Surrey County Council propose one of the slowest emergency response times standards in the UK

22 January, 2011 By admin

The Fire Brigades Union is urging Surrey County Council to stop misleading the public and set a response standard that really protects the public.

Surrey County Council has released summary documentation to the public, which states: “We aim to have one fire engine at these critical incidents within 10 minutes and a second one within 15 minutes on 80% of occasions.”

But it makes no mention of when that time is measured from. Nationally emergency response times are measured from the time a call for assistance from a member of the public is received, to when a fire engine has arrived at the incident.

Surrey’s proposed standard does not start the clock until the fire engine has been mobilised. This makes a considerable difference.

The average time taken from Time of Call to an appliance booking mobile is;
Wholetime fire engine 3 minutes and 17 seconds
Retained duty fire engine 6 minutes and 25 seconds
(Surrey Fire and Rescue Service Performance Data Report, November 2009)

Surrey County Council are proposing that the first fire engine should be in attendance within 10 minutes to comply with the standard, but in reality the real time could be as much as 16 minutes and 25 seconds and still comply. This is over double the current standards response time.

Richard Jones, FBU brigade secretary for Surrey said: “We have challenged this misleading Emergency Response Standard but there are no plans to come clean and include the call handling and mobilising time in the standard. Since we have already brought this to the attention of the council and they have not made any changes to the proposed standard or clarified the detail with the public we conclude that the standard is designed to be deliberately misleading.

“A Response Standard should measure the time taken to respond with a fire engine to a call from the public and not from when the fire engine leaves the fire station; if that measurement of time had a name it would be a Drive Time Standard.

“We urge Surrey County Council to stop misleading the public who cannot see the vitally important difference highlighted above from the documentation available in the public domain.”

Source:

http://www.firebrigadesunion.org.uk/?p=1349

Note: The Isle of Wight Council are proposing that Surrey Fire and Rescue Service will run the emergency Fire Control function of the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service.

Fire Bridades Union concerned about merger of Isle of Wight Fire Control Centre to Surrey

23 September, 2010 By admin

FIRE BRIGADES UNION

IMMEDIATE MEDIA RELEASE: 23rd September 2010

Fire Bridades Union concerned about merger of Isle of Wight Fire Control Centre to Surrey

At the Isle of Wight Council Full Council meeting, held on Wednesday 22 September 2010, Councillors voted through plans for an ‘in principle’ decision to move the Island’s emergency 999 Fire Control Centre to Reigate in Surrey.

The Fire Brigades Union are deeply concerned that these proposals are hastily being moved forward, to the extent that full public consultation and scrutiny is being pushed aside, with the issue of the Island’s Fire Control not due to return to a Full Council Meeting (rather a delegated decision at a future Cabinet Meeting) for full, open and proper debate.

Andrew Cooper, Isle of Wight FBU Fire Control Chairman, “Councillors must provide the public with a full consultation process before making a decision which will affect the safety of all island residents, visitors and businesses. At present Island residents and businesses are being denied the opportunity for such a full public consultation on the issue their local Fire Control. We do not believe island residents will be happy to have their emergency calls to the Fire Service answered in another county. Councillors must now also listen to Firefighters and Firefighters (Control) before making any further decisions on the proposal to have emergency 999 fire calls answered in Reigate, Surrey.

If adopted the level of service received by Island Tax Payers will be inferior to the exemplary and resilient service they currently enjoy.”

Ricky Matthews, Regional Secretary Fire Brigades Union (Southern Region) who also attended the Full Council meeting said “Cllr David Pugh , Cllr Barry Abraham, Cllr Roger Mazillius and this administration appear to be more than happy to accept awards to the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service, achieved by the work of Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service staff in moving the service forward and achieving ever higher standards. However, when those same professional Firefighters and Firefighters (Control) are of the strong professional opinion that moving the Island Fire Control Centre will provide an inferior level of service to that currently delivered and increase the life risk to Island residents, visitors, businesses and Firefighters, such views and serious concerns are being sidelined and cast aside.”

Firefighters and Firefighters (Control) urge all Councillors to discover for themselves the true extent to which Firefighters rely on accurate and reliable emergency call information, only truly achievable with local knowledge, which fundamentally affects the safety of island residents, visitors and Firefighters.

Additionally, we urge Island residents and businesses to write to their local County and Parish councillors, as well as Island MP Andrew Turner, to express their views on this naive and ill-conceived proposal.

Councillors should be mindful that in a recent YouGov survey (13th September 2010) eight out of ten (85%) of the public oppose government plans to cut funding in the Fire and Rescue Service.

The proposed closure of the Islands Fire Control is a cut to the Fire Service.

It would appear that Councillors know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

Ends
Notes to Editors:

YouGov surveyed 1,020 adults between 16 –27 August 2010. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from a YouGov Plc survey commissioned by The Fire Brigade Union. The survey was carried out online among a nationally representative sample of 1020 adults aged 18+ in the UK between 16-27 August 2010. Data is weighted to be nationally representative based on age, gender, social grade and region.

The Isle of Wight Council are proposing to close the Isle of Wight Fire Control Centre in Newport, Isle of Wight, with the calls answered by the Surrey Fire and Rescue Service Control.

Councillors were only given twenty-four hours notice of the additional items on the agenda for the Full Council meeting, including the issue of the Island’s Fire Control Centre.

The FBU understands the issue will now be subject to a ‘full scoping study’, which will take 3-4 months, before being returned to a future Cabinet Meeting (delegated decision). As a result, the closure of the Island’s Fire Control Centre could take place within 8 months (April/May 2011).

Save Isle of Wight Fire Control Campaign website: http://www.firewontwait.com

Contacts:

Andrew Cooper, Chairman, Isle of Wight FBU: 07889 182 762
Paul Watts, Control Staff National Rep. (Southern Region) 07917 065 889
Ricky Matthews, FBU Regional Secretary (Southern Region) 07917 065 863

http://www.isleofwightfbu.com

http://www.fbur12.org.uk

http://www.fbu.org.uk

Filed Under: Counties, Isle of Wight, News, Press Releases

VOIP calls – no automated caller location information – local knowledge is VITAL

5 September, 2010 By admin

VOIP (voice over internet protocol) is relatively new way to make calls.

The calls are made via a desk phone or via a phone similar to a mobile phone. Calls are made by plugging the phone into any available internet socket or via a Wifi network.

However, importantly for the emergency services there is no automated caller location information available. This means that local knowledge is a pre-requisite requirement for taking such calls.

Not withstanding this, the VOIP calls can also have a number that roams with the phone, i.e. the number could relate to a Blackpool STD whilst being made from a hotel in Plymouth.

This further compounds any attempt or use of automated caller location systems to correctly locate the call, in fact it is impossible.

BT (British Telecom) have apparently stated that nationally three-hundred VOIP 999 calls are made per day (as at May 2010).

VOIP packages are becoming increasingly available to the public and businesses, with the use ever increasing.

Local knowledge is becoming more not less important for Fire Control staff when taking emergency 999 calls and dealing with incidents.

As any professional Firefighter (Control) will tell you, they use local knowledge on a daily basis for taking emergency 999 calls and dealing with radio traffic and messages from Firefighters at incidents.

To quote Gradwell Dot Com Ltd:

‘Calls to 999/112 Emergency Services

Gradwell Dot Com provides access to public emergency call services to all customers within England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

When you dial either 999 or 112, your call is routed from the Gradwell Dot Com network to national emergency operators who will handle your call. The emergency operator will ask for specific information to correctly transfer your call. You will need to state clearly and promptly the nature of your emergency, your location and phone number, and any other requested information. The emergency operator will then route your call to the appropriate emergency agency, such as:

Police
Fire Brigade
Ambulance
Coastguard
Mountain Rescue

Update your 999/112 Emergency Response Address

Your Gradwell VoIP phone service is portable so it is important that you register the location of your device and keep it updated. This information should be visible to the Emergency Services so they can see what location assistance is required. You can make changes to your location information online via the Gradwell Dot Com control panel.

Where you use your Gradwell VoIP service in a fully nomadic manner – such as using a soft-phone on a laptop – we understand it may not be technically feasible to set the address of every location that you use the service from. In such cases you should be aware that the emergency operator will NOT know your location and you must provide this information to them verbally.

source: http://www.gradwell.com/emergencycalls

On the Isle of Wight, Wight Cable have recently launched their own VOIP Business package:

http://www2.wightcable.com/voip.aspx

Over the coming years there is no doubt that VOIP telephones and call packages will become ever more popular.

As a result local knowledge for the taking of emergency 999 calls will be ever more important, not less important as politicians in their naivity wish to imply.

Filed Under: Featured, Isle of Wight, Local Knowledge, News

Face the Facts – Money To Burn, BBC Radio 4

26 August, 2010 By admin

Face the Facts – Money To Burn, BBC Radio 4

Firefighters need the right equipment and back up if they are going to save lives. But millions of pounds have been spent on state of the art control rooms that may never be used, fire engines that are so heavy they can’t be driven at speed and a fire training house – that caught fire.

Just some of the costly procurement decisions made on behalf of fire and rescue services across Britain – but paid for by us.

Listen to the broadcast here via BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tgwlf/Face_the_Facts_Money_To_Burn/

Broadcast on:: BBC Radio 4, 12:30pm Thursday 26th August 2010
Duration:: 26 minutes
Available until:: 12:00am Thursday 1st January 2099

Surrey County Council propose one of the slowest emergency response times standards in the UK

Fire Bridades Union concerned about merger of Isle of Wight Fire Control Centre to Surrey

FIRE BRIGADES UNION

IMMEDIATE MEDIA RELEASE: 23rd September 2010

VOIP calls – no automated caller location information – local knowledge is VITAL

‘Calls to 999/112 Emergency Services

Update your 999/112 Emergency Response Address

Face the Facts – Money To Burn, BBC Radio 4

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