Meeting documents

Cabinet
Tuesday, 18 July 2006

CA180706-11

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ITEM CA11

CABINET - 18 JULY 2006

OXFORDSHIRE FIRE COVER REVIEW

Report by the Director for Community Safety & Chief Fire Officer

 

Introduction

  1. The need to carry out a comprehensive review of fire cover for the County using the Fire Service Emergency Cover (FSEC) model software is one of the issues identified within the Integrated Risk Management Plan 2006/07. The project has been designed to achieve an optimum strategy to improve community safety through the allocation of resources and the nature of the response to incidents by the Fire and Rescue Service.
  2. The purpose of this report is to provide Cabinet with an interim view of the work done to date, together with some of the emerging themes that will influence the longer term strategic plan for the Fire and Rescue Service.
  3. Background

  4. The historical location and weight of response (number of firefighters and fire appliances) required in the areas served by each of our 24 fire stations has its origins in the National Standards of Fire Cover that remained largely unchanged from the first document produced in 1947. The standards were property-based, determining risks by building type and density. These standards were removed in 2004 and replaced by local response standards that were endorsed by Cabinet and are determined by the risk to life. As consequence of the Fire and Rescue Service Act 2004 we now have a statutory responsibility relating to road traffic collisions and other life threatening incidents.
  5. Our local response standards have served to highlight the difficulties faced in providing day time fire and rescue cover in our more rural communities. Areas falling outside our 11 and 14 minutes response standard are systematically targeted for community fire safety activity that includes the fitting of smoke alarms. This approach reduces the overall risk and the potential need for an emergency response. A note of the Service’s performance over the past year against the response standards is attached (Annex 1).
  6. Within the current static portfolio of fire stations there is limited room for service delivery improvement. Therefore a re-engineered approach to the prioritisation of fire cover is required
  7. Emerging Themes

  8. Our Fire and Rescue Service has a clear ten year vision to reduce the impact of fires and other emergencies on communities in Oxfordshire. Underpinning that vision are strategies covering areas such as community fire safety, technical fire safety, young people, and road traffic collisions. These strategies will provide the joined up risk reduction activity for service delivery on the major themes of protection, prevention and intervention.
  9. It has long been acknowledged that the Retained duty system is a highly cost effective component of our modern Fire and Rescue Service. Almost 60% of firefighters in Oxfordshire are Retained with 18 out of the 24 fire stations being crewed solely by Retained personnel.
  10. Despite a large recruitment drive and the deployment of wholetime firefighters to support Retained fire stations on overtime, there is difficulty in maintaining fire appliance availability during the day. There are also difficulties with retaining these firefighters with the average career of a Retained firefighter now only five years. Effectively, once trained as a firefighter, as a fire appliance driver and in first aid, we find they are tending to leave the service. In the last three years we have had 142 Retained personnel leave the Service and we have recruited 138. That represents one third of our Retained complement leaving the Service with the majority of those people being experienced competent firefighters. This operational experience drain is not sustainable in the longer term and will cause issues with crews being too inexperienced to commit to the full range of incidents.
  11. In many cases this trend can be attributed to changing lifestyles and work patterns over recent years. Free time for family and social activities outside of the working environment is precious. In parallel with this, there has been a surge in the mobility of labour with people from rural communities travelling further to obtain employment. Rural businesses are under economic pressure to maintain profit margins and the release of key members of their staff during working hours is becoming more difficult.
  12. The European Union Working Time Directive has had a further impact, with the requirement for people to have at least two free days from duty a week resulting in the reduction of available hours per individual from 168 hours per week to 120. If fully applied to the Service it would result in the Retained establishment having to increase from 312 units to 457. The resulting potential increase in budget to meet this theoretical establishment while a full review was being undertaken could not be justified. However the consequences of this legislation must be factored into the resource planning for the Fire and Rescue Service.
  13. A further dimension is the introduction of the National Selection Standards for all firefighters which could make entry into the Retained service as challenging as the wholetime. It is anticipated that this may have a negative impact on the number of suitable applicants for the Retained service. We are making representations to central government to take a more realistic approach that would maintain safety standards whilst achieving competent firefighter skills.
  14. Linked to these selection standards is the view that Retained personnel should be trained to the same standards as wholetime personnel across all fire and rescue activities. To be properly addressed this would place a further burden in terms of time commitment on the Retained and their primary employer, with the potential to increase the number of Retained personnel leaving the service due to social/employment pressures.
  15. Financial Implications

  16. A key element of the Countywide fire cover review will be to establish the true unit cost of provision. This process involves analysis of all the resource requirements for providing effective prevention, protection and emergency response arrangements across the County. This process will enable comparison of the current cost of both wholetime and Retained provision. Historically, and as one of the lowest cost per head brigades nationally, it has been accepted that significant efficiencies are achieved by utilising Retained staff in predominately rural areas. However, this assumption needs to be re-examined within the context of the changing social and demographic profile of the County, recruitment and retention issues within the Retained service and our extended remit to reduce risk within the community.
  17. This analysis is being undertaken by HR and Finance staff, under the supervision of the Business Manager (Performance and Development), and will enable us to examine the ‘full life’ costs (including training, equipment provision and ongoing development) for the average employment career of wholetime and Retained firefighters. The outcome of this analysis will inform the decision making process for the medium/long-term response arrangements for the County.
  18. A Re-engineered Approach to Fire Cover – Considerations for the Future

  19. The pressures on the Retained service are unlikely to diminish and we must therefore develop a series of viable options that will ensure the communities served by Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service receive a swift and effective operational response from competent firefighters in a timely manner. The Fire Authority must also consider its responsibilities for ensuring the safe systems of work for firefighters are not compromised by excessive delays in the attendance of reinforcing fire appliances due to availability and distances travelled. We must therefore consider a more flexible approach to managing the risk within our communities without compromising the safety of the public or our firefighters.
  20. Examples could include:

    1. Provide mobile wholetime units during periods of reduced Retained availability. Existing vehicles could be utilised. This would require an increase in establishment firefighters.
    2. Increase community fire safety and risk information gathering within the rural communities by the provision of 2 purpose built vehicles. The vehicles would be kitted out to equip two operational firefighters to carry out home risk assessments and fit smoke alarms. These vehicles could be operating within areas where there were crewing deficiencies at the local station and the firefighters could respond should an incident occur and enable a full attendance from the Retained station to be made, enabling the local response standards to be met.

  21. The FSEC fire cover model is examining a series of options that explores the relocation of key fire stations that would improve response times to areas of identified risk. This could include the rationalisation of some fire stations presenting opportunities for capital receipts but would require a capital investment over the longer term. There will be continued horizon scanning for opportunities that will enable some quick wins. The West End development may provide an opportunity to relocate Rewley Road fire station to an alternative site that improves the local response standards around the Kidlington area. There may be some opportunities with the planned library at Thame and the college relocation in Witney may provide some movement. There is also the potential sale of Banbury ambulance station with planning permission for domestic dwellings. As the site is interlinked to Banbury fire station it would seem logical to consider the sale of the whole site to a developer, as it would make a much larger investment opportunity enabling the relocation of Banbury fire station to be considered.
  22. Joint service emergency access points (Police, Fire, Ambulance) giving access to the M40 at key locations would provide improved attendance times and ensure the early release and removal of casualties to hospital. This area is currently under consideration with colleagues in the other services.
  23. Conclusion

  24. Cabinet is asked to note the emerging themes and the future considerations, which have funding implications, both revenue and capital. A staged change approach, as the true unit cost of the Retained workforce is calculated, is a preferred option, so as to enable the actual budget implications to be established for the longer term.
  25. For the present, resolving fire cover shortfalls with overtime payments will continue: this will be used in the short term to support those retained stations which might otherwise fail to provide fire cover. Deployment of staff in this way will also provide the means to carry out Community Fire Safety and Risk Information gathering coupled with the ability to respond to the local fire station to deploy as part of the crew to attend an emergency. However, this will stretch resources and close management and monitoring will be necessary. It is not ultimately a sustainable solution.
  26. RECOMMENDATIONS

  27. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
          1. note the emerging themes and issues identified in the report in respect of future fire cover arrangements and the potential future revenue and capital implications;
          2. ask the Director for Community Safety & Chief Fire Officer to develop quantified options to ensure the continued achievement and maintenance of the Authority’s fire cover standards.

JOHN PARRY
Director for Community Safety & Chief Fire Officer

Background Papers:
Local Response Standards
ODPM publication 'Retaining the Retained'
National Framework Document

Contact Officer: Mike Smyth, Deputy Chief Fire Officer (Tel: 01865-855205)

July 2006


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