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ITEM CM12
COMMUNITY SAFETY SCRUTINY COMMITTEE -
FIRE SERVICE COMMAND AND CONTROL ROOM –
THE FiReControl AND FIRELINK PROJECTS
Report
by Area Manager Colin Thomas (Oxfordshire’s Senior User for the
FiReControl
and Firelink Projects and Joint Regional Project Board member)
Purpose/Background
1.
This note brings Members up to date
following earlier reports. Further
information is available via the national FiReControl and Firelink websites https://fire-control.org.uk/, https://firelink.org.uk a new FRS website https://frsonline.fire.gov.uk and through a periodic local briefing note available on the OCC inter/intranet
(under Community Safety/Fire and Rescue Services/Projects).
Project Timescale
2.
The officially
released timings for the implementation of FiReControl and FireLink remain unchanged from that reported in the April report. For Oxfordshire these
dates are:
·
FireLink Phase A (mainly integration of the
new radios in Control and a small number of trial vehicles) is planned to
happen in October 07
·
FireLink Phase B (the installation of all
FireLink/Airwave radios in vehicles) is planned to be completed by September 08
·
The cutover of our Fire Control service to
the South East RCC is planned to happen in January 2011.
3.
We still await the
release of the updated FiReControl Full Business Case which should include the
actual contracted costs of the Infrastructure Contract but will fail, we
believe, to reflect true staffing costs. However, until we see the Business Case we are unable to comment
further.
4.
We expected to
receive the FireLink Individual Detailed Design Specification (IDDS) in
mid April 2007 following the Due Diligence Visit carried out in September
2006. At the time of writing this report
we have completed a review of a draft copy of the FireLink IDDS and given our
comments to FireLink to try and speed up the process. The formal issue of the IDDS has now taken
place and we are undertaking some preparatory enabling works. However, the issue of the IDDS is now over 5
months late. FireLink have formally
acknowledged a programme delay of 2 months for Phase A but they have not
changed the dates for Phase B which appear increasingly unrealistic.
Setting Up the Local Authority Controlled
Company (LACC)
5.
We are not aware of any further progress on
the formation of the LACC which now awaits a formal decision by the Isle of
Wight FRA to become a Member of the Company before any further documentation
can be accepted.
FireLink Activity
6.
FireLink activity continues but the issue of material by the Project remains behind
schedule. We do not expect the enabling
works for Phase A to be particularly demanding. Nonetheless, the 50 working day time limit to
get these in place after the issue of the IDDS is impracticable and we have
already alerted FireLink that we may be unable to meet it. This difficulty is common to all FRSs. We have now been informed that the project
will only install 2 fallback FireLink radios in our Control Room. We require a minimum of 4 and at the Due
Diligence Visit we were led to believe that up to 6 would be provided. In addition, the total interim FireLink fit
for our Control Room, a solution originally envisaged to be required for no
more than 6 months, will now have to operate for at least 3 years (until the
RCC goes live) and it has serious shortcomings compared with the current
system’s capability. The project has now
recognised this and a DCLG task force has been formed to try and find a
solution. However, this solution may not
be available when the major fit out of our vehicles takes place (Phase B) and
some retro-fitting may be needed to improve the capability of the FireLink
fit. This is a situation that concerns
us and which we are monitoring very closely.
Planning
7.
The DCLG Transition planning team presented
at the last South East region FiReControl Coordinators meeting. This was well
received and was very useful to ensure a common understanding of the process
and what was expected of FRSs and the national team. Work to develop our local transition plan is
ongoing and the South East Project Manager is looking at running a series of
workshops to harmonise work across the region. Within our own work we are looking at the assessed resource requirement
and schedule of activity for the tasks we need to accomplish. We hope to get the go ahead to start work on
some of the activities to harmonise procedures (Convergence) and for more
information on the specific work to migrate the necessary data to support
attribute-based mobilising by the RCC. The first of 60 Convergence Outcomes, Outcome 3 (national callsigns),
has now been approved for implementation and we are hoping to start this
project very soon. Other potential
changes suitable for early implementation are being identified.
8.
As details of the remaining 59 Outcomes
become firm we will be able to plan with more confidence; however, until this
becomes clearer many of our estimates remain tentative. Nonetheless, we can already see that
significant resource will be needed which, in some areas will be in excess of
that directly available within the FRS. Such activity should be covered by New Burdens funding but we still await
detailed direction on how this process will be accessed.
9.
The delay in the arrival of the contracted FireLink documentation (i.e. the IDDS)
puts our current planning for this work at risk. At the time of writing this report the first
formal issue of the IDDS for Phase A has just been received. This will be rejected by FireLink as it will
require amendment and we hope to receive a corrected version soon. However, the current project plan sets out
the work to deliver FireLink Phase A which still has a planned completion of
June 2007. This is now an almost
impossible timescale and along with the current Phase B dates, which are also
very optimistic, bring the plan, as it stands, into question.
Funding
10.
We still await the issue of the Full Business Case which should include
the ‘real’ costs of the Infrastructure Contract but will still not, we believe,
reflect reliable figures for RCC staffing. DCLG still maintain that an overall saving of 30% will be achieved. However, as previously reported, the South
East Region Fire Finance Working Group, with financiers from each FRS in the
region, does not agree the figures on which this estimate is based. As far as we know there has been no
response from DCLG to the questions on how the Business Case has been
constructed. We remain concerned that
the costs which are likely to remain with the FRS under RCC operation have been
underestimated.
Community Safety Business Manager
FiReControl & FireLink Senior User
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