Development and evaluation of a behavioural marker system for UK fire and rescue service incident commanders

This thesis developed and evaluated a behavioural marker system for UK Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) incident commanders (IC) to enable their non-technical skills to be assessed. Such skills complement technical skills and are essential to safety. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to develop and evaluate the behavioural marker system (called THINCS). Evaluations found THINCS performed well with respect to its validity, reliability, sensitivity and usability. THINCS was then used together with other research methods to investigate how non-technical skills are deployed in different types of incident. The study involved simulated scenarios that required ICs to use standard operating procedures, or operational discretion. The results showed that these two approaches to decision making were not deployed in the ways anticipated by National Operational Guidance (N.O.G., 2021a). Instead, operational discretion was less likely to be used in the scenario in which it was licensed (Discretion scenario) than in the scenario in which it was not licensed (Control scenario). Also, ICs were more likely to exhibit acute stress in the Discretion scenario than in the Control scenario, as measured by self-report and a blood-based measure of immunological function. To help understand the decisions made, THINCS was used to examine differences in the use of non-technical skills in the two scenarios. The principal difference was in situational awareness, which was less evident in the Discretion than the Control scenario. Thematic analysis of post-scenario interviews showed that the ICs who used operational discretion in a context-appropriate manner demonstrated suitable judgement of risk and safety leadership compared to those who used it inappropriately. This thesis advocates that personal resilience training should focus on acute stress, and ICs should be better prepared to use operational discretion. Finally, THINCS now features in the National Operational Guidance for UK incident command and is used by several UK FRS