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East Sussex Fire Authority has agreed, at this time, not to introduce the options of variable crewing or annualised hours as outlined in the draft IRMP document. This decision was taken following a thorough and comprehensive IRMP consultation process, which has involved detailed feed-back from local homes, businesses, Councils and Fire & Rescue staff across East Sussex and the City of Brighton & Hove.
East Sussex Fire Authority has agreed that no fire appliances will be removed at night, to ensure that operational levels of service maintain their current standard. Chief Fire Officer & Chief Executive, Des Prichard, said; "Maximising the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery was of the utmost importance."
East Sussex Fire Authority agreed the following recommendations during
The Fire Authority meeting held at Service Headquarters on 17th January 2008:
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It is not considered viable to introduce variable crewing into East Sussex and the City of Brighton & Hove taking into account the potential risks, although the Fire Authority recognises the importance of properly matching resources to workload demand; this matter is to be kept under review.
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Whilst recognising the additional associated costs, East Sussex Fire Authority would wish to explore the feasibility of introducing retained appliances onto wholetime stations, particularly in Eastbourne and the City of Brighton and Hove.
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Whilst recognising that there is a potential to introduce annualised hours to have a more effective spread of personnel ensuring resilience and operational effectiveness, it is not recommended to introduce annualised hours at this time.
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As programmed annual leave and training would have the benefit of more effectively planning resource requirements, improve organisational resilience and Service training, the Chief Fire Officer & Chief Executive is to consult on the introduction of programmed annual leave and training.
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That the Chief Fire Officer & Chief Executive implements amendments to the station working routines to ensure the majority of the 24 hour period is given over to operational training and community safety activities, that other station work routines are kept to the minimum necessary and that stand-down time is only available after all other tasks are completed. The introduction of such changes is a matter for the Chief Fire Officer & Chief Executive and is to be reported back to the Scrutiny & Audit Panel.
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That the Chief Fire Officer & Chief Executive moves forward the introduction of a shift pattern that provides a minimum of an 11-hour break between night shifts. Both these measures to be introduced during the year 2008/09.
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