Knight Review of the Fire and Rescue authorities in England

Letter from Sir Ken Knight following oral evidence session on 15 July

 

I am writing following my oral evidence given to the above Select Committee yesterday.

 

In doing so I am grateful for the interest of your Committee in my independent efficiencies review of the 46 Fire and Rescue Authorities in England and, in doing so provide further opportunities to stimulate a meaningful debate on the future challenges and opportunities for the delivery of an effective and efficient fire and rescue service. I was particularly pleased to see that, in the main, the respondents providing written evidence to the Committee recognised the need for changes and showed a willingness to engage in the solutions.

 

However, during some of the questioning by members of your Committee I was disappointed that there appeared to be an over emphasis on the semantics of the terms used for firefighters providing operational response. As it was inferred that I had constructed the term "on call" firefighters for personal use in my report, I feel it would be helpful to clarify the position.

 

As I indicated in my report on-call firefighters form a pivotal part of the fire and rescue response in this country and, as I outlined in my evidence, the majority of fire stations in England are crewed by this method of operational response.

 

The Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) lead a review into the effectiveness of the retained duty system which was published in 2005 which made a number of recommendations to enhance the service. A retained duty system is one that sits alongside other working patterns designed to employ firefighters, and is included in the National Conditions of Service.

 

The Retained Review was chaired by a Chief Fire Officer who recommended, inter alia, that in order to recognise the true value of the retained duty systems and yet to differentiate the staff from the whole time on-duty staff, those engaged on retained duty systems should be recognised as on-call firefighters.

 

Over the four years following the retained review, there was a significant amount of work, including staff surveys, which led to the development of new literature and toolkits which promoted recruitment to become on-call firefighters, which was supported by CFOA as I indicated in my oral evidence. The literature and tool kit was launched by the Fire Minister in 2009.

 

The fitness and suitability to become on-call firefighters is similar to that of other duty systems, however in addition on call firefighters are required to live and/or work in an area in order to respond within a time prescribed by the Fire Authority. The time of response prescribed will vary from local area to local area, according to the risk profile.

 

On-call firefighters are drawn from a wide cross section of the community and include, employed, self employed and unemployed men and women. Such staff also include shift workers, including full-time firefighters employed on other fire stations or by other fire authorities. When deployed, on-call firefighters are remunerated at the same rates of pay as whole time staff.

 

Today, on-call firefighters form the initial response to the full range of emergency incidents in this country including first responding responsibilities in collaboration with the local ambulance service. However, they also form a valuable back up and support to protracted and major incidents when they occur in an area. In addition, on- call firefighters play an important part in the fire and rescue service national resilience arrangements also using New Dimensions equipment and providing availability for wider national response.

 

Notwithstanding my wish to clarify the above and the importance of on-call firefighters, I believe it important that the focus following my review should be how fire and rescue services undertake a transformation for the future having been so successful in reducing the necessity for an emergency response in such a significant way. In doing so I hope that the leaders of the Service will seize the opportunity to increase innovative collaborative working with others to release the efficiencies available whilst maintaining an effective emergency response.

 

16 July 2013