Nsw State Emergency Service Strategic Plan

This paper will critically analyse the NSW State Emergency Service (NSW SES) strategic plan developed in 2016. Firstly, the NSW SES strategic plan including the vision, mission, strategic anchors and strategic themes will be considered. From reviewing public value and strategic planning theories, a review of the NSW SES’s public value will be explored. The paper will analyse if the NSW SES strategic plan and related Action Plan will achieve sustainable public value.

Following the analysis of public value, this paper will investigate whether or not the NSW SES has sufficient organisational capacity to generate and sustain the strategic themes, anchors and achievement of vision. The ethical responsibilities and organisational values will be

Public managers must know how to mobilise their resources to create, organise and operate a market to meet the declared objectives” (p. 9). There are 28 priorities under the five strategic themes. Underpinning the NSW SES strategic plan is a two year action plan which outlines the three strategic anchors, desired outcomes and list of key actions that upon successful execution will lead to the achievement. There are 47 key actions listed (NSW SES, 2017b). Many of the 47 key actions have multiple sub-actions that require a significant commitment of financial, material and human resources. It is questionable if 28 priorities and 47 key actions is too long and unachievable. Barry (2008) summarises the increased pressure on emergency services who deal with large scale events, day to day management of the organisation and projects consume considerable staff and volunteer time. When disaster strikes, inevitably most resources are directed at the incident than continuation of BAU activities and other activities are

Only 13 actions are related to supporting the community via actions like community engagement, flood planning and targeted programs. It is doubtful if all 13 actions are community focused. For example one of the 13 actions is to ‘implement a record and information management program’ which could be argued is more part of capability than improving community resilience. Similarly, there are 28 priorities in the strategic plan of which only six are directly related to supporting stronger communities. It is clear from the Action Plan, Strategic Plan and the Commissioner’s top three priorities that the strategies are inwardly focused.

The Commissioner’s priorities of volunteer recruitment and retention, followed by training illustrates his desire to improve operational capability. The Commissioner has included a performance measure of increasing volunteer numbers from 8235 to 20,000 in two years (NSW SES, 2017a). In making volunteers ‘job ready within 30 days’ this requires a significant financial investment in training and resources (e.g. personal protective clothing, rescue equipment etc.). It is questionable within the current financial budget constraints if the NSW SES can adequately support this