Our Plan 2015-2020 Creating Safer Communities - Devon & Somerset Fire
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Creating Safer Communities Our Plan 2015-2020
Creating Safer Communities our plan
Creating Safer Communities
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service provides prevention, protection and response
services across the two Counties. We successfully protect the 1.7 million people who live in
our rural and urban communities as well as the 400,000 additional visitors each year.
All public services are having to operate with less money and we are no exception. Significant
financial pressures require us to review each and every aspect of our business to ensure
that it meets our primary objective of making the public safer. At the same time, the skills and
attributes that staff within the Service have can be used to good effect to support communities
in becoming more resilient, improving their own safety and reducing the demand on our
resources at the same time.
We are geographically the largest fire and rescue service in England and have a track record
of improving public safety. Our Community safety strategies, supported by targeted prevention
approaches as well as societal changes (such as the reduced number of smokers, the
introduction of foam filled furnishing regulations and much higher smoke detector ownership
which provides early notification of fires and valuable time to escape) has collectively
contributed to a 50% reduction in the number fires, fire fatalities and fire related injuries in
recent years. However, we know that accidents will happen and when they do our emergency
response arrangements will react with the skills and resources needed to deal safely and
effectively with the range of challenges they face.
We will continue on our journey to establish a more adaptable Service that is even better
equipped to respond to the changing risk landscape, better matching our resources to local
risks and being innovative in using new and emerging approaches and technologies.
This document sets out our plan to make the people who live, work and visit our area safer
whilst reducing costs at the same time. There are plenty of opportunities for you to get
involved in our work whether it is through volunteering, working as a part-time or on-call
(retained duty) firefighter or supporting our high calibre non-operational staff who support our
front line crews in making the public safer. Get in touch – there is a role for everyone.
Lee Howell QFSM FIFireE Cllr Mark Healey
Chief Fire Officer/Chief Executive Chairman
Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service
2Creating Safer Communities our plan
Our vision
Our vision is to make Devon and Somerset a ‘safer place to live, work and visit’.
Our mission is to act to protect and save - to prevent emergencies, create safer communities
and respond, when required, in order to save life.
Our journey towards creating safer communities
Whilst the financial challenges faced by the Service remain significant, the future of our
Service needs to reflect both the type of risk we are presented with and the significant and
continuing reduction in fire incidents. There is also a need to increase and improve our
engagement with communities and to understand how we can provide the best advice,
support and response to ensure you live a safer life.
We have already made significant savings but substantial further savings will still be required.
We need to minimise the negative impact by reviewing the effect of any changes before they
are made. We are confident that we can make changes in a sensible way that will improve our
service and deliver savings. Whilst fires are reducing, incidents such as flooding, road traffic
accidents and medical emergencies (co-responding with the Ambulance Service) continue to
draw on our resources. We will need to review the changing risk profile and think differently
about how we continue to protect communities with different prevention and response
arrangements.
Our Core Values guide us in the way we will work and approach these challenges -
honesty, clarity and accountability, respect for each other, working together to improve
and a ‘can do’ attitude. We understand that change creates uncertainty for both our staff
and our communities but we also know that some of this uncertainty comes from a lack of
understanding of how the environment in which we operate has changed. By undertaking
detailed analysis of existing and new emerging risks, communicating this effectively and
ensuring that we have the right resources in the right place at the right time, we know we will
keep our communities safe.
“We have already made significant savings but
substantial further savings will still be required”
3Creating Safer Communities our plan
Our priorities
We have three key priorities. We use these priorities to guide how we use
our diminishing resources and assess the importance of new work.
• A relentless focus on improving public safety
• Be passionate about continually improving staff safety
• Create an even more efficient and effective organisation
4Creating Safer Communities our plan
Priority 1: public safety
A relentless focus on improving public safety
Community risk continues to change. The We will:
Service will work with local communities
to ensure that resources are appropriately • continue to target our prevention and
located, reflecting our Integrated Risk protection activities to high risk factors,
Management Plan for prevention, protection working closely with partners to provide
and response. When emergencies do advice, support and response
happen we will have matched the provision
of our stations, vehicles, crews and • establish joint targeting of vulnerable
equipment to ensure we have the right people
resources in the right place at the right time. • develop, with partners, road safety
strategies to improve education and
intervention
• with partners, build community capacity
to help plan, respond and recover from
local emergency events
• continue to develop appropriate non-fire
response arrangements in collaboration
with other blue light and voluntary sector
agencies
• ensure our capability meets local
risk and demand by having the right
number of vehicles, equipment and staff
available
• support businesses to further reduce
arson and accidental fires and improve
business continuity
• provide specialist teams to support the
risk profile for the Service
• ensure we develop the most appropriate
emergency response to non-fire
incidents
• support this approach with staff working
in more flexible ways
• engage with the community and
voluntary sector.
5Creating Safer Communities our plan
Priority 2: staff safety
Be passionate about continually improving staff safety
With a changing risk landscape there is
a need to continue to ensure that staff
have the right equipment and personal
protection supported by information relevant
to specific risks. A wide ranging review of
current arrangements will be undertaken to
ensure that staff, working in support of local
communities, remain safe.
We will:
• ensure a safety culture is at the heart of
everything we do as an organisation
• involve staff in the evaluation of vehicles,
equipment and Personal Protective
Equipment
• use technological advances in
equipment to improve public and
staff safety
• train in a realistic way that reflects
the risks firefighters face and allows
them to use the skills they will need at
emergency incidents
• improve the recording of training
activities undertaken using a
competency based approach
• ensure our incident commanders are
well trained and assessed
• ensure risk information is up to date and
available to those who need it.
6Creating Safer Communities our plan
Priority 3: effectiveness and efficiency
Create an even more efficient and effective organisation
Business transformation will be driven
through creating a culture of innovation and
change, seeking opportunities to do things
differently and working with our staff and
others for the benefit of the community.
We will continue to learn from other high
performing organisations and ensure a
focus on those activities that support
on-going change and efficiency.
We will:
• drive efficiencies through improving our
business processes, ensuring the focus
is on our priorities of public and staff
safety
• improve working arrangements to further
support an adaptable and responsive
workforce which meets operational and
non-operational demands on our service
• manage our work so that projects are
delivered on time and within budget
• manage all of our assets to ensure they
are efficient and support our priorities
• collaborate with others to save time and
money
• ensure accurate and high quality data
is used to drive improvements including
sharing information with partners to
reduce risk
• communicate clearly and effectively
• encourage a culture of staff and
community engagement.
7Creating Safer Communities our plan
Our plan
Context
The good news is that the demand for our services is reducing significantly. With a 20%
reduction in the number of fires in the last five years alone. Last year, about a third of all
incidents we attended were false alarms and most of these (at about 98%) required no action
from our crews.
“The good news is that the demand for our services
is reducing significantly”
The chart below ‘Service Demand’, represents the demand for our services (fires, false
alarms, and special service calls) over the last 9 years 2005/06 - 2013/14.
Service Demand
9,000
Fires
8,000
7,000 All false alarms
Number of incidents
6,000
Special service calls
5,000
4,000 Co-responders
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
1
12
3
4
9
0
6
7
8
/1
/1
/1
/0
/1
/0
/0
/0
/
10
11
12
13
08
09
05
06
07
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
8Creating Safer Communities our plan
In recent years we have changed the crewing arrangement of a number of our vehicles on
wholetime fire stations which has generated significant savings. An on-call (retained duty) fire
station costs annually between £60-100k, whilst a similar sized wholetime fire station costs
over £1m to run each year. The response time for an on-call fire station is slower but over
80% of the Service area is more than adequately covered by on-call firefighters who respond
to a fire station from home/work before responding to emergencies.
We have reviewed the disposition of our fire stations and almost all are in the right place and
needed. However where we believe there is over provision in any areas, we will consider
changing the type of vehicle provided which will contribute to the savings required. Whilst
we may consider closing some fire stations, this will be subject to a full and separate public
consultation, if it is considered.
Whilst the demand remains for a firefighting response, we need to ensure we also able to deal
with new and different challenges we face such as those related to severe weather, complex
non-fire related rescues, the threat of terrorism and the changing demographic of
our communities.
Incident Categories
Special Service calls Chimney fires
4367 565
Primary fires
2450
Secondary fires
1647
Fires
25.7%
Special Service calls
43%
False alarms
31.3%
Co-responders All false alarms
3411 5662
9Creating Safer Communities our plan
Priority 1
A relentless focus on improving public safety
Our focus on prevention and protection
We know that prevention is better than cure “Our prevention and
and that is why we are striving to balance protection will be better
the emphasis of our resourcing between
prevention, protection and response. targeted at those posing
the highest risk ”
We will continue to support safer business
and community sectors where there are no
preventable deaths or injuries in fires, where
fire losses are reduced to all time minimal
levels. Businesses will receive consistent
and common advice, information to ensure
effective business continuity and where
issues arise they will receive consistent
We provide community safety services, enforcement practice.
supported by and supporting our partners,
to help save lives and limit the number of
injuries from fires and accidents. As people
and communities will be making better
informed decisions about their own safety
they will be living in, working in and visiting
safer buildings. Our community safety
services will continue to reduce the number
of incidents and create safer communities
through a focus on home safety checks,
educating people on the dangers of fires
and other emergencies (and what they can
do to make themselves safe) and working
with businesses to make commercial and
other non-domestic premises safe to work
within and to visit.
“We know that prevention
is better than cure” We will continue to work with partners to
deliver integrated road safety education and
Our prevention and protection will be better
interventions which result in safer roads
targeted at those posing the highest risk to
throughout Devon and Somerset.
help people create and live in safer homes
where preventable deaths or injuries from
fires will be reduced and sustained at
minimal levels.
10Creating Safer Communities our plan
We know that providing advice to our Our response model
communities, particularly our most Our vehicles and equipment
vulnerable groups through home fire safety We currently operate from 85 fire stations
visits, is very effective and the research with the vast majority crewed by on-call
that we have done clearly demonstrates firefighters making us the largest employer
this to be the case. Last year we completed of on-call firefighters in the country. Working
approximately 3,000 home fire safety visits from these stations we have 121 fire
but we plan to do many more this year. We engines and 64 special appliances including
have invested an additional £0.5m into our aerials, water carriers, incident command
community safety budget with the aim to units, 4x4s and environmental protection
deliver a ten-fold increase in our home fire units; the second largest fleet and fire
safety visit activity. station estate outside of London. Using
these resources we respond to the widest
Our prevention and protection activities range of emergencies including:
include:
• supporting businesses through the • fires
provision of safety advice • road traffic collisions
• ensuring compliance with fire safety • rescues
legislation
• collapsed structures
• Home Fire Safety Checks
• hazardous chemical spills
• education packages for children from
early years through to university aimed • flooding
at developing fire and road safe aware
• medical emergencies (co-responding).
young citizens
The reduction in operational incidents
• targeted interventions to support those at
and the significant variation in operational
risk in our communities
calls between our stations have driven a
• working in partnership with others to review of how we provide our emergency
access and support our communities to response. For example, we know that
be safer. 73% of our stations attend less than two
incidents per week* and 36% attend less
than one incident per week*. But currently
“73% of our stations most of our fire engines are broadly similar
attend less than and are usually crewed by five operational
staff who are all trained in the same way
two incidents per irrespective of the risks they face and the
week and 36% attend demand for their services. Last year 70%
of all incidents during 2013/14 could of
less than one incident have been dealt with using much smaller
per week” vehicles crewed using new technologies.
So we are moving away from this traditional
*reference: 2013/14 incidents on station ground
minus co-responding and false alarms.
11Creating Safer Communities our plan
Priority 1: public safety
A relentless focus on improving public safety
‘one size fits all’ approach and are currently Our fire stations
introducing 36 smaller Light Rescue Pumps
into our fleet. We believe that at present, most of our 85 fire
stations are in the right place, being centred
on heavily populated areas or located to
“We will continue provide comprehensive emergency cover
across Devon and Somerset.
to better match
However we are mindful that community risk
resources to risk.” may change over time, so we will continue
our analysis and keep the provision and
We are actively considering new position of our stations under review. Based
technological developments that will on evidence there may however be a need
further improve community and firefighter to change what resources are available at
safety and we will be investigating in the each fire station. With this in mind we cannot
potential to introduce different (smaller) ignore the fact that we may find that we need
response vehicles which use these latest to build new fire stations in better locations
firefighting technological advancements, and/or close some of our existing stations.
providing an even more rapid intervention to
emergencies. “We may find that we need
Developing on from the ‘tiered response’ to build new fire stations
model previously consulted on and agreed, in better locations and/or
we will continue to better match resources
to risk. close some of our
existing stations”
The chart below ‘Number of Incidents by
Hour 2013/14’ shows how demand for our
services varies by time of day.
Number of Incidents by Hour 2013/14
1200
Number of incidents
1000
800
600
400
200
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Hour of the day
12Creating Safer Communities our plan
Our staff shift systems used elsewhere (including
those used by other emergency services)
We have approximately 2,300 members of that can be considered. Rather than
staff who work a varied range of shift or impose shift change we hope to secure
duty systems. improvements to the current arrangement
We will reduce the number of officers (by by seeking flexibility from staff which
not replacing vacancies as they arise) and will generate significant efficiencies and
will consider alternative approaches for savings. We recognise the current shift
those providing ‘out of hours’ supervisory system is important to staff but given the
officer cover. We will continue to engage scale of the financial challenges ahead,
with trade unions with a view to securing improvements are required if it is to remain.
mutually beneficial solutions that balance Indications from discussions with staff on
the personal demands on our staff with the fire stations and with trade unions is that
organisational need to work differently and there is appears to be a desire to create a
generate savings. mutually satisfactory solution rather than
have change imposed. We welcome and
encourage this approach.
“We know that the current
Key improvement actions:
shift system is both • we will aim to deliver a ten-fold increase
inflexible and inefficient” in our home fire safety visit activity
• we will be investigating the potential to
The nature of the contract in place with our introduce different response vehicles
on-call (retained duty system) staff does which use these latest firefighting
not always meet our needs and we have technological advancements
several different types of contract currently
in use. We have already identified areas • we will continue our analysis and keep
where savings can be made and have the provision and position of our stations
secured agreement with a trade union to under review
reduce the associated costs. Therefore, we • We will review all our operational staffing
intend to continue to explore how we secure arrangements.
the best solution for emergency cover at a
price that we can afford whilst meeting the
needs of staff at the same time.
On our wholetime fire stations we operate
the same shift pattern, which is referred to
as 2-2-4. This aims to provide appropriate
crewing levels on a 24/7 basis, however
we know that the 2-2-4 system as it is
currently applied is inflexible and not as
efficient as it could be. There are other
13Creating Safer Communities our plan
Priority 2: staff safety
Be passionate about continually improving staff safety
Firefighter safety and training
Attending emergency incidents is an
inherently dangerous activity and therefore
creating a safe working environment and
a culture of safety will be at the heart of
everything we do. Firefighter training will
also become more specific, using smaller
teams matching our resources to risk
to ensure we are targeting our training
appropriately. We know that the vast
majority of equipment that we currently
carry on our fire engines is rarely used.
In fact for 80% of the incidents we attend,
less than half of our equipment is used.
Yet we still expect our staff to maintain their To this end we will develop and design
knowledge and skills on how to use this a network of training to be delivered to
equipment knowing that they will rarely, if specific areas of the organisation. Some
ever be expected to use it. of this training will be delivered centrally at
one of our training venues or at an external
venue. However we will further extend local
“creating a safe station based training, taking training to staff
working environment rather than expecting staff to travel to train.
and a culture of safety At the same time, we will ensure that risk
information is up to date, regularly refreshed
will be at the heart of and that crews train against site specific
everything we do” plans. The way that the information from fire
control is made available to operational staff
is a key element.
We also know that the time available for
training at our on-call stations is very We have recently conducted a
limited; in fact our on-call staff have, comprehensive firefighter safety audit. This
on average, only 90hrs of training time required each stage of the process to be
available to them each year. It is clear mapped to see where improvements could
therefore that training time should not be be made to better manage the safety of our
spent on equipment that is rarely used and firefighters.
we believe that the tiered response will have
a positive impact on firefighter safety as it “scarce training time
will ensure that our training is focused only
on the risks that staff are most likely to face. should not be spent
on equipment that
is rarely used”
14Creating Safer Communities our plan
As a result we have identified the following
activities and/or controls as requiring
improvement:
• the process for ensuring our staff
maintain their competence across the
range of activities they are expected to
perform
• the support and on-going development
that we provide for our officers who are
expected to take control of emergency
incidents
• the gathering and provision of risk critical
information that enable of our staff to
make correct and informed risk critical
decisions at emergency incidents.
Key improvement actions:
• we will continue to use the firefighter
safety mapping process to prioritise
improvement activity
• we will further develop the performance
measures to allow us to monitor the
effectiveness of the firefighter safety
controls.
15Creating Safer Communities our plan
Priority 3: effectiveness and efficiency
Create an even more efficient and effective organisation
Whilst improving prevention, protection
and response arrangements is wholly
appropriate, we will also need to continue “The support of our
to review all our activities. We need to
ensure we continue to deliver our service in staff and communities
a way that provides the best value for the will be crucial in helping
communities of Devon and Somerset and
enables us to maximise our investment in to generate ideas to
our core services and meets the challenges support our drive for
of a reducing budget.
on-going improvement”
“We need to ensure we work which we know will deliver not only
that our supporting the savings we need but will also enable us
to continue to offer the excellent service that
systems and processes our communities expect. The following are
are fit for purpose” areas where we expect to focus on:
• on-going financial management
Whilst our core business is to keep
communities and the environment safe • on-going reviews of our systems and
from fires and other emergencies, we need process (back office - HR, ICT, Finance
to ensure that our supporting systems and etc.)
processes are fit for purpose. We have
• review of our assets (buildings and fleet)
already made significant changes to our
and how they are managed
support functions and we are realising the
benefits of this work. The emphasis of our • collaboration with partners
approach over the coming years will be to
focus on continuing to improve the way we • income generation.
operate as a service. Whilst an option would The support of our staff and communities
be cut frontline services, we know that this will be crucial in helping to generate ideas to
would not align our priorities and would support our drive for on-going improvement
not be favoured by our communities. Our and will therefore continue to encourage
approach therefore is to improve the way them to work with us to engender a culture
of engagement and innovation.
We are using several tools to support this
priority such as ‘systems thinking’ theory.
Systems thinking is a process which allows
us to be better placed to react to what our
customers need and provide a service that
supports the demand rather than providing
a service based on what we perceive our
customers want from us.
16Creating Safer Communities our plan
We will:
• move away from doing things because
it’s always been done that way
• reduce wasted effort and drive out
efficiencies
• free up staff time to focus on our core
priorities and support the front line
• provide a demand led service, meeting
public safety needs
• release resources to support our savings
objectives as well as redirect some of
this to further support our prevention and
protection activities
• undertake a comprehensive review of
our back office functions, processes and
systems.
Key improvement actions:
• we will continue to review all our
activities to ensure we continue to
deliver our service in a way that provides
best value
• we will design our service based on our
customers’ needs.
“Our approach is to
improve the way we work
which we know will deliver
not only the savings we
need but will also enable
us to continue to offer the
excellent service that our
communities expect”
17Creating Safer Communities our plan
Our financial future
We are facing a difficult financial future take a number of years for natural turnover
as a result of significant reductions in to reduce down staff numbers. Had we
government funding. The most recent Local waited until 2015/16, we would have been
Government Grant Settlement in December more likely to need to make compulsory
2014 confirmed that our Grant would reduce redundancies as the funding gap would not
further by £2.9m in 2015 /16. This would have allowed the budget gap to have been
mean that we would have suffered total met through natural turnover.
reductions of £8.7m, 23% reduction, from
our base budget, since 2012/13. Looking To meet these on-going financial challenges
beyond 2015 /16, it looks likely that the we know that we have to plan an approach
austerity measures will continue for the to ensure that savings are sustainable
foreseable future. over the longer term. In order to meet
the savings anticipated, changes will be
Whist we have met the financial challenge required to the way we do business and the
to date and since 2011 a total of £9.6m approach outlined earlier will serve as the
of recurring efficiency savings have been platform to do this. Decisions on Council Tax
identified, we are forecasting a further will continue to be taken by members of the
£5.8m of on-going savings will be required Fire Authority following public and business
over the next three years to 2018/19. The consultations to inform decisions. Council
chart below provides a summary of savings Tax and income generation are the only
delivered to date (2015/16) and forecast ways in which the impact of Government
savings required over the next three years grant reductions can be minimised.
to 2016/17 to 2018/19.
We took some difficult decisions last year
to reduce down the number of whole time
firefighters as we recognised that it would
Summary of Savings Delivered to Date
3
5
6
7
8
2
4
9
/1
/1
/1
/1
/1
/1
/1
/1
12
14
15
16
17
11
13
18
20
20
20
20
20
20
0.0
20
20
-2.0 -0.9
-4.0 -2.1
Savings £m
-6.0 -3.7
-8.0 -7.3
-10.0 -9.6
-12.0
-11.4
-14.0
-16.0 -13.7
-15.4
£9.6m budget savings 2011-2016 Forecast further savings of
£5.8m 2016-2019
18Creating Safer Communities our plan
How our Service is funded
Our funding for 2015/16 is £78.82 million For a ‘Band D’ property the 2015/16
Council Tax charge is £78.42
5%
Council tax (£45.30m)
18.3%
Government grant
(£14.96m)
57.4%
19% Non-domestic business
rates (£14.45m)
Other income (£4.11m)
Our planned spending for 2015/16
1% 0.7% Employee costs (£57.77m)
5.1% Supplies and servies
4.4% (£6.02m)
7.8% Capital financing costs
(£6.15m)
7.6% Transport related costs
(£3.5m)
73.3% Premises related costs
(£4.05m)
Establishment costs
(£0.77m)
Payments to other
authorities (£0.56m)
19Creating Safer Communities our plan
Measuring our Smoke alarms
success save lives
In addition to our existing performance If there is one thing you do after reading our
measures, new measures of success plan, make it a priority to check your smoke
to ensure we are delivering against this alarm. If you don’t have one, fit one today.
strategy are being developed that will
indicate the direction of travel over the Maintaining your smoke alarm
next five years and beyond. Your smoke alarm needs maintenance.
Every year people are killed because
Have your say their alarms fail to work because of flat or
missing batteries.
Your opinions on our plan are important and
we want to hear your views. The comments • Test your alarm weekly to ensure it is
we receive from you will inform the decision working properly.
making process taken by Fire Authority • Replace the battery in your alarm annually,
Members when they consider the various unless it has a ten year battery.
elements of the plan.
• Vacuum your alarm regularly to remove
Email: General comments or questions
dust and dirt
can be sent to the following email address:
consultationofficer@dsfire.gov.uk • If your smoke alarm starts to beep at
Fax: Comments can be faxed to 01392 intervals this means that the battery
872300 marked for the attention of the is running out. This should be replaced
Consultation Officer. immediately.
Post: General comments on the proposal,
Smoke alarms cost as little as £5 and are
can be returned by post to the following
available from most DIY and hardware
address:
stores. They are easy to install and only
Consultation Officer require a few minutes of your time to
Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue maintain them.
Service HQ Smoke alarms save lives.
FREEPOST
Visit www.dsfire.gov.uk for more
Clyst St George information.
Devon
EX3 0NW
Telephone: You can also contact the
Consultation Officer by phone on 01392 programme.
872354.
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