Warwickshire FRS - 'doing the right thing'

Focus on Warwickshire

Warwickshire FRS – ‘doing the right thing’

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WFRS has completely reviewed its approach to training since the Atherstone-on-Stour fire of 2007. In this brigade focus on Warwickshire, FIRE correspondent Catherine Levin speaks to CFO Andy Hickmott about their focus on ‘assertive firefighting’

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system and upgrades to the Integrated Communications Control System in 2013.

These are just some examples of the work going on in WFRS against a backdrop of the need to deliver significant savings. DCFO Gary Philips says he is “proud of our record on delivery” and that much of the innovation in service delivery comes from the staff who are proactive and engaged.

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CFO Andy Hickmott

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here are only 14 county council led fire and rescue services left in England. In ’Shakespeare’s county’ of Warwickshire there’s a polarised geography where the north hosts post-industrial towns that bear little resemblance to the rural beauty of the Cotswolds that lie to the south.

With just over 400 firefighters, 150 of whom are retained, Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service (WFRS) is a small organisation of which Andy Hickmott became Chief Fire Officer in May 2013. CFO Hickmott comes from London Fire Brigade but has experience in Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, so was familiar to the county fire service environment.

He is also quite unusual in that he has worked at a senior level in all of the different FRS governance models, County Council, Combined, Metropolitan, and an elected Mayor, so he sees the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Like all fire and rescue services, WFRS is cutting back; responding to reductions in budgets in an age of austerity. Expected to find 12 per cent savings over two years, the WFRS experience is no different to its peers. And yet it is different in many ways. There is an energy at WFRS that is kept in check by its own modesty: there has not been a fatality in an accidental dwelling fire in the county since January 2011.

Deliberate fires are a different story. In the northern part of the county they have been a problem, with the Nuneaton and Bedworth district accounting for 51 per cent of arson activity across the county. The Arson Reduction Team works in partnership with Warwickshire Police, Youth Justice, Probation and the county council project teams in what is known locally as the Harm Reduction Hub. This approach was recognised in the 2013 LGA Fire Peer Review as notable practice.

The outturn report for 2013/14 speaks volumes about the success that WFRS is having in many areas of its performance, from the impact of call challenge on the numbers of false alarms, to approaches to attending special service incidents and its youth engagement work.

There have been improvements in efficiency and co-operative working with neighbouring fire and rescue services as a result of investment in a new control room, command and control

“It was inevitable that following the Atherstone-on-Stour fire, there was doubt

‘Assertive firefighting’ The conclusions of the LGA Fire Peer Review Report suggests that WFRS needs to ‘recognise, celebrate and learn from operational success’.

The review notes this in a section focused on operational training and development.

Warwickshire FRS has completely reviewed its approach to training since the Atherstone-onStour fire of 2007.

The warehouse fire of November 2, 2007 tragically claimed the lives of WFRS firefighters, John Averis, Ian Reid, Ashley Stephens and Darren Yates-Badley and had ‘a profound effect on all involved’ writes CFO Hickmott in his foreword to the detailed report on the fire published in 2014.

The LGA Fire Peer Review team visited WFRS in late 2013 and was asked to test the operational and organisational confidence of the service in the light of progress made since the tragedy of 2007. The report stated: ‘It was

amongst many about what is the right thing to do operationally”

WFRS has achieved no fatalities in an accidental dwelling fire since January 2011

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Focus on Warwickshire

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public agencies who seemed to want to rewrite our fireground tactics for us, there was doubt amongst many about what is the right thing to do operationally,” he adds.

There is a strong theme around doing the right thing in CFO Hickmott’s communication with his staff. For him it is about reassuring the public about the actions of his firefighters, but equally importantly giving “assurance to the firefighter that we trust them to do the right thing at the right time and in the right place. And the right thing will most often be firefighters mounting offensive operations to save and protect property using the equipment and training we have given them and expect them to use well”.

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Making his mark The LGA Fire Peer Review report certainly provides extra reassurance when it notes: ‘It is clear that Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service has come a long way and there is enthusiasm and growing confidence for the future’.

This message is reinforced by the authority’s investment in new style appliances, a whole range of new equipment and the construction of a new training centre.

CFO Hickmott has a very proactive approach to communicating with his staff. A good example of this is in the March issue of Fire Matters, an internal newsletter. He shares his thoughts on the LGA Fire Conference and picks up on the bullying theme that emerged from Adrian Thomas’s report preview.

He is unafraid to tackle matters that so often are sidelined. He reminds staff of positive performance criteria within role maps that are applicable to everyone in the Fire and Rescue Service, emphasising that these are not optional or can be allowed to lapse just because current circumstances might be difficult.

He is making his mark and making sure his staff know who he is and what he stands for as he leads WFRS into the future.

That future also includes doing things differently. In April 2014, WFRS published a consultation document Shaping the Future which set out a range of options for delivering the required £1.3 million savings for 2014/16.

This first phase of savings looked at the use of wholetime firefighters, prevention activity and reviewed the strategic management team.

One option is the introduction of new crewing arrangements. Like some neighbouring fire and rescue services, WFRS has begun to use day crewing plus, which essentially means that a crew will be on duty for 12 hours and then spend 12 hours on standby duty. The benefit of this approach is that it increases operational exposure among a smaller pool of people. And for an organisation committed to assertive firefighting, the more exposure staff have to incidents, the more confidence they will have as a result.

The other benefit of this approach, and

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clear that operational confidence was returning and that crews felt empowered and supported through the provision of quality training and equipment’.

CFO Hickmott reinforces this when he sets out in his first message to staff since becoming Chief Fire Officer a set of principles in which WFRS will always be working towards being “resourced, located, equipped and trained to the most effective level”.

For CFO Hickmott, a key issue is what he, his officers, and an increasing number of commentators nationally now refer to as ‘assertive firefighting’. He says that it is partly about public confidence in WFRS but especially about the confidence of his own staff.

“It was inevitable that following the Atherstone-on-Stour fire, and especially the later – albeit unsuccessful – actions of other 38 | July/August 2015 | www.fire–magazine.com

CFO Hickmott encourages his teams to engage in “assertive firefighting”

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Engaging with the community is key in CFO Hickmott’s plans

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has come a long way and there is enthusiasm and

growing confidence for the future,” LGA

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Fire Peer Review.

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Project Arrow – Looking to the Future Changes like this can come with considerable challenges, not least the need to consult and involve representative bodies. Warwickshire FRS has an impressive record of building a constructive relationship with trade union representatives. DCFO Phillips says: “Previously we were disengaged with the union, but we worked with them and now we are in a good position.” The LGA Fire Peer Review report noted the ‘mature approach adopted by WFRS’ during industrial action.

With the recent decision by Dorset Fire and Rescue Service and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service to merge from April 2016, it is timely for others to reconsider their position as budgets and demand for their service shrinks. Project Arrow, named after the river that runs between WFRS and Hereford and Worcestershire Fire

“Warwickshire FRS

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this is not unique to WFRS, is that it takes 14 wholetime staff to provide 24/7 cover over four watches and not 28 staff. Savings like this will go a long way to helping WFRS to meet its efficiency targets.

Another recent change is to response times.

Previously WFRS was committed to respond to fires within ten minutes in urban areas and within 20 minutes in rural areas. Since April this year the metrics have changed to remove the urban/rural split.

With the assistance of operational modelling company, ORH, WFRS now has a response time for all life risk emergencies county wide that sees the first fire engine at the incident in ten minutes on 75 per cent of occasions. The second fire engine attends within 15 minutes on 90 per cent of occasions. CFO Hickmott says that this is not particularly controversial or unique, but is clear about life risk and is more equitable across a county that attends a high proportion of road traffic collisions given the transport network in Warwickshire.

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Focus on Warwickshire

WFRS has completely reviewed its approach to training since the Atherstone-on-Stour fire of 2007

and Rescue Service, was established in February 2014 with a remit to examine a range of options from doing nothing up to and including a full merger. Last year, politicians agreed to initially pursue a formalised operational collaboration between the two services and that is now taking effect in a selected set of working areas.

While WFRS is a county fire and rescue service and H&WFRS, led by CFO Mark Yates, is a combined fire authority, they have a long history of working together and share similar strategic aims and objectives. Project Arrow will continue to evaluate the scope and potential for collaboration in anticipation of further funding pressures from 2017 onwards.

The options for greater collaboration being currently considered include looking carefully at the strategic alliance currently operating between their respective police services, Warwickshire and West Mercia, which sees separate police leadership at Chief Constable and PCC level but joint working in virtually every organisational area. Fire authority members on both sides will consider further options later this year.

“Fire Landscape is Currently a Confusing One” Looking wider still, WFRS is one of five fire and rescue services across the West Midlands region that have a firm regional working commitment agreed at both member and officer level. This means that when any two or more of the five services face a new or emerging issue or need, they commit to firstly examining whether either a regional or sub regional solution provides the best course of action, or whether to adopt the good practice of another.

Despite the demise of the previous regional management boards, the five fire authority chairs and chiefs across the West Midlands have continued to meet and advance joint working opportunities, and are keen to shape their future for themselves, rather than simply wait July/August 2015 | www.fire–magazine.com | 39

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Project Arrow is named after the river which disects Warwickshire and Hereford and Worcester

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and see how national developments might impact locally.

From a governance perspective “the fire landscape is currently a confusing one” asserts CFO Hickmott. Talk of alliances or mergers, blue light collaboration, the role of Police and Crime Commissioners, city regions, elected mayors and combined authorities are all live issues and are all impacting on the county council and WFRS in different ways.

Interesting as all this is, CFO Hickmott urges his staff not to dwell too much on future wider organisational changes, but concentrate on the job in hand. “The community in Warwickshire is always going to be well served by the best fire and rescue service we can provide.”

‘Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service is a resilient, supportive and ‘can do’ organisation that has come a long way and is in a much better place’. This was the conclusion of the LGA Peer Review carried out in November 2013. The evidence since then certainly supports this view.