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ITEM CA11 - ANNEX 1

CABINET - 18 JULY 2006

OXFORDSHIRE FIRE COVER REVIEW

LOCAL RESPONSE STANDARDS

PERFORMANCE 2005/06

1. Following the removal of the 1985 National Standards of Fire Cover in 2004, Fire Authorities became responsible for setting their own local response standards. In April 2005 Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service introduced a pilot of response standards for the County based the historical location and status of the existing 24 stations as a basis for improvement planning for the future. The Cabinet approved these standards on 22 June 2006, requesting the Director for Community Safety & Chief Fire Officer to report annually on performance against the standards.

The Oxfordshire Standards

2. The adopted standards provide a common performance target across the County, based on risk and acknowledging that fire deaths and casualty reduction is a National Performance Target which should drive future improvement options. The response standards are:

• 80% of all emergency incidents will be responded to in 11 minutes.
• 95% of all emergencies will receive the initial response within 14 minutes.

1. In addition to the response standards for the first attending appliance, the Fire & Rescue Service will dispatch sufficient number of vehicles and personnel to safely and effectively deal with the type of incident reported as determined by national and local risk assessments.
2. It is accepted that in some locations of the County it will not be possible to attain the 14 minutes initial response time; therefore these areas will receive priority Community Safety awareness. This priority is in addition to those known areas where vulnerable groups are located.
3. The new response standards did not change fire cover arrangements in the County: it is only the way the Service’s performance is measured that is new. This now includes significantly more incidents and in particular all road traffic collisions (which were out of scope under the old national standard.)

Monitoring

4. The Local Response Standards were introduced in April 2005 and have been monitored on a monthly basis. The overall performance of the service, out of a total of 3617 relevant incidents, was as follows:

Response Standard	Target - % of all incidents	Target as no. of incidents	Incidents where target achieved	Achieved as % of all incidents
11 minutes	80%	2893	2888	79.85%
14 minutes	95%	3436	3296	91.13%

5. As the table shows there has been a high degree of compliance with the Response Standards targets, although there is still work to do to achieve the 14 minute target. Analysis has shown that where there has been under-achievement, the non-availability of Retained Duty System stations is a significant cause as the next nearest fire appliance needs to be mobilised and is likely to be some distance from the incident. These problems are being addressed through recruitment initiatives and as more data is available for analysis a greater understanding of the reasons for under-achievement is known, allowing improved/permanent solutions to be identified. (See also covering report.)
6. As part of the overall response standards the Fire & Rescue Service gave an undertaking to the Cabinet to provide Community Safety awareness. This in 2005/06 was based on ‘persons at risk’ based on the data from the 2001 Census and guidance from what is now the DCLG - previously the ODPM. Last year the Fire & Rescue Service carried out 2695 Home Risk Assessments and fitted 4701 smoke detectors many of these have been fitted in areas where response standards are difficult to meet. In the 2006/07 Service Delivery annual plan community safety priority is given to all those areas where 14 minutes can not be achieved and of course those groups of people known to be at risk.

Conclusion

7. The local response standards were formulated and agreed on the basis that they would be both meaningful and challenging, as has proved to be the case. The information collected on a monthly basis allows analysis of performance both of individual stations and collectively as a service and allows management to understand where the real problems areas are and assist in determining correct and appropriate action. Data in excess of 12 months is available and the first year’s performance provides a benchmark for the future.
8. The Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service prides itself on efficient and effective service. The response standards targets are something the Service should aspire to, will bring service improvements and will contribute to the suite of BVPI’s which the organisation is measured against and which are the subject of the quarterly performance monitoring process.

Mike Smyth, Deputy Chief Fire Officer
July 2006

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