Memorandum by Gloucestershire Fire and
Rescue Authority (GFRA) (FRS 07)
GLOUCESTERSHIRE TRISERVICE CONTROL CENTRE:
THE CASE FOR RETENTION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In August 2005 the Government announced that
from 2009, the location for the South West Regional Control Centre
would be Taunton. This decision involves the dismantling of the
Gloucestershire TriService model and entails relocating the County's
Fire and Rescue Control room, strategically placed in Gloucester,
to an area miles away from Gloucestershire.
Gloucestershire has the UK's only fully operational
TriService centre. At the heart of the centre is the joint control
room, with fire, police and ambulance personnel sitting side by
side, working effectively together, delivering an excellent quality
of service to the people of Gloucestershire. The Fire and Rescue
Service Best Value Review of Command and Control (2001) concluded
that a shared emergency control delivered the highest level of
service and was the most cost effective.
The decision to sweep away this excellent model
of joined up working means that an acknowledged best practice
model, which fulfils the "ultimate solution" of the
Mott Macdonald (2000 and 2003) recommendations, will be lost.
It also contradicts the Government's stated assurance that regional
government will only be introduced where local people want it.
It appears that in reaching the decision for
basing the regional control centre at Taunton, the Government
has not taken account of the above facts which, together with
the following issues, the Committee is urged to consider.
SUMMARY KEY
POINTS FOR
RETAINING THE
TRISERVICE
1. TriService
— continues to be at the cutting
edge of Fire and Rescue service modernisation since its official
opening in May 2003;
— clearly works well, as confirmed
by the Audit Commission Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA)
July 2005;
— has capacity to evolve and embrace
technological advancement;
— meets the needs of Gloucestershire—the
people of Gloucestershire want to retain this local service for
local people; and
— has all party support from the
County Council for the retention of the TriService;
2. TriService is widely praised as a model
of best practice
By other emergency services, government agencies
and the Audit Commission. Importantly it complies with the Mott
MacDonald reports 2002 and 2003 as being the "ultimate solution."
3. TriService can be preserved within a regional
control framework
There are clear opportunities and sound evidence
to retain and incorporate the TriService within a regional control
structure.
The framework should recognise the importance
of not losing something that provides the best services for local
people
4. TriService is delivering
— a multi agency approach for
safer and stronger communities;
— improved resilience and ability
to link up with national or regional infrastructures;
— multi agency command facilities
with maximum operational flexibility;
— proven improvement in quality
of response to emergency incidents;
— rapid information sharing; and
— the needs of the Civil Contingencies
Act.
5. TriService is unique and meets the needs
of a large urban and rural county
— All emergency services are combined
at one location.
— Gloucestershire is predominantly
rural; local knowledge and local relationships are critical to
successful rapid response.
— Senior officers are able to
reach major incidents anywhere in the county within one hour.
— The Service has a high dependency
on retained firefighters.
— Local people want to retain
this local service.
6. TriService is making Gloucestershire a
safer place
Excellence depends upon high quality, motivated
staff, who know their patch and work as a team for the benefit
of their local community; their value is immeasurable. The service:
— is staffed by local people,
working effectively side by side with the other agencies;
— facilitates instant communication
with the crews who actually deal with the incidents, particularly
retained persons;
— has built solid relationships
with the crews called out to deal with incidents;
— uses modern technology, so far
as it has been available, to help deliver an excellent emergency
response; and
— is locally accountable to local
people and local councillors who understand the issues relevant
for Gloucestershire, for example flooding.
7. TriService is cost effective
— The Audit Commission confirms
that this project is delivering value for money.
— All partners and the people
of Gloucestershire have gained enormous benefits from this co-location
and working.
— Reduced "over-mobilising"
to incidents.
— Greater understanding of issues
has enabled the continuous pursuit of improvement through shared
incident performance monitoring.
— Joint procurement efficiencies
achieved in areas such as facilities' management.
— Has lead to a single workshop
with the other emergency services and other shared initiatives
(eg Arson analyst).
— Closing the TriService Centre
would mean that £6 million of public money would have gone
to waste.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Authority
(GFRA) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the debate about
the future direction of the Fire and Rescue service and in particular,
wishes to make its case in the strongest terms for retention of
the county's TriService control. The people of Gloucestershire
are extremely disappointed that, despite the service's track record
and the Government's own support for the development of TriService
only a short time ago, the county is now facing the loss of this
excellent facility.
1.2 We invite members to visit the centre
to see the service in action and to further discuss our submission,
as we feel that witnessing the service on the ground is more effective
than telephone, email or letter. Despite several requests the
ministers responsible for Fire and Rescue have always declined
our request to visit the TriService.
In addition we would, of course, be pleased
to attend a Commission meeting in support of our submission.
2. THE MOTT
MACDONALD
REPORT—THE
ULTIMATE SOLUTION
2.1 Even before the TriService centre was
built, the 2000 Mott MacDonald report into "The Future of
Fire Service Control Rooms and Communications in England and Wales"
had concluded:
"The pilot projects in Cleveland, Gloucestershire
and Wiltshire should continue to be strongly supported and encouraged.
The lessons learned from these pilots have already proved useful
and have informed this study. More will be learnt as these projects
are implemented. They will provide an invaluable input to future
control room strategy. A major finding was that working together
on control room aspects triggered greater co-operation in a range
of other areas."
2.2 The Mott MacDonald report of 2003 reflected
the shift of emphasis towards the need for resilience.
The report recommended:
— a medium to long term plan that
considered the integration of TriService into regional arrangements
"at a future point".
— Mott MacDonald said this could
be achieved, if considered appropriate, by using the Invest to
Save pilots including Gloucestershire as the control room for
the region in which it is located.
Now is the time to take forward the recommendations
of this report and not lose this excellent service for the people
of Gloucestershire.
TriService is a prime example of acknowledged
best practice in action.
3. BACKGROUND
3.1 The Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue
Authority (GFRA) has embraced, and been at the forefront of, the
modernisation programme for some time.
The TriService concept was borne from a corporate
commitment to safety and partnership working, together with the
Government's support for its development, complemented by "Invest
to Save" funding. A successful bid for funding resulted in
an award of £2.6million in May 1999. The total cost of the
project was £6.4 million.
3.2 The TriService objectives were:
— to provide an improved emergency
response,
— to reduce costs and increase
efficiency, and
— in addition, our stated aims
included "the provision of a more secure, resilient and better-designed
control centre than any one service could afford separately".
3.3 The centre was officially opened in
May 2003 on a purpose built site just off the A38 outside Gloucester,
in a highly accessible location. It incorporates fire, police
and ambulance joint control, ambulance patient transport, and
police non-emergency 0845 response teams. Fire and ambulance headquarters
are accommodated on separate floors in the same building and a
new police headquarters has just been opened next door. TriService
vehicle workshops were opened on the same site in March 2004.
All emergency service partners remain committed to the TriService.
3.4 The Comprehensive Performance Assessment
(CPA), published in July this year confirmed that:
"The Authority is effectively contributing
to national and regional agendas.
The County Council's three-year Public Sector
Agreement (PSA) target to reduce casualties from accidental fires
in homes is being met.
This target is challenging and is a reduction
from 9.03 in 2002-04 to 6.88, per 100,000 population, in 2004-05.
Progress with the National Framework's six
priority areas is being made with effective engagement with the
Regional Management Board (RMB).
The Authority has detailed plans for large
scale emergencies, has clear regional HR policies, a regional
approach to training, and effective regional procurement.
As a consequence, the Authority is in a better
position to deal with emergencies and achievement is being reflected
in meeting the PSA target."
4. MAKING THE
COUNTY SAFER
AND STRONGER
The value of the TriService
4.1 The Fire and Rescue Service has an integrated
multi-agency approach in all aspects of its service and is closely
linked to all Community Safety work across the County Council.
Making Gloucestershire safer is a prime objective for the County
Council and GFRA works closely with a number of agencies to help
achieve it. As well as being rated a "good" service,
the linkages between the Fire and Rescue service and the County
Council were highlighted as a strength in the CPA assessment earlier
this year. TriService is clearly making Gloucestershire safer,
so the conclusion can only be that dismantling it will have the
opposite effect.
4.2 The value of the TriService can be clearly
demonstrated through:
— improved quality of response;
— added value benefits such as
closer working on road traffic accidents;
— non emergency collaboration;
— education and training opportunities;
and
— overall cost and quality effectiveness
and efficiency savings.
4.3 TriService partnership working has directly
stimulated initiatives, such as:
— Crime and Disorder Partnership;
— Major Incident Co-ordinating
Group; and
— The Multi Agency Information
Database for Neighbourhoods (MAIDeN).
4.4 A process has been launched to procure
a joint service Geographical Information System (GIS), to further
improve information sharing between the emergency services in
Gloucestershire, particularly on high risk premises.
4.5 The objective of a shared service mobilising
platform has had to be deferred, brought about by the uncertainty
caused surrounding regional control.
5. TRISERVICE
IMPACT
5.1 In January this year, the Audit Commission
published a report on the TriService highlighting its many strengths,
particularly "high profile leadership, and a strong, well
articulated business case". In simple terms, this project
is viewed as national best practice.
5.2 This Service has only been up and running
for 30 months since its official opening but in this short time
has:
— become universally acknowledged
as a model of best practice and a benchmark for excellence for
emergency response; and
— made a real difference through
innovation.
5.3 The Fire and Rescue CPA assessment for
Gloucestershire noted that:
"There has been notable achievement against
its high-level strategic objectives including the new TriService
Centre . . ."
The authority achieved a "good" rating.
5.4 The Audit Commission conducted a pay
verification assessment in Gloucestershire, stating that:
"the authority demonstrates good practice
in partnership with others in tangible achievements such as the
TriService Centre."
5.5 Other commendations include:
The Rt. Hon Ian McCartney MP who, on a visit
to TriService, said that he was "very impressed with the
facility and the attitude of staff . . . strong partnership ethos
to deliver services through the operational advantage of working
together . . . isn't this what we have been asking fire services
to do?"
5.6 The Local Government Association:
TriService is "a highly intelligent and
cost effective approach, which the LGA Executive supports in preference
to the idea of a single fire control room in each of the English
regions".
5.7 The Chief Fire Officers' Association
also noted the Gloucestershire difference.
"We must work to develop an effective
way of bringing Gloucestershire into the strategy," they
said, in considering regional control.
6. CONCLUSION:
DON'T
LOSE THIS
BENCHMARK OF
EXCELLENCE
6.1 We request that members of the Commission
consider the known and potential benefits of retaining the TriService
as contained in this report. It will be a sad day if this benchmark
of excellence is allowed to die simply for the sake of uniformity,
especially when there are clear opportunities to incorporate TriService
within a regional control structure—the best of both worlds.
6.2 Delivering an effective emergency response
is one of the key factors in the TriService' success—something
that will be lost forever if current plans for regional control
for the south west are affirmed.
6.3 If the driving force for change is the
need for resilience, then Gloucestershire can demonstrate that
TriService is the way forward. It provides an excellent platform
on which to build and progress command and control to deliver
the ultimate solution for national resilience, as set out in the
Mott MacDonald report.
6.4 Retaining TriService as a stand alone
centre will obviously generate extra links within the control
room network, increasing nodes from 36 to a potential 55.
6.5 These points are made based on the experience
of our dedicated team of control staff, fire-fighters, support
staff, and the people of Gloucestershire—we urge you "Please
don't dismantle a winning team."
7. TRISERVICE
FACTS AND
FIGURES
7.1 Staffing.
Gloucestershire's fire and emergency response
is provided by 285 retained firefighters, 233 whole-time firefighters,
16 fire control and 63 support staff operating out of 20 community
Fire and Rescue stations, which are managed from the TriService
(Police, Fire and Ambulance) headquarters situated just outside
Gloucester.
7.2 Fleet assets
Four of the stations are staffed by whole-time
crews.
The fleet consists of 33 frontline emergency
fire appliances, a range of specialist rescue and operational
support vehicles. These include two aerial appliances, three special
rescue units, and two rescue boats together with other specialist
Fire and Rescue equipment.
7.3 Response statistics
In 2003-04, the Fire Authority responded to
8,691 Fire and Rescue incidents and attended 1,873 primary fires,
1,802 secondary fires and 1,607 special service calls.
7.4 Budget
The operational revenue budget for 2003-04 was
£18.6 million reducing to £18.2 million in 2004-05 (including
fire service pensions).
Capital expenditure was £1.54 million in
2003-04, (including expenditure in TriService Centre) but reduced
to £50,000 in 2004-05.
8. FINALLY
8.1 We welcome the opportunity to state
our case and to have the merits of our argument heard and discussed
fairly.
— The GFRA recognises the need
for change but that this can and should include the retention
of the TriService.
— We have in many areas been leading
that change within Gloucestershire's Fire and Rescue services.
— We welcome the process of modernisation.
— It would be a sad irony if the
drive towards regionalisation of control centres led to the demise
of an emergency control service that is leading the way.
8.2 A tremendous amount of support and concern
from all parts of the community have underpinned these efforts
to fight for something in which the service passionately believes.
This support has come from:
— local MPs of all political parties;
— County and District Councillors
of all political parties;
— the skilled and dedicated TriService
staff who have done so much to make the concept work, and work
well; and
9. SOURCES OF
REFERENCE
(a) The Future of Fire Service Control Rooms
and Communications in England and Wales: Mott MacDonald 2000 Management
Summary, p 7.
(b) Mott MacDonald 2000 final report, p 126.
(c) Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service
Best Value Review of Control and Communications, March 2001: Summary,
p 27.
(d) Post evaluation of Joint Emergency Communication
Centre Project, Audit Commission January 2005-12-07.
(e) The Future of the Fire and Rescue Service
Control Rooms in England and Wales: Mott MacDonald 2003, p 53
and p 55.
(f) Letter from Ian McCartney MP to Nick
Raynsford MP, 30 October 2003.
(g) CFOA Press Statement 24 March 2004.
(h) Fire and Rescue Comprehensive Performance
Assessment: Audit Commission July 2005.
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