Valvonnan vaikuttavuuden arviointi Helsingin pelastuslaitoksen aineistoilla [Assessing the Effectiveness of Supervision and Fire Inspections using Helsinki City Rescue Department’s Datasets]

Abstract

An internal project was carried out within Helsinki City Rescue Department, with the aim of discovering
and presenting new ways to assess the effectiveness of supervision and fire inspections. The effectiveness
of supervision was defined and considered from three different viewpoints: those of the Rescue Department,
fire inspection customers, and citizens. The main objectives of the project were to find new methods for
assessing effectiveness that were not based on accident statistics, and to utilise existing and accumulating
Rescue Department datasets that had not been extensively used before. The focus of the assessment was on
identifying desired changes in the safety culture of customer organisations.

From the Rescue Department’s viewpoint, the aim of the supervision is to ensure and contribute to customer
organisations’ compliance with the Rescue Act, and to help develop their safety culture. The fulfilment of
these goals was mainly assessed by analysing the development of customers’ auditing results, i.e. the results
of the fire inspection.

According to the findings of the project, the auditing results for regularly inspected customer organisations
improved as a whole during the observation period from 2010 to 2014. In particular, customers whose
results were below the statutory level during previous inspections often achieved significantly better results
by the time of the next inspection. The length of the time between the initial and second inspection did not
seem to have an effect on the results. However, based on the data used it is not possible to differentiate
between the effect of the supervision and other factors behind the improvement.

During the project, a customer survey for the customer organisations undergoing regular fire inspections
was composed in co-operation between the rescue departments of the Uusimaa region. In addition to this,
a set of questions concerning rescue services was formulated and included for the first time in a safety
questionnaire addressed to the citizens of the area, and managed by the City of Helsinki. The results of
these surveys were not received in time to be included this report, but they will be published separately.
Customer and citizen viewpoints should also be taken into account in future assessments of the
effectiveness of supervision and fire inspections.

In addition to regularly conducted fire inspections of non-residential buildings, the Rescue Department
supervises the fire safety of residential buildings through self-monitoring. The effectiveness of the selfmonitoring system could not be evaluated at this point in time due to insufficient amounts of data and a
lack of reliability amongst the data that was available. However, one outcome of the project was that the
reliability of the self-monitoring results will be assessed through random spot checks. A customer survey
was also compiled for the customers of the self-monitoring system, the results of which will be reviewed
separately.

The key findings of the project were that there are several feasible tools for measuring the effectiveness of
fire inspections using the Rescue Department’s data sets, but the goals for the effectiveness of supervision
should be defined more accurately. After multiple inspections the auditing results generally improved, but
it appeared that after the statutory level was reached, maintaining this good standard proved to be more
challenging. The final outcome of the project entailed the presentation of a set of recommended measures
for improving and assessing the effectiveness of supervision.