FAQ's

Overall, we believe we need to save between £2-3m. Other pressures such as inflation are also increasing our costs.

The recommended change to our operational model will generate circa £2m of savings.

The Service has identified that circa £2-3m per annum will need to be saved from the operational response budget. To enable this the following changes are being consulted on:

• Remove one of the two fire engines at London Road Fire Station
• Remove one of the two fire engines at Stockhill Fire Station

These changes will generate circa £2m of savings per year.

To better balance our remaining fire engines, and ensure we can maintain the best levels of response across the county, the following changes are also being consulted on:

• Change Ashfield Fire Station from one day shift crewing and one on-call fire engine to one wholetime and one on-call fire engine.
• Remove the night shift at West Bridgford Fire Station, leaving daytime crewing only.

This change is cost neutral, effectively staff will move from one station to another. This change enables us to have a better chance of maintaining our response standard of attending all incidents, across the county, from time of call, on average, within eight minutes.

• A review across the entire organisation identified three main areas for delivering efficiencies. These are the non-operational staff structures, the operational model, this is the number of fire stations and fire engines we have; and the operational officer structure.
• As part of the papers discussed on 23 September 2023, the Fire Authority approved a £250k reduction in non-operational positions. There will be no public consultation on these changes.

HMICFRS will likely want to see what evidence we used to make these changes, how we consulted with the public/ stakeholders, and how we monitored the impact of change.

During the public consultation period further information will be available on our website. All Fire Authority Reports and the minutes of any meetings can be referenced on the City Council's website.

We will also be putting out information periodically via our social media channels.

During the public consultation period further information will be available on our website. All Fire Authority Reports and the minutes of any meetings can be referenced on the City Council's website.

Our public consultation is expected to be open for 12 weeks from 30 September to 23 December 2022. We welcome your views. To give a consultation return please go to our website from 30 September.

A report will be presented to the Full Fire Authority on 24 February 2023. It is at this meeting where a decision will be made as to agreed changes.

If agreed a delivery plan would be in place from April 1, 2023. The ambition is for all changes to be made by March 2025.

The location of a fire station, the resources they have, and their staffing models is informed by a significant amount of data. This includes things like a community risk profile and historical incident demand review.

In 2021 we undertook our most comprehensive Fire Cover Review and Assessment of Risk to date. To do this we employed the sector leading consultancy ORH. ORH have over 30-years’ experience and have worked with over 150 organisations including NHS Trusts, EMAS, London Fire Brigade and West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service.

Building on our 2021 ORH undertook optimisation modelling to identify different configurations of fire appliances to meet saving levels of £1m, £1.5m, £2m, £2.5m and £3m. This approach reflected the uncertainty of savings required.

The Fire Cover Review is designed to:

• undertake resource optimisation modelling, based on the Strategic Assessment of Risk, to identify potential savings whilst minimising negative community impact
• minimise increases to average attendance times and the Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) commitment to meet the current response standard of a first appliance arriving at an incident within an average of eight minutes from mobilisation
• consider Nottinghamshire-wide performance against attendance standards and accept that levels of performance can differ between areas of the city and county
• only consider existing station locations and not recommend the introduction of new on-call sections. However, this will be considered as a longer-term element of CRMP activities

Any reduction in the number of fire appliances we have will affect response times. This is the time it takes for use to get to an emergency.

During our operational review a number of different models were reviewed. The final proposals have the least affect on response times.

We have been advised that the changes may lead to the following changes to our response times:

Notes

1. NFRS measures response time as the time in which the appliance is alerted, to the time of arrival at the incident
2. We have a commitment to meet all incidents, within the county, on average, within eight minutes

This change allows us to better balance our remaining fire engines and ensure we can maintain the best levels of response across the county. It enables us to better maintain our response standard of attending all incidents, across the county, from time of call, on average, as close to eight minutes as possible.

With all incidents the nearest available appliance is sent. All appliances have GPS tracking. It is likely, depending on the specific incident locations, that incidents in West Bridgford area would be attended by London Road, Highfields, East Leake, Bingham or Carlton Fire stations.

Our data shows that over the last three years, between the hours of 7pm and 8am there is one incident every two days.

The proposed changes will mean a reduction of 44 posts and the redistribution of 14 posts.

We currently have vacant positions and predict a number of retirements over the next couple of years. Therefore, no redundancies will be required.

Yes. Will still have 28 fire appliances deployed across the county, this model meets our scenario plans of large-scale incidents.

Should we require it we also have arrangements with each of our neighbouring fire services who can provide support at large incidents. This is a well-practiced occurrence.

Members have a legal requirement to set and deliver a balanced budget. This programme aligns to the efficiency we need to make. If the recommendation to consult on these changes is not agreed there is currently no other alternatives being looked at. This is the option presented is the best in terms of maintaining county wide response times.

No. Our funding is not linked to a certain level of fire cover.

Our public consultation is being run by a specialist dependant company. It will run for a period of 12 weeks. It will be heavily promoted on social media. Information will be available via our website. From which you can be directed to our online consultation. We will be running internal staff engagement sessions and focus groups with members of the public. We will also be writing to a large number of stakeholders such as neighbouring fire and rescue services and councils to seek their feedback.

The is only one recommendation going to fire authority. This is changes to our operational model that will result in savings of £2m per annum.

A reduction in standard crewing is not being looked at as part of this review at this time.

In 2016 Central Fire Station was relocated to London Road. This new station is just two miles from West Bridgford Fire station. This is the closest of any of our fire stations and means that London Road Fire station offers good cover to Rushcliffe area.

The number of people who meet our high-risk profile in Rushcliffe is significantly lower than other districts.