Agenda item

The Chief Fire Officer presented the report. 

The report set out the background to North West Fire Control centre (NWFC) which was created after the collapse of a national project.  NWFC served the areas of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester and Lancashire.  From May 2014 staff started answering Lancashire’s 999 calls, mobilising resources to incidents and assisting operational staff with the management of incidents. 

NW Fire Control Limited (the Company) as the legal entity that provided the services to the partner fire and rescue services was jointly owned by the fire and rescue authorities and liability was limited by guarantee.  Each fire and rescue authority appointed two Directors to sit on the Board (and from the CFA, this was the Chair and Vice Chair).  Chief Fire Officers and some advisers also attended the Board, together with staff from NWFC.

It was noted that creating NWFC was a difficult and costly exercise with parties to the collaboration advised that it should be seen as a long-term and ‘almost permanent’ arrangement, due to the complexity and cost of ending it.  Creating a separate fire control solely for one of the partners to NWFC would take at least two years (probably nearer to three) and involve: i) investment in a new mobilising system which would be likely to cost almost as much as the system utilised by NWFC; ii) creation of a resilient control room; and iii) recruitment of staff to be suitably trained in readiness for go-live.  The CFA was committed  to NWFC until at least July 2033 (the date that the lease of the fire control building came to an end).  A new mobilising system was required to be procured by NW Fire Control Limited and there were a number of other pressures exist that had impacted on NWFC.

When NWFC was created there was a significant investment by the Government (which continued in the form of circa £1m per annum towards the lease of the NWFC building).  Almost all up-front costs to create NWFC were paid for by the Government.  NWFC was now paid for by the partners in proportions that were agreed before the original project was fully committed to.  The proportions were intended to reflect the relative demand placed upon NWFC by the respective partners, i.e. call volumes were seen as a meaningful driver for establishing the respective shares of the costs.  The proportions were recorded in various governance documents, with the Co-Operation Agreement between the fire and rescue authorities stating that the ‘… proportions will be reviewed from time to time.  Such reviews will take into account the relative benefits to the respective Authorities derived from the Services provided by the Company.’  The percentage call volumes per partner had generally been extremely close to the proportions and therefore the partners had not sought to review them.  These were:

·         Cheshire Fire Authority, 18%

·         Cumbria Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, 8%

·         Greater Manchester Combined Authority, 48.5% and

·         Lancashire Combined Fire Authority, 25.5%.

More recently, however, the call volumes had changed to such an extent that at least for the time being they no longer aligned with the proportions.  The need to fund a new mobilising system and the requirement for additional funding for NWFC, as well as the fact that the call volumes no longer aligned with the original proportions, had led to a debate about the proportions which should be paid by the partners going forward. 

Chief Fire Officers reached a position which they felt able to justify to their respective fire authorities and for Lancashire this would see an increase from 25.5% to 28.05%.  The impact of increasing the CFA’s share of the cost would increase it from £0.161m to £1.770m as set out in the Financial Implications section of the report, now considered by Members, and this was expected to take effect from 1^st April 2024.

NWFC used a computerised mobilising system which assisted the control room operators when answering and handling emergency calls.  The current system was now nearing ‘end of life’ and needed to be replaced.  The replacement project required a significant investment by the partners (both time input and money) as well as from the team at NWFC.  An important first step would be the agreement of an extension to the contract for the current mobilising system, which would be needed until the new mobilising system was in place.   Partner fire and rescue services were fully engaged in the project with tender documentation currently being prepared.  During the project decisions needed to be taken by the partner fire authorities and NW Fire Control Limited to ensure: i) satisfaction with the procurement arrangements / tender documentation before the tender process could commence; and ii) be in agreement over the appointment of a supplier once the tender process had run its course.  In addition, Chief Fire Officers for each partner fire and rescue service would make the decision about ‘going-live’ onto the new mobilising system once they were satisfied with the implementation work and readiness of the new mobilising system.

It was noted that there were two aspects to the funding for the new mobilising system: i)  procurement and implementation of the new mobilising system.  This was a large undertaking which would span three financial years (at least).  Based on the latest estimates and assumptions this would require a one-off investment of around £6m.  (Shared by the partner fire authorities.) and ii) once the system was live there would be recurring annual costs for licensing, maintenance, development etc.  Currently, the cost was circa £0.800m.  It was hoped that the recurring cost would not increase substantially but given the recent impact of inflation on wage increases, there would undoubtedly be some uplift, therefore it was prudent to budget for up to £1m per annum.  Again, this cost would be shared by the partner fire authorities.

Since NWFC started handling emergency calls back in 2014, the expectations of the partner fire and rescue services had risen, requirements placed upon the fire control had grown and quite recently, a new Fire Standard aimed at fire control rooms had been published.  A form of business plan (with annual delivery plans) had been created which the Chief Fire Officers believed needed to be supported for the next twelve months (2024-25) as well as some additional resource costs which should be built into NWFC’s base budget.  The further resourcing requirements support challenging elements of the delivery plan that NWFC could not deliver from its existing establishment.  In 2024-25 the following matters were due to be progressed: i) a new training regime and system for capturing that training; ii) appraisal of the action plan associated with the fire control Fire Standard; and iii) capacity review and work on a future operating model. 

Resolved: that the Authority

i)     noted the commitment to the NWFC collaboration;

ii)    agreed the Authority’s contribution of 28.05% to the collaboration as detailed in the report;

iii)   noted that the Chief Fire Officer would make all necessary decisions associated with the new mobilising system on behalf of the Authority within his delegated powers; and

iv)   approved the Authority’s share of the new mobilising system and additional resourcing costs and proposed funding as detailed in the report.