The Cabinet
Member considered a report regarding the Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue, industrial
action contingency arrangements. In this regard during preparations for industrial
action in 2022/23, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue
services worked together to maximise the effectiveness of the limited
resilience arrangements available.
Whilst the risk
of industrial action remained significant but stable, there was now an
opportunity to explore seeking assistance from a 3rd party resilience
arrangement. As a result, it was identified that all three services wished to
benefit from lessons identified during previous preparations and saw this as a
strong commercial opportunity for the three services to tender for a provider.
As part of the
Thames Valley alignment approach,
Oxfordshire had been offered the chance to enter into an “IA contingency
arrangements project” currently being run by Royal Berkshire, with
Buckinghamshire already as a partner.
The tender
process itself had been agreed by the OCC Commercial Board. However, as a partner
Oxfordshire needed to agree to the funding for an agreed level of IA cover
required which included the need to identify the financial resources to secure
the services of 20 firefighters to provide a minimum fire cover level of 4 fire
appliances across the county in the event of strike action or event triggers as
listed in the project implementation document. In order to enter into a
competitive tender process, additional funding was currently being estimated at
£150,000 per year for a 4-year contract.
RESOLVED to:
a) approve the financial allocation to
progress with the joint-tender process which needs authorisation (due to cost)
before the award process can be concluded and, the Contract signed in January
2025.
b) delegate authority to finalise the terms
and condition to the Chief Fire Officer and Director of Community Safety in
consultation with the Head of Legal and Deputy Monitoring Officer and Head of
Procurement.