Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service - Consultation on proposed service delivery model

The Fire and Rescue National Framework for England states that each Fire Authority is required to produce a Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) which includes an assessment of all foreseeable fire-related risks, demonstrates how Prevention, Protection and Response (PPR) activities can best be used to prevent fire and other incidents and mitigate the impact of risks. Please see the Prevention, Protection and Response Strategy 2022-2027 included in the supporting documents (at the bottom of this page).

The resulting Community Risk Management Plan and risk analysis have been independently evaluated and externally validated. This has demonstrated that the locations of fire stations in Warwickshire generally match risk areas. However, the analysis has also identified four key issues that WFRS needs to address to ensure that the delivery of its statutory duties is carried out in an effective and sustainable way:

• Locations where appliances are based need to match risk and activity levels.
• Performance targets for attendance times to incidents are not being met.
• On-call fire appliance availability is reducing and raises challenges around sustainability.
• Some of WFRS’s shift systems are not nationally accepted and other shift systems are not sustainable into the future.

Although WFRS moves resources (fire appliances and staffing) around the county based on risk, the current arrangements do not completely align to the ‘Resourcing to Risk’ principle that is the cornerstone of our Community Risk Management Plan. Independent, external evaluation and validation by Operational Research in Health (ORH) have identified several challenges that need to be addressed. ORH are an independent body experienced in working with emergency services to optimise resource use and improve response. The challenges identified are:

• The resource WFRS has available does not match with activity levels. There are more fire appliances and resources available at night when activity levels are lowest, and fewer fire appliances and resources available in the day when activity levels are the highest (78% of all incidents occur between 8am and 10pm).  
• Despite the commitment and hard work of on-call firefighters who serve their communities whilst also having other commitments such as full-time jobs, on-call availability has fallen from 90% to 35% since 2019 and the 12 fire appliances that are crewed by on-call firefighters are, on average, only available one-third of the time. This is a similar picture nationwide and we expect this trend to continue in the long-term, making the model unsustainable.   
• Attendance time targets are not being met. The aim is to arrive at the most serious of incidents within 10 minutes. This is only achieved on 64% of occasions against a target of 75%, with an average attendance time of 10 minutes and 37 seconds.    
• There is no guaranteed resilience for surge events. This includes extreme weather incidents such as flooding, wildfires or high demand e.g. multiple or large complicated incidents, as resource for such events relies on the on-call system.

Based on the analysis undertaken, WFRS produced four potential delivery model options (1,1a, 2 and 2a) which are explained within the WCC Cabinet report at the bottom of this webpage. They are all aimed at aligning risk, demand, and productivity levels with the effective positioning of resources. Each delivery model option would require a change to the current working patterns. As the professional advisor to the Fire Authority, the Chief Fire Officer believes that the proposed model (2a) provides significant improvements on current performance.  Further information about the differences between the proposed models and why the Chief Fire Officer recommends proceeding with option 2a is set out in the Cabinet report which you can find at the bottom of this webpage.

Fire appliances can only be available when there are a sufficient number of staff with the appropriate skills present to crew them. The proposed model will ensure we cover the highest demand with the correct number of appliances and staff, ensuring staff resource and appliance resource align to the higher risk times and locations. 

In order to achieve this, the following ‘working 24-hour’ model is proposed: 

• Day shift (0800 - 1800hrs)
• Night shift (1800 - 0800hrs)
• Evening shift (1800 - 2200hrs) – part time positions.
• Surge teams available for recall in the event of significant incidents or periods of high demand within specified time periods from receiving a call, e.g. guaranteed within 30 mins - 4hrs depending on requirements.
• Replaces our current day crewed plus working pattern, with a nationally agreed shift pattern.

The model will deliver the following number of available appliances across any 24-hour period.

• 12 pumps (fire appliances) are available between 0800 and 2200hrs.
• 8 pumps (fire appliances) are available between 2200 and 0800hrs.
• 8 additional pumps (fire appliances) are available for surge events at any time.

This document provides an overview of the proposed model.

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This document provides data and information about the current arrangements and the arrangements under the proposed model to support understanding of why the changes are being proposed.  

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This document provides additional information on what is meant by Resourcing to Risk, with a focus on the impacts of the proposed service delivery model throughout Warwickshire.

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This document provides data on the availability of on-call appliances to explain why it is proposed that the current on-call system be replaced by part-time evening shifts and surge teams.

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