3 - SFRS PFC Q2 report and appendices
North Ayrshire Council · 13 November 2023
Back to Police and Fire and Rescue Committee — 13 November 2023 and its agenda
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Page | 1 Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Police & Fire and Rescue Committee – 13 November 2023 Subject Performance Report and Service updates Purpose To advise members of the Police and Fire Committee as to progress against North Ayrshire’s Local Fire and Rescue Plan and to provide committee members with other key Fire and Rescue Service updates. Recommendation For members to note the information contained within this report 1. Introduction 1.1 The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is legally obliged to produce Local Fire and Rescue Plans for all 32 local authorities across Scotland. The Local Fire and Rescue Plan for North Ayrshire was developed and, following a public consultation, was presented to North Ayrshire Council for formal approval. 1.2 The priorities contained within the current North Ayrshire Local Fire and Rescue Plan were formally approved at the full Council. The continuation of these priorities has been agreed for future reference, via the Police & Fire and Rescue Committee, and will be subject to ongoing monitoring via this forum. 2. Performance Summary 2.1 An analysis of operational responses across North Ayrshire for the period 1 April to 30 September 2023 identified a 0.7% increase in activity levels when compared to the previous fiscal reporting period. A further review of activity over the rolling three years average indicates a 12.2% decrease in operational demand over the agreed recording period. 2.2 In reviewing operational activity on a broader level, false alarms accounted for 57.7% of all demand, with fire related and special service activity accounting for 27.9% and 14.4% respectively. 2.3 For the period 1 April to 30 September 2023, overall progress is being monitored across six indicators, utilising the three-year rolling average as a basis of measuring performance. Year on year and the rolling five-year average figures are also used to review short and long terms changes in demand and trends. 2.4 Utilising the defined approach in Section 4.3, review of performance against these indicators identified two are above and four are below the three-year average.
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Page | 2 2.5 Further analysis of this performance is provided within the accompanying performance report (Appendix A). 3. SFRS Updates 3.1 The Chief Officer of the SFRS attended the Criminal Justice Committee's Pre-Budget Scrutiny meeting at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday, 13th of September. A copy of the report (Appendix B), submitted to the Committee, is enclosed for the Police & Fire and Rescue Committee’s reference. 3.2 The Local Area hosted a Fire Safety Awareness Event for the care home sector at Ayrshire College's Kilmarnock Campus on Wednesday, 8th November 2023. This pivotal event focused on insights gleaned from previous fire safety enforcement incidents within this sector, aiming to equip duty holders with essential information to enhance the safety protocols of these premises. 3.3 Ayrshire Local Area Fire Protection Officers are diligently collaborating with various partners to identify unoccupied and derelict buildings across all three Ayrshire local authority areas. This initiative aims to mitigate the risks of deliberate fire-setting and to compile data crucial for ensuring the safety of our responding firefighters. 3.4 Work is ongoing to explore the opportunity of expanding the delivery of educational activities from Greenwood Academy, in Dreghorn, into the adjacent Dreghorn Community Fire Station. This work, aligned with North Ayrshire’s Wellbeing Alliance, will see the use of fire and rescue service land and assets to support the delivery of key aspects of the educational curriculum. 3.5 SFRS personnel were subjected to various attacks during the weeks leading up to Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night. This attracted media attention, resulting in local Area Officers being interviewed on television and radio at various locations across the Ardrossan area of North Ayrshire. While these interviews focused on the consequences of attacks on emergency services personnel, little was highlighted about the coordinated response from Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th of November. The SFRS worked closely with various partners in advance of this period to highlight the dangers associated with unsupervised bonfires and fireworks, and responded alongside colleagues from Police Scotland as part of Operation Moonbeam. 4. Proposal It is proposed that members of the Police & Fire and Rescue Committee: a) Note the contents of the performance summary and associated report for the period. b) Note the SFRS updates.
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Page | 3 5. Implications 5.1 No implications have been identified at this time in respect of service delivery within North Ayrshire. 6. Conclusion 6.1 Fire and Rescue Service activity is subject to regular monitoring and review by North Ayrshire Council’s Police & Fire and Rescue Committee. The contents of this document, and accompanying performance report, forms part of this monitoring process. 6.2 Members of the Police & Fire and Rescue Committee will be kept up to date on progress against the Local Fire and Rescue Plan and to any future fire and rescue service updates as they arise. Area Commander Ian McMeekin Local Senior Officer East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire Scottish Fire and Rescue Service For further information please contact Area Commander Ian McMeekin 01294 606811
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North Ayrshire Performance Report 1st April 2023 - 30th September 2023
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North Ayrshire Performance Report Table of Contents Local Fire and Rescue Service Plan Priorities 3 North Ayrshire Activity Summary 4 Domestic Safety - Accidental Dwelling Fires 5 Domestic Safety - Accidental Dwelling Fire Casualties 6 Unintentional Injury and Harm 7 Deliberate Fire Setting 8 Non-Domestic Fire Safety 9 Unwanted Fire Alarm Signals 10 Prevention & Protection 11 Retained Duty System 11 Scottish Fire and Rescue Service | North Ayrshire Performance Report 2
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6 0 5 22 2 11 1 0 0 0 0 14 6 1 6 29 1 38 4 0 3 8 0 1 4 0 6 25 2 46 9 0 1 65 4 85 5 0 2 22 2 32 6 0 11 15 6 21 17 0 4 81 6 41 58 1 38 267 23 289 16% -75% -3% -21% 64% -19% -4% -38% -5% 9% 18% -1% -7% -43% -23% -9% 1% -2%5 Year Average Change North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston Total Incidents Year on Year Change 3 Year Average Change Irvine West Kilwinning Accidental Dwelling Fires Accidental Dwelling Fire Casualties Unintentional Injury and Harm Deliberate Fire Setting Non-Domestic Fire Safety Unwanted Fire Alarm Signals Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine South Local Fire and Rescue Service Plan Priorities The Local Fire and Rescue Service Plan has been developed to set out the priorities and objectives within North Ayrshire and allows our local authority partners to scrutinise the performance outcomes of these priorities. We will continue to work closely with our partners in North Ayrshire to ensure we are all “Working Together for a Safer Scotland” through targeting risks to our communities at a local level. The plan has been developed to complement key partnership activity embedded across North Ayrshire's Community Planning Partnership. Through effective and co-ordintated partnership working we will seek to deliver continuous improvement in our performance and effective service delivery in our area of operations. The Local Fire and Rescue Plan for North Ayrshire identified six areas for demand reduction and is subject to regular monitoring and reporting through the Police & Fire and Rescue Committee. A summary of the priorities and current activity is detailed below with further detail and analysis contained within this performance report. About the statistics within this report The activity totals and other statistics quoted within this report are published in the interests of transparency and openness. They are provisional in nature and subject to change as a result of ongoing quality assurance and review. Because all statistics quoted are provisional there may be a difference in the period totals quoted in our reports after local publication which result from revisions or additions to the data in our systems. The Scottish Government publishes official statistics each year which allow for comparisons to be made over longer periods of time. Activity levels have reduced by more than 5% Activity levels have reduced by up to 5% Activity levels have increased overall Scottish Fire and Rescue Service | North Ayrshire Performance Report 3
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North Ayrshire Delivery Activity Summary Hour (am) Total Hour (pm) Total Midnight 30 Mid-day 83 1am 36 1pm 71 2am 26 2pm 78 3am 25 3pm 92 4am 28 4pm 80 5am 17 5pm 111 6am 23 6pm 103 7am 22 7pm 100 8am 61 8pm 101 9am 83 9pm 72 10am 76 10pm 64 11am 84 11pm 56 31% 14% 55% 28% 14% 58% Fires Special Services False Alarms Incidents by Classification Annual Ratio 3 Year Ratio 28.63% 19.06% 13.79% 8.71% 4.75% 4.42% 3.89% 2.24% 1.91% 1.85% 1.78% 1.25% 1.25% 1.12% 0.99% False Alarm (Dwelling) False Alarm (UFAS) Outdoor Fire False Alarm (Good Intent) Refuse Fire Dwelling Fire Special Service - Effecting… Special Service - Assist other… Vehicle Fire Special Service - RTC Other Building Fire Special Service - No action (not… False Alarm (Malicious) Other Primary Fire Special Service - Flooding Top 15 Incident Types by % of Total Incidents 422 fires primary & secondary special services 217 false alarms 877 3% total number of incidents 1,516 0% -7% fire casualties 1 -75% non-fire casualties 38 8% -3% 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11121314 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 Activity by Time of Day 57.49%RDSHome Fire Safety Visits Carried Out 461 Fire Safety Audits Carried Out 182 Scottish Fire and Rescue Service | North Ayrshire Performance Report 4
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16% -4% -7% Main Source of Ignition Year on Year 3 Year Average 5 Year Average Domestic Safety - Accidental Dwelling Fires Domesti 83 70 65 75 50 58 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 Performance Summary Accidental Dwelling Fires to Date Detection Present 81% 89% Detection Actuated Calls Made via Linked Alarms 22% Automatic Detection & Actuation 6 1 6 4 4 9 5 6 17 Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine Sout Irvine West Kilwinning North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston 5.2 0.8 4.8 3.6 2.6 6.8 2.9 3.7 12.9 Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine Sout Irvine West Kilwinning North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston Incidents Per 10,000 Population - North Ayrshire Human Factors Accidental Dwelling Fires by Ward Area Alcohol/Drug Impairment Distraction Incidents Per 10,000 Population - Ayrshire 3.4 4.3 3.8 3.8 East Ayrshire North Ayrshire South Ayrshire Ayrshire Severity of Accidental Dwelling Fires No Firefighting Action Direct Firefighting 40% 19% 59% 21% 10% 5% 2% 0% 0% 2% Not applicable Item 1st ignited Room of origin Floor of origin Limited to 2 floors More than 2 floors Whole building Whole Roof Extent of Fire Damage 33% 14% Scottish Fire and Rescue Service | North Ayrshire Performance Report 5
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-75% -38% -43% Year on Year 3 Year Average 5 Year Average Domestic Safety - Accidental Dwelling Fire Casualties 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 1 0 0 - 9 10 - 19 20 - 49 50 - 79 80+ 21 2 10 10 4 1 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 Unintentional Injury or First Aid at Scene Hospital Serious Hospital Slight Injuries Fatal Injuries 0 Performance Summary Accidental Dwelling Fire Casualties Year to Date Extent of Harm Age / Gender Profile Casualties Per 10,000 Population - North Ayrshire Fire Casualties by Ward Area 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine South Irvine West Kilwinning North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston 0.00 0.00 0.03 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine South Irvine West Kilwinning North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston Casualties Per 10,000 Population - Ayrshire 0.41 0.07 0.18 0.22 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 East Ayrshire North Ayrshire South Ayrshire Ayrshire 0% 100 1 1 Breathing difficulties Asphyxiation Burns – slight Other medical condition Scottish Fire and Rescue Service | North Ayrshire Performance Report 6
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-3% -5% -23% Year on Year 3 Year Average 5 Year Average Unintentional Injury or Harm 0 0 10 11 1 0 2 3 5 5 0 - 9 10 - 19 20 - 49 50 - 79 80+ Slight Injuries 99 42 44 39 39 38 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 Deliberate Performance Summary Special Service Casualties Year to Date Age / Gender Profile 4.3 0.0 4.8 2.7 4.0 0.8 1.2 6.8 3.0 Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine South Irvine West Kilwinning North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston Extent of Harm Non-Fire Casualties by Ward Area 5 0 6 3 6 1 2 11 4 Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine South Irvine West Kilwinning North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston Casualties Per 10,000 Population - North Ayrshire Non-Casualties Per 10,000 Population - Ayrshire 2.5 2.8 2.0 2.4 East Ayrshire North Ayrshire South Ayrshire Ayrshire 59% 41% First Aid at Scene Hospital Serious 11 11 Fatal Injuries 5 4 Hospital Slight Injuries Road Traffic Collision Water Rescue Assisting Other Agencies 32% 5% 47% All Other Incidents 16% Scottish Fire and Rescue Service | North Ayrshire Performance Report 7
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-21% 1% -9% Year on Year 3 Year Average 5 Year Average Deliberate Fire Setting 438 394 258 393 337 267 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 438 394 258 393 337 267 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 All Deliberate Fires Non Performance Summary Deliberate Fires Year to Date Deliberate Fires by Classification Deliberate Fires Compared to Operational Activity Incidents Per 10,000 Population - North Ayrshire 19.0 0.0 23.0 7.2 16.6 48.8 12.7 9.3 61.5 Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine South Irvine West Kilwinning North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston Deliberate Fires by Ward Area 22 0 29 8 25 65 22 15 81 Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine South Irvine West Kilwinning North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston Slight Injuries Incidents Per 10,000 Population - Ayrshire 21.3 19.6 16.5 19.2 East Ayrshire North Ayrshire South Ayrshire Ayrshire All Other Incidents 11% 7% 12% 5% 7% 14% 89% 93% 88% 95% 93% 86% 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 Primary Secondary Secondary Fire Ratio by Activity Type 26% 74% Refuse Other Secondary Scottish Fire and Rescue Service | North Ayrshire Performance Report 8
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64% 18% 1% Year on Year 3 Year Average 5 Year Average Non-Domestic Fire Safety 56% 35% 9% Accidental Deliberate Not Known 3 5 1 1 1 2 1 Industrial Public Utilities Retail Education Other Residential Residential Home Unwanted Performance Summary Non-Domestic Fires Year to Date Non-Domestic Fires by Nature of Origin Incidents Per 10,000 Population - Ayrshire Non-Domestic Fires by Premises Type Incidents Per 10,000 Population - North Ayrshire 1.7 0.0 0.8 0.0 1.3 3.0 1.2 3.7 4.6 Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine South Irvine West Kilwinning North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston Non-Domestic Fires by Ward Area 2 0 1 0 2 4 2 6 6 Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine South Irvine West Kilwinning North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston 0.5 1.7 1.3 1.2 East Ayrshire North Ayrshire South Ayrshire Ayrshire 22 26 15 15 14 23 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 Not applicable Limited to item 1st ignited Limited to room of origin Limited to floor of origin Roof space and other floors Whole Building Extent of Fire Damage Scottish Fire and Rescue Service | North Ayrshire Performance Report 9
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-19% -1% -2% Year on Year 3 Year Average 5 Year Average Unwanted Fire Alarm Signals 316 341 299 315 359 289 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 UFAS Percentage Against all False Alarms Performance Summary Unwanted Fire Alarm Signals Year to Date Incidents Per 10,000 Population - North Ayrshire 9.5 11.0 30.1 0.9 30.5 63.9 18.4 13.0 31.1 Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine South Irvine West Kilwinning North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston 1,314 1,171 1,187 1,356 1,159 1,035 24% 27% 21% 22% 28% 19% 0%0 300 600 900 1,200 1,500 1,800 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 All Incidents UFAS Activty UFAS Percentage Against all Incidents 710 813 791 838 854 877 44% 48% 41% 44% 49% 38% 0%0 300 600 900 1,200 All False Alarms UFAS Activty Home Fire Safety Visits Unwanted Fire Alarms Signals by Ward Area 11 14 38 1 46 85 32 21 41 Ardrossan Arran Garnock Valley Irvine East Irvine South Irvine West Kilwinning North Coast Saltcoats and Stevenston Incidents Per 10,000 Population - Ayrshire 16.1 21.3 24.0 20.4 East Ayrshire North Ayrshire South Ayrshire Ayrshire 10% 5% 16% 14% 7% Unwanted Fire Alarm Signals - Top 5 Premises Scottish Fire and Rescue Service | North Ayrshire Performance Report 10
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12.42% 59.99% 40.02% 38.47% 57 34:21:38 9 650% 26.54% 78.55% 68.72% 59.49% 260 147:13:22 13 975% 7.37% 66.64% 37.32% 38.17% 91 50:24:06 5 400% 53.79% 74.42% 64.10% 64.47% 199 125:36:34 13 1100% 12.87% 13.26% 30.24% 19.47% 74 41:40:39 8 575% 61.33% 49.36% 50.75% 53.42% 165 100:58:42 10 800% 32.25% 63.12% 38.11% 44.67% 83 47:35:48 7 525% 97.48% 98.78% 91.12% 95.54% 21.23% 38.93% 5.49% 21.23% 97.85% 99.91% 96.12% 97.89% 24 15:26:25 6 600% 100.00% 100.00% 98.76% 99.54% 32 21:10:29 10 925% 47.56% 70.80% 56.43% 57.49% 70.18% 96.28% 90.41% 86.36% Mon - Thu (18:00 - 08:00) Weekend (Fri 18:00 - Mon 08:00) Total Lamlash North Ayrshire Ayrshire Total Mobilisations Total Time Deployed Largs Skelmorlie Millport -1 Millport - 2 Brodick Ardrossan Dreghorn Dalry Beith Kilbirnie Appliance Availability Mon - Fri (08:00 - 18:00) No. of Personnel Contracts 27 12 1125%18:46:03 Home Fire Safety Visits Home Fire Safety Visits Carried Out Percentage of High Risk Home Fire Safety Visits Carried Out Percentage of Visits Carried Out Following Attendance at an Incident 461 33% 49% Top 5 Premises Smoke Detectors Fitted During Home Fire Safety Visits Fire Safety Audits Carried Out 182 New Audits 87% Post Fire Audits 9% Complaint Audits 3% Re-Audits 1% 7% 88% 5% 0% 0% Broadly Compliant Areas of Improvement Notice of Deficiencies Enforcement Notice Prohibition Notice Fire Safety Audits Retained Duty System Scottish Fire and Rescue Service | North Ayrshire Performance Report 11
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Glossary of Terms Term - What it means ADF Accidental Dwelling Fire CSET Community Safety Engagement Toolkit is a internal IT system used to record home fire safety visits and community safety activities FSET Fire Safety Experiential Training is a bespoke training programme developed by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service in Ayrshire and delivered to community planning partners to raise awareness of fire safety within the domestic environment HFSV Home Fire Safety Visit PDIR Post Domestic Incident Response, a term used by Prevention and Protection Directorate to indicate actions taken following attendance at a fire or other incident in the home. PDIRs include amongst things the offer of a free follow-up home fire safety visit Primary Fires These include all fires in buildings, vehicles and outdoor structures or any fire involving casualties, rescues or fires attended by five or more appliances RDS Retained Duty System. Professional on call firefighters who may have other primary employment responsibilities outside the Fire and Rescue Service but respond to emergency calls within their local area as and when required RTC Road Traffic Collision Secondary Fires These are the majority of outdoor fires including grassland and refuse fires unless they involve casualties or rescues, property loss or fire or more appliances attend. They include fires in single derelict buildings Special Service Calls to incidents which are not fires or false alarms such as RTCs, rescues, flooding, incidents involving hazardous materials or the provision of assistance to other agencies UFAS Unwanted Fire Alarm Signals. When an automatic fire detection and alarm system is activated as a result of anything other than an actual fire the activation is classed as a false alarm. If an attendance is made to such an event by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, then the event is recorded as an UFAS incident Scottish Fire and Rescue Service | North Ayrshire Performance Report 12
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Working together for a safer Scotland Scottish Parliament Criminal Justice Committee Pre-Budget Scrutiny September 2023 Submission by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
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CONTENTS 1. Executive Summary 1 2. Background 2 2.1 Impact of reform 2 2.2 Summary of 2022/2023 submission 3 3. Current financial pressures 4 3.1 Pay and inflation 4 3.2 SFRS 2023/2024 Savings Plan 4 3.3 2024 and beyond 5 4. The SFRS Estate 6 4.1 Modernising the Estate 6 5. The impact of climate change 8 6. Service delivery changes 9 7. Impact of financial challenges 10 7.1 Impact on planned initiatives 10 7.2 SFRS contingency savings options 11 8. Conclusion 12
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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Criminal Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament has asked for information regarding the impact of the Resource Spending Review (RSR) on services within the Justice and Veterans Portfolio including the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Our ambition, as set out in our Strategic Plan 2022-25, is to modernise our Service by doing more for our communities and changing how we work to address the changing risks our communities face. We also have to modernise to address the significant challenges we face in terms of replacing our ageing buildings and fleet of vehicles while reducing our carbon consumption (Sections 4 and 5). But to achieve the modernisation we aspire to requires investment. We want to invest in developing the role our firefighters play in Scotland and we need to invest in training, innovation and technology to improve firefighter and public safety. While there is the potential to achieve some limited efficiencies within the Service, we have to recognise that we are an extremely lean service which has already undergone significant reform to achieve savings (Section 2). We recognise the current funding challenges across the public sector in Scotland, however the predicted flat cash settlement for the following three years and continued increase in running costs (Section 3) means that we cannot generate the level of savings required without impacting on the Service we provide. We have introduced a series of changes within this financial year (Section 3) which our modelling shows will have the least impact on the emergency response we provide or the risk communities face but in doing so we have also had to reprioritise investment in other areas (Section 7). Undoubtedly, with investment, we could do much more for our communities and support our public services partners in improving broader outcomes. SFRS is currently providing a safe and effective service to the people of Scotland. But, if we are required to make further changes to address the budget gap - and without investment in the areas that would help us to deliver benefits across the communities we serve - then we will have to introduce changes which will impact negatively on community safety. September 2023 – Submission by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service1
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2. BACKGROUND 2.1 Impact of Reform The Scottish Government’s (SG) Reform of the Fire and Rescue Service in Scotland Outline Business Case, September 2011 (OBC) was clear that a single national fire and Rescue Service for Scotland would deliver the highest levels of savings in comparison to the pre-reform services. It was estimated in the OBC that this would generate efficiency savings of £293m over 15 years. This was not based on what the actual structure and cost base of a single national service would be, as that was unknown at the time, but represented the best estimate of savings arising from Reform. We are, in fact, on track to exceed the efficiency savings that were anticipated in 2011. As part of reform, SFRS was asked to achieve £328 million in cumulative savings by 2027/28. As at the end of 2022/23, SFRS has delivered £486 million with a further estimated £36.5million in additional savings required by 2026/27 to meet the Resource Spending Review. The graph below shows the reform savings based on a baseline budget in 2012/13 and applying Consumer Price Index (CPI) to compare against actual SFRS budget. SFRS was unable to recover VAT until 2018/19 which was a disbenefit from reform. Our forecasted position, as a consequence of reform, is cumulative gross savings of £871 million by 2027/28. To achieve efficiencies, we reduced the headcount of support staff through a voluntary severance programme and vacancy management; disposed of assets through our Strategic Intent programme; removed duplication and standardised terms of employment and staff grading. We also consolidated and standardised ICT, operational equipment, fleet, business processes and procedures. In terms of operational services, we developed a Target Operating Model (TOM) for a single national service which enabled a reduction in some areas of duplication and the standardisation of our duty patterns, specialist rescue provisions, off station structure and appliance crewing arrangements. Our success in achieving savings has not been without challenge. We have seen a reduction in headcount from the pre-reform position, in particular a reduction of 661 Whole Time operational posts and a significant reduction in executive and senior management. Graph 1: SFRS Reform Savings SFRS Reform Savings Scottish Parliament Criminal Justice Committee Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2
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2.2 Summary of 2022/23 submission The Interim Chief Officer, Interim Deputy Chief Officer and Acting Director of Finance and Procurement of the SFRS appeared before the Committee on 26 October 2022. Below is a summary of the key points from last year. • In managing the financial consequences posed by the RSR, the Service adopted a two-stage approach. We sought tactical and proportional savings across the whole organisation in 23/24, followed by more strategic change and savings options from 24/25 onwards. • We were clear that the challenges in achieving our required savings would mean very hard choices having to be made by the Service. • To reconcile the anticipated budget gap, and as 80% of our budget is spent on staff and of that figure 80% is spent on operational staff costs, we needed to explore opportunities to reduce the staff cost base. Whilst adhering to our commitment to no compulsory redundancies, this would inevitably lead to a reduction in staffing, including firefighter numbers, which would be achieved through retirements and vacancy management. • In such circumstances, we would be unable to maintain the wholetime firefighter TOM as we moved to meet short term financial targets. This would create challenges in managing appliance availability across Scotland and would reduce appliance availability within communities affected. • Any changes in our operational response model would be undertaken on a risk-based approach using robust, externally assured data and evidence to minimise impacts upon community and firefighter safety through use of our Community Risk Index Model (CRIM). • Planned modernisation of the Service that required upfront investment would have to be delayed and reprioritised, which would impact our ability to meet our Long-Term Vision (LTV) ambitions and meaning new investment in some areas would be reduced. • We would need to review stations and resources which may lead to fire appliance removals and possibly some station closures. This could also mean there would be fewer local community resources dedicated to prevention work and wider community resilience activities. • We were actively seeking further collaboration with Police Scotland, the Scottish Ambulance Service and others to explore how we can collectively make savings. • In making savings we would always do so in a manner that minimises impact upon community safety. However, any retrenchment in our services to our communities may nevertheless ultimately have an impact on those same communities. September 2023 – Submission by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service3
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3. CURRENT FINANCIAL PRESSURES 3.1 Pay and Inflation At the beginning of this year, we faced the prospect of Industrial Action (IA) from firefighters over pay. In March 2023 through the National Joint Council (NJC) a national pay agreement was reached with the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). The offer for all firefighters was a 7% increase in pay and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for 2022/23, effective from 1 July 2022 and a further 5% increase in pay and CPD, effective from 1 July 2023. This settlement increased the annual operational staff budgeted pay bill by £21.9m over the two years. A further £2.5m will be required in 2024/25 as firefighter pay is calculated on a July-to-July basis. For support staff a one-year pay settlement covering the period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 was agreed. This comprised a fixed increase of £1,500 for support staff earning below £25,000 (based on full-time equivalent) which equated to an increase of between 6.5 % and 7.97% for affected staff, a 5% increase for support staff earning above £25,000 (based on full-time equivalent) and a 5% increase in the standby allowance to £25.15 per day from 1 April 2023. We also moved all support staff on the first incremental pay point to the second incremental pay point. These developments increased the support staff pay bill by £2.1m. SG were able to offer additional financial support to the Service of £14.4million in 2023/24 to help meet the cost of the firefighter pay award. SG previously provided one off funding of £3.3m in 2022/23 and permitted SFRS to incur a planned overspend in 2022/23 up to £2.9m to cover the pay offer. In the same period, our non-pay related costs for goods and services was £62.2m. This is 20% of all SFRS costs and is subject to inflationary pressures calculated using the CPI which is built into existing contract terms. Headline inflation last year was at 10.1% and these cost increases were passed on to existing contracts. To manage these increases we have spent less on smoke detectors as part of our prevention activities, less on learning and development, and less on property maintenance for our stations. Our electricity and fuel costs were well above inflation rates with increases in budget of £1.9m (59%) for electricity and £0.98m (46%) for fuel. Whilst the inflation rate is now reducing the current 6.89% level will add approximately £4million to the cost of services for next year. 3.2 SFRS 2023/24 Savings Plan To balance our budget for 2023/24 the SFRS Board approved an initial savings plan across the whole organisation. Area of Saving / Efficiency £000 Wholetime 1,190 On Call 1,624 Support 1,875 Employee Other 1,304 Sub Total Employee Costs 5,993 Property Costs 1,223 Supplies & Services 2,356 Transport Costs 647 Third Party Payments / Council Charges 215 Financing 303 Income 320 Total 11,057 Table 1: Area of Saving / Efficiency Totals Scottish Parliament Criminal Justice Committee Pre-Budget Scrutiny 4
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While developing these options for 2023/24, the Service was faced with the prospect of IA being taken by the FBU over pay. While this was eventually avoided through an agreed national pay settlement, we could not conclude our financial planning for the year until we knew the outcome of the pay negotiations. The time pressures we faced were incredibly challenging and highlight a key issue we face: that is the need to plan our budget annually rather than taking a more strategic budget planning approach over a three or four-year period. The short-term savings options we identified are set out below and more detail can be found in our Operational Changes Information Pack. The CRIM provided us with a detailed understanding of how community risk is changing in Scotland and enabled us to build an evidence-based approach to identify where change to SFRS resources (people and assets) across our station network could be made. Based on our evidence-led modelling, and to assist in the amelioration of our budget pressures during 2023, we have temporarily removed 10 second or third appliances from multi pump stations that will have the least impact on community safety across Scotland. Aligned to this we have implemented changes identified in our Operational Strategy to our high reach appliances, placing them in the most strategic locations where they can provide more optimised and effective community safety on a national basis. We have also amended the crewing for water rescue at Polmadie Community Fire Station so that it is more in line with all other water rescue stations throughout Scotland. From 1 July 2023, we introduced a change to how we respond to Automatic Fire Alarms as part of the modernisation of our Unwanted Fire Alarm Signals (UFAS) policy. Initial analysis is showing that we are attending 55-60 fewer false alarms per day – more than a 50% reduction. As well as creating additional capacity within the Service, this also reduces the number of journeys our crews make under blue light conditions, improving road safety and reducing our carbon output. 3.3. 2024 and beyond The RSR set out an indicative flat cash budget position for the Service until 2026/27 and we initially estimated total savings of £36.5m would be required of the Service. The SFRS budget is set on an annual basis by SG and we are legally required to deliver a balanced budget each financial year. The SFRS Board approved an annual resource budget for 2023/24 of £308.133million for resource and £34million for our capital which reflected core capital funding of £32.5million and the potential of an additional £1.5million ring fenced funding for net zero projects. As detailed at 3.2 above, to achieve a balanced position for 2023/24 £11million of savings were identified and included in the budget for this year. These savings will be delivered through our Strategic Service Review Programme (SSRP) covering all elements of our service provision. As outlined above, some temporary changes have been made this year in respect of second and third appliances which are based at our multi-pump stations. If changes of this scale were to be made permanent following stakeholder consultation, the TOM for wholetime firefighters could be reduced by 166 posts. Such a reduction would lead to annual savings of up to £9.8million. However, as our figures show below this is well below the predicted level of savings we require to make based on current financial modelling. Our central planning scenario suggests that next year (2024/25) we will require resource budget savings of between £14.1million to £26.5million on top of the £11million savings for 2023/24. Over the four-year RSR period cumulative savings of between £37million and £48.4million will be required but this will vary in line with pay and inflation pressures. Financial Scenarios Savings 2024/25 £M’s (No change to TOM) Savings 2024/25 £M’s (Reduce TOM by 166) Upper £36.0 £23.3 Central £26.5 £14.1 Lower £23.4 £11.1 Table 2: Financial Scenarios Savings September 2023 – Submission by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service5
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4. THE SFRS ESTATE Our estate is largely not fit for purpose and the problem is getting worse. Our assets are worth around £0.5 billion comprising land and buildings, including 357 fire stations, 1,620 fleet vehicles and tens of thousands of items of operational equipment. The SFRS Property and Fleet estate has an insurmountable backlog in capital spend requirements and needs critical investment to ensure that we have the right stations, training facilities and vehicles fit for the 21st century to support evolving community risk including the impacts of climate change. Our core capital funding has remained at £32.5million for the last seven years. As a minimum we need at least £60million per annum in investment in our assets. The lack of increased funding and reduction in real terms not only impacts our ability to modernise our assets but increases the pressure on our resource budget as more reactive maintenance is required to fix problems in our ageing estate. Our required budget for maintenance is £15million and the Service has only been able to allocate £10million per annum, thereby adding £5 million to the maintenance backlog which has an adverse effect on the planned to reactive maintenance ratio. Ensuring we have the right resources at the right location is key for both our response and prevention activities. We also need modern training facilities to support training for new and emerging risks. To help address the challenges of our investment needs against a limited capital programme, the SFRS Board approved a Risk Based Approach to investment. The latest report highlights that 44.7% of the operational property estate is in poor or bad condition, and in terms of suitability 75.5% of the operational estate is classed as poor or bad. Around 61% of our buildings are over 30 years old. While priority is given to the most urgent needs, our current capital funding means it will take years to resolve urgent problems while the condition and suitability of our estate continues to deteriorate. We are committed to prioritising investment in those stations affected by Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete, (RAAC) roof panel problems. This form of construction was common in the 1960s through to the 1980s and now brings a risk of roof collapse as the concrete ages. We have 14 stations which have RAAC roofs, and they are key stations within our network. Since becoming aware of the issue in 2019, we have taken remedial actions to protect firefighters in those stations but without permanent improvements or rebuilds neither we nor our partners, who share many of those facilities with us, or the communities who also make use of our buildings will be able to do so safely in the future. At the same time, we recognise the growing evidence of the health risks associated with exposure to a range of contaminants for firefighters. We have established an Executive-led, cross-Service working group to manage this issue and we will continue to work closely with the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) as we do so. This issue is of vital importance to us and to the safety of firefighters. But we need to invest in - and modernise - our estate. In simple terms we need to establish in our stations ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ work zones and deploy new technology and working practices in managing potential exposure to contaminants to protect the health of firefighters. 4.1 Modernising the Estate The SFRS has, rightly, set out its ambition to be both an employer of choice and one that reflects more closely the make-up of our communities. To help attract a more diverse set of people to join the Service we need to have modern facilities. However, over 100 stations have minimum toilet facilities and no dedicated drying area, no rest or canteen area. Over 120 stations are without a dedicated locker room and over 150 have insufficient showering facilities. Most concerning of all 282 stations lack proper dignified facilities and none of our stations are properly designed to manage contaminant issues. In the short term we simply do not have the budget to address these issues. To help in our efforts to improve the property estate, including controlling the spread of contaminants and providing dignified facilities, we are exploring innovative design options based on modern methods of construction using modular building technology. This is essentially a building that can be prefabricated offsite, and provides a modern, carbon neutral, contaminant safe and low-cost community fire station. This is particularly appropriate for rural and island stations. The design concept is such that if other community services require space or accommodation, additional modules can be added to the initial fire station at low cost. Building these new stations will require investment and in conjunction with the Scottish Futures Trust and our partners, we are producing a business case to seek additional investment for this project. Based on community risk assessments and following full public consultation, there is the potential to move, merge or close some stations across a locality. The income this could potentially generate, if we are allowed to retain the capital receipts, would be reinvested into our plans to modernise our estate and wider Service. However, this is not a quick solution and we already know that would not be sufficient to fully address our capital backlog. Scottish Parliament Criminal Justice Committee Pre-Budget Scrutiny 6
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To ensure that we get maximum public value from our estate, we also share our buildings with other public service partners and communities. To date we have 65 stations being shared with the Scottish Ambulance Service, Police Scotland and others. We want to continue to expand on this and make our stations public service hubs that are fit for that purpose. We also regularly share our training sites with partners either for their own use, when our premises are more suitable than their own, or for multi-agency exercising. We know that many other public services face similar investment needs. We believe that investment in our plans would also help meet those wider demands too. The nature of our Service is such that we need to retain a physical presence across Scotland to respond quickly to communities when the need arises. As part of the modernisation of our estate, we would also look to share those assets with our partners; enabling them to work in partnership with us and others while retaining their presence in the same communities. We want our community fire stations to become full community resilience hubs hosting a range of public and other services. By investing in this community asset concept, we believe that it makes economic sense and will provide better value for money to Scotland. But even more importantly, this would support the building of community resilience and provide a base for a wider array of public services to remain within local communities, helping to improve wellbeing. In that sense a modernised fire service would become a true community anchor for wider public service reform. September 2023 – Submission by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service7
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5. THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE The need to respond to the climate emergency is a key priority for SFRS and our Service Delivery model needs to adapt to this. Scotland is likely to see more wildfire and flooding incidents in both rural and urban areas because of climate change. In much of Scotland, we are likely to see prolonged periods of heightened risk of wildfires as the effects of the climate emergency materialise. As part of the SFRS Wildfire Strategy, we have provided additional vehicles, equipment, training and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in a risk based and tiered model across Scotland. This enhances the existing model for dealing with this challenging incident type and has incorporated the latest thinking and developments in this field. The wildfire specific PPE that has been provided as part of this strategy is currently deployed to the 25 strategically situated stations identified in the tiered approach, however providing this PPE to all personnel if budgets allow will be an ongoing consideration. In those periods of prolonged wildfire risk, we will also have to explore the implications of fighting such fires while being largely dependent upon On Call firefighters across large parts of the country. Extended periods fighting wildfires will have implications for them in their primary employment.Therefore, the modernisation of the On Call Service which we initiated in recent years will have to be sustained and will require further investment. We will also see more extreme rainfall patterns across Scotland with heightened risks of flooding in many cities, towns and villages. In working with our partners, we will need to identify which critical national infrastructure sites, public services, high risk commercial premises and households are most vulnerable to the impacts of flooding. When these events occur, we need to be able to swiftly respond to protect those communities and households over prolonged periods and likely with multiple events occurring concurrently. As with wildfires we need to ensure our firefighters are appropriately trained and equipped to support people during these emergencies. The challenge of the climate emergency is real, is materialising now, and requires us to continue investing in our Service Delivery model to ensure that we can respond appropriately. We also have to play our part in reducing our energy use and other carbon emitting activities across our estate and our fleet. Investment in our aging estate is key to reducing our energy consumption and the Service requires significant ongoing investment to have a realistic chance of meeting the Scottish Government’s net zero targets. In 2020 we set out our plans in our Climate Change Response Plan 2045, which is supported by our Energy and Carbon Strategy. In support of our actions, SG have made additional ring-fenced funding available to us and other public services to help meet our energy and carbon reduction commitments. But the size and scale of investment required to meet our targets is significant. Our Carbon Management Plan 2020-25 estimated a need for £48 million to decarbonise our activities over the five- year period, however due to inflation this figure is expected to be closer to £60 million. To date we have invested £11.5 million. New technology will play a part in helping us to further reduce our energy consumption in our estate but as highlighted above our estate is old and difficult to bring up to modern environmental standards. We have made significant progress in decarbonising our light fleet by introducing electric powered vehicles and to support that we are building a joint charging network with our Blue Light partners. However, due to the nature of our heavy fleet, which accounts for over one third of our total carbon footprint, we are severely restricted in our options to reduce these emissions. New technology to replace our reliance on diesel-fuelled vehicles is progressing but it is slow to develop in the wider market, presents significant operational challenges, and is expensive to acquire. As a result, our estate will have to be net zero by 2030 in order to meet SG’s 2030 target of a 75% reduction of emissions against our baseline. Scottish Parliament Criminal Justice Committee Pre-Budget Scrutiny 8
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6. SERVICE DELIVERY CHANGES If we cannot change our operating model, we will find it progressively more difficult to make our saving requirements and adapt to the changing risks across our communities. Furthermore, failure to change will compromise our ability to identify reinvestment from within the Service. Modernising our Service Delivery model in conjunction with our assets is the key to both the financial and operational sustainability of the Service. Our work to better understand changing community risk in Scotland and what that might mean for our Service Delivery model and station footprint predates the RSR pressures. The Service needs to adapt and modernise to meet the changing needs and risks of our communities. For the last few years, we have been building our knowledge of changing community risk across the country and developing plans for our Service Delivery model. By using the CRIM, we will explore not just where we need to locate stations and resources but how we crew our appliances and operate from our stations; this applies to both Wholetime and On Call services. We will explore options around changes to crewing models that might result in proposals to move from a single crewing model for the whole of Scotland to models that are appropriate to the level of the risk facing local communities. There are potential options to change the number of and crewing arrangements for appliances in some stations. We will also explore options for where we place specialist equipment and skills in our stations to ensure they provide maximum value to the communities who need them most. We remain committed to working in partnership with representative bodies to develop the role of the firefighter in Scotland to encompass wider life-threatening emergency responses and contribute further to preventing risk and harm. To achieve this, we need to renegotiate the employment contract and role map of firefighters with their representative bodies. We will further need to invest in training and equipment to support our firefighters to take on new roles. But we are clear that the benefits to the people of Scotland in us doing so would be significant and the potential financial savings across the wider public service system would also be significant. To sustain our service delivery model, the Service will continue to use the CRIM to identify where we can deliver change, safely, across our three Service Delivery Areas (SDAs) in the North, West and East of Scotland. We know delivering change, even with a strong risk assessed evidence base will be challenging, complex and time consuming. While there are some areas where reductions can be safely made there are other areas which we know require investment to enhance the current levels of provision. Due to our existing structure, which has already been streamlined through reform, the only real option we have is to reduce firefighter numbers. To achieve our anticipated savings of £14.1m next year we would need to reduce our firefighter posts by 339 – the equivalent of an additional 18 second appliances. If we only pursue those areas where reductions can be made, we believe we will compromise the safety of Scotland’s communities to a level which we cannot in good conscience support. September 2023 – Submission by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service9
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7. IMPACT OF FINANCIAL CHALLENGES 7.1 Impact on planned initiatives We are committed to using our full organisational capacity and capability to modernise our Service. However, within the existing resource and capital envelope available to us we need to make hard choices in how we prioritise our budgets. With more investment we can achieve significantly more, but as it stands, we have had to prioritise developments while balancing our budget. The key reprioritisation steps we have taken to date are set out below. The modernisation of our business systems is a priority for the Service to enable us to work better and in more efficient ways. We need to invest in core business support systems such as our People, Payroll, Finance, Training (PPFT) systems. We initiated a major project intended to modernise our PPFT systems and redesign how our support functions operate. This work has had to be delayed in part through cost estimates to replace our aging systems. Consequently, we have scaled back the scope of the programme and are seeking collaboration opportunities with other partners to see if we can secure improvements in how we work while reducing our operating cost base. Our Corporate Support Services accounts for around 6% of expenditure and provide critical support to Operational Service Delivery. We are however seeking to improve how our support services work by streamlining processes, reducing duplication, automating where we can and through that seek to generate savings. We are exploring these issues jointly with Police Scotland, and where appropriate other public services, with an intention of building collaborative solutions that add further value to the internal improvement work that we are undertaking. As detailed above in recent years we have sought to reach agreement with the FBU about developing the role of firefighters to take on wider prevention and emergency response, including medical response and to reflect that in both the firefighter employment contract and their pay. Given the financial constraints we are faced with this potential development has been delayed. Without funding to support agreed changes in firefighters’ terms and conditions of employment we cannot bring this about. An Outline Business Case setting out this development in more detail, including the costs and benefits of the proposal, was submitted to SG with the backing of the FBU, but has not been progressed. We remain committed to reducing our carbon footprint but investment in decarbonisation of our activities and building a blue light electric vehicle infrastructure is not progressing at the rate we would like. Due to the wider operational pressures we are facing, and the need to invest our limited budgets in other areas, we are simply not investing enough to reach net zero. We have not met our targets on the five-year climate change response plan due to lack of investment. We are faced with the eternal conundrum of meeting today’s priorities at the expense of the longer term. Ideally, we wish to do both. To help meet our budgetary pressures we are slowing down investment in our Fleet replacement. We have 1620 vehicles within our fleet and of that 577 are older than their planned replacement age. This means 29% of our light fleet, 39% of our heavy fleet and 56% of our specialist vehicles are older than planned. To free up limited capital investment, we are now slowing down our replacement programmes which, in the years to come, will lead to maintenance and other costs increasing within the Service. As we noted above the SFRS estate is large, ageing and deteriorating. Our minor repairs programme has been slowed down to enable us to use our limited resources to meet our most significant pressures. This impacts on staff perceptions of the Service and on morale as minor repairs to things like windows are put off. These ‘hygiene’ factors in the estate are important but we simply need to sacrifice them to pay more focussed attention on the more pressing concerns we have. As noted above we have prioritised stations with RAAC panel roof issues but on current levels of funding it will take over 10 years to deal with this problem, during which time the 14 sites remain subject to an ongoing quarterly inspection regime at a cost of £100,000 per annum to monitor condition, whilst the risk of further deterioration increases significantly. This results in limited opportunities for the Service to invest in other much needed replacements and refurbishments across our property portfolio. Scottish Parliament Criminal Justice Committee Pre-Budget Scrutiny 10
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7.2. SFRS Contingency Savings Options The SFRS operates on an annualised budget and as an Other Significant Public Body we cannot hold reserves and any borrowing we incur counts against SG’s borrowing and therefore requires SG authorisation. These restrictive financial management arrangements mean contingency planning is incredibly difficult to achieve. It also means our ability to plan changes and reinvest in the Service to generate savings over several financial years is compromised. The need to function on an annualised basis means our savings currently must be planned and delivered in year and consequently long-term planning becomes very challenging. This is why we have made changes to our operating model in 2023/24 to help balance the budget for the year without unduly increasing community risk. That approach is not viable in perpetuity. As we have set out above, we believe that through modernisation, supported by an ability for us to reinvest internally generated savings and with modest additional investment, we can do more to protect and enhance community safety and wellbeing. We firmly believe that this is the route to a more sustainable Service that will continue to meet the challenges generated by changes in community risk across Scotland. If we must keep making in-year savings we anticipate that community safety will be compromised. The only real contingency plan open to us is the modernisation of the Service or we will, by force of circumstance, end up in a scenario whereby we are retrenching our Service provision across Scotland. That would bring additional risks to community safety, and it is not a road that we wish to go down. September 2023 – Submission by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service11
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8. CONCLUSION In realising savings, we have placed maintaining community and firefighter safety at the heart of our decision making. However, the more we need to find in-year savings and the longer the period over which we will have to make those savings, the more difficult it becomes to maintain that commitment. The immediate in year savings to ensure we can balance our 2023/24 budget have generated considerable public, political and stakeholder debate and subsequent pressure on the Service to reconsider our actions. In the communities directly impacted by the temporary removal of appliances, the alterations to our high reach provision and the amendments to the water rescue crewing model in Polmadie in Glasgow, stakeholders have made their concerns known to the Service. Following our announcement of the operational changes for 2023/24 we have undertaken more than 100 engagements with local elected members across affected areas and received in excess of 60 media and Freedom of Information enquiries. We were also asked by three Local Authority scrutiny committees to meet with the full council in their area to explain the changes we were implementing. As part of our engagement approach, we published details of how we had arrived at these operational changes and met with those councils who requested that of us. The level of concern generated illustrates the high value that communities and other stakeholders place in the services provided by SFRS. This therefore makes change as part of a savings programme very complex and challenging whilst also ensuring we can deliver balanced budgets on an annual basis. Despite these challenges, we remain committed to modernising our Service because it is the right thing to do to meet the changing needs of communities across the country. But we do not underestimate the challenge. Unless we can plan and implement Service modernisation over time, our ability to reach a sustainable financial model that provides the platform for our Service Delivery model to meet the changing risks across communities will be compromised. And, without investment it is our firm belief that the changes we will be forced to implement, may ultimately come at the cost of public safety. Scottish Parliament Criminal Justice Committee Pre-Budget Scrutiny 12
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Scottish Parliament Criminal Justice Committee Pre-Budget Scrutiny September 2023 – Submission by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Version 2.0 18 September 2023 firescotland.gov.uk