Agenda item

10:40

Contact Officer: Martin Crapper, Service Delivery Manager, (01865) 852171 

The attached report (SSC6) proposes a number of projects to be included within the Fire Authority’s Integrated Risk Management Action Plan (IRMP) for the fiscal year 2010-11. The proposals summarise those areas where the Service’s Senior Management Team believe that service improvements might be achieved.The report also includes an overview of progress on projects for the fiscal year 2008/9 (Refer Annex 1).

Following this meeting, the Cabinet Member for Safer & Stronger Communities will be asked to:

·        (subject to any amendments which the Cabinet Member for Safer & Stronger Communities may consider appropriate) approve the proposed projects to be included in the Draft IRMP Action Plan 2010-11 for ‘risk analysis’ and consultation as outlined in the report;

·        ask the Director for Community Safety and Chief Fire Officer to report the outcome of consultation, with any recommendations for amendment, to the Cabinet Member for Safer and Stronger Communities in February 2010, with a view to formal adoption of the Action Plan for implementation from April 2010.

The Committee is invited to review project implementation for the previous financial year, ask any questions relating to future service improvements and offer any advice/comment to the Cabinet Member for Safer and Stronger Communities.

The report before the Committee proposed a number of projects to be

included within the Fire Authority’s Integrated Risk Management Action Plan

(IRMP) for the fiscal year 2010/11. The proposals summarised those areas

where the Service’s Senior Management Team believe that service

improvements might be achieved. The report also included an overview of

progress on projects for the fiscal year 2008/9 (Annex 1).

The Committee was invited to review project implementation for the previous

year, ask any questions relating to future service improvements and offer any

advice/comment on the proposed projects to the Cabinet Member for Safer

and Stronger Communities.

Mr Dave Etheridge (Deputy Chief Fire Officer and Head of Service Delivery), together with Mr Martin Crapper (Service Delivery Manager) and Mr Mick Clarke (Station Manager IRMP, Kidlington) attended before the Committee for this item.

Mr Etheridge summarised the background to the IRMP and stated that the proposals, once approved by the Cabinet Member, would be subject to ‘risk analysis’ and public consultation. A final decision would be made in March 2010, with a view to formal adoption of the Action Plan for implementation from April 2010.

The following information was reported to the meeting:

In relation to proposal (a) Day Crewing Review at Abingdon and Didcot Fire Stations, the proposed revised duty system would amend the current shift pattern to predominantly Monday to Friday day time hours.  It was proposed that two shifts of seven would change to one shift of twelve.  This would free up four establishment positions on a permanent basis across the two stations. These four positions (which would become Watch Managers) would be utilised on retained stations where availability is a problem due to a shortage of retained fire fighters. This redeployment would maximise the Service’s use of resources and improve resilience across the county by reducing the levels of time where retained fire engines are not available (17500 hours of retained fire engine non-availability from April 08 to March 09). Additionally, from the remaining operational personnel left at Abingdon and Didcot, potentially on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday a minimum of six fire fighters would also be deployed to other stations. This would provide even greater resilience and fire engine availability on OFRS’s retained stations and ensure that community fire safety education could also take place in some of the smaller towns and villages where there was currently very little activity. The outcome of this project would mean that there would still be the same amount of fire engines, and fire fighters riding those engines, at both Abingdon and Didcot as there are now. There would be no loss of jobs as the reduction in two positions at each station could be managed via retirements and vacancies. Mr Etheridge added that no individual would be forced to go to another fire station or to move out of their provided day crewing house.

Given the full agenda at this meeting, the Committee AGREED that a presentation should be given to its November meeting on the above proposal, in order to resolve any questions that the Committee might have.

Councillor Goddard then put forward the following questions to be answered at the November meeting:

• In relation to proposal (a) Day Crewing Review at Abingdon and Didcot Fire Stations:

Ø      what would be the impact of any changes to day crewing at Abingdon and Didcot Fire Stations in relation to response times, ie. which areas would be affected by longer response times, when and by how much?

Ø      although statistically there were fewer incidents at weekends, evenings and night times, surely these were when serious injuries and fatalities were most likely to occur?

·        Wouldn’t the removal of a fire engine out of Rewley Rd at the weekend to provide standby cover in the two towns be disadvantaging other areas by moving it out of the City?

All members of the Committee were then invited to feed any further questions to Mr Etheridge and Mr Crapper via Ms Coldwell as soon as possible in relation to the areas they wished to be covered at the November meeting.

In relation to proposal (d) Review of Co-Responder Arrangements with South Central Ambulance Service, the Committee AGREED to request Mr Etheridge to provide information to a subsequent meeting on the number and frequency of co-responder incidents over the past year (whereby Oxfordshire fire crews at specific sites had responded to life threatening emergencies such as heart attacks), together with data on attendance times by fire crews to these incidents*. (*The Committee noted that South Central Ambulance Service is automatically mobilised when fire crews are called out).

It was AGREED that Mr Etheridge would email the Committee with the list of stakeholders who would be consulted on the 2010/11 IRMP, to enable members of the Committee to put forward any suggestions for additional stakeholders who should be consulted in future.

The Cabinet Member for Safer and Stronger Communities requested that her thanks to all relevant officers be recorded, for their work on the projects in the IRMP Action Plan 2008-09, which had been completed on time and within the allocated budget, whilst noting that Project 7 was ongoing (The Implementation of Roles at Kidlington Fire Station).