageing and the birth rate is declin-ing. The ageing of the population causes the probability of fire-related and other accidents in homes to increase. An ageing population poses a chal-lenge with regard to the staffing of both professional and volunteer rescue service units because of a decline in the number of suitable individuals.

In addition to population ageing, another challenge with regard to staffing is increasing competition for quality labour. In addition to the improve-ment of working conditions, in order to reduce the labour shortage it is important to use available resources within the organisation to the great-est extent possible (for example the time when rescuers are idle between deployments) for activities that enable the desired objectives to be achieved.

As a result of increasing urbanisation, population in rural areas is becom-ing more spread-out, which in turn increases the relative cost of providing rescue services in those areas. In order to make sure that all residents of the country maintain sufficient access to rescue services, the contribution of volunteer rescuers is becoming increasingly important. The nature of accidents is also changing due to urbanisation, the consequences of conventional accidents are smaller in cities but there are less frequent accidents with consequences of higher severity.

Individualism is on the rise in Estonia, as a result the influence of tra-ditional values is reduced and the ability of various civil society organi-sations to bring about change is declining. A major portion of people’s active contribution to society has moved to the virtual world, which in turn creates a condition for a shift in values (less consideration). An increase in individualism is increasing the complexity of involvement of volunteer rescuers.

There is a great impact on Rescue Board´s activity of the effectiveness of alcohol, drug, tobacco and healthcare policy. A substantial share of

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accidents is related to individuals whose behaviour is influenced by alco-hol, drugs, health conditions or smoking. However, it is very difficult to reach the consciousness of people suffering from alcohol and substance abuse issues through the use of communication, therefore the Rescue Board alone no longer holds a strong influence over preventing accidents. For example, in 2013, 68% of those who were fatal casualties of fires were under the influence of alcohol, in the same year fires started from care-less smoking caused the death of 22 (47%) people.

1.4 Public opinion and society involvement

People in Estonia have for years considered the Rescue Board to be a highly trustworthy organisation. Surveys have shown that the Rescue Board has the trust of in excess of 95% of the residents of Estonia. A positive attitude has helped the Rescue Board achieve its objectives and involve volunteers into its operations. Maintaining a positive image is important for meet-ing new objectives but as a result of pressures to achieve cost-effectiveness targets this may prove to be an increasingly challenging task each year.

Reviewing the developments of the area of Rescue Board to-date, it is pleasing to note that the volunteer rescuers movement is functioning successfully and the number of volunteer rescuers is continuing to increase. In addition to rescuers, it is important to also recruit volunteers to assist with prevention work, requiring a systematic approach to develop and involve new possibilities.

People are continually increasing their use of social media and inter-active environments to interact with each another. The organisations that are able to follow the trend and be visible in the new environments themselves, as well as to use them for recruitment for their operations are achieving results that organisations that fail to follow such trends are unable to accomplish.

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The engagement of everyone into ensuring safety is one of the Rescue Board’s biggest challenges.

Volunteer rescuer advising a home owner on fire safety.

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2.1 Important environmental factors

The environment around us is changing at a faster pace than ever before. An important challenge for the Rescue Board is the capability to adapt to the changes affecting us and to respond to them appropriately and on a timely basis. Predicting the future and using such forecasts to plan one’s activities is becoming increasingly challenging.

The greatest challenges that the Rescue Board is facing domestically are related to issues concerning alcohol, tobacco and drugs. While the pre-vention efforts made by the Rescue Board have generally been successful, it is unfortunately difficult to reach individuals suffering from serious sub-stance abuse problems. At the same time, the proportion of such people in society is significant. The Rescue Board must find effective solutions for cooperation with organisations that are tasked with resolving issues concerning substance abuse. Fortunately, we are detecting that the above-described problems are being addressed with increasing seriousness.

The decrease in the population of rural areas is putting pressure on the existence of the rescue service units in those areas because the cost per residence is growing. In the environment of decreasing resources, it is becoming increasingly more challenging to make sure that residents feel safe. In order to balance the situation, the proportion of volunteer rescuers engaged in rescue operations is growing. It is also more difficult

2organisaTional challenges

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to staff volunteer rescue brigades than before in an environment of decreas-ing population.

The involvement of volunteers is also inhibited by the individualisation of the society. In addition, the prevailing interests of individuals and the solitude are also increasing people’s risk behaviour, which in turn raises the number of accidents. As a result of changes in society and adjusted skills required for performing day-to-day jobs, the so-called learned helpless-ness is becoming increasingly common among people as they are no longer able to cope with many operations that used to be perceived as simple and the mitigation of primary hazards, thereby creating an environment for accidents to happen and increasing the response burden of rescuers.

As a public sector organisation, the Rescue Board is under strong political pressure to meet short-term targets which may impede the achievement of objectives that are of greater influence by nature but achievable over a longer period.

In addition to negative trends, a number of positive trends for the Rescue Board can also be detected, which, if competently leveraged, will improve people’s safety. In Estonia, one can detect a growth in the number of actions intended to improve the culture of safety and increase each person’s own responsibility. In combination with the actions of the Rescue Board itself, such initiatives have a substantial positive impact in improving the safety of the society.

Much like other public sector organisations, the Rescue Board is also facing a challenge as to how to use the development of interactive com-munication networks and their growing usage rate by people to meet its objectives. In addition to communication networks, other technologi-cal solutions are also developing (smart houses, drones, etc.), the use of which has the potential to improve the safety of the living environment and the effectiveness of rescue operations.

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Improvement in the socio-economic condition of people and trends with regard to urbanisation render living environments safer in terms of tra-ditional accidents. In order to achieve a substantial positive impact, the Rescue Board also has to apply its endeavours accordingly.

2.2 Strengths and weaknesses of the Rescue Board

The Rescue Board has performed successfully over the recent years, as demonstrated by a decrease in the number of fatalities in accidents, as well as a high level of trust among people. The Rescue Board with its good results is the most trustworthy public sector organisation in Estonia. The trustworthiness must be maintained by continuing to offer high qual-ity services.

The decrease in the number of accidents has been substantially influ-enced by successful prevention efforts. The Rescue Board has for years focused on prevention efforts and it could be said that the entire person-nel is engaged in it. The role of prevention efforts is on the rise and it is important to engage in it by leveraging the new possibilities offered by a changing society.

The quality and results of life-saving services are also on a high level. In order to bring the quality of rescue service operations to an even better level, it is important to involve new technologies that would make it pos-sible to reduce both the response time of reaching victims and the damage caused by accidents. Volunteer rescue brigades continue to gain strength in Estonia, whose increased involvement in not only rescue operations but also prevention efforts is an important priority for the coming years.

The Rescue Board has been a reliable partner to organisations from the private sector, public sector and the third sector. It is important to increase

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the network of partners and improve the effectiveness of cooperation, particularly with scientific organisations with which we have partnered very little to-date.

In order to ensure that our activities continue to be successful, we abso-lutely need to improve the impact assessment process with regard to actions and the sectoral data collection and analysis capability in order to make the most optimal decisions in planning actions and investments.

The Rescue Board’s explosive ordnance disposal unit is highly renowned on an international level.

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With the objective of making sure the Estonian population feels safe to live here, the Rescue Board aims to reach the level of the Nordic countries by the year 2025 in terms of the number of accidents and damage in Estonia thanks to everyone’s contribution.

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3mission, values and vision of the rescue board

MISSIOn, VaLueS and VISIOn OF The ReSCue BOaRd

3.1 Mission

A mission explains to all parties the reason for the existence of the Rescue Board, in other words why the Rescue Board was established and what is its role in Estonian society.

The mission of the Rescue Board:

We prevent accidents, save lives, property and the environment.

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Together we have reduced accidents and losses to the level seen in the Nordic countries.

3.3 Vision

A vision expresses an organisation’s future condition that they desire to reach through their activities. The vision of the Rescue Board is to reach an equal position by the year 2025 to the Nordic countries (Finland, Swe-den, Denmark, Norway and Iceland) in terms of the level of rescue-related safety (in terms of the number of accidents and extent of consequences). The achievement of the vision is evaluated through the use of formulated objectives.

The vision of the Rescue Board:

3.2 Values

Values are collective ethical principles according to which an organisation and its members behave and make decisions.

The values of the Rescue Board:

HelpfulNess - we notice and assist people in need of help.

Courage - we have the courage to decide, act and take responsibility.

TrusT - we trust and we are trusted.

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The Rescue Board intends to recruit an increasing number of volunteer rescuers in its activities who would act as the safety ambassadors of their communities.

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4.1 Objectives

Objectives signify a course of achievements that leads to the established vision. The established objectives are route markers used by an organisa-tion to select its strategies and plan its course of action. The objectives of the Rescue Board for the year 2025 are presented in the format of a bal-anced scorecard. The more precise interim objectives and choices for their implementation are defined in the domestic safety development plan and action plans. The objectives where numerical indicators are not yet filled out will be filled out with indicators on an ongoing basis in accordance with the emergence of data collection capability.

To the extent possible, the vision and the objectives complementing it with further detail were established on the basis of the objectives set by Nordic countries. In the categories where comparison data are inadequate or where Estonia’s level already exceeds the level of the Nordic countries, internal goals were set based on the current situation in Estonia.

In order to interpret the objectives more accurately, tables of associations are compiled by category of the Rescue Board and roles are defined in implementing the objectives.

4 objecTives and sTraTegic choices of the rescue board

OBjeCTIVeS and STRaTeGIC ChOICeS OF The ReSCue BOaRd

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IMPaCT TO SOCIeTy Objective 2013 level By 2025

The number of fatalities in accidents is reduced

In fires 47 < 12

In water-related accidents 56 < 20

In detonations of explosives 0 0

In chemical accidents 0 0

The number of rescue events is reduced 20 195 < 15 500

The number of fires in buildings is reduced 1627 < 1300

The number of fires in residential buildings is reduced 892 < 700

The number of environmental accidents and the amount of environmental damage declines. The number of forest and wildfi-res is reduced

1275 < 500

Property damage caused by building fires is reduced 13 575 000 € <10 000 000 €

people feel safe in estonia. The trustwort-hiness rating of the rescue Board is high 95% > 95%

The number of fatalities in accidents is reduced.The number of fatalities caused by fires, water-related accidents, explosions and chemical accidents is accounted for based on prevention competence. The target level of fatalities caused by fire is an absolute level in Estonia determined through a ratio (number of fatalities caused by fire per 100,000 residents), considering also the available data regarding estimates in the Nordic countries. The target levels of fatalities due to drowning, explo-sions and chemical accidents are set based on the current domestic level in Estonia because in those categories there is no systematic exchange of information with the Nordic countries.

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The number of rescue events is reduced.A domestic target in Estonia based on the level of 2013. The use of com-parison data from the Nordic countries is problematic and dependent on the regulatory environment. Going forward, it is possible to improve the exchange of information and create a list of events that are subject to comparison. The total number of rescue events includes all types of deploy-ments accounted for by the Rescue Board, except for drills and services that are paid for. False alarm dispatches of automatic fire alarm systems are also included in the data that is accounted for. The cumulative decrease in the aggregate number of rescue events in the years 2013-2025 is 23%.

The number of building fires and fires involving residential buildings is reduced.The reduction in the absolute numbers of fires involving buildings and residential buildings is calculated based on the ratio-based indicators of the Nordic countries. The average indicator in the Nordic countries is one building fire and 0.6 fires involving residential buildings per 1,000 residents. The ratio in Estonia in 2012 of building fires was 1.5 and the ratio of fires involving residential buildings was 0.9. The relevant levels in 2013 were 1.2 for buildings and 0.7 for fires involving residential buildings.

Property damage caused by building fires is reduced.The indicator is linked to the objective regarding the reduction in building fires, calculated using the average damage in recent years. The basis of the calculation is 7,500 euros per building fire. There is no unified methodol-ogy in the Nordic countries for accounting for property damage, therefore there is no comparison indicator either.

Going forward, it is necessary to evaluate options for estimating damage in case of other accident types also and to plan mitigating actions to reduce damage in accordance with the phrasing of the vision.


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People feel safe in Estonia. The trustworthiness rating of the Rescue Board is high.The general trustworthiness rating of the Rescue Board among the popula-tion is high and it must be maintained. At the same time, this knowledge does not give an input of sufficient accuracy to design services correspond-ing to the needs of the consumers and we have no data concerning the trust of the people who have been in direct contact with the Rescue Board. Furthermore, it is necessary to evaluate the use of other research methods for studying trustworthiness (Net Promoter Score, focus group, etc.). The sectoral sub-objectives involve the measurement of the satisfaction of the consumers of the Rescue Board’s services. In addition, it is necessary to establish a capability for the measurement of a sense of security as an important component of security.

The number of environmen-tal accidents and environ-mental damage will decline.In the environmental sphere, the role of the Rescue Board’s pre-vention efforts is the greatest in preventing forest and land fires. Actions increasing response capac-ity are applied towards the reduc-tion of environmental damage. The methodology in use to calculate environmental damage does not include the share of land fires and is dependent on multiple factors that are beyond the sphere of influence of the Rescue Board. Therefore, the accounting of surface area is more suitable for the Rescue Board in setting the target. Currently there is no capability to account for the surface area of forest and land fires; as it emerges, both the total surface area and the surface area per event will be taken under observation.

Wildfires may become very costly to the firefighters and land owners.

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PROCeSSeS SuPPORTInG The aChIeVeMenT OF The IMPaCT

Objective 2013 level By 2025The number of partners involved in prevention efforts increases 69 > 100

The safety-related awareness of the population has increased

Fire safety awareness index 60 > 70

water safety awareness index 66 > 75

an increased number of working hours of on-call staff are spent on prevention efforts

0.03% > 1%

The average response time to a rescue event 9:40 < 10:00

The response time in reaching the victim in case of a rescue event is reduced

The number of partners involved with prevention efforts will increase.The partners outside the organisation that have entered into agreements with the Rescue Board are part of the calculation. The assumption is a contract for implementing objectives of the Rescue Board that is not

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directed toward earning income (the contract may regulate the covering of costs). There is separate accounting over public sector, private sector and third sector partners and by contractual representative of the Rescue Board and by sector. By the year 2025, the target is to increase the number of contractual partners by one third.

The safety-related awareness of the population will grow.This is a domestic objective in Estonia because the methodology of safety-related awareness indexes is unique to Estonia. In addition to fire and water safety related awareness indexes, an index related to the awareness of explosion-related hazards is currently being created. In the coming years, we are also planning to start measuring risk awareness for evaluat-ing results in the field of crisis management.

The safety-related awareness indexes of the population are obtained through surveys. The index consists of the following parts: knowledge (including safety equipment, calling for assistance) 20%, attitudes (including the neces-sity for safety equipment, interest in receiving safety-related information) 20%, behaviour (including use of safety equipment) 30%, preventative behaviour (including addressing hazards and relevant behaviours within the family, maintenance of sources of hazard and safety equipment 30%.

The Rescue Board’s partners help our prevention staff who are trying to reach

people with safety-related messages.

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More efficient use of working hours. More than 1% of the wor-king hours of on-call staff is used for prevention efforts.The target level is based on implementation plans for carrying out preven-tion efforts standardised based on time. The actual level of working hours used according to the objective is determined through the accounting of actual time use, the operational procedures are also accounted for. Source data for the target (1%): 15,000 safety-related home visits at 30 minutes each (7,500 hours). In setting the target level of the objective, we have considered the fact that the suitable time for prevention efforts is 1/2 of a rescue worker’s 24-hour on-call shift.

The response time to rescue events is short.The average response time of the first rescue team (including volunteers) at the rescue event (from the time that notice was given to the rescue bri-gade until arrival at the accident site) remains stable at the current level.


Whenever there are no accidents, rescuers are not idle. They are studying, training and helping prevent accidents. When the ice on water bodies is still fragile, an ice rink built by rescuers helps keep children away from danger.Ph

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There is additional accounting over the response times of rescue teams to urban areas and rural areas and the response times of rescue teams with life-saving capability to life-saving events (traffic accidents / water-related accidents / building fires).

The response time in reaching the victim in case of a rescue event will shorten.The time from the rescue team arriving to an accident site until they reach the victim. Currently there are no possibilities to measure the time, enter and process data. In 2015, relevant possibilities will be analysed and an action plan will be developed for establishing measurement capability.

An additional initiative is accounting over the localisation time that indi-cates actions to reduce property damage.

eMPLOyee deVeLOPMenT SuPPORTInG The aChIeVeMenT OF The IMPaCT

Objective 2013 level By 2025The commitment level of the staff of the Rescue Board has increased.

The voluntary turnover of rescue Board employees is low

On-call staff 3 % < 3 %

Staff on 8-hour shifts 7.75 % 7 %

The number of members increases in volunteer rescue organisations 1868 > 4000

The number of certified volunteer rescuers increases 1281 > 3000

The experience and competence level of Rescue Board staff and volunteer rescuers will grow.

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The level of commitment of Rescue Board employees is high.From 2015, we are planning to start measuring the commitment of Res-cue Board staff using the TRI*M methodology that is suitable for use in public sector.

The TRI*M index is a combined indicator of employee commitment that is calculated based on five key questions. The employee commitment TRI*M is one part of a broader view that connects the measurement of feedback from various stakeholders - customers, employees and the wider public - into an integrated whole.

The voluntary turnover of employees is low.Voluntary employee turnover only takes into account staff departures of their own accord. Turnover is accounted for separately for on-call staff and staff on 8-hour shifts. The different objectives are due to differences in the nature of the work. For on-call staff, the objective due to the nature of the work and training is to maintain employee turnover lower than for the staff on 8-hour shifts. The accounting is carried out according to the structural unit, therefore the on-call staff data also includes unit commanders.

The number of volunteer rescuers is increasing.By the year 2025, the objective is that, supported by the Rescue Board, the number of members of volunteer rescue organisations will grow to a level in excess of 4,000 and the number of certified volunteer rescuers will be greater than 3,000. Until the year 2016, the target level is in accord-ance with the volunteer rescue trends. If the number of volunteer rescue brigades remains at the present level, the average number of volunteer rescuers per brigade would increase two-fold, from ca 15 to 30. This is in addition to members of reserve rescue teams.

The experience and competence level of Rescue Board staff and volunteer rescuers will grow.As a first priority, we will start measuring the average speed that routines


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are performed by staff participating in rescue work in order to evaluate the meeting of the objective in order to assist in the improvement of the time spent to reach the victim and to locate the event. In 2015, we are planning to develop the relevant methodology and to define specific routines of control exercises and competence levels. Subsequently the development regarding the systematic evaluation of skills and competence in other fields of activity of the Rescue Board will be carried out.

Tough work, tough training. When practicing smoke diving in a specialised container, rescuers are better prepared for real fires and are also able to ensure their own safety when rescuing other people.

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Financing will be increased to ensure the sustainability of volunteers.In accordance with the trends in volunteer rescue, we are planning to increase the amount invested in the competence of volunteer rescuers to 1.5 million euros by the year 2016. In order to ensure sustainable activi-ties of volunteer rescuers, according to the current estimates the Rescue Board sees the need to increase funding during the period of the strategy continuously at least at the same rate as provided for in the trends in vol-unteer rescue.

The proportion of investments in the budget will increase.Investments currently account for 2.8% of the Rescue Board’s budget. In order to ensure that the objectives are met and that there is technol-ogy and equipment available with an appropriate service life and safety requirements, it is necessary to increase the proportion of investment. If the proportion of investment were to be increased at the expense of administrative and personnel costs of the Rescue Board, this could cause the need to change or reduce service volumes.

A fair and competitive salary.In 2013, the average gross monthly salary in public administration and national defence was 1,130 euros. The average salary of the Rescue Board was 935 euros, amounting to 82% of the average of the public adminis-tration and national defence sector. In order to ensure the availability of

FInanCeS aSSISTInG In aChIeVeMenT OF The IMPaCT

The planning of financial resources needed to implement the objectives of the strategy will be in accordance with the planning of the state budget. Due to the objectives, particular emphasis will be required on increased funding of volunteers, proportion of investments and increased wages.


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More investments oriented to the future would help the Rescue Board plan

its activities over a longer term.

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employees necessary to achieve the objectives of the Rescue Board, to be competitive in the labour market and achieve internal fairness, the aver-age salary of the Rescue Board should be brought closer to the average monthly salary in the public administration and national defence sector.

36 PääSTeaMeTI eeSMäRGId ja STRaTeeGILISed VaLIKud

If children and young people understand the dangers already early on, the probability is higher that they are able to stay away from dangers by themselves and they will never need to be rescued.

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6.2 Strategic courses of action

When strategic choices are made, measures and routes how to reach the vision are defined. Strategic courses of action are taken into consideration in planning the actions necessary to achieve the objectives and their use is evaluated at the reporting stage of plans. In order to achieve the vision of the Rescue Board and the established objectives, the strategic courses of action of the Rescue Board in the next ten years are:

1. Continued transformation into a preventive population protection organisation, including:

■ focusing the attention of prevention efforts on improving the safety of the (physical) living environment;

■ placing the emphasis of prevention efforts on children and youth;

■ increasing the safety-related awareness of the population;

■ leveraging the trust for the Rescue Board in communicating messa-ges;

■ taking into consideration the needs and opportunities of target groups with respect to prevention efforts.

2. Expanding partnership with all related parties, including:

■ targeted engagement of everyone (organisations, private individuals, Rescue Board employees and opinion leaders) in prevention and response efforts to a greater extent than before;

■ active engagement of Rescue Board employees and volunteers in prevention efforts taking place in e-environments;

■ expansion of rescue services performed by volunteers and increase in independent capacity, i.e. increase in the solutions and opportuni-ties for involvements of volunteers;

■ engagement of people in analysis and innovation processes through open communication environments;

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■ expansion of the capacity to respond to large-scale accidents toget-her with international partners;

■ increased sharing of resources (including technologies), responsibi-lities and data with partners (agreements between partners);

■ collaboration with science and education institutions for the purpo-ses of data analysis and problem solving;

■ active cooperation with local community leaders to maintain and develop the service level and recruit new volunteers;

■ partnership with organisations engaged in alcohol, drug, tobacco and healthcare policy;

■ internally coordinated communication with partners.

3. Modernisation of technologies and adoption of new techno-logies to improve the effectiveness of prevention and rescue efforts, including:

■ adoption and development of new technologies to provide rescue services (above all to reduce the time needed to reach the victim and locate the event);

■ adoption of simulation technologies in prevention efforts, training and practice processes;

■ adoption of e-solutions for prevention efforts;

■ introduction of contemporary fire safety related technological solu-tions to the population.

4. Data analysis and fact-based long-term planning, including:

■ creation of a long-term resource planning system;

■ adoption of evidence-based impact assessment methodologies;

■ use of data established by Rescue Board partners in the assessment of impacts of actions;

■ adoption of software solutions for the assessment, forecasting and planning of impacts of actions;

■ planning of the brigade network based on demographic changes and risk factors.


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5. Improvement of organisational capacity, including:

■ incentivising employees to participate in social activities related to safety culture;

■ establishment of a clear innovation process and engagement of emp-loyees in the innovation process;

■ more efficient use of employee working hours and potential.

■ increasing external fundraising capacity;

■ improvement of external cooperation with EU and Nordic countries;

■ improvement of the skills and competence of the Rescue Board’s staff;

■ acting as a role model in support of the implementation of alcohol, drug, tobacco and healthcare policy;

■ improvement of the preparedness to respond to environmental acci-dents;

■ raising the population’s awareness of the nature of the Rescue Board’s services and their availability.

Good decisions require extensive analysis supported by accurate data.

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5The strategy of the Rescue Board is a document that will guide the develop-ment of the entire organisation in the following years. Just like all internal parties of the organisation were involved in the drafting of the strategy, they must also be included in the implementation of the strategy and in making amendments.

The completion, monitoring and updating of the strategy will be managed centrally and its implementation will be analysed annually. In the course of analysis the development of the sector and organisation is evaluated, an assessment is made as to what progress is made toward the established objectives and whether the agreed-upon strategic choices have helped to make progress toward the objectives. When the analysis is carried out, spe-cific and measurable data will be used. As a result of the analysis, proposals will be made to update the strategy and the planning documents related thereto. The process of analysis and amendments is in accordance with the preparation of the next year’s action plan and budget: monitoring and necessary amendments to the strategy will be finalised by the preparation of the next year’s action plan. The strategy will be used as a basis for the

implemenTaTion, moniToring and updaTing

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preparation of more detailed plans, action plans and budgets in order to develop internal and external partnerships. At least one planning seminar involving all parties will be held each year to update the strategy. Fact-based analysis will serve as an input to the seminar and its purpose is to review strategic courses of action and amend them if necessary.

The management of the Rescue Board led by the Director General will be responsible for the implementation of the strategy. It will be the manage-ment’s role to manage the process and to audit the performance of what has been agreed. The existing structure of the organisation and the areas of responsibility existing therein will be adhered to in the implementa-tion of the strategy.

In the initial years of implementation of the strategy, the auditing of the correctness and timeliness of the established objectives and indicators will be of importance, including the creation of the basic information of these indicators for which they were still missing during the drafting of the strategy.

Compiled by:Tarvi Ojala

Consultant:ander Ojandu, Civitta

Translator and language editor::eM Tõlge Tõlkebüroo

Layout and printing:areal disain

Published by: estonian Rescue BoardRaua 2, 10124 Tallinn

“Strategy of the Estonian Rescue Board 2015-2015” on the web:issuu.com/estonianrescueboard/docs/strategy

ISSUU - Strategy by Päästeamethttp://issuu.com/estonianrescueboard/docs/strategy

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Documents

Strategy of the Estonian Rescue Board 2015-2025