crewing level monitoring · 3.3.5 the rsu now take an active part in the basic training of rds...
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CREWING LEVEL MONITORING
PRESENTED TO:
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
DATE OF MEETING:
25TH JULY 2016
OFFICER PRESENTING REPORT: AREA MANAGER MARK GASKARTH
1. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY OF REPORT
1.1 To inform the Management Committee of the crewing levels for wholetime and retained appliances and TVFCS for the 4th quarter of 2015/16.
2. RECOMMENDATIONS
That the Management Committee:-
2.1 Note the report.
3. BACKGROUND AND SUPPORTING INFORMATION
3.1 This report sets out the wholetime, retained and TVFCS crewing levels and associated data for the 4th quarter of the 2015/16 financial year (from January to March 2016).
3.1.1 Wholetime establishment
3.1.2 The station based establishment (roles from Firefighter to Watch Manager) is 328 excluding the Retained Support Officers.
3.1.3 The chart below illustrates the establishment figure against the number of vacancies for the period.
*Previous month’s figures included for comparison
3.2 Wholetime crewing
3.2.1 The Optimisation of Crewing Resources Policy defines the minimum crewing levels for wholetime appliances.
3.2.2 In order to fully crew all 14 wholetime pumping appliances at minimum levels, the number of wholetime staff required on-duty each shift is 56 personnel.
3.2.3 In order to fully crew all wholetime pumping appliances and provide a primary crew for the special appliances at Whitley Wood Fire Station 58 personnel are required on-duty each shift.
3.2.4 During the reporting period the Service maintained crewing at 56 and the availability of the 14 wholetime appliances on 180 (100%) of shifts.
3.2.5 During the reporting period the Service maintained crewing at 58 or more, providing a primary crew for the special appliances at Whitley Wood Fire Station (Stn 20), on 179 (99.4%) shifts (on the occasions where this can’t be achieved the specials are switch crewed with the pumping appliance at the station).
*Previous month’s figures included for comparison
3.2.6 Absences are either planned e.g. annual leave, detachments to training courses, temporary promotion etc, or unplanned e.g. short term sickness.
3.2.7 To maintain planned crewing levels the service utilises a variety of means to ensure minimum crewing levels are achieved. When options to maximise crewing have been exhausted e.g. transferring personnel from station to station, pre-arranged overtime (PAOT) is used. The table below details the number of occasions where pre-arranged overtime has been used to maintain minimum crewing and the chart at appendix 1 illustrates these figures alongside short-term sickness, the establishment and vacancies.
Number of shifts of PAOT undertaken
April 81
May 141
June 158
July 271
August 443
September 286
October 259
November 168
December 159
January 111
February 128
March 87
3.3 Retained Crewing
3.3.1 The service maintains 7 retained pumping appliances.
3.3.2 The table below details the service wide availability of retained appliances for the period expressed as a percentage of total time.
April 53.5
May 54
June 49.4
July 43.6
August 50.1
September 50.3
October 35.4
November 49.7
December 38.3
January 55.0
February 49.4
March 46.3
3.3.3 The chart at Appendix 2 shows the total retained appliance availability for the period per station.
3.3.4 The Retained Support Unit (RSU) has a number of primary responsibilities including increasing RDS recruitment, supporting development of trainee Firefighters and supplementing retained crewing to increase appliance availability.
3.3.5 The RSU now take an active part in the basic training of RDS trainee Firefighters. Prospective Firefighters no longer have to wait up to 6 months for a training course to start and are invited to attend and commence basic training at their own station very soon after being recruited.
3.3.6 At the end of the reporting period 8 trainee RDS Firefighters were undertaking basic training.
3.3.7 Currently the RSU has 8 members (1 Watch Manager and 7 Crew Managers).
3.3.8 The figures below detail the hours provided by the RSU for crewing appliances for the period.
*Previous month’s figures included for comparison
3.4 Thames Valley Fire Control Service (TVFCS)
3.4.1 The minimum crewing level for TVFCS is 6 on duty of which 3 must be supervisory managers (Crew or Watch Manager).
3.4.2 Where the forecasted crewing level falls below minimum, options such as duty swaps and overtime will be utilised to maintain crewing. Where these options fail to bring crewing back up to minimum requirements operational officers from the Thames Valley FRSs are utilised to stand-in for supervisory officers for decision making or to take administrative calls.
3.4.3 During the reporting period crewing fell below minimum on 17 occasions (9% of shifts). On all of those occasions operational officers made up the shortfall.
*Previous month’s figures included for comparison
4. FINANCIAL, LEGAL, RISK MANAGEMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL AND EQUALITY IMPLICATIONS
4.1 Pre-arranged overtime is utilised to ensure frontline fire appliances are available. The associated costs to provide these arrangements are within the authorised budget set by the Authority.
4.2 The provision of a response to emergencies is a statutory duty placed upon the Fire Authority. In order to deploy safe operational tactics at incidents, the minimum number of fire-fighters that must crew a fire appliance is four with the requisite skills.
4.3 There are no environmental or equality issues arising from the report.
5. COMPLIANCE WITH STANDING ORDERS / FINANCIAL REGULATIONS
5.1 The report complies with both the Standing Orders and the Financial Regulations of the Authority.
6. CONTRIBUTION TO STRATEGIC COMMITMENTS
6.1 Proper crewing of our fire appliances and Control contributes to the following Strategic Commitments of the Authority:
Commitment 2 - We will ensure a swift and effective response when called to
emergencies.
7. ASSESSMENT AGAINST THE PARTNERSHIP FOR COMMON SENSE
7.1 The current arrangement for paying overtime is time and a half, as per the Grey Book (national terms and conditions for fire-fighters). The national conditions can be varied by way of a local agreement. RBFRS management have held discussions with the FBU regarding the possibility of seeking such agreement, however to date the FBU have not been willing to discuss other options.
7.2 RBFRS management will therefore consider alternative approaches to reduce the overtime costs.
8. BACKGROUND PAPERS
8.1 None.
9. CONSULTATION WITH STATUTORY OFFICERS
9.1 Chief Fire Officer
The Chief Fire Officer has been consulted in the production of this report.
9.2 Chief Finance Officer
The Chief Finance Officer has been consulted in the production of this report.
9.3 Monitoring Officer
The Monitoring Officer has been consulted in the production of this report.
Author:
Neil Carter Group Manager Response Central Team 07899 066251
Sponsored by: Dave Myers Area Manager East 07774 215665
Date of report: 30th June 2016
Appendix 1
*Previous month’s figures included for comparison.
Appendix 2
*Previous month’s figures included for comparison.
CREWING LEVEL MONITORING
PRESENTED TO:
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
DATE OF MEETING:
25TH JULY 2016
OFFICER PRESENTING REPORT: AREA MANAGER MARK GASKARTH
1. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY OF REPORT
1.1 To inform the Management Committee of the crewing levels for wholetime and retained appliances and TVFCS for the 1st quarter of 2016/17.
2. RECOMMENDATIONS
That the Management Committee:-
2.1 Note the report.
3. BACKGROUND AND SUPPORTING INFORMATION
3.1 This report sets out the wholetime, retained and TVFCS crewing levels and associated data for the 1st quarter of the 2016/17 financial year (from April to June 2016).
3.1.1 Wholetime establishment
3.1.2 The station based establishment (roles from Firefighter to Watch Manager) is 328 excluding the Retained Support Officers.
3.1.3 The chart below illustrates the establishment figure against the number of vacancies for the period.
3.1.4 The chart reflects the transfer of 12 Wholetime Firefighters on to stations following their basic training (12 Firefighters joined the establishment and 1 Crew Manager left).
*Previous month’s figures included for comparison
3.1.5 Note - The above establishment figure of 333 relates to substantive station based post holders, however the figures do not include those personnel missing from their substantive posts through long term absences such as temporary promotion into substantive vacancies and long-term sickness. During the reporting period there were, on average, 8 personnel absent from station posts due to temporary promotion and 11 through long term sickness and other absences e.g. career breaks. Officers are currently substantiating some of the vacancies, which will result in the establishment figure of 333 being reduced below the 328.
3.1.6 Personnel at Stations 1 and 3 are required to hold specialist qualifications to crew the Heavy Rescue Unit, Fire Boat, Water Rescue Unit and Animal Rescue Unit. Absences from those stations cannot be filled by personnel from other stations on a day-to-day basis and as a result the stations become more reliant on locally managed pre-arranged overtime (PAOT). A recent station transfer process following retirements and resignations has resulted in unqualified staff moving to these two stations. Together with the absences described above this accounts for the relatively high use of PAOT during the reporting period.
3.2 Wholetime crewing
3.2.1 The Optimisation of Crewing Resources Policy defines the minimum crewing levels for wholetime appliances.
3.2.2 In order to fully crew all 14 wholetime pumping appliances at minimum levels, the number of wholetime staff required on-duty each shift is 56 personnel.
3.2.3 In order to fully crew all wholetime pumping appliances and provide a primary crew for the special appliances at Whitley Wood Fire Station 58 personnel are required on-duty each shift.
3.2.4 During the reporting period the Service maintained crewing at 56 and the availability of the 14 wholetime appliances on 182 (100%) of shifts.
3.2.5 During the reporting period the Service maintained crewing at 58 or more, providing a primary crew for the special appliances at Whitley Wood Fire Station (Stn 20), on 153 (84%) shifts (on the occasions where this can’t be achieved the specials are switch crewed with the pumping appliance at the station).
*Previous month’s figures included for comparison
3.2.6 Absences are either planned e.g. annual leave, detachments to training courses, temporary promotion etc, or unplanned e.g. sickness.
3.2.7 To maintain planned crewing levels the service utilises a variety of means to ensure minimum crewing levels are achieved. When options to maximise crewing have been exhausted e.g. transferring personnel from station to station, pre-arranged overtime (PAOT) is used. The table below details the number of occasions where pre-arranged overtime has been used to maintain minimum crewing and the chart at appendix 1 illustrates these figures alongside short-term sickness, the establishment and vacancies.
Number of shifts of PAOT undertaken
January 111
February 128
March 87
April 126
May 112
June 132
3.3 Retained Crewing
3.3.1 The service maintains 7 retained pumping appliances.
3.3.2 The table below details the service wide availability of retained appliances for the period expressed as a percentage of total time.
January 55.0
February 49.4
March 46.3
April 46.3
May 49.4
June 41.8
3.3.3 The chart at Appendix 2 shows the total retained appliance availability for the period per station.
3.3.4 The Retained Support Unit (RSU) has a number of primary responsibilities including increasing RDS recruitment, supporting development of trainee Firefighters and supplementing retained crewing to increase appliance availability.
3.3.5 The RSU now take an active part in the basic training of RDS trainee Firefighters. Prospective Firefighters no longer have to wait up to 6 months for a training course to start and are invited to attend and start basic training at their own station very soon after being recruited.
3.3.6 At the end of the reporting period 9 trainee RDS Firefighters were undertaking basic training.
3.3.7 Currently the RSU has 8 members (1 Watch Manager and 7 Crew Managers).
3.3.8 The figures below detail the hours provided by the RSU for crewing appliances for the period.
*Previous month’s figures included for comparison
3.4 Thames Valley Fire Control Service (TVFCS)
3.4.1 The minimum crewing level for TVFCS is 6 on duty of which 3 must be supervisory managers (Crew or Watch Manager).
3.4.2 Where forecasted crewing falls below minimum options such as duty swaps and overtime will be utilised to maintain crewing. Where these options fail to bring crewing back up to minimum requirements operational officers from the Thames Valley FRSs are utilised to stand-in for supervisory officers for decision making or to take administrative calls.
3.4.3 During the reporting period crewing fell below minimum on 7 occasions (8% of shifts). On all of those occasions operational officers made up the shortfall.
4. FINANCIAL, LEGAL, RISK MANAGEMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL AND EQUALITY IMPLICATIONS
4.1 Pre-arranged overtime is utilised to ensure frontline fire appliances are available. The associated costs to provide these arrangements are within the authorised budget set by the Authority.
4.2 The provision of a response to emergencies is a statutory duty placed upon the Fire Authority. In order to deploy safe operational tactics at incidents, the minimum number of fire-fighters that must crew a fire appliance is four with the requisite skills.
4.3 There are no environmental or equality issues arising from the report.
5. COMPLIANCE WITH STANDING ORDERS / FINANCIAL REGULATIONS
5.1 The report complies with both the Standing Orders and the Financial Regulations of the Authority.
6. CONTRIBUTION TO STRATEGIC COMMITMENTS
6.1 Proper crewing of our fire appliances and Control contributes to the following Strategic Commitments of the Authority:
6.1.1 Commitment 2 - We will ensure a swift and effective response when called to
emergencies.
7. ASSESSMENT AGAINST THE PARTNERSHIP FOR COMMON SENSE
7.1 The current arrangement for paying overtime is time and a half, as per the Grey Book (national terms and conditions for fire-fighters). The national conditions can be varied by way of a local agreement. RBFRS management have held discussions with the FBU regarding the possibility of seeking such agreement, however to date the FBU have not been willing to discuss other options.
7.2 RBFRS management will therefore consider alternative approaches to reduce the overtime costs.
8. BACKGROUND PAPERS
8.1 None.
9. CONSULTATION WITH STATUTORY OFFICERS
9.1 Chief Fire Officer
The Chief Fire Officer has been consulted in the production of this report.
9.2 Chief Finance Officer
The Chief Finance Officer has been consulted in the production of this report.
9.3 Monitoring Officer
The Monitoring Officer has been consulted in the production of this report.
Author:
Neil Carter Group Manager Response Central Team 07899 066251
Sponsored by: Dave Myers Area Manager East 07774 215665
Date of report: 30th June 2016
Appendix 1
*Previous month’s figures included for comparison.
Appendix 2
*Previous month’s figures included for comparison.