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1 |
Summary |
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1.1 |
The objective RE1e contained within the IRMP for 2007/10 referred to the `Relocation of Water Tender and Introduction of a Retained Duty System at St Mary's Fire Station'. This report evaluates the outcomes of the objective and details further improvements authorised by SMT |
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1.2 |
The Retained Duty System (RDS) at St Mary's Fire Station commenced as an operational unit on 1st October 2007 as part of the Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) 2007/10. |
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1.3 |
The RDS section was established to improve the operational resilience within Southampton and to reduce the number of times that appliances were called into the city to attend incidents or provide fire cover. |
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1.4 |
The evaluation results consider that the intended outcomes of the IRMP objective have successfully been achieved. The opportunity for further improvements were identified as part of the evaluation process. |
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2 |
Recommendations |
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2.1 |
That the Performance Review and Scrutiny Committee note the content of this evaluation report and acknowledge that IRMP objective RE 1e 2007/10 has successfully been achieved. Areas for further improvement were identified during the evaluation process and subsequently authorised by SMT. |
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3 |
Introduction and Background |
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3.1 |
The introduction of the RDS section at St Mary's was as a result of an IRMP objective, which was also linked to relocating an appliance from Redbridge Fire Station as a result of the introduction at Redbridge of a First Response Vehicle (FRV). The introduction of this vehicle provided the opportunity for the establishment to be reduced and redeployed to resource the change of Winchester Fire Station from a day-crewed to a fully crewed station. |
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3.2 |
The RDS section's establishment was set as other similar one pump RDS sections at twelve units and the initial recruitment resulted in nine of these units being filled. Due to one person leaving the section this now stands at 8.25 units (this cover is provided by eleven personnel.) The initial problems caused by the lack of competence of the section and the shortfall in establishment required the use of wholetime resources to supplement the RDS section. This was initially achieved by increasing the watch strength from fifteen to nineteen to allow three rider positions to be filled by wholetime personnel. Over time an improvement of the sections competence has enabled the wholetime watch strength to be reduced to eighteen. |
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3.3 |
Efforts to bring the section up to strength has been problematic. There has been a steady stream of people coming forward but, despite delivering the requisite support, entrants have failed the selection process. To date we have 22 people that have been rejected for various reasons such as living outside the response area, thirteen are on hold of which six were invited to attend an open evening at St Mary's on the 18th March and a further six that are being progressed. |
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3.4 |
The establishment of an appropriate management structure has also been challenging and is not yet complete. The requirement is for the RDS section to have one watch manager and two crew managers. At this time there is currently a watch manager who is also a wholetime watch manager and a crew manager who transferred from Hamble RDS station and gives only day cover Monday to Friday. |
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3.5 |
There remains the need to recruit an additional crew manager to provide cover and until that is possible it is the intention to maintain the wholetime crew manager position on the RDS appliance. |
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3.6 |
Despite the section being below establishment they are progressing well and as stated have eleven personnel within the section. Of these all have passed their breathing apparatus and first aid course, four have passed their Road Traffic Collision course and they have three Emergency Fire Appliance Drivers with another hopefully qualifying in early March. |
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4 |
Environmental impact |
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4.1 |
The environmental impact of introducing a RDS section at St Mary's is considered to have an overall neutral impact on the environment. The addition of a diesel powered fire appliance to St Mary's station with the associated emissions is considered to be offset by the removal of the appliance from Redbridge to St Mary's (RDS). This appliance now moves far less than it did whilst at Redbridge but we have also introduced an additional vehicle (FRV) at Redbridge and RDS personnel at St Mary's are travelling to the station to respond to fire calls. |
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4.2 |
The introduction of an FRV at Redbridge is negated by the faster response to incidents within St Mary's which should result in the incident being brought under control or extinguished with minimal delay resulting in less emissions from the fire and the reduction of vehicle movements (81) into St Mary's as a result of less stand-by moves. |
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5 |
Contribution to Corporate Aims and Objectives |
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5.1 |
The stated objective in the IRMP commencing in 2007 for the implementation of an RDS section at St Mary's was `This move will take place to improve and increase the operational resilience in the city centre'. The following was also included in an IRMP eXtra document (Jan 2007 Issue 1): Result following consultation This proposal will proceed. This is based on: · Operational resilience · Number of Standby moves will be reduced by the movement of the vehicle to St Mary's. · Benefits of establishing an RDS section in this area and the assistance this will give to community safety activities in the heart of Southampton city.
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5.2 |
Considering the main objective and the first of those that were included within the IRMP eXtra there is no doubt that by increasing the number of response appliances at St Mary's the operational resilience within the centre of Southampton has been improved. Available statistics show that for the last year the RDS section has been available on average 99% percent of the time and that they turnout from the station between four and five minutes. As a further indicator of the operational activity of the RDS appliance during its first year of availability it was mobilised a total of 142 times. |
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5.3 |
The second objective within the IRMP eXtra was - `Number of Standby moves will be reduced by the movement of the vehicle to St Mary's'. As an indicator as to how successful the RDS section was during its first year, statistics show that during the period October 06 until September 07 there were 171 standby moves into St Mary's in comparison to the first year of operation when there were 90 standby moves into St Mary's, a reduction of 81 movements for the year. |
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5.4 |
The final objective within the IRMP eXtra was - `Benefits of establishing an RDS section in this area and the assistance this will give to community safety activities in the heart of Southampton city'. Since being set up the section has been involved in the following activities: Home Fire Safety Visits Festivals Mela (Community festival) CS and recruitment activity Car Wash Station/community activity Cycle Plus Station activity Schools Visits to three schools with large Polish/Eastern European students (One - St Marks School was as a result of a request from CLG) Station Visits Two Polish groups visited the station to promote HFRS, CS and recruitment. |
6 |
Conclusion |
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6.1 |
It can be concluded that the IRMP objective has been implemented successfully and the evaluation has shown that the intended outcome has been achieved. Across the Southampton Group there has been an overall improvement of 7% in average attendance times since the implementation of the RDS crew at St Mary's and the implementation of the FRV at Redbridge. It is considered that this will be as a combined result of improved performance derived from Beacon Stations and/or the implementation of the FRV and the move of the appliance to St Mary's. The evaluation has also identified opportunities for further improvement. |
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6.2 |
The operational resilience has been improved within the City Centre with the introduction of the RDS pump. The core of the City now has an additional appliance which responds within five minutes nearly one hundred percent of the time. This availability has not resulted in a particularly high number of responses with the section attending 143 incidents during its' first year of operation. If, however, this figure is added to the reduction in standby moves into the City which as stated in 5.3 is a total of 81 it equates to a total of 224 times when an appliance would have been mobilised into St Mary's area had the RDS section not have been there. |
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6.3 |
The RDS section has been involved in community safety activity within the area and the assistance given by the Polish firefighters has benefited our interaction within that community. |
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7 |
Resource Implications |
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7.1 |
The main resource implication associated with the RDS section at St Mary's relates to personnel requirements. The establishment to run this section is set at twelve units including a watch manager and two crew managers. This has proven difficult to achieve in the short time since its' inception and the section has been supplemented by wholetime resources during its development phase. As staff become competent we will withdraw this supplementary resource. |
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8 |
People Impact Assessment |
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8.1 |
An Equality Impact Assessment was completed at the time of the IRMP and no adverse equality issues were identified at that time. The implementation of an RDS section at St Mary's was an opportunity to improve our organisational and operational diversity and we now have four Polish fire-fighters serving at St Mary's. This has assisted us in reaching areas of our community which have previously proven difficult for us in terms of fire safety education. |
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9 |
Consultation |
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9.1 |
Consultation was conducted for the 2007/10 IRMP for the public and all other internal and external stakeholders. |
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10 |
Risk Analysis |
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10.1 |
No additional risks have been identified during the completion of this corporate objective. |
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Background Information (Section 100D of Local Government Act 1972) |
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The following documents disclose the facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of the report: Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service IRMP 2007-2010 IRMP eXtra (Jan 2007 Issue 1) |
