APPENDIX C
REPORT ON VISITS TO DEVON AND SOMERSET FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICES
29/30 JANUARY 2007
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Services are undergoing a voluntary merger (combination). A fact-finding party visited both Services to gather information on the reasons behind the decision, the reality of the transitional period and the expected benefits of greater
efficiency and effectiveness resulting in improved capacity in order to modernise both Services.
The following reports the findings.
Present:
For Devon Fire and Rescue Service:
Paul Young (Devon Chief), Sue Smith (Devon Deputy), Councillor Bernard Hughes
For the Isle of Wight Council:
Councillor Barry Abraham , Councillor David Williams , Paul Street, Acting Chief Fire Officer, April West, Overview and Scrutiny Team Manager, Mark Deacon, Fire Brigade Union
1. Following the 2005 CPA Devon were approached by Somerset Fire and Rescue Service with a view to forming a combination. Devon had already approached Cornwall who declined the proposal.
2. Early meetings were held with DCLG who supported the initiative and they received a positive response initially.
3. Devon and Somerset commissioned an initial options appraisal document which looked at three options.
4. A dialogue began with the various Trades Unions in around October 2005, and they also engaged with the District Councils, their various Members of Parliament and Chief Executives etc.
5. Although there was some initial resistance from the Chief Fire Officers’ Association and from groups of staff who raised issues mostly regarding the pace of change, the FBU were kept informed throughout the process.
6. Whilst there are still ‘pockets of discontent’ assurances were made early on that there would be no forced redundancies and no station closures etc and this assisted greatly with employee relationships during the process.
7. Devon and Somerset have come out of this process with the view of being equal partners rather than Devon being the main player.
8. A lot of work was carried out on timing of press releases and staff bulletins etc, and both Devon and Somerset worked closely to ensure press releases and staff were released at the same time and day in both counties. This included taking the options appraisal document to both Executive Committees in December 2005 who requested a full Business Case.
9. The DCLG agreed to fund the consultancy costs with regard to developing the business case and gave Devon and Somerset £2000 for this purpose. The business case, completed between January and April 2006, looked at all the options and the favoured option in this was combination. The business case was dealt with within 48 hours of each other in the authorities at their relevant committees. In addition, both authorities’ Scrutiny Committees had sessions with both Chief Fire Officers.
10. The FBU took a benign stance, the RFU supported combination and the FOA were against combination. UNISON was also benign.
11. With regard to uniformed Principal Officers, the new structure will have one Chief, two Deputies and two ACOs, which is the same number as Devon currently has. Devon are already sharing POs with Somerset.
12. Devon and Somerset engaged with their local members, the central Government Minister, and the three smaller authorities in Devon, eg Torbay Council. This was part of the process of finding out what the obstacles might be and dealing with them. The Devon Chief went and met with all the Chief Executives of the constituent authorities and in this way attempted to head off any political problems or issues being raised.
13. With regard to Council Tax, both Devon and Somerset took the view that if this was very different, combination would not go through. However, by chance they came up very close together at £61.26 versus £58.77.
14. The Devon budget spend, RSG and Council Tax spend is about a 60/40 split.
15. Devon’s clear advice on dealing with workforce issues was to communicate. Have face-to-face briefings etc. The Project Team Manager dealt with this, including the setting up and maintenance of an intranet page which was identical in both authorities. They held a middle manager event which was facilitated externally. They consulted extensively on the structure and made changes as a result of the feedback received. There were no compulsory redundancies and no voluntary redundancies were offered.
16. It had been the non-uniform support staff and the middle managers who had raised a lot of challenges, rather than the fire fighters. Devon has held many meetings with managers in order to agree a consensus because possible career structures have been affected.
17. Sometimes each senior team have failed to agree with each other and the two Chiefs have intervened. This has meant each giving ground on different issues.
18. There was no comprehensive public consultation as DCLG had no expectation that the Fire Service should do this. There was initially a misunderstanding about what consultation DCLG would be carrying out as the Fire authorities thought DCLG would be doing wider public consultation but they only carried out stakeholder consultation.
19. A Member Steering Group was established with three members from each authority, even though there is a huge disparity in population between the two authorities with 1.1 million in Devon and 450,000 in Somerset.
20. Once the draft combination order was submitted to DCLG a structure was established to manage the combination. This shadow group/working party was set up in the same proportions as would exist post combination. Also, a Project Board was set up with equal numbers of officers from each authority and a shared Chair (both Chief Fire Officers). A Project Team was set up underneath the Board.
21. Sue Smith, Devon’s Deputy, was seconded full-time to head up the Project Team. The Project Team worked on the basis of Prince II methodology and had ten work streams.
22. A consultant from Mott Macdonald was engaged to help identify critical tasks which required completion in order to ‘go live’ on 1 April 2007. For the ten works streams two people were allocated to each task, one from each authority.
23. Corporate branding and identity was considered very important. From 1 April 2007 there will be one uniform and this took up a big proportion of transitional costs (£200,000). There has also been a new coat of arms and a badge which is made of the constituent authorities Arms. This has been approved by the College of Heralds. The appliances will be re-branded as they come in for service so all appliances will be re-branded within a twelve month period.
24. Devon is continuing to lobby Government regarding capitalisation of some of the transitional costs, but have so far been unsuccessful.
25. The transitional costs have been funded 2:1 Devon:Somerset and Devon has had to make savings.
26. The uniform change was felt very important. They wanted fire fighters to go into work on 1 April wearing a different shirt as this was felt to be psychologically important.
27. Devon have only required two extra posts as a result of the work towards combination, one in HR and one in finance.
28. Constitutional arrangements have been dealt with under a Member Steering Group. The Shadow Authority post Government approval was set up with the same apportionment as the Working Party. Based on the numbers on the electoral role this will be 11 Devon, 8 Somerset, 4 Plymouth, 2 Torbay.
29. Devon Fire Authority buys in legal advice from Cornwall County Council.
30. The Combination Order was written jointly between the two fire authorities.
31. Fire controls are being kept separate until regionalisation, as both Fire Authorities use different suppliers. They need to carry out a cost benefit analysis on keeping the status quo or changing prior to the cut over date. Devon probably could not take on Somerset at the moment in any event. The RCC building is going to be in Taunton.
32. There were debates about the name for the new organisation and it was decided that it would be Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue.
33. Devon has its own financial services and Somerset will supply payroll services. They will buy in occupational health from Devon County Council.
34. Lessons learnt were:
a. Transitional costs – you need to argue for central Government support on this in the business case, but you are still unlikely to get it.
b. Devon and Somerset had luck with things like the RCC in Taunton and the Council Tax figures being close.
c. You need to move quickly.
d. With middle management it is important to communicate.
e. You need to deal with mutual suspicion.
35. With regard to IRMPs, the action plan for the coming year will be modest and they need to produce a combined one for next year.
36. In summary, advice from Devon was that combination has huge benefits in certain areas but it is not the answer to all the problems within the Fire Services and there is a need to weigh up the benefits and disadvantages in each particular area.
B. VISIT TO SOMERSET FIRE
AND RESCUE SERVICE - 30 JANUARY 2007
Present:
For Somerset Fire and Rescue Service:
Clive Kemp, Chief Fire Officer
Cllr Jim Mochnacz, Portfolio Holder, Somerset County Council
For the Isle of Wight Council:
Councillor Jilly Wood
Councillor Barry Abraham
Councillor David Williams
Paul Street, Acting Chief Fire Officer
April West, Overview and Scrutiny Team Manager
Mark Deacon, Fire Brigade Union
1. Somerset had received a fair grading in CPA and almost scored four in operational matters. They have loyal staff and a sense of ‘family’.
2. They realised they were working some staff too hard and had lack of managerial capacity. They have 21 retained stations in a rural area and knew there was potential to do more than they were. As no extra funding was available from the County Council it needed to find a way to deliver their potential.
3. Somerset had good occupational health, legal advice etc from the County Council, in other ways they were the ‘poor relation’, for example with the property budget. Therefore, the Chief Fire Officer suggested the ‘nuclear option’.
4. Somerset is convinced it is the right decision. It will reap the benefits of greater capacity from Devon.
5. There are five MPs in the area and they have had to use in/off tactics to get people to talk to them. The MPs have been found to be very unhelpful in the press but will not attend meetings set up for them.
6. On 1 April 2007 Somerset will receive six extra administrative personnel to support the retained service and increased capital invested into its property portfolio. Operationally, there will be no change to fire fighters but this does not mean that there will be no change forever, they still need to continue to modernise.
7. Transitional costs were reported to be on track with no significant changes.
8. Somerset stated that there had been no redundancies in the County Council as a result of the combination.
9. There is top level support politically and a partnership approach.
10. Back office staff are optimistic that they will be able to offer services they have not been able to before.
11. The process has rejuvenated interest from elected members and there has been a cross party group of eight members which has helped ease the process politically.
April West
Overview and Scrutiny Team Manager