Essex County Fire and Rescue Service has announced it is to conduct an exhaustive fire cover review.
Deputy Chief Fire Officer Gordon Hunter, head of Service Delivery, explains what that means:
“The scale and impact of the Government’s public sector funding reductions remain uncertain. For business planning purposes a reduction of 10% in the overall budget is the worst case planning scenario that ECFRS has adopted.
“This figure has been arrived at following discussions with other fire and rescue services and Local Government organisations and by assessing public statements made by the Audit Commission. It is also consistent with the known impact of a 20% cut in Central Government grant which is the level being openly discussed at Westminster currently.
“A 10% reduction in the overall budget would equate to nearly £7.5m being removed from the Service’s budget and while some of this can be found from ‘back office’ functions, it is not feasible to respond to a financial challenge of this magnitude without also considering front line resource allocation as well.
“ECFRS has therefore identified the need to undertake a service-wide review of station locations and appliance deployments to ensure that the use of resources is optimised.
“The Strategic Management Board has initiated an independent review of fire station locations and appliance deployments across Essex.
“The review process will use analytical and modelling techniques to support planning future developments in station configuration and in the deployment of personnel and appliances which will provide effective, efficient, equitable risk and response cover across the county.
“The process will also use an evidence-based approach to advise on location strategy and appliance deployments using locally defined attendance standards.
Ahead of tomorrow’s Budget, ECFRS has announced it is to conduct an exhaustive fire cover review. Here, Deputy Chief Fire Officer Gordon Hunter, head of Service Delivery, explains what that means:
“The scale and impact of the Government’s public sector funding reductions remain uncertain. For business planning purposes a reduction of 10% in the overall budget is the worst case planning scenario that ECFRS has adopted.
“This figure has been arrived at following discussions with other fire and rescue services and Local Government organisations and by assessing public statements made by the Audit Commission. It is also consistent with the known impact of a 20% cut in Central Government grant which is the level being openly discussed at Westminster currently.
“A 10% reduction in the overall budget would equate to nearly £7.5m being removed from the Service’s budget and while some of this can be found from ‘back office’ functions, it is not feasible to respond to a financial challenge of this magnitude without also considering front line resource allocation as well.
“ECFRS has therefore identified the need to undertake a Service-wide review of station locations and appliance deployments to ensure that the use of resources is optimised.
“The Strategic Management Board has initiated an independent review of fire station locations and appliance deployments across Essex.
“The review process will use analytical and modelling techniques to support planning future developments in station configuration and in the deployment of personnel and appliances which will provide effective, efficient, equitable risk and response cover across the county.
“The process will also use an evidence-based approach to advise on location strategy and appliance deployments using locally defined attendance standards.
“The main outcomes of this work will be recommendations for station configuration and a deployment strategy with full supporting evidence. An example would be if new station locations are recommended as part of the improved network of stations, then site search location maps will be provided that can be used by land agents in searching for available sites.
“It is anticipated that this work will take 3-4 months and will be reported back to the Fire Authority at its meeting in November 2010.”
