Fire Service devise plan to manage £5.5m budget cuts

Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service has announced a range of proposals to save £5.5 million following a reduction in the Government’s grant settlement.

The Service’s Government grant has been reduced by 10.3% in 2013 and a further 7.3% in 2014, which means the Service will lose £3.4m in the next financial year and a further £2.1m the following year.

Chief Fire Officer Lee Howell said: “The grant reductions for our Service were harsher than we would have liked.

“This means that we will need to manage our Service with approximately £5.5m less each year and won't be able to operate in the way in which we currently do.

“However, at this stage, we do not plan on closing fire stations, removing fire engines or making staff compulsorily redundant.”

The proposals were drawn up with the focus on maintaining public safety. The Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Authority will discuss the proposals at a meeting on 18th January where they will decide if the proposals should be agreed for public consultation. If agreed, the draft Corporate Plan will be subject to a 12-week public consultation process.

The proposals include:

• increasing prevention work in the community
• introducing more light rescue pumps
• reducing staff numbers through natural turnover
• changing the status of some fire engines from wholetime to retained crewing

Chief Fire Officer Howell said: “The changes we propose aim to strike the balance between making savings and maintaining public safety.

“These are difficult times and difficult choices are needed. The status quo is simply not an option given the need to significantly reduce the budget.”

In addition, further government grant reductions are expected for 2015-2018.

The proposed changes are:

Proposal 1

Extend the roll out of light rescue pumps which was consulted on, and agreed, last year. These vehicles reduce cost and improve performance.

Proposal 2

Implement the changes in how we will respond to automatic fire alarms (98% of which are false alarms) so that we only respond to high risk buildings automatically. This was consulted on and received public support last year. We now plan to further implement this change.

Proposal 3

Mobilise one co-responder directly from home/work rather than mobilise a crew and fire engine from a station. This will improve attendance times, save more lives and reduce costs.

Proposal 4

Reduce the number of middle/senior managers. As a result of our business changes, we will be able to reduce officer numbers without compromising performance.

Proposal 5

Invest more time and money in additional prevention activity in 2013. Our analysis shows that for every £145,000 spent on targeted prevention activity, we significantly reduce the likelihood of a fire death. This will directly support our targeted approach and make people safer.

Proposal 6

Change the crewing of three fire engines in Plymouth to ‘on call’ rather than whole time:

• Plympton and Plymstock fire engines to become 'on call'
• Camelshead keeps one fire engine crewed by wholetime firefighters but one pump is moved to Crownhill.
• Crownhill receives the fire engine moved from Camelshead and will have two fire engines, one crewed by wholetime and one crewed by on call firefighters

There will still be seven front line fire engines in Plymouth. Response times are largely unaffected and may be further improved by the introduction of additional light rescue pumps. 

Proposal 7

Crew the aerial appliance at Crownhill with ‘on call’ staff. No other aerial ladder platform is permanently crewed so this harmonises Plymouth with the arrangements elsewhere within the Service.

Proposal 8

Cancel the pilot scheme at Yeovil fire station where an additional four firefighters are provided for non-operational activity (this standardises crewing so that Yeovil is crewed the same as other similar fire stations).

Proposal 9

Change the crewing arrangements of the second fire appliances at Taunton from wholetime to ‘on call’.  Many firefighters already operate as ‘on call’ firefighters on these stations. The same number of fire engines will remain available and will be crewed as and when needed and during busy times.

Proposal 10

Change the crewing arrangements of the second fire appliances at Torquay from wholetime to ‘on call’.  Many firefighters already operate as ‘on call’ firefighters on these stations. The same number of fire engines will remain available and will be crewed as and when needed and during busy times.

Proposal 11

Change the crewing arrangements of the fire engine at Ilfracombe from day crewed (wholetime, day-time only) to ‘on call’.

In addition, the Service will:

Reduce support staff by at least 5% by not renewing some fixed term contracts

Save more than £1m through greater efficiencies in our back office support functions, improving procurement and how we manage our spending.