PAPER B

BRIEFING PAPER

COMMITTEE: POLICY COMMISSION FOR SAFER COMMUNITIES

DATE: 6 OCTOBER 2005

SUBJECT: THE ISLE OF WIGHT FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE - STRATEGIC UPDATE OF FIRE MODERNISATION (Saf5/05)

AUTHOR: PAUL STREET, ASSISTANT CHIEF FIRE OFFICER

PERSONNEL

Personnel continue to work through Modernisation and are supportive of change. Personal Development Reviews are in progress through the Service and will link to team objectives, organisational objectives and the Corporate objectives to meet the Local Area Agreement (LAA) outcomes.

A staff survey has been recently sent out and feedback is expected at any time. The Members’ survey is due to be sent out shortly.

Staff will be engaged through the Integrated Risk Management Plan Consultation at the end of October 2005.

Trade Unions also continue to be very supportive of management’s intentions and leadership through change with regular briefings taking place.

LOCAL AREA AGREEMENT (LAA)

The Fire and Rescue Service are heavily involved in the Safer Communities block of the LAA and are in agreement with the outcomes and requirements for required Performance Indicators (PI’s) to meet the local area agreement. The new Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) feeds into this process.

INJURY PREVENTION FORUM

I was asked to Chair the Injury Prevention Forum and the first meeting under my Chairmanship took place on Monday 12 September 2005 with newly constructed terms of reference, constitution and set milestones to take this group forward to meet the needs of the LAA at practitioner level. This in turn will feed into the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) Board.

EDUCATION

Education continues across the curriculum for children with regard to fire safety. The Young Firefighters Association (YFA) continues and it is still hoped that this can take a wider view at other Fire Stations.

The education for the reduction in road traffic collisions is well underway; a DVD is under construction to be ready by the end of November 2005 for delivery to schools and other parts of the strategy in early 2006.

A further education initiative under the LAA is for the Fire Service to lead and run, in partnership with other agencies, a Youth Programme for up to 100 children per year over 20 or so weeks – 1 day a week at the Brigade Training Centre where children will cover various topics to improve them as Junior Citizens. This is hoped to be funded from the Youth Offending Team Government Grant, which is being made available to local authorities.

INTEGRATED RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN (IRMP)

The Integrated Risk Management Plan is, as you are aware, fully under review and consultation on the new plan is due to commence at the end of October 2005 with internal and external Stakeholders and Members. The new IRMP has been costed to meet the objectives to reduce risk in the community and these will be balanced between prevention, protection and response within existing resources to meet the National Framework objectives.

One of these initiatives is the Unwanted Fire Signals (UFS) work where the Service is tackling the cost and risk reduction in Automatic Fire Alarms (AFA’s). Low risk has already commenced with good results so far and the Service is currently tackling the high offenders with regard to Prisons and Hospitals with specific work to enable a reduction to take place. The Service then aims to operate a risk assessment on medium and high risk to further reduce the attendance and costs to these AFA’s.

FIRE SERVICE EMERGENCY COVER MODEL (FSEC)

The Fire Service Emergency Cover Model is virtually up and running now and the Service is starting to query and challenge the risk model to enable the IRMP objectives to be met. Further details on this issue will be forthcoming in due course.

IMPROVEMENT PLAN – FOR MODERNISING THE NEW FIRE SERVICE

The Improvement Plan process is continuing and the Service is working with Consultants to ensure the correct template is produced in line with the Service Improvement Team Guidance from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). Involved in this Improvement Plan template is the Capacity Building Fund Bid to ensure required resources can be obtained from Government to allow the modernisation of the Service.

THE SCOPING REVIEW DOCUMENT

The Scoping Review document between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight is underway. With an agreed set of strategic options set against strategic areas such as finance, capacity, service performance, legality of arrangements and governance analysis it is looking at pros and cons and risks. This information will, together with relevant financial data collected, provide the basis for conclusions to be submitted to Informal Cabinet on 4 October 2005 to enable any decisions required by Members to be taken at Full Cabinet on 11 October. Following a decision then a full business case may be required.

The process of the Scoping document is a ‘gateway 0’ approach involving a strategic assessment to ensure that the justification and assurance of the Scope through proper research can be maintained. This will fit with the organisation’s overall policy of management strategy and priorities. Ultimately the ‘gateway 0’ approach aims to test whether Stakeholders expectations are realistic by reference to cost, outcomes, resource needs and general achievability and the outcome of this will be reflected in conclusions from the Consultant.

PROJECTS

Several projects are underway an example is one identified by the Home Office Inspectorate (HMI) from the outcome of the operational response project, it recommended we look at data inside fire appliance cabs for early hazard information to inform crews on route and so forth. A company is already interested in using the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service as a pilot to improve this area of risk information.

FIRE SERVICES WORKING CLOSER TOGETHER

I have already contacted other Fire Services such as, Hampshire, Kent, Cumbria, Merseyside, South Yorkshire and Northern Ireland; all who were assessed as good or excellent authorities in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment; in order to learn best practice and form a closer working relationship. Officers within the Service are visiting these Fire Services with a view to gaining good practice to modernise the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service.

Contact Details: Paul Street, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Tel No: 01983 823196, Email: [email protected]