Title: Selecting the Fire and Emergency New Zealand portfolio for next four years
SECTION 1: Introduction
Prioritising our work across Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Fire and Emergency has a large range of initiatives and projects – all of which aim to improve what
we do, and how we do it. This collected body of work is the Fire and Emergency investment
portfolio. The portfolio chosen for FY 2022/23 – FY 2025/26 is the fourth year that we have
undertaken a formal portfolio selection process
The portfolio selection formed part of an integrated planning approach that began in FY 2021/22.
This saw directorate and Branch business planning, budgeting and investment all form part of an
organisational planning activity. We applied some lessons from that first integrated planning cycle
and were able to address some of the main pain points. The integrated planning process will have an
improvement/standardisation focus over the next few years.
The portfolio selection activity is a key Executive Leadership Team (ELT) role in integrated planning
and ELT committed significant time to the selection process that is described. Due to factors such as
Fire and Emergency’s current capacity to afford, resource and achieve the program of work, the
selection of the investment portfolio has been more challenging than previous years, and for this
reason has taken longer. In particular, we have had to provision funds and capacity for the
replacement of our payroll system. ELT had a number of robust debates about priority order and
had to think very carefully about the portfolio that we can realistically fund and deliver for FY
2022/23 and FY 2023/24.
SECTION 2: The Portfolio
The Fire and Emergency portfolio for 2022/23 …. and beyond
Forty eight of the original 66 investments of the existing and proposed investments were included in
the Fire and Emergency portfolio for FY 2022/23. Sixteen of the original 66 investments are
scheduled to start either in FY 2023/24 or in out-years.
In order to manage both funding and workload, not all projects have been approved to get started
or to continue in this financial year. The four-year view is included. Of the 66 investments:
13 were classified as Compliance. These pieces of work must proceed at best pace.
16 were classified as Allow to Complete.
13 were classified as Priority. These reflect significant organisational benefit for cost.
5 were classified as Funded via BAU but still remain part of the portfolio.
16 were classified as Pipeline. These investments are included in the portfolio, but are not
scheduled to start in FY 2022/23. Some are scheduled for FY 2023/24 and others tentatively
planned in out-years.
3 were not included in the portfolio. These investment opportunities either did not fit
strategic direction or could be addressed in another manner.
Some projects included in the portfolio needed to be reset and/or scheduled to start at a later date.
ELT wants to make it clear that these projects are stil important to Fire and Emergency and ELT are
stil committed to seeing them successful y deliver. Projects that are impacted by the organisation’s
current operational situation need to plan a rephasing of any affected objectives and outcomes.
After several workshops with ELT, we have arrived at a four-year view of investment that best
balances strategic investment and organisational need with ability to successful y deliver and adopt
the portfolio.
Once again, some very hard cal s have been required to create the portfolio. There wil be some
disappointment with the result. Between our maturity, our demonstrated performance over the last
two years and our existing capacity we have to be very realistic about how much we can deliver at
any one time.
For these reasons, ELT has tried hard to keep the level of investment closer to our demonstrated
level of capability to deliver.
The below tables outline the initiatives and projects Fire and Emergency wil undertake in the
2022/23 financial year.
The heading “4-year portfolio” refers to the projects that have been included in the portfolio for
investment but have not been prioritised for commencement in the 2022/23 financial year.
Please note:
Work that is already in delivery (has a business case) and is not changing its budget wil have
funding for FY 2022/23 applied and any funding for years outside of this applied in principle,
subject to any future prioritisation.
Work that is already in delivery (has a business case) and is changing its budget from the
amount at prioritisation wil need to seek a change request. Funding wil be applied once the
change request is approved by Investment Panel (IP).
Work that is in planning (is building a business case) is approved to proceed to the business
case and wil have the forecast funding required to create the business case applied. Work
during business case development needs to outline the funding requirement and
justification for the investment must stack up once its ful implications are known.
Work that is newly added to the portfolio (Initiate) needs IP approval to commence business
casing; this may include seeking some of its forecast funds for the business casing activity.
This is a simple process: please contact the Investment & Portfolio team.
Projects wil need to work their management accountant to create a phased budget for
loading.
The portfolio has no funds set aside for project contingency. Any contingency not budgeted
for may require reduction in scope.
Compliance Investments
Projects in Planning – These projects have Approval in Principle (AIP). Sponsors of these
projects are asked to proceed with business casing at best possible speed. The Investment &
Portfolio team wil be in contact to establish milestones for completing the business case.
Approval to deliver (Approval of Funds) is based on approval of the business case. If initial
funding is required for business case development (pre-business case approval), please
reach-out to your relevant portfolio manager who wil lodge the necessary approval at the
July or August IP meetings.
Projects in Delivery: These projects have Approval of Funds (AoF) and these funds wil be
applied to the relevant work records. Sponsors of these projects need to ensure a Sponsor
(SRO)-approved Benefit Realisation Plan is presented to IP. The Investment & Portfolio team
wil be in contact to establish implementation and delivery milestones. If the funding
required is higher than the amount indicated during the portfolio selection process, a
change request wil be required.
Al Sponsors need to flag to IP immediately any inability to spend/deliver in the planned
timeframe.
Name
Branch
Strategic alignment
Lifecycle step
H&S: Health standards project
People
Growing our people
Planning – AIP
Planning – AIP
H&S: PCBU Overlapping Duties
People
Growing our people
Working Safely in Water (Project 2)
Service Delivery Growing our people
Planning – AIP
Deliver – AoF
Operational PFOS Replacement
Service Delivery Keeping pace with change
Deliver – AoF
Fluorine Free Foam Transition
Service Delivery Keeping pace with change
Deliver – AoF
Positive Workplace Programme
OCE
Growing our people
Deliver – AoF
Hiwa-i-te-rangi (programme)
OCE
Growing our people
Initiate – AIP
CARD replacement
Service Delivery Keeping pace with change
Col aboration, partnership Initiate – AIP
National Exercise Programme
Service Delivery and influence
Keeping pace with change Planning – AIP
Part 3 Levy Phase 2 & 3
FaBO
Keeping pace with change Initiate – AIP
Payrol /HRIS
People
Name
Branch
Strategic alignment
Lifecycle step
Initiate – AIP
Kia Toipoto
OCE
Growing our people
Incident Capability and Payments
People
Growing our people
Planning – AIP
Alignment Project (ICPA)
Al ow to Complete
This category of investment reflects the multi-year nature of our portfolio and reflects ELT’s
confidence that these investments wil deliver their planned value.
Projects in Delivery: These projects have Approval of Funds (AoF) and these funds wil be
applied to the relevant work records, as noted above. Sponsors of these projects need to
ensure a Sponsor (SRO)-approved Benefit Realisation Plan is presented to IP. If the funding
required is higher than the amount indicated during the portfolio selection process, a
change request wil be required.
Al Sponsors need to flag to IP immediately any inability to spend/deliver in the planned
timeframe.
Name
Branch
Investment Category
Lifecycle step
Service
Building resilient
Deliver – AoF
Te Pae Tata (programme)
Delivery communities
Digital Workflow
OSCD
Keeping pace with change
Deliver – AoF
Enterprise Information
Intel igence-led, evidenced- Deliver – AoF
OSCD
Platform
based decisions
Evaluation & development of
Deliver – AoF
Service
Building resilient
National Risk Reduction
Delivery communities
programme
Building resilient
Deliver – AoF
Local planning
OSCD
communities
Building resilient
Deliver – AoF
Climate change planning
OSCD
communities
Service Delivery Guidelines OSCD
Growing our people
Deliver – AoF
Priority to Continue
Projects in Planning – These projects have Approval in Principle (AIP). Sponsors of these
projects are asked to proceed with business casing and to provide IP with the date at which
they expect to present the business case. If initial funding is required for business case
development (pre-business case approval), please reach-out to your relevant portfolio
manager who wil lodge the necessary approval at the July IP.
Projects in Delivery: These projects have Approval of Funds (AoF) and these funds wil be
applied to the relevant work records. Sponsors of these projects need to ensure a Sponsor
(SRO)-approved Benefit Realisation Plan is presented to IP. If the funding required is higher
than the amount indicated during the portfolio selection process, a change request wil be
required.
Al Sponsors need to flag to IP immediately any inability to spend/deliver in the planned
timeframe.
Name
Branch
Investment Category
Lifecycle step
Paearu Mahi (TCF)
People
Growing our people
Planning – AIP
Whanaungatanga
OCE
Growing our people
Initiate – AIP
Code of Practice for Firefighting Service
Deliver – AoF
Building Resilient Communities
Water Supplies
Delivery
Service
Unified Uniform project
Growing our people
Deliver – AoF
Delivery
Aerial procurement
OSCD
Keeping pace with change
Deliver – AoF
Next Gen Type 3 Appliances
OSCD
Keeping pace with change
Planning – AoF
Decontamination Tent
Service
Keeping pace with change
Initiate – AIP
Replacement
Delivery
Carcinogen
People
Growing our people
Deliver – AoF
Service
Initiate - AIP
Hazmat capability
Keeping pace with change
Delivery
Service
Intel igence-led, evidence-based
Deliver – AoF
Gas detection
Delivery
decisions
Service
Alpine Fault (AF8)
Building resilient communities
Initiate - ATI
Delivery
Live Fire training facility (Te Kei) OSCD
Growing our people
Deliver - AoF
Monitoring and Evaluation
People
Growing our people
Planning - AIP
framework
Funded from BAU (but part of the portfolio)
Investments in this category are funded from a Branch baseline, rather than from the
portfolio provision. Reserved for low complexity changes and medium complexity changes
with a specific path.
Name
Branch
Investment Category
Lifecycle step
EV charger instal ation
OSCD
Keeping pace with change
Deliver - ATE
Intel igence-led, evidence-based
P3MIS
OSCD
Deliver - ATE
decisions
ICT review
OSCD
Keeping pace with change
Deliver - ATE
Intel igence-led, evidence-based
Print Services
FaBO
Deliver - ATE
decisions
Employer Promotion
People
Building Resilient Communities
Deliver - ATE
Scheme
4 Year Portfolio
These investments are added to the portfolio (Approval to Enter Portfolio) but are not given
approval to start planning or other work (Approval to Initiate) except where stated.
The inclusion of al proposals in the portfolio is an indication that ELT sees the strategic
alignment and potential benefit in these investments. These investments wil be reviewed
and included as funding and ability to resource and adopt the change becomes available.
Name
Branch
Investment Category
SAMP
OSCD
Keeping pace with change
EIMS
OSCD
Intel igence-led, evidenced-based decisions
Equipment & Logistics
OSCD
Keeping pace with change
EV Hydro Vehicles
Service
Keeping pace with change
Delivery
Leadership System Development People
Growing our people
Volunteer Engagement
People
Building resilient communities
SMS Modernisation
OSCD
Intel igence-led, evidenced-based decisions
Unified Approach to Incident
Service
Keeping pace with change
Management
Delivery
Intranet Upgrade
OCE
Growing our people
Name
Branch
Investment Category
Service
Virtual Reality Training
Growing our people
Delivery
Risk Reduction Mobility
Service
Keeping pace with change
Delivery
Tuppens Project
Service
Keeping pace with change
Delivery
Unified Approach to
Service
Keeping pace with change
Accountability
Delivery
LAC
OCE
Building resilient communities
Macron Enablement
OCE
Col aboration, partnership and influence
COP
OSCD
Intel igence-led, evidenced-based decisions
SECTION 3: THE SELECTION PROCESS
How did we do with the 2021/22 portfolio?
Delivery performance for FY 2021/22 was behind plan: we wil ultimately end up delivering about
75% of the throughput based on financial performance that we were targeting.
The main reasons for the under-performance were:
Variations in project delivery plans
Project delivery under-performance due to Covid19 impact on supply chains and access to
people to help us do the work,
Portfolio delivery demand to resource and adopt exceeding our Organisation capacity and
capability. this includes governance.
What did we learn from the FY 2021/22 process?
This year was largely a ‘build on’ from the FY 2021/22 process. We applied the international
standard approach shown in Diagram 1. We also applied lessons from performance n the last two
years in the scale and complexity of the portfolio chosen.
Understand
Categorise
Prioritise
Balance
Plan
Deliver
• Identification of al
• ELT confirmed the
• Decision
• ELT trade-of
• Delivery plan of
• Delivery of
new investment
investment
conference/
strategic delivery,
the Portfolio of
Portfolio plan –
proposals
categories &
MCDA to assess
benefit,
investment
with initiatives
prioritisation
al investments
achievability &
progressing
criteria
affordability for
through regular
‘best’ portfolio
governance
processes
Diagram 1: portfolio selection process, model ed after the international Management of Portfolios standard
A robust methodology (was applied to the portfolio to create a value (based on benefit), and value
for money (based on cost/benefit), view of investments. The FY 2022/23 process largely focused on
assessing and scoring the new investments and placing them in the appropriate priority order with
the existing priorities. The existing priorities were reviewed to ensure that their priority level was
stil correct.
We applied improvements from the FY 2021/22 process, in particular:
Items in the Compliance category did not receive a priority score; these are al ‘must do’,
There was an additional priority criterion, defined below, that reflected investment
contribution to running an efficient and effective Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ),
Impact on other business teams.
How was the process applied to select the FY 2022/23 portfolio?
At the end of the ‘Understand’ process there were 66 candidate investments. This was made up of
37 in-flight investments,
12 investments already in the pipeline and re-evaluated for FY 2022/23 and beyond, and
17 new investments.
Investments were categorised into one of the fol owing headings:
Compliance: investments that are required for legislative/regulatory reason, from
government or Board direction or that ELT consider are ‘must do’ to achieve strategy or
business need.
Al ow to complete: investments that are nearing completion and whose benefits are stil
considered of value against strategic or business need.
Priority: includes both new investments and existing projects that were already underway,
which ELT determined needed to be completed as a priority.
Funded via BAU: investments that are funded from branch baseline rather than from the
portfolio provision.
Pipeline: the body of candidate investments that ELT consider of value but are not yet
approved to start planning.
Do not include in portfolio: investment opportunities that did not fit strategic direction or
could be addressed in another manner.
Managing the portfolio
The approved portfolio wil be passed from ELT to Investment Panel (IP) to govern. IP wil approve
business cases, change requests and other project-related decisions.
IP would strongly encourage al project leads to engage with them early and often. IP is here to help
and the earlier the team receives requests for assistance, the more time they wil have to help you
work through any issues you may have.
IP wil also be taking a much more active role in monitoring portfolio delivery performance. This is to
ensure al our projects are successful in meeting their objectives. IP wil publish its quality and ‘cal -
in’ approach early in the FY.
Based on a report-back from IP, the ELT wil formal y review the portfolio quarterly through the year.
ELT wil direct IP to adjust the portfolio to address any emerging fiscal pressures and/or delivery
performance risks.
New investment opportunities wil be captured and, if considered urgent/important, the ELT may
agree to include them in the portfolio and slow down or reschedule an initiative to accommodate
the new.
Otherwise these new opportunities wil be considered in the next investment cycle.
For more information contact: your manager or DCE in the first instance
Those interested in learning about the prioritisation criteria can read the section below:
Prioritisation criteria TURN THIS INTO AN ACCORDION SECTION THAT FOLDS UP
At the heart of the prioritisation process is the set of decision criteria selected by ELT as the best way
to think about our organisation and what it is that we do. The criteria and their descriptions are
included in the fol owing table.
Criterion
Description
Trust and
The extent to which the investment option wil improve or reinforce:
Confidence
public trust and confidence in FENZ and its ability to keep citizens safe
(Individual)
in the event of an emergency
the positive reputation of FENZ in the eyes of the public
the contribution of FENZ volunteers to the maintenance of the wel -
being and safety of communities
FENZ’s social licence.
This criterion specifical y excludes dimensions that relate to the permission
from employers to utilise volunteer firefighters, which is covered under People
Capability criterion.
Criterion
Description
Risk Reduction
The extent to which the investment proposal wil :
reduce the incidence of unwanted fires and the associated risk to life
and property
reduce the actual and the mitigated level of fire risk
apply learning from emergencies to reduce the risk or impact of re-
occurrence
address specific business risk that wil compromise ability to provide
service.
This criterion specifical y excludes any dimensions relating to reduction of
harm resulting from fires, which is covered in the Reduction of Harm criterion.
Reduction of
The extent to which the investment option wil :
Harm
protect and preserve life and prevent or limit injury.
reduce damage to property, land and the environment in the event of
emergencies, including through improvements in the level of
preparedness of FENZ
improve the degree to which early warning is provided of threats.
reduce the risk of harm and actual harm to FENZ and other emergency
personnel associated with responding to emergencies.
People
The extent to which the investment option wil maintain or enhance:
Capability
the organisation’s ability to attract, retain and develop the FENZ
workforce (both permanent and volunteer), in particular gender and
diversity, in terms of its capability, capacity and resilience.
the levels of wel being and engagement of FENZ’s workforce.
the organisation’s permission from employers to utilise its volunteers.
This criterion specifical y excludes any dimensions relating to overal public
trust and confidence in FENZ and what it delivers, which is covered under the
Trust and Confidence criterion.
Future Proofing The extent to which the investment option future proofs FENZ operations for
the longer term (5 years and beyond) by:
enabling the organisation to anticipate, be prepared and have the
capabilities and capacity required before they are needed
ensuring the organisation can respond to a changing risk environment
in an agile manner
ensuring the long-term sustainability of volunteerism
Criterion
Description
improving the organisation’s ability to leverage opportunities
presented.
Manage the
The extent to which the investment maintains or improves the operation of
business
FENZ as a business by:
Maintaining or improving business processes to create efficiency
Improving or automating data and information col ection and use
Reducing operating costs
Maintaining or improving “operating as a Crown Entity”, including
external reporting and improvement activities
