1. Pete Murphy and Kirsten Greenhalgh Nottingham Trent University and University of Nottingham

2. Austerity or Growth Neo-Liberal or Collectivist Whether public services deprive or squeeze out much needed investment in the private sector, and therefore need to be as economic, efficient and effective as they can be (so as to minimise the cost to productive services); or Public services create Public Value, public wellbeing or collective benefits, and therefore need to be economic, efficient and effective as possible, (and included in alternative growth assessments) to maximise community wellbeing, Is a moot point for this paper!

3. The Beneficiaries of Economic, Efficient and Effective Fire and Rescue Services  The general public, who benefit from improved services and risk mitigation;  The government and policy makers;  Fire and rescue services and related emergency services (with whom FRS have to cooperate);  The owners of businesses and property, and the insurance and other industries related to the service.

4. A Fundamental Change! The 2004 Fire and Rescue Services Act and the assessment of risk  The act changed the purpose and responsibility of the service from assessing risk to ‘Buildings and Premises’ to assessing risk to ‘People and Communities.’  Introduced the Integrated Risk Management Planning process to operationalise assessments with consequent implications for service deployment and reconfiguration.  Overtly and explicitly committed the sector to evidence based policy making.

5. Previously…  The Traditional model of assessing risks was based upon an assessment of risks to buildings, plants and premises with national standards of performance relating to the length of time it took fire personnel and appliances to attend various types of incidents once they were called out by a centralised control room.  This historical model of risk assessment was the basis of the performance assessment of the fire services since local services were re-established after the second world war.  It was also the dominant international model replicated across many advanced western economies in Europe, North America and Australasia.

6. The Reconfiguration of Fire and Rescue Services in the British Isles.  Within the last two years, new national frameworks have been published for England, Scotland, Wales, the Republic of Ireland (Éire) and N Ireland.  All are intended to produce efficiency savings in response to the continuing restrictions on public spending, while at the same time improving the protection of the public from the risk of harm.  All five considered, proposed or recommended reorganisation of collective services and the organisational and sectoral infrastructure that supports the services.

7. Integrated Risk Management Planning (IRMP)  This required Fire and rescue Services to comprehensively assess risks to people and communities through an evidence-based risk assessment with the intention of improving public safety, reducing the number of emergency incidents and saving lives.  FRS and the other emergency services are also obliged by the 2004 Civil Contingencies Act to co-ordinate their activities in various community wide partnerships and forums such as the national and local risk registers and resilience forums.

8. Government support for IRMP ( in a period of sustained increase in public investment )  A data cleansing exercise of incident data on behalf of all authorities;  Compilation and development of a Fire Service Emergency Cover (FSEC) Toolkit of the best available techniques, software packages and research relating to risk based fire cover, and  Implementation Support Teams to provide support and provide feedback and dissemination of emerging good practise.

9. Local Implementation the Fire Cover Review (IRMP) in Nottinghamshire (community risk over cost) Research into the implementation of IRMP within Nottinghamshire demonstrated that these types of comprehensive risk assessments were greatly facilitated by  significant developments in digital mapping,  computer software processing power, and  the development of the FSEC toolkit, The quality of the evidential base is a key issue for the new system.

10. The National Reviews Comparison of the aims, objectives and scope of the services  All 5 have moved to an integrated and proactive approach to risk management based upon a ‘comprehensive’ assessment of risk to people while all adopting a systems approach to risk.  They are seeking value for money without compromising local political accountability.  As well as protecting people and infrastructure they are seen as necessary for supporting and attracting economic development and investment in communities.

11. The National Reviews Comparison of the aims, objectives and scope of the services  Part of wider local and national resilience and they all mandate integration and interoperability with other emergency services  The scope of the services remain remarkably similar.  All intend to use the new arrangements as the basis for Performance Management of the services (and mutual agreement of objectives and targets in Scotland, Wales, N Ireland and Éire).

12. Keeping Communities Safe – A Framework for Fire Safety in Ireland ( A strategic and co-productive approach). Published, appropriately enough on 17 th March  It aligns Ireland’s approach in this area with international best practice, through the use of a risk management approach  developed by the National Directorate in a collaborative approach between central and local government  included stakeholder consultation and engagement by the National Directorate with relevant technical organisations to ensure the best fit between up-to-date thinking and Ireland’s needs. http://www.environ.ie/en/Community/NationalDirectorateforFireandEmergencyManagement/PolicyDocuments/KeepingCommunitiesSafe/

13. A Systems Approach to Risk Management  identifying hazards and evaluating the risks these hazards pose,  mitigating those risks by trying to reduce the probability of the event and/ or its consequences if it does occur,  planning and preparing to deal with the risk,  responding to the event, and  reviewing events with a view to learning for the future.

14. Presentation of Societal Risk  Takes into account:  Nature of the fire hazard  Probable incident and extent of fires  Character of the area and value of property likely to be damaged

15. Éire the longitudinal process of reform from concept to completion Éire the longitudinal process of reform from concept to completion. Irish Fire Services National Development Framework 2010-2015 “Keeping Communities Safe” (2012) Review and Development of Updated Section 26 Plans by each fire service in 2013 Local Service Development Plans for each fire service in 2013, 2014, 2015 Review and Completion Report (Dec 2015)

16. Proposals  Reconfiguring 30 services to 21 based on extended ‘shared services’ approach;  Strengthening the regional structure to co-ordinate services and the provision of mutual assistance and support;  Introducing a risk management approach to emergency response that differentiates primary, secondary and tertiary categories for risks or threats to life;  Establishing new targets for the reduction of incidents; and  Clarifying national and local responsibilities, committing the service to a new and innovative ‘collaborative relationship’ between central and local government.

17. Éire – Proposed reconfigurations. Future Fire Service Delivery UnitsFire Service Co-ordination Regions And for those of you counting the colours and arriving at 20 services, Cork is split into Cork City and Cork County

18. Options identified  A single national fire service  Regional Service Delivery  Shared service or multi authority combined services reducing delivery units  Continuation of existing principal authority based services (30 units for 37 authorities)  Community safety, fire protection, fire service response and emergency management roles are ‘particularly well-fitted’ to local government but reshaped from 30 services to 21.  Strengthen critical aspects of structure at national and regional levels in terms of service support.

19. Our initial review based on the documentary analysis  Appears to have been an open and mutually supportive exercise in policy co-production between the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management and the Chief Fire Officer’s  Timely and historic innovation in policy and delivery which reflects the mandated/statutory co-operation required for mutual and several responsibilities between key stakeholders  Reflects the international trend towards the use of risk-based approaches to responding and managing emergency service provision  Although it was not clear how the index of multiple deprivation or communities profiles are used

20. Our initial review based on the documentary analysis  Service reconfigurations appear to be the first step towards integrated reorganisation  Although 4 options were generated there was no option appraisal within the published document so it is not clear why the option for extended shared services was chosen  Proposals for measuring, monitoring and managing performance appear fit for purpose.  Extremely challenging targets with tight deadlines.

21. Original intentions for the research  Our original intention was to compare the regime in Éire to the other UK configurations.  To investigate both policy development and the implementation of the service reconfiguration  To evaluate the public service reform in terms of the OECD concept of the Strategic State  To compliment the document analysis with primary research through a series of elite interviews following attendance at the European Union Fire Officer Association’s annual conference in May 2013. At this stage we wrote our abstract for the conference…

22. The focus then changed to…  A critical appraisal and comparative analysis of the IRMP process its evidential base at national and local levels and the development of policy and service reconfiguration in Éire.  However…  implementation has been continually delayed through a series of industrial relations issues  Key stakeholders have advised us that it would be an inopportune and unpropitious time to conduct the interviews although they have reassured us of their continued support for the research project

23. Questions ? Contacts Pete Murphy Nottingham Trent University Peter.murphy@ntu.ac.uk Kirsten Greenhalgh Nottingham University Business School Kirsten.Greenhalgh@Nottingham.ac.uk