{"id":48894,"date":"2014-10-17T13:20:50","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T13:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=06c75ab0c626d871bf86d2610ea4fe5c"},"modified":"2014-10-17T13:20:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T13:20:50","slug":"press-release-fire-services-improvement-fund-public-get-a-win-win-better-local-services-and-at-lower-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=48894","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Fire services improvement fund &#8211; public get a win-win: better local services and at lower cost"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Fire Minister Penny Mordaunt today (17 October 2014) announced the winners of a \u00a375 million fund which will improve frontline services and save taxpayers over \u00a3300 million. <\/p>\n<p>The Fire Transformation Fund, announced last March, is giving \u00a375 million to fire and rescue authorities to help ensure better and more efficient front-line services for the public. In total, 37 projects from across the country will get funding.<\/p>\n<p>Announcing the winning bids, Fire Minster Penny Mordaunt said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Fire services have done an amazing job over the last few years in reducing demand on their emergency services; there are fewer fires and deaths. But this means the service needs to adapt \u2013 to meet new demands and to ensure it is working in the most efficient way. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve set up the Fire Transformation Fund.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">One of the things that I found encouraging was the high number of bids looking to promote greater collaboration with other emergency services through sharing stations and services, sharing of back office functions, and joining up on service delivery. This is exactly the sort of innovation that is needed across the public sector and I look forward to seeing how these projects progress.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Amongst the winning bids are the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Surrey will lead a project with fire, police and ambulance services across Sussex and Surrey to deliver efficient emergency service transport functions. (Award \u00a35.96 million \/ fire and rescue authority projected discounted savings to public sector \u00a320 million.)<\/li>\n<li>Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Authority will work with county council services to re-locate library services in 4 Hertfordshire villages to on-call fire stations, with resultant joint-use rationalisation efficiencies whilst establishing a community friendly platform for prevention and protection service delivery. (Award \u00a3700,000 \/ fire and rescue authority projected discounted savings to public sector \u00a3900,000.)<\/li>\n<li>Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority will work with both Kent and Essex fire and rescue authorities to establish a procurement hub leading towards a national procurement capability for the sector. (Award \u00a3370,000 \/ fire and rescue authority projected discounted savings to public sector \u00a327 million.)<\/li>\n<li>Essex Fire and Rescue Authority will lead a syndicate of 9 fire and rescue authorities establishing an insurance pooling arrangement open to all fire and rescue authorities with additional secondary insurance to cover extreme events. Efficiencies will be achieved via reduced insurance costs, whilst continuing to maintain a robust approach to risk management. (Award \u00a3220,000 \/ fire and rescue authority projected discounted savings to public sector \u00a32.3 million.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"further-information\">Further information<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><span class=\"attachment inline\" id=\"attachment_750651\"><br \/>\n<a href=\"\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/364766\/Tranformation_Funds.xlsx\">Fire Transformation Fund successful bids<\/a><br \/>\n(<span class=\"type\">MS Excel Spreadsheet<\/span>, <span class=\"file-size\">17.8KB<\/span>)<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>In the last decade there has been a 46% reduction in call outs and incidents. Deaths from fires in the home are now at an all time low. Yet expenditure and fire-fighter numbers have remained broadly the same.<\/li>\n<li>In May last year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/facing-the-future\">an independent review by Sir Ken Knight<\/a>, London\u2019s former Fire Commissioner with over 40 years in the service, concluded that fire and rescue authorities need to transform themselves to reflect the entirely different era of risk and demand they now operate in.  <\/li>\n<li>Services continue to spend to their budgets rather than to the risks they have to manage. Huge variations exist between how the 46 different authorities operate. The cost per head ranged from \u00a326 to more than \u00a350 per year.<\/li>\n<li>Sir Ken\u2019s report identified that the 46 fire and rescue authorities, each had their own structures. Differences in operational practices, including minimum crewing levels and the ratio of senior managers to firefighters further show that there are savings to be made without reducing the quality of outcomes for the public.<\/li>\n<li>The report stated that if above average authorities found ways to reduce their spending to the national average, then the money saved or reinvested could amount to nearly \u00a3200 million per year. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"contact postal-address\" id=\"contact_40\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Office address and general enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<p class=\"adr\">\n<span class=\"street-address\">2 Marsham Street<br \/>\n<br \/>\nLondon<\/span><br \/><span class=\"postal-code\">SW1P 4DF<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"contact_form_url\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Contact form<\/span><br \/>\n              <a href=\"http:\/\/forms.communities.gov.uk\/\">http:\/\/forms.communiti&#8230;<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">General enquiries:  please use this number if you are a member of the public<\/span><br \/>\n              030 3444 0000\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"contact\" id=\"contact_171\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Media enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:communications-newsdesk@communities.gsi.gov.uk\">communications-newsdesk@communities.gsi.gov.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Please use this number if you&#8217;re a journalist wishing to speak to Press Office<\/span><br \/>\n              030 3444 1201\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Winners of the Fire Transformation Fund have been announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}