Issue - meetings

The Chair reminded members that the Committee was not a decision making body and had been asked to consider and comment on the report. He said there was a real pride in the work undertaken by WFRS and its firefighters were all brave and hardworking, and asked for this to be taken into consideration during the debate.

The item was introduced by Ben Brook (Chief Fire Officer). He reminded members that the resourcing to risk consultation had identified four key issues that needed to be addressed: that more appliances were available at night, when there was a greater need for availability during the day; on-call availability was declining and had been identified nationally as not being sustainable in its current form; response time targets were not being met; and the Day Crewed Plus shift system was not nationally accepted and had been subject to legal challenge. The target was for an incident where there was immediate threat to life or property to be attended within ten minutes on 75 per cent of occasions, but this had not been met for several years.

Proposals that were intended to mitigate this were subject to a 13 week consultation, which included the week of Christmas. A total of 1,279 responses were received, along with 209 emails and questions. There were seven public meetings, eight meetings with town and parish councils, 28 workshops with WFRS staff and two sessions where WFRS staff were able to present alternative ideas. Ben Brook said this was a significant increase on previous consultations, but was mindful the feedback still represented less than one per cent of Warwickshire’s total population. The outcomes and feedback from the consultation were then considered by a group of stakeholders from outside WFRS, including experts in Fire and Rescue Operations, Community Risk Management Planning, Human Resources, Legal and Communications. They developed and agreed a set of assessment criteria based on the four key challenges and produced a revised proposal. The revised model included the following:

•        Guaranteed 14 fire appliances providing coverage during the day and 13 at night

•        An extra four ‘resilience’ fire appliances available within two hours at any time 

•        A modernised on-call model that would be used at night-time, in specific locations based on risk levels

•        Improved average first appliance response times across the county

•        Increased capacity to deliver Prevention and Protection activity by 27 per cent

•        Reconfiguration of shift systems. 

The revised model would require a revenue investment of £556,000 each year for a three-year period. This figure took into account cost savings that had been identified, including the removal of the role of Retained Support Officers. There would be 30 new full-time firefighter jobs, and their salaries were included within the revenue investment figure. There would also be a £600,000 capital spend on modernising and modifying existing fire stations.

Ben Brook said the resilience fire appliances would have a dedicated crew that would be ready and available in two hours. They would either be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4