Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Written Evidence


Memorandum by Lynne Harding (FRS 51)

  My place of work is Essex County Fire and Rescue Service SHQ, where I am a Group Manager (Control)/Group Fire Control Officer, as a member of the Operational Control Management Team, responsible in the main for Operational Training, Control Database Management and Operational Flexi Cover for Control.

  I am pleased to see that a new inquiry has been set up to examine the effects of the passing of the Fire and Rescue Services Act in 2004, in particular the reference to Regional Controls.

  First let me say that I am proud to be a member of the British Fire and Rescue Service, and have had a very long career in ECFRS, and am certainly no stranger to being both proactive and reactive to the needs for change to make progress in the service according to circumstances at the time, however I fail to see where we as a service, have not managed to keep abreast of upgrades and trends in the mobilising and communication equipment, procedures and policies, as they have either been planned for or occurred year on year. The manner in which each authority has operated, has always been within the Local Authority, Central Government and Service, financial and operational constraints, which would be a guiding factor in any organisation. The facts of the business case usually have to be proven beyond any doubt, before they occur, and the assets of any organisation would or should include the expertise of those who have been running an efficient service.

  In response to the: "The committee has agreed to undertake an inquiry to examine

    1.  The implications for Citizens and the Fire and Rescue Service of (a) the introduction of Regional Control Centres."

  1.  The move forward is the high profiling of the "Community Fire and Rescue Service", with the involvement of all, Operational Control has always been the central point, the first point of contact in an emergency when the call is handled. Although this may not change, it most certainly would not be Community-based.

  2.  The teamwork between the Operational Firefighters at Station, the Flexi Officers, and Support Services will not be community based, which will undo all of the excellent working practices, rapport and expertise built up with regard to Fire Safety, Fire Investigation, Community-based activities, Community based integrated Operational Training Exercises for Risk-Based Premises, such as Oil Refineries, Airports, Docks and named risks, and scenario incidents such as a Nuclear transport incidents, major incidents will all be lost.

  3.  The Operational Control in each Service being a focal point, for familiarisation visits for members of organisations, such as Rotary Clubs, Scouts and Guides, Children and Juveniles who attend as part of a Probation Officers programme, or as part of a Duke Of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, or Education Programme, to name but a few, plus Operational training visits from the Officers and Station Personnel in order for them to be up-to-date on the latest functionality of Operational Control will no longer be available.

  4.  The work that is currently carried out by Control Staff, such as compilation of data, updating and verifying of accurate information to be placed on the Operational Control Database, or in handover, hardcopy or updating of Service Information files in Operational Control will require some other department or personnel to centralise the information for operational use in the service. I am very aware that the level of this will vary from the size and structure of the service. In fact this is the very reason that the costing of the incident handling in each Fire Service is not worked out on a level playing field, as the present Operational Controls fall into three categories, with higher or lower levels of other work to be carried out besides the call taking.

  5.  The Operational Control in each Fire and Rescue Service will no longer have a central point of contact, or communication centre and will have to make other arrangements, for varying levels of service, from accepting out of hours defects to appliances, sending out messages from the CFO or Officers to the stations, or giving out fire safety advice over the telephone etc.

  6.  As your committee must well be aware, the morale in Operational Controls across the Country is very low, as Control Staff are still uncertain of their future, I have not yet met a member of Control who is enthusiastic about a Regionalised Control, and the majority are actively seeking other employment or working out how best to move on after Regionalisation. They feel very let down, and are not prepared to talk about the subject, although they are able to update themselves either by the website, or hard copy information in the Control. The situation is most certainly not as described in the Parliamentary debate on Emergency Services (Regionalisation), 12th October 2005, when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, stated "We know that the majority of posts will be maintained, and we are confident that most control room staff will want to avail themselves of the new opportunities for better career paths in the new control rooms". This most certainly is not the case. How could there possibly be better career paths, when 46 Control Rooms are being reduced to 9, running on a third less staff. without the recognised rank/role structure that we operate with now.

  7.  With regard to the introduction of and implementation process for FireLink radio services no-one in Control would disagree with compatible systems working across the UK Fire Service provided the resilience of individual Fire Service Operations were not compromised by cross contamination of software or hardware failings.

  8.  With regard to promoting diversity within the Fire and Rescue Service the fact that approximately two thirds of the workforce in Operational Controls are women and the fact that their careers are now compromised and jeopardised has left them completely demoralised and only the fact that the vast majority came into the Fire Service to perform a public service keeps them in their present positions. Notwithstanding this, as I have previously stated the vast majority have no intention of relocating. The question the enquiry should be looking at is how a second to none Service is being allowed to lose such professional expertise. There may even be a case to answer under sex discrimination with regard to constructive dismissal in an organisation.

  There are so many issues and questions to be answered with regards to the Regional Control Centres being a viable business case and a better proposition to each Fire and Rescue Service having its own Operational Control which is integrated into the Incident Command System of the Service that I very much would welcome the opportunity to speak to the Select Committee direct.

  Even as I submit this response I would remind you that like myself all Operational Control Officers in the UK already have extensive workloads and take the future of the Service to the Public very seriously. The standards that we have and are improving upon have only come about by dedication and hard work of those involved. We have responded to every dictate of the Government of the day in order to progress the service that we provide.

  I would ask that the cost and on cost of the consultancy work carried out over the last decades with regard to Operational Fire Controls be taken into account, also that the recommendations of the majority of individual Officers in the Service for status quo to be maintained and cross border collaboration between other Fire Services and Emergency Services be continued as much work involving resilience and best practice is being continually improved and should not be lost.





 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2006
Prepared 23 March 2006