Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service
2023-24 Efficiency and Productivity Plan

3 Collaboration

  1. The Service has collaborated with a range of organisations to enhance the provision of Service Delivery to the public. Collaboration has been undertaken for a variety of reasons, including in some cases cost saving or financial efficiencies. It should be noted however that this has not been the sole driver for collaboration activities.

Joint Fire Control

  1. In October 2011 Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire Authorities submitted a ‘Resilience and Efficiency Grant Bid’ to DCLG where £5.4m of funding was achieved for the Tri-Control project. As a result of this successful bid the Tri-Control function has been implemented and running since 2015.
  2. In 2018 the decision was taken to create a Joint Derbyshire Nottinghamshire Fire Control Room, based at Ripley Derbyshire. The aims of the collaboration were to achieve financial savings for both Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service. In addition, the Services aimed to harmonise ways of working to improve interoperability at cross-border incidents, and that the Control Room collaboration would act as a catalyst for future joint working.
  3. Since the creation of the Joint Control Room a range of operational alignments have been made including:
    • Joint implementation of National Operational Guidance;
    • Joint consideration of Grenfell recommendations including shared training and ways of working;
    • Alignment of operational equipment including Breathing Apparatus sets to allow joint deployment of crews by a single service.
  4. At the commencement of the project the Service anticipated savings of approximately £350k. Actual realised savings were lower than anticipated due to higher levels of staffing being agreed post implementation to mitigate identified risks. £250k savings were achieved in 2021/22.

Joint Headquarters (HQ)

  1. The Service moved into a jointly owned Head Quarters site with Nottinghamshire Police in 2022. Whilst there has not been any reduction in costs from moving sites, the old HQ was an aging building and would have required a significant amount of work over the medium term. It also has allowed closer relationships with the Police to be developed and enabled other collaboration opportunities to be identified.

Shared Premises

  1. The Service owns all of its fire stations except for one On-Call sections which is part of a tri-service blue light station at Hucknall and is owned by East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) to which NFRS have a 25 year tenant lease agreement in place.
  2. The Service has a range of collaborative partners and arrangements in place on Fire Service owned sites: NFRS shares the following stations with collaborative partners:
    • London Road Fire Station – Nottinghamshire Police, Nottingham City Council and EMAS (see 3.9, 3.10 and 3.11)
    • West Bridgford Fire Station – Nottinghamshire Police and South Notts Community First Responder (see 3.9)
    • East Leake Fire Station - Nottinghamshire Police (see 3.9)
    • Carlton Fire Station - Nottinghamshire Police (see 3.9)
    • Highfields Fire Station – St Johns Ambulance (see 3.10)
    • Clifton Office - Nottinghamshire Police
    • Worksop Fire Station – North Notts Community First Responder
  3. Lease Agreements with Nottinghamshire Police: The Service has lease agreements in place to share a number of fire and rescue sites with Nottinghamshire Police. This creates a combined income of Approx. £122k per year (2022/23). The combined rental costs are £75k per year (utility services usage which are recharged at actual costs).
  4. St Johns Ambulance and EMAS: The Service has an arrangement in place for with St Johns Ambulance and EMAS, this generated £16k (2022/23).
  5. Nottingham City Council: The Service has an arrangement in place for with Nottingham City Council for a peppercorn lease and a proportion of the utilities cost, this generated £6k (2022/23)
  6. Framework: The Service has an arrangement in place with Framework for the use of the office accommodation at Mansfield Fire station this generates £500.00 per year.
  7. In addition to sharing premises, NFRS have entered into collaborative agreements with Nottinghamshire Police for its Patrol Officers to use any NFRS Fire Station for Welfare Facilities, Fuel their diesel patrol cars (through a legal collaborative agreement) and use the stations washdown facilities to clean their patrol cars.

Hydrocarbon Dog

  1. The Service has a Regional Fire and Rescue Service collaboration with Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to share the costs associated with the provision of a Hydrocarbon Dog to support the Fire Investigation function.
  2. This enables costs of the Service provision to be shared 4 ways and ensures 24/7 availability of a Hydrocarbon Dog within the Region. The annual costs of the dog (including vehicle, handlers, food and veterinary costs) are £61k so by sharing costs the service saves £45k.
  3. The total annual costs have been reduced by £10k due to now employing a grade 6 person instead of a watch manager.

Drone

  1. A collaboration with Nottinghamshire Police is in place where they provide 24/7 drone support for Fire and Rescue Service incidents on a recharged basis. The Police recharge NFRS approximately £15k per year for the shared use of the Drone.

Welfarer Unit

  1. A collaboration with Nottinghamshire Police where Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service provide 24 /7 Welfare Unit to support Police incidents on a recharged basis which provides income in the region of £10k per year.