Issue - meetings

Forward Plan Ref: 2011/053

Contact: John Lloyd, Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Tel: (01865) 855214

Report by Chief Fire Officer (CMDSSC5).

This report seeks an exemption from Rule 13 of the Contract Procedure Rules, which requires that for contracts of more than £75,000 but less than the relevant EU Directive threshold in value, to submit tenders for the goods, services or works required by the Council.

OFRS currently uses Gartan Technologies for managing our Retained Duty System (RDS) Firefighters availability for use at emergency calls and the production of performance management reports related to this.

It is proposed and has been agreed at OFRS Strategic Leadership Team, that we purchase an additional Module ( called Rota Management ) to manage Wholetime and all other personnel rotas and to provide additional functionality, subject to approval.

In general, the additional Module would not remove one process completely but rather will make a number of, often complex or long winded processes much quicker and more easily achieved, monitored and audited. This will include the provision of both standard and bespoke reports as required.

This purchase is considered to be an upgrade of the existing Gartan system within OFRS. It essentially allows all OFRS personnel ( including Fire Control and non Uniformed ) to use the system rather than just the part time Firefighters currently using it. However, it also brings a number of additional functionalities that are considered to be of great benefit to the Service going forward and will reduce administrative procedures by automating parts or the whole. This will bring efficiency savings but because it will impact across a wide number of processes and teams, these will not be cashable savings.

There are very few direct competitors to Gartan in that this is a bespoke system, designed to specifically meet the needs of Fire & Rescue Services (FRS’s). It is designed to match the unique characteristics of their Terms & Conditions of employment eg rota patterns, leave entitlements and bookings, overtime arrangements, Working Time Directive rules etc and although there are a couple of similar systems that deal with some of these aspects, they are both expensive in comparison and normally originally designed for an office / factory environment. They would therefore require additional development work to ensure that they meet the needs of the Service and provide the requisite confidence. There is no guarantee that this development work would match our needs or be completed within a reasonable timescale and it would be at an unknown ( normally additional ) cost at this time. In addition, the system used for RDS staff would also need to be replaced for compatibility, with it’s associated retraining and rewriting of policies and procedures.

The Cabinet for Safer & Stronger Communities is RECOMMENDED to approve this exemption from the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules.