1. Emergency Services Collaboration

2. - Key Research Questions
Project brief
- Key Research Questions
To what extent are projects operating as outlined in their project plans and business cases?
How has collaboration been achieved?
To what extent do these collaboration projects support wider public service change?
How do collaboration projects ensure longevity and become sustainable?
What lessons have been identified?
What evidence is there of successful outcomes (including financial) of these projects?
Which indicators should be used to monitor collaboration activity in the future?
What evidence is there of wider sharing of the lessons and of them being learnt?
What are the national and local enablers and barriers to successful collaboration in the rest of England and Wales?

3. Emerging best practice
Evaluation Overview
Project Areas
Area of
research
Collaboration
Services involved
Interviews
Focus Group
Efficient services
Shared back office
Hampshire Police, Fire and HCC
Organisational integration
Northants Police and Fire
Effective services
Co-responding
Lincolnshire FRS and EMAS
Interoperability
South Wales and Gwent
Emerging best practice
Reducing overlap between the emergency services
Surrey and Sussex FRS, Police, SE Ambulance Service
Wider approach to prevention activities
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, North West Ambulance Service and Greater Manchester Police

4. Evaluation Overview Methodology
Rapid Evidence Assessment and Lit. Review
51 depth interviews held with strategic leads across
emergency services and local authorities
3 qualitative group sessions held with front-line emergency services – involving 27 people
Online Survey of ‘out of area’ emergency Services (188 invites sent out) & representative bodies (92) – 115 responses received .
National public opinion survey of 1,067 individuals
Collation and analysis of a range of secondary data sources including financial and performance data

5. Powerpoint presentation Final report with recommendations
Evaluation Overview
Outputs .
Powerpoint presentation
Booklet
Final report with recommendations

6. Inter and Intra Collaborations
Inter agency
Police
Ambulance
Fire

7. Out of Areas Survey – Headline data
Breakdown of emergency services responses (% of respondents that have responsibility for members in each service area)
115 responses which represent
21 Fire and Rescue Services
15 Police Forces
7 Ambulance service
4 Local Authorities
7 PCCs
Motivation behind collaborative work
Level at which of collaborative work takes place

8. Out of Areas Survey – Headline data (ES Employers)
Main three enablers of collaboration
Strong desire among organisations to work together
Willingness on the part of key individuals to work together
Strong trust between organisations.
Main three barriers to collaboration
Unwillingness on the part of individuals to work together
Differing organisational cultural barriers
Lack of funding to take joint work forward
31% of respondents are very satisfied with the extent of the collaboration their organisation is involved in, 57.1% are fairly satisfied.
88.1% report that the extent of their organisation’s collaborative activities has increased over the past year, 7.1% report no change and 4.8% report that collaborative activities have decreased.
All respondents (100%) would like to get further involved in Emergency Services Collaboration.

9. Out of Areas Survey – Headline Data (Rep bodies)
Breakdown of representative bodies (% of respondents that have responsibility for members in each service area)
What should be the main outcomes of collaboration (rep bodies)
The creation of best practise approaches
Improvements in training
Better knowledge of each organisation's roles and responsibilities
70.2% of respondents from representative bodies state that the organisations they represent have been involved in collaborative work.
Main concerns expressed from representative bodies are; changes in staff terms and conditions, changes in staff job roles, negative impact on staff numbers

10. (Survey) Public Perception
National public opinion survey of 1,067 people conducted by Populus (20th-22nd February 2015)
72% think that the emergency services should work together more often to provide a better all-round service
Only 32% feel informed about how the emergency services work together in their local area
53% would like to know more about how the emergency services work together in their local area
61% are confident that the emergency services work together effectively to prevent emergencies
76% are confident that the emergency services work together effectively to respond to emergencies
61% are confident that the emergency services work together effectively to provide value for money
.  
52% stated that it was important for emergency services, in their local area, to share the same premises where feasible
84% thought that emergency services’ control rooms in their local area should electronically share information with each other
84% felt that leaders in the emergency services needed to work together closely in order to protect the public

11. Headline themes - Enablers
Clear and shared vision of objectives
Political support
- strong locally
- needs some work centrally
Clear, shared resource plan
- staffing
- budgets
- facilities
Timeline and pathway
- clear
- common
- achievable

12. Headline themes - Enablers
Governance
- supportive
- agreed roles
Trust
- leadership
- within and between organisations
Retaining identity
- organisational
- public perception

13. Headline themes - Barriers
Reverse of enablers
Funding
- access
- different structures
- allocation process
- future
Focus
- needs widening
- emergency only misses the point

14. Headline themes - Barriers
Government departments
- risk of silo mentality
- structural issues
- conflicting visions
Representative bodies
- staff issues
- location issues
- could also be an enabler
Legislation
issues to be addressed BUT
should not be used as a barrier to progress
Organisational differences
- terms and conditions
- rosters
- internal structures

15. Economic/data analysis - findings
Main findings
All business cases report a mix of financial and non-financial benefits
Cost and benefit estimates provided in each case BUT
Varying degrees of details with some areas providing detailed basis for their projections and other providing cost breakdown without underlying assumptions
Similar variation in providing estimates of benefits
In most cases, it is early days to measure success but we provide suggestion how success can be measured in the future

16. Economic/data analysis - recommendations
Provides advice on making better business cases by reporting underlying model on which costs and benefits are calculated
Best business cases provide detailed breakdown and rationale for costs and benefits which should be emulated
Best cases also provide bounds (high and low scenarios) and discount factors used that should be adopted

17. Economic/data analysis - recommendations
All areas would benefit from laying out a better understanding of non-monetary benefits which can be monitored over a number of years
Greater understanding of other related factors that can change outcomes would lead to a more robust understanding of what changes can be attributed to joint working
Develop a clearer understanding of the mechanisms through which change occurs as a result of joint working

18. Recommendations
Area 1
Characterised by overall support and deliverability
Shared control rooms (integration and/or co-location)
Single back offices
Data-sharing to enable most effective and efficient responses
Capital resource rationalisations
- vehicles
- buildings
- equipment
Common Protocols
- responses
- lexicons
Common KPIs linked to these priorities

19. Recommendations for further collaboration
Area 2
Characterised by strong support but with issues to manage/overcome
Shared command structures
Shared operational staff
Joint training programmes
Wider/deeper data sharing

20. Recommendations for further collaboration
Area 3
Mixed support and key barriers to manage/overcome
More integrated local and national governance structures
Merged local budget
More comprehensive intra-service rationalisation
Alignment of terms and conditions
Police devolution