Reimagining the emergency services

Government & Politics

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Reimagining the Emergency Services: from integrated governance to integrated service delivery

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In this third Congress, FIRE took a new approach and invited speakers from across the emergency services to respond to three propositions intended to explore some of the issues facing the blue light services today. Helpfully supported by Policing Insight in its first partnership with FIRE, the Congress series is now looking beyond its natural home to the wider emergency services

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osted by West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service, FIRE took the conversation out of the usual confines of London and in this more intimate setting sought to challenge some of the assumptions that may be holding back fire reform.

There is so much happening on the national stage at the moment. With parliament considering generational change for the governance of the Fire and Rescue Service that could see police and crime commissioners embrace fire and bring it closer than ever to the police, it was certainly timely to hold the Congress. Allied with parliamentary debate about the creation of a new inspectorate and the publication of the Thomas Review, the fire agenda is certainly full and there was plenty to discuss.

It takes a leap of faith to agree to be involved in an event where there is no PowerPoint to lean on and no opportunity to bring along a practiced and proven presentation. The Congress was about having an opinion about propositions put forward by FIRE. What it did prove was that it is incredibly hard for presenters to get across their ideas in ten or 15 minutes; being succinct is certainly a dark art.

Following on from RE16 (see pg 43), the annual research event that was held the previous day at which FIRE presented the FIRE magazine/Gore Research Excellence awards, it was good to have academic input. Paresh Wankhade, Professor of Leadership and Management at Edge Hill University Business School, co-chaired the Congress along with CFO Roy Wilsher. Professor Wankhade is also Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Emergency Services and brought a wealth of experience and insight from across the blue light spectrum.

Delegates at FIRE’s Congress held at West Midlands Fire Service headquarters

“Given all the discussion about integrated governance, FIRE wanted to know what integrated service delivery might look like”

Proposition 1: A New Funding Model Given all the discussion about integrated governance, FIRE wanted to know what integrated service delivery might look like.

This was the first proposition of the Congress: “We need a new model of funding and managing national functions for the emergency services to avoid constant repetition and demonstrate value for money” On the funding point, Nick Collins (National Operational Guidance Programme) and Carl Daniels (JESIP) both share the same problem: what happens when the funding stream dries up in March 2018? “We need people” said Carl, “that wake up in the morning and eat and sleep JESIP”. He is right, but the question is, who pays those people?

Retaining a centralised function of some form to ensure that “we don’t go back five years” as Carl warned, seems sensible but current January 2017 | www.fire–magazine.com | 13

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Government & Politics

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funding arrangements do not allow for that post 2018. Indeed, the same goes for the National Operational Guidance Programme.

The piecemeal, short-term funding models that see individual services asked to pay a few thousand here, a few thousand there are inefficient and unsatisfactory for long-term planning and attracting people to take on these roles. It is not a sustainable proposition.

Unfortunately, no one at the Congress had a good alternative to offer, aside from the dated view that top slicing might be an option, the Congress left this part of the proposition sadly unanswered.

“Think the impossible” asserted Carl Daniels.

Focusing on change and the fear of it, Carl set out the JESIP journey to persuading 105 chief officers from the three blue light services to agree to an approach to interoperability.

If success was based on whether an acronym becomes a noun, then JESIP has cracked it.

National approaches are nothing new. Think back to the early 2000s and the New Dimension programme, Firelink and FiReControl, all national programmes delivering change at a local level. JESIP and NOG have learned from the experience of these long-finished programmes and assert a new approach that is collaborative, out with the single direction and management of government.

“Draw on the collaborative centralisation of intelligence,” said Nick Collins. He argued for an approach that leads to the creation of a national central repository of good practice that is tailored and delivered locally. He urged everyone to stop being competitive and work together. For Nick the future of national functions is all about removing duplication and being efficient, but he knows it requires cultural change to make that work and that is the hard part.

And on that value for money point, Peter Murphy, Director of Public Policy and Management Research Group at Nottingham Business School, focused firmly on the role

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Sarah Warnes, West Midlands Fire Service, challenged recruitment practice and criticised FIRE’s poster for projecting an outdated image of the Fire and Rescue Service

Keynote speaker and Chair Roy Wilsher

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“People don’t care about the governance, just as long as someone turns up when they need it”

of the nascent fire inspectorate. “The best inspectorates are critical friends”, argued Peter, they provide public assurance that public money is being spent properly. While it was interesting to reconsider the inspectorate role after its long absence, it was not clear how the fire inspectorate would go about scrutinising national functions like NOG or JESIP. The desire to increase diversity in the Fire and Rescue Service is not new. The blunt speech by the former Home Secretary in May 2016 reminded everyone that the Service remains stubbornly white and male. The recent publication of the Thomas Review included a recommendation for a national approach to communicating to the general public about the modern firefighter role, reflecting the diversity of the functions in order to diversify the intake.

Proposition 2: New Roles = Diverse Workforce?

It was apt then that proposition 2 asserted: “A newly created role of an ‘emergency service worker’ will lead to a more diverse workforce than ever before” The tri-service pilot in Hayle, Cornwall is well known. Upscaling it to work in urban areas is the next challenge. Adrian Healey, who is heading up tri-service development for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust, urged others to overcome the challenges of working together. He told the Congress that those who want to try out the approach do not need a pilot, do not need to evaluate but should take the Cornish model and adapt to local areas.

He was bullish in his advice.

Tom Holmes, Chief Inspector in the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, talked about the untapped potential of the PCSO, where in Devon 43 per cent of PCSOs are women.

Diversifying this role to encompass the nonoperational aspects of the Fire and Rescue

Government & Politics

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Proposition 3: Branding

“The brand of the individual emergency services and public perception will inhibit any move to integrated service delivery”

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For Dan, his perception of the Fire and Rescue Service could be summarised as: • Professional • Hard working • Dedicated • Putting lives on the line.

He argued the same characteristics would apply equally to the Police and to the Ambulance Service. So if that is the case, what difference does it make if the three emergency services remain separate or integrated into a single emergency service role?

Simon Bullock, currently interim CEO of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset, argued that while brand was important for all the emergency services, the government imperative may be stronger. He, along with Bernard Rix from CoPaCC, provided a strategic police viewpoint and the publication of the latest CoPaCC report in to police and fire mergers was a timely reminder of the government’s agenda in this area.

He talked about the monopoly of the emergency services and the lack of consumer choice: what does brand matter if there is no choice? Although for some in the fire dominated audience, the argument was more fundamental and earned: “our brand is an outcome of our professionalism”.

“If we are to remake ourselves”, noted one observer, “we need to pick an image that works going forward”.

It may be a bit too radical to expect the emergency services to change from three distinct entities (or silos) into a single emergency service, but there are elements of this discussion that speak to the changes that are taking place on the wider political stage. If the goal is to diversify the fire and rescue service then re-presenting the role to reflect the reality of today’s demands is a good start.

When FIRE was putting this Congress together, one of the ambitions was to put together a blueprint to present to CFOA, the NPCC and AACE. The discussion at this Congress revealed that the debate about integrated service delivery is in its infancy; it is too early for such a blueprint to be devised.

There is clearly a very long way to go.

FIRE hopes that after reading this, strategic leaders will give further thought to the ideas of integrating service delivery and continue that discussion as part of the wider debate on fire reform.

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“If we are to remake ourselves we need

to pick an image that

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works going forward”

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Service would go a long way to introducing more women into the Service and maybe in the future encourage them to train to take on operational roles.

“We are closing down the pool of people who will engage”, said Sarah Warnes from West Midlands Fire Service. Pointing to the heroic imagery used in the FIRE magazine banner next to her as she spoke, “whatever we are doing now, it’s not working”.

Whether that is the use of heroic imagery or not, the point is well made. It is countered by the argument that the excellence of operational response is the reason why the Fire and Rescue Service has its reputation. Balancing the two is now the challenge.

When around seven per cent of a firefighter’s time is spent on operational response, there was some discussion about whether the current role of the firefighter is being mis-sold. The work of a firefighter is very different to the work of a principal officer, requiring different skills but building on a common foundation. Not all principal officers come through an operational route, indeed there are increasing numbers of non-operational women coming into senior roles.

In the Thomas Review, there is a substantial section on the leadership of the Fire and Rescue Service and a discussion about whether firefighters recruited for one set of skills can be developed and learn the skills of management and leadership 20 or more years down the line.

Adrian Thomas did not have the answers, but he did have a lot of points to make about diversity (see review of the Thomas Review on page 10). Sarah Warnes asked: “Are we recruiting the right firefighter for the 21st Century?” She suggested upgrading the apprenticeship role to be a generic entry point for the emergency services, with apprentices gradually specialising where they work over time.

To attract good quality candidates to any future creation of an emergency service worker role the career path needs to be clearly defined.

That is a real challenge and one that requires joined up thinking – maybe something for a national function?

There were some good ideas in this part of the Congress and a lot of cross over with the final proposition which focused on branding.

It is always helpful to get some outside insight when considering the future of any area of work. Dan Slee, Director of Comms2.0, did just that. “People don’t care about the governance” he told us, “just as long as someone turns up when they need it”. This is not new, but it is a useful reminder of the public perception of the Fire and Rescue Service.

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