NORTH YORKSHIRE FIRE AND RESCUE AUTHORITY
Report of the Deputy Chief Fire Officer/Director of Service Delivery
9th September 2009
REGIONAL CONTROL CENTRE/FIRELINK PROJECT UPDATE
1.0 PURPOSE OF REPORT
1.1 To provide Members with an update on the Regional Control Centre (RCC) project and the associated Firelink project .
2.0 INTRODUCTION
2.1 This report provides a general update on the status of the Yorkshire and Humberside regional FiReControl project and the associated Firelink wide area radio communications project.
3.0 GENERAL UPDATE
3.1 Project Management
3.1.2 Transition: The draft principles of Ways of Working (WoW) documents are being received in the FRS at a steady pace and the process of reviewing them is underway. These principles will form the basis of how the RCC will deliver its business to both the public and the FRSs.
3.1.3 Risk Register: Discussions around the risk which has been registered regarding the Paknet radio coverage problem is still on-going. The ‘Paknet’ system provides a secondary means of contacting Fire Stations as a contingency measure but does not provide full coverage for the North Yorkshire area. To assess this situation a process of carrying out surveys across the country is still underway and until such time as this is completed, a full solution to the problem is not expected. Given North Yorkshire FRS raised the concern about this system it will be one of the first Services to go through the survey process.
3.1.4 Date Issues: Following the recent announcement of a delay in the Project, the projected dates for cutover to RCC are now:
West Yorkshire July, 2012
South Yorkshire September, 2012
North Yorkshire November, 2012
Humberside November, 2012
4.0 HUMAN RESOURCE
4.1 Meeting with FBU: The Regional Control Centre Director (RCCD) Mr. Graeme Hall, held an inaugural meeting with representatives from the FBU on 9th June, 2009. A draft constitution and terms of reference document was considered. This was agreed with the addition of a number of FBU representatives and subject to any further comments from the FBU by 19th June, 2009 and final agreement by the individual FRSs.
4.2 Senior Operations Manager (SOM) & Operations Manager – Business Support (OMBS) posts:
The Assessment Centres and interviews for the SOM & OMBS posts have taken place with Helen Dowse (Humberside) being appointed as the SOM and Julie Jowett (West Yorkshire) being appointed as the OMBS. Both will take up their posts later in the year.
5.0 REGIONAL ISSUES
5.1 Regional Control Centre Building: On the subject of the RCC lease the RCC Director has written to the Chair of the RMB indicating that when a suitable "Put Option" is put forward by CLG it will then be his intention to further advise the Regional Control Centre Company Board of Directors as to their options in terms of taking on the lease. The ‘Put’ option is a relatively standard contractual facility that would allow the Regional Control Centre Company the option to withdraw from the lease in certain circumstances. Substantive consideration of this issue is therefore considered premature at the moment. Progress is being made on this issue however via the Local Government legal representatives who have requested changes to the contractual documentation on this option. It has to be noted that "Put Option" will only address future liability for rent under the lease, it will not deal with all the other implications regarding continuing service provision and local employment issues which would then arise. Given the issues outlined it was recommended that the Regional Management Board supports the status quo, which is to leave the RCC lease responsibilities with CLG at this time.
6.0 TECHNOLOGY ISSUES
6.1 Control Systems Management Group: Following the announcements of a further delay to the FireControl Project, a group has been formed to assess the situation regarding the present mobilising system which is in use by this FRS. The Firecat system is now 12 years old. The group will be headed by Colin Chadfield, Head of Business Risk and will look at service resilience in relation to this issue and assess options including support needs, upgrading or replacement requirements.
7.0 FIRELINK
7.1 Phase C Installation of Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs): Notification has been received that Phase C of the Firelink Project will commence in this FRS in March, 2010 and be completed by June, 2010. There are a number of issues relating to the updating of the equipment which need to be resolved before the fitting can take place, but communication is taking place regarding these.
7.2 Future costs: Until cutover to RCC, CLG have indicated that they will fund the normal usage of the Airwave system by FRSs. We are currently awaiting a response to a request that has been made to the Firelink team for indication on the levels of budget which will be needed to support the system once cutover to RCC takes place when the FRS will then take over the responsibility.
8.0 THE REGIONAL CONTROL CENTRE COMPANY
8.1 No specific issues to report, general information on current issues considered by the Company are contained within this report.
9.0 FINANCE
9.1 Finance: The Treasurer’s report to the recent Yorkshire & Humberside Fire Authorities’ Regional Management Board is attached as Annex A. This report includes:
· Business Case matters
· Project Risks
· Establishment of Non Departmental Public Bodies
· LACC Taxation Issues
9.2 At the last meeting there was a request that officers prepare a “light touch” comparison of what it might have cost to equip the Service’s Fire Control Room in Northallerton to provide the same capabilities as the Regional Control Centre will provide. Unfortunately because of the structure of the contract and a lack of comparative commercial information it has not been possible to extract the requested information. In addition, as set out in the Appendix to this report there still remains some uncertainty over the real costs of the project which too does not assist comparison.
10.0 CONCLUSIONS
10.1 The project continues to move forward. The Service is well represented on various local and national forums and effective management controls are in place. It is clear that there remain a number of outstanding questions following the issue of the full Business Case, together with issues in some areas of work, particularly finance and human resource management, but the Service benefits from being late in the rollout which has now been extended to November, 2012.
11.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
11.1 It is recommended that the Authority note the contents of this report.
C ANDERSON
Deputy Chief Fire Officer
Brigade Headquarters
Thurston Road
NORTHALLERTON
North Yorkshire
DL6 2ND
23rd August, 2009
ANNEX A
YORKSHIRE AND HUMBERSIDE
FIRE AUTHORITIES’ REGIONAL MANAGEMENT BOARD /24 JULY 2009
/ ITEM NO.SUBJECT : Treasurer’s report
REPORT OF : Treasurer
RECOMMENDATION : That the report be noted
LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ACCESS TO INFORMATION) ACT DETAILS
EXEMPTION CATEGORY : None
ACCESS CONTACT OFFICER : Bill Wilkinson (01226) 772803
BACKGROUND PAPERS
OPEN TO INSPECTION :
1 Business Case – representation to Minister
The Chair has requested a meeting with the new Fire Minister to discuss the implications of the final Business Case. Originally we had been seeking a joint meeting between the Minister and all of the ‘losing’ regions outside London, but the picture is more complex now that the costs and savings are analysed at Authority level in the final Business Case. There are some gainers within the losing regions but even more important, some significant losers (e.g. Kent Essex, Manchester) within the gaining regions.
Attached is a summary of the latest forecasts drawn from information in the Business Case.
The list of issues to discuss with the Minister remains very much as it has been for some considerable time:
· lack of long term guarantee on future grant support. (this issue is becoming more critical in the light of long term financial prospects for Fire funding)
· the unequal impact – operational savings made in some areas will benefit local budgets; in the losing areas; the benefit goes to the Government
· outstanding costing issues, including provision from out of scope activities
· confirmation that New Burdens will continue to apply to as yet unquantified costs such as pensions and severance
2 Business Case Financial Forecasts
CLG have been asked to supply further breakdowns of the detailed assumptions underpinning the lasts forecasts. Some of this information has now been received, including a reconciliation of the Yorkshire and Humberside costs between the interim Business Case and the final version. Graeme Hall is pursuing further information on the LACC employment costs.
The figures in the Business Case for Y&H show the correct regional total, but the apportionment between the four individual Authorities appears to be incorrectly stated. It seems to result from using incorrect tax base data.
3 Project Risks
CLG have recently updated the risk register for this project as a whole. Copies of the detailed papers can be supplied.
There are 3 high risks identified:
- delays in delivery of technical infrastructures
- capacity within the project team over the next 12 months
- industrial action or legal challenges over staffing or resilience issues
4 Establishment of new Non Departmental Public Bodies
A Ministerial Statement on 25 June informed the Service that a new NDPB will be established in November 2009.
The new body will take over the function of FireBuy and integrate these with the management of other service contracts for the Resilience Programme:
Fire Link
Fire Control
New Dimensions
The NDPB will start to take up its role in April 2010, but may not be fully functional till 2012. There will be a consultation period over the next few months.
The proposed responsibilities of the new body include acting as the formal interface between contractors and the FRS, RCCs and LACCs. It will also have responsibility for the national assurance function.
5 LACC Taxation Issues
The Treasurers of the four Authorities and the LACC Director have discussed potential taxation implications arising from the receipt of resilience grant if this ultimately results in a surplus arising within the LACC, which as a company is subject to more of the normal corporation tax requirements. Tax advice had been sought nationally by the FRA’s, and it may mean careful structuring of the payments more to the LACC, and the treatment of grant receipt by the Authorities.