Central Government and the Modernization of the British Fire Service, 1900-38

Ewen, Shane

doi:10.1093/tcbh/14.4.317

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…But, in the early years of its existence, the UK fire service did rely heavily on volunteers (see Blackstone, 1957). Ewen (2003) documents these changes at the start of the century, from 1900 – when the service was fragmented and there was an absence of any central regulation – to 1938 and the move to an increasingly unified national service, through the Fire Services Act 1938, which created fire authorities throughout the UK. Such volunteer contributions to fire‐fighting are now limited to remote geographical areas of the UK that have difficulties in maintaining a full‐time fire service.…”

Section: Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring fire service performance: a comparative study

Carvalho

Fernandes

Lambert

et al. 2006

International Journal of Public Sector Management

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PurposeThe new public management (NPM) agenda is transforming the public sector in many countries. However, there have been criticisms of NPM, particularly over its emphasis on quantification, results orientation and the measurement of performance to the possible detriment of service delivery. The purpose of this paper is to examine an important public service – the fire service – in differing contexts: the “mature” NPM setting of the UK, and a “late adopter” of NPM – Portugal.Design/methodology/approachThis study is conducted by a combined methods approach. The principal focus of this study is on publicly available databases of performance indicators. The data are supported by additional material from operational officers in fire services, and from oversight bodies, obtained by interviews and by survey in Portugal.FindingsThis comparative study reaffirms the potential for NPM solutions to public service management. In particular, there is a case for carefully targeted key performance indicators in Portuguese fire services.Originality/valueThis paper makes an original contribution to ideas of NPM in action by focussing on performance measurement in different contexts. The comparative aspect of this paper is crucial as a means of assessing the portability of NPM ideas in different national settings.

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Section: Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring fire service performance: a comparative study

Carvalho

Fernandes

Lambert

et al. 2006

International Journal of Public Sector Management

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“…Their ability to shape policy was probably reinforced by the absence of in-house technical expertise, other than in the person of Colonel Symonds, the Home Office's Fire Adviser, who was not well regarded by the brigades. 4 ‘The absence of a fire inspectorate before 1947, unlike other areas of departmental policy, enabled Dixon and Symonds to influence decision making, with the former injecting administrative authority into the void, employing the knowledge of the Fire Adviser to legitimise his ideas’ (Ewen 2003, 330). This pattern of policy-making is evident if one considers the key case of fire cover.…”

Section: Embedding Values: the Case Of Fire Covermentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing Policy Communities Back In: The Case of Fire Service Cover

Grant¹

2005

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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It is argued that the concept of a policy community has an enduring value in the analysis of public policy, especially if an emphasis is placed on the way in which ideas are excluded from debates. Historical analysis based on the National Archives using a political science conceptual framework can offer fresh perspectives. The concept is developed through a specification of the conditions that encourage policy community formation and survival. Policy inertia led to a policy that produced a higher rate of deaths from fire in the UK than in other developed countries, especially among the socially excluded. The policy community concept can be of value in the policy analysis tool-kit, especially if policy frames that have become embedded to the exclusion of alternatives are identified.

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“…was a formative authority in the introduction of standard pension rights in 1925 and civil defence reform during the nineteen-thirties. 72 Knowledge exchange was further enhanced during the inter-war years by the co-operation of these two existing institutions with the technically-orientated Institution of Fire Engineers (I.F.E.) in rationalizing the fight against fire.…”

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confidence: 99%

Chief officers and professional identities: the case of fire services in English municipal government, c.1870?1938

Ewen

2007

Historical Research

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This article examines the changing relationship between chief officers and English municipal government between the eighteen-seventies and the nineteen-thirties, focusing specifically on the emergence of a new cadre of municipal experts, the chief fire officers. The article locates the chief officer within debates about the changing role and status of professional elites, and continues a long tradition of urban historical research through the comparative case studies of Birmingham and Leicester. It is argued that the chief fire officer's increasing indispensability to modern municipal government was shaped by a combination of functional reforms and unexpected crises, through which he established a position as the interface between the local state and civil society.

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Central Government and the Modernization of the British Fire Service, 1900-38

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Measuring fire service performance: a comparative study

Measuring fire service performance: a comparative study

Bringing Policy Communities Back In: The Case of Fire Service Cover

Chief officers and professional identities: the case of fire services in English municipal government, c.1870?1938

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