Source: The Fire Brigade Society
(http://www.thefirebrigadesociety.co.uk/photogallery04.html)
Why is the UK Fire Service being reviewed in such detail? The creation of the MFB was based on the UK Fire Service model. The first Chief Fire officer of the MFB, DJ Stein (appointed to the role in 1891), had earlier served in the London Fire Brigade and as Superintendent of the Margate Fire Brigade before coming to Australia. He served in the role of Chief Fire Officer for 17 years and had a significant impact on the creation of the organisation (Wilde 1991).
Whilst the UK model has changed dramatically in recent times, the MFB model remains largely unchanged over the past twenty years. What are the differences? What are the drivers of change? How do they show capacity to take on additional roles? Since one of the key questions posed by this research is whether the MFB has existing excess capacity that could be possibly used in a future expanded EMS role it is necessary to explore the history and roles currently being performed by the current UK Fire Services and compare them to the current roles performed by the MFB.
Figure 107 Overview of UK Fire Service
Source: Knight (2013)
In 2000-2001 the total number of calls was 855,500; in 2011-2012 the total number of incidents fell to 595,700. The total cost of providing this service in 2011- 2012 was £2.2 billion. The average spend per person was £38 per year, but with a wide range (from £26 per resident through to more than £50) for broadly the same services. Attempts were made to try and benchmark internationally but no firm conclusions could be made.
In December 2012 the Fire Minister commissioned a major review of efficiencies and operations of the fire and rescue authorities in in England. The review was to be undertaken by Sir Ken Knight (previously London Fire Commissioner; Knight 2013). The start point of the review was to revisit previous fire service reviews undertaken in 2002 and 2010 and review expenditure and statistics for the 2011-2012 year to enable comparisons between services.
The review found that the number of fire deaths had been reduced by 40% in the last decade, but found no change to expenditure, suggesting a need to re-configure resources to meet the current risk. All major indicators showed reductions in the past decade. Attendance time at fires was down 48%, minor outdoors fires down 44% and road collisions down 24%.
The following statistics show the level of resources used to fight fires, they highlight the issues related to the size of fires and the means of extinguishment. Fire Statistics from the UK showed that in 1991 firefighting by the Brigade was not required in 21% of fires. In the remaining 79% of fires, no hose reels or jets were required in 17% of the fires, hose reels only in 68%; one or two jets in 12%, three or four jets in 2%
and five jets or more in 1% of fires. The vast majority of fires are extinguished by use of the hose reel on the first arriving vehicle (Ramachandran & Charters 2011).
Comparisons showed that some services cost twice as much to provide similar services with little or no relationship between expenditure and outcomes. If the more expensive services reduced their costs to the average there would be savings of £196 million (Thomas 2015).
The report identifies a need for change to relate to the current demand for resources in a different risk environment. The major driver of change has been significant reductions in central government funding and freezes of local council tax revenue. Some services are pursuing different crewing models but this approach is not widespread. Mergers are a possible part of the solutions with significant reductions in duplication of administrations and senior operational staff. Embleton and Kingwell in their article on space exploration raise the importance of avoiding duplication and maximizing scarce resources when undertaking significant tasks (Embleton & Kingwell 1997). The same principles apply to the fire and emergency services. For example, Scotland dealt with this issue by creating a single National Fire Service. In the UK, however, there is significant resistance to such moves and no incentives. It was identified that collaboration, co-responding and co-location with other emergency services could produce efficiencies but is hampered by local resistance.
A major finding of the review was to look at the rostering arrangements with its inbuilt excess of staff to cover a range of contingencies including unplanned leave. A number of services in England are currently using new creative models to reduce overtime; these include allowing staff who work extra shifts to take time off when there is surplus staffing, and the creation of a “strategic reserve” to cover shortages at normal time. One such system resulted in savings of around £1.2 million on staffing costs and a further reduction of overtime by £70,000 in six months.
Nevertheless, an issue for fire services is the capacity to manage major incidents with appropriate levels of senior staff. As the scale and number of major incidents fall, are there more creative ways of solving this issue? Across the current services there is a wide range of models demonstrating the ratio of senior officers to firefighters. In a metropolitan service there are 73 firefighters to one senior manager, but in another there are 29. Industry has many examples of seeking to rationalize resources to find continual savings. An example of this process is explained in an article on rationalizing human
resources in the health sector by outsourcing a number of non-operational functions with resultant savings of staff (Ostojić, Bilas & Franc 2012).
A further example of rationalizing resources is when existing organizations such as fire and EMS merge there are also potential savings in senior operational staff to manage large scale incidents (Weiss 1998).
In his report, Knight (2013) states: “The most effective way of saving lives is to prevent fires and other emergencies from occurring” (Knight 2013, p. 38). The English fire service is proactive in this area. In 2004-8 it carried out nearly 2 million Home Fire Risk Checks and installed nearly 2.5 million 10-year smoke alarms. The effort was funded by a central government grant of £25 million. An evaluation of the program showed a 57% fall in accidental dwelling fire deaths, 13,670 fewer fires and 888 fewer fire casualties. The estimated economic value associated with the value of the reduced number of fires, deaths and injuries was between £926m (US$1,225Billion) and £1,943m (US$2.571 Billion).
Of all of the calls to fire and rescue authorities 42% are false alarms (see Figure 78). The Fire Protection Association estimates that in excess of 95% of calls generated by Automatic Fire Alarms are false. The number of calls attended to was dramatically reduced by a system known as “Call Challenge”, which involves the control room making a call to the premises before responding. Some of the agencies have been using this system (with safeguards) since 2003, and reductions of 40% in the level of false alarms have been achieved. Reducing the number of false alarms would result in some savings, although the real savings come from the freeing up of capacity.
Figure 108 Type of incidents attended to by a firefighter 2001/2 versus 2011/2012
Source: Knight (2013)
In England it can be seen that the numbers and severity of fires and incidents is falling dramatically and releasing capacity within fire and rescue services. A number of
recommendations have been made such as amalgamations, procurements and alternative staffing models. These are all “internal proposals”.
In line with the current research the review also looks at possible collaboration with other emergency services. There are currently 10 Ambulance Trusts and 46 Fire and Rescue Services in England. The review raised the issue of combining fire and ambulance into a single fire, rescue and emergency medical service as has been done in many other developed countries. Whilst there have been some successful examples of co-responding and first responder, this issue is left to local determination with varying degrees of success. The issue of a need for co-location of emergency services was raised; this included Police, Fire and Ambulance (Knight 2013). In fact, although Knight’s review identifies many areas of potential savings and improvements in productivity, it has been followed by a consultation paper looking at closer co-operation between what are referred to as “Blue Light Services” (police, fire and ambulance). The consultation paper asks a number of questions regarding the advantages and disadvantage of closer co-operation. The proposals look at all three services; controversial elements include the possibility of Police running fire services or alternatively Fire Chiefs heading up Police forces (Home Office, Communities and Local Government & Department of Health 2015).
In light of recent developments in Victoria regarding firefighting volunteers, the Country Fire Authority and the UFU, it is interesting to note that in the UK the fire service is mainly career staff supplemented by part-paid firefighters; there is only one volunteer fire service in the UK.