ITEM CA16 CABINET – 16 JANUARY 2007OXFORDSHIRE FIRE COVER REVIEWReport by Deputy Chief Fire Officer Introduction
Analysis
(a) Retained Firefighters It has long been acknowledged that the Retained Duty System is a highly cost effective component of the modern Fire & Rescue Service. Almost 60% of firefighters in Oxfordshire are retained with 18 out of 24 Fire Stations being crewed solely by Retained personnel. Within the last three years 142 retained personnel left the Service and with the appointment of a Retained Recruiting Officer 138 have been recruited. That represents one third of the Retained complement leaving the Service with the majority of those people being experienced competent firefighters. There are few industries that could sustain that level of turnover and will cause issues such as crews having limited experience, and who may not be able to be used on a full range of incidents. In many cases the turnover can be attributed to changing life styles 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. Economic pressures on rural businesses also makes it more difficult for them to maintain profit margins and release key members of staff during working hours. The European Union Working Time Directive has potential for significant impact, with the requirement for people to have at least two free days from duty per week resulting in the reduction of available hours per individual from 168 hours per week to 120. The Directive allows individuals to opt out of the minimum hours, which has enabled the Service to maintain its operational response to date. However, should this option be rescinded (which is possible) this would result in the Retained Service establishment increasing from 347 units to 457, with substantial additional costs associated with recruiting, equipping and training new entrants to fully competent firefighter level. (b) Retaining the Retained Firefighters This is a matter of national debate within UK Fire & Rescue Services with our Retained Recruitment Officer giving regular presentations to national conferences discussing the innovative solutions in use in Oxfordshire. A number of options are being developed to encourage the retention of our Retained workforce:
(c) Retained Firefighter Competencies The turnover effect on skills and competence within the Retained Service cannot be under estimated. It is clear that the two hour a week training opportunity must be specifically tailored to the risks identified within the communities served by the firefighters. This will move the Service away from central government guidance. However, a pragmatic view must be taken that our Retained Firefighters need focussed professional input that maximise the two hour a week opportunity. The re-aligned structure together with more recent Service improvements will allow the organisation to deploy resources and ensure that Retained Firefighters have acquired the skills necessary to meet the operational demands of the communities they serve. (d) Retained Firefighter Availability An emerging and increasingly more difficult to predict issue is the availability of Retained Firefighters to respond to incidents during normal business hours. As referred to in (a) above, the European Union Working Time Directive has had an impact with the reduction in cover hours down to 120 per week. Linked to that is the reluctance of employers to release their employees for Retained duties because of the negative impact on business. Migration of employers from rural areas to modern industrial sites in more urban areas taking advantage of a larger work force pool and the improved transport infrastructure has had an effect, demonstrated in recent years by larger employers leaving some of our market towns. This has increasingly caused difficulty in the recruitment and retention of Retained Firefighters who are able to provide day cover during the working week. There is evidence to support the view that once employers realise the impact on their business, they withdraw their permission to the employee to respond from their place of work. This leaves areas of Oxfordshire predominately in the more rural locations without the normal fire cover in place. Annexes 3, 4 and 5 provide a pictorial representation with areas indicated in red, falling outside of the agreed local response standard. These additional areas are already being targeted for additional community fire safety activity. However, that does not replace the need for an operational response or indeed contribute to the resilience of the Fire & Rescue Service in terms of its ability to respond to larger incidents. These gaps are currently being filled by the use of Wholetime firefighters on overtime or fire appliances from neighbouring Fire Stations. One Wholetime fire appliance normally based at Rewley Road, Oxford is also being used to cover crewing difficulties at Retained Stations. It has been traditionally used county wide to provide fire cover whilst other Wholetime personnel are engaged in practical training sessions and to provide fresh crews at larger incidents. The above arrangements will be continued as a short term measure until structured fire cover arrangements can be put into place building on the outcomes of the County Council Fundamental Review of Retained Firefighters. Options for Maintaining Fire Cover County wide
(a) Option 1 Option 1 is to accept the risk that during normal business hours the Fire and Rescue Service will provide a lesser standard of emergency cover to the communities identified graphically in Annexes 3, 4 and 5. This will result in the Service being unable to achieve the Cabinet agreed Local Response Standards within those areas. This presents some political and community issues as Councillors and communities are likely to challenge this position. It also presents the Service with operational issues, as there are national generic operational risk assessments that have identified team sizes for specific incidents. For example a house fire with persons trapped inside, should be dealt with by a team of nine firefighters and with our existing arrangements two fire appliances are required. Increasing travel times as reinforcing fire appliances respond into areas depleted of fire cover exposes firefighters to increased risk and undermines the Service’s safe system of work. It also gives a greater period for the fire to expand and increase damage, or in the case of road traffic collisions to delay extraction of casualties. From a professional service perspective this is not the preferred option. (b) Option 2 The European Union Working Time Directive has reduced the standby hours for Retained Firefighters from 168 hours to 120 hours. If the current situation does not prevail then the net effect of this would be an increase in the establishment figure with substantial additional cost in the region of £440k base and a further £770k in year one. This specific area is to be included in the fundamental review of Retained Firefighters in the next financial year. It would be inappropriate to progress full recruitment at this time and a more detailed analysis is required. Active campaigns are already underway with limited rewards being demonstrated and turnover has not significantly reduced. The fundamental review will examine all aspects from operational response, protection, prevention, recruitment and retention. This is a high cost option with anticipated levels of success being low when recruiting specifically for cover during weekday business hours. Clearly the Service and the County will change over the next ten years and as discussed earlier in the report this review will form part of an ongoing process. The national work ongoing with "Retaining the Retained" has yet to bear fruit, the community and economic strength of the County will continue to change and the Service must have the flexibility to meet those challenges in the fluid and dynamic environment in which it operates. (c) Option 3 This option examines the benefits utilising mobile wholetime units crewing existing fire appliances and equipment and covering periods of reduced retained availability. These units would be crewed with a minimum of five Wholetime Firefighters. They would be tasked with carrying out Community Fire Safety, risk information gathering inspections and Fire Safety Order Audits within rural areas. This mobile resource would enhance current proactive Community Safety activities and create the ability for the Service to deliver its "365 Alive" strategy to the more rural areas of Oxfordshire. These mobile units would be strategically placed around the County in areas which the Retained Firefighters could not cover during the day, where there was demonstrable incident activity and the societal features of the area were determined as higher risk. The units would provide a core of trained firefighters to support large incidents and provide rapid intervention at rural road traffic collision and compartment fires (fires in enclosed spaces). During the first year one Wholetime Fire Appliance from Rewley Road, Oxford will be used as the second unit to enable the required spread of fire cover to be achieved. Professional judgement and the projected areas of cover shortfall suggest that full cover could be achieved by the use of these mobile units requiring a total of twenty one firefighters to ensure that a minimum crewing level of five firefighters per vehicle is maintained. Given the number of potential variables, the fundamental review of the retained service and the need to assess the effectiveness of this strategy a staged approach is recommended.
This will provide the Service with the flexibility it needs to meet the challenges that the next ten years will bring. It will provide an increased level of service to the community in terms of operational response, community fire safety and the audit of premises under the Fire Safety Order at a significantly reduced level of expenditure than increasing the Retained establishment. The provision of these units could reduce the burden on local employers by minimising the occasions that their employers are required to respond to incidents during the working day. Having units operating in the rural areas will ensure that the safe system of work designed to protect our firefighters when they are engaged in operations can be readily implemented. Financial and Staff Implications
Average employment 30 years (pension) Average annual cost + on costs
This analysis does not place a financial value on the experience and competence of a 30 year Wholetime Firefighter and the contribution to the community they would make during the course of their career. Neither does it take into account the significant local contribution made in many areas by Retained Firefighters in their communities. These increased costs underpin the argument of increasing the Wholetime Service establishment to provide cover during business hours in the more rural locations, particularly West Oxfordshire. However more detailed work is required before a full business case can be made. The number of Retained Firefighters required for day cover in the areas served by the Wholetime unit could be reduced and any identified budget transferred to the Wholetime salary cost centre. This will be identified in the station by station analysis with potential business cases being developed for the relocation of Retained Stations to larger catchment areas, that provide the potential to acquire key worker housing as another means of retaining personnel. Option Costings (a) Option 1 Accept the Risk – cost neutral. Overtime expenditure has not been included as the negotiated use of overtime with the Fire Brigade Union precludes its use to cover unfilled vacancies. (b) Option 2 Recruit, equip and train 110 Retained Firefighters to provide cover
(c) Option 3 Utilise Wholetime Firefighters to provide cover
Conclusion
RECOMMENDATION
MIKE SMYTH Contact Officer: Mike Smyth Tel: (01865) 855205 January 2006
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