Background 

From 2010/11 to the end of the spending review period in 2019/20, the Authority had a total reduction of £26.1m in central government funding. To meet this funding gap, the Authority restructured emergency response cover based on risk and implemented a station rationalisation programme and a fundamental review of support services.

Table 1 below shows the reduction in staff and resources from 2010 to date:

Table 1: Reduction in staff and resources from 2010 to date.

Since 2010, the number of incidents in West Yorkshire initially declined and have then increased slightly from 2012 onwards. Figure 1 below highlights that we are now attending more incidents per whole time firefighter than we did previously.

To put the information into context, since 2012 the number of incidents per fire appliance has risen from 370 to 550, therefore, we are now more operationally efficient compared to 10 years ago and better than the average across the metropolitan FRS's.

Over the last decade, the number of incidents per million population in West Yorkshire has maintained a similar trend to that in the rest of the metropolitan FRSs, and again West Yorkshire is consistently better than the average across these comparable service areas, as illustrated in Figure 2.

The number of dwelling fires and fires in other buildings has in fact declined (see Figure 3). WYFRS consistently has a lower rate of dwelling fires relative to the other metropolitan fire and rescue services, which highlights the success of our Prevention strategy.

Since 2019, we have taken the decision to improve the productivity of operational resources and offset this declining rate of fires by taking on new responsibilities and supporting the police and the ambulance service to gain entry at medical emergencies. This blue-light collaboration not only improves efficiency across the three services, it also promotes the safety and health and wellbeing of the communities across West Yorkshire.

Section 1: Primary Information

Budget Expenditure and Income

Table 2 below shows the sources of income and planned spending for 2023/24 to 2026/27.

Based on the anticipated cost pressures, revenue growth, planned efficiency savings, and forecast funding, the Authority is showing a balanced budget position for 2023/24.

From 2024/25, the Authority will need to use reserves until further efficiencies savings can be realised.

Financial Reserves

Table 3 below shows the forecast for usable reserves over the life of the Medium-Term Financial Plan. Those reserves that are highlighted in yellow are the result of the receipt of a government grant and as such will have to be spent in accordance with the grants terms and conditions. All other reserves can be used to support the revenue and capital budget.

Table 3 highlights that over 90% of our usable earmarked reserves are held for investment in the capital programme. The capital finance reserve will be fully expended on the redevelopment of our headquarters site; it has been agreed that this reserve is used to fund the rebuild of our estate as it saves the Authority making minimum revenue provisions in its revenue budget for the statutory repayment of debt. It is planned that any revenue budget under spends are transferred to this reserve so that it can continue to fund investment in our fire stations.

The pension equalisation reserve and the provision for pay and prices reserves will be used primarily to fund the costs associated with the implementation of the firefighters’ pensions remedy and to fund pay awards in future years that are higher than budget provision.

Precept

On the 23rd of February 2023, the Authority approved a Band D equivalent precept of £77.18, which was an increase of £5 from the previous year.

Due to the nationally agreed pay offer for grey book staff of 7% from July 2022 and 5% from July 2023, the pay award paid to our support staff and the high levels of non-pay inflation has meant that even with the efficiencies noted in this plan, this increase was necessary to maintain frontline staffing levels and ensure the financial sustainability of the Service. Despite this increase, West Yorkshire is still the fourth lowest precepting Authority in England.

Efficiency 

Table 4 below summarises the cashable efficiency savings the Authority is planning to make over the life of the current Medium Term Financial Plan:

• Changes to staffing models - the Authority has ceased the Operational Resources Pool which has resulted in efficiencies in the payment of allowances.
• Vacancy management - a proportion of support staff budgets is reduced by a vacancy factor to recognise the saving in cost when a post is vacant.
• Ill health retirements - the Authority robustly manages the retirement of firefighters due to ill health reasons which has realised an annual ongoing efficiency.
• Insurance - the Authority joined the Fire and Rescue Indemnity Company (FRIC) from the 1st of April 2023, which has resulted in an efficiency saving compared to our previous insurance arrangements.
• Procurement savings - the Authority operates a rigorous procurement programme to ensure that all options for the purchase of goods and services are explored, which has resulted in efficiency savings.
• Shared premises – the Authority rents space on five fire stations to West Yorkshire Police (WYP), Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) use rooms on six of our fire stations for welfare facilities and we rent space to two local authorities.

Figure 4 below shows the planned efficiencies for each year compared against the Government’s target of 2% efficiencies against non-pay related budgets.

We have recently concluded an efficiency review of all support services and have developed several efficiency options. This exercise has highlighted areas where future efficiencies can be made.

Productivity

Firefighter productivity activities are aligned to the delivery of our Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP). Our CRMP sets out the essential work we will carry out over the next three years to manage and reduce fire-related risks and other emergencies to protect the communities of West Yorkshire.

To enable us to deliver this work efficiently and effectively we understand whole time firefighter capacity on each of our whole time fire stations, taking into consideration the duty system, time allocated to station work, training, risk reduction activities and time spent in attendance at operational incidents.

OneView, our new bespoke performance management system is a series of intuitive dashboards that provide a comprehensive picture of WYFRS’ progress towards achieving our strategic priorities and ambition of ‘Making West Yorkshire Safer.’

Balanced activity reports are produced which consider performance across the whole Service, displaying clear governance and performance reporting. It is a more efficient way of collating, reporting, and analysing data.

Whilst work continues to refine this process and manage the change across the Service, there is a clear objective to use live data and intelligence to drive change and continuous improvement whilst also improving productivity.

To date, the data we use is incident data, but in the coming months we will be adding additional data that focuses on training, competence, ‘Safe and Well’ visits, and Protection work.

Service performance is monitored through a set of key performance indicators that are reported to members of the Authority. All reports are available on the WYFRS website.

Within section 2 of this plan, we have detailed work streams which are embedded within WYFRS where we have seen increase in productivity. There are also details of where we plan to make further changes to ways of working to improve efficiency and increase productivity.

Section 2: Secondary Info

Collaboration

WYFRS has a long history of partnership working and the introduction of the Tri-Service Collaboration Board is making collaboration a reality.

We understand the value that working with others can bring and we work closely with partners such as local authorities, blue light services, health teams, community groups, and voluntary organisations to identify and support the most vulnerable people in our communities.

Making the most of collaborative opportunities has enabled us to co-locate services and deliver joint training to staff. This collaborative work underpins a more cohesive service delivery, achieves better value for money in procurement and has facilitated more effective planning for emergencies and pre-planned events.

WYFRS has several agreements in place for sharing premises with partners. We share five of our premises with WYP, six with YAS, and two with local authorities. This generates income of approximately £0.1m per annum.

Our current collaborative projects include sharing data and reducing demand on all services which will allow for a more holistic approach to preventing risk to the most vulnerable in our society.

Where a collaboration opportunity has been identified, a project team is established to explore the opportunity and report back to the Tri-Service Collaboration Board. An example of this is the Gaining Entry Cause for Concern protocol, where a memorandum of understanding was developed between WYFRS, WYP, and YAS. The protocol relates to occasions when an emergency call has been received where there is concern for the safety or welfare of a patient inside a dwelling and YAS has established it is unable to gain access.

The deployment of WYFRS resources has therefore decreased the demands placed on WYP for attending such incidents. WYFRS has seen a further benefit from a ‘Safe and Well’ perspective, as these incidents typically involve vulnerable members of our community.

Our Fire Protection team are continually exploring areas of opportunity for collaboration, where there is a benefit to the Service. Recent examples of collaboration which has benefitted WYFRS include the development of a Regional Protection training group. This enables the region to source training courses with external providers at a more competitive price, providing better efficiency in this area.

Transformation Plans

A smarter working philosophy and methodology is embedded throughout WYFRS.

The outcome of our smarter working programme demonstrates the value it adds in both time and money, increasing productivity and ensuring we are the most efficient and effective service we can be. By supporting innovative and more efficient ways of working, departments and teams can drive change and improve.

Where it provides value for money, we are building systems in house to meet our specific needs. For example, the work we have delivered as part of our firefighter Competency Dashboard has saved over 3,500 hours of time per year across all our stations.

In 2022, WYFRS began work redeveloping our main site in Birkenshaw to include Fire Control, Training Centre, and the relocation of Cleckheaton Fire Station. The project will bring staff together into one building to encourage collaboration and networking; it will deliver efficiencies by combining facilities and reducing the estate.

It is anticipated that the efficiency savings realised by relocating teams from the Service Delivery Centre in Bramley will equate to around £0.365m.

The redevelopment is part of a wider estates’ strategy to ensure all stations across the region are modern and fit for purpose now and into the future.

Transformation is at the heart of our Protection Team; we are acutely aware of the need to increase our establishment and have developed plans which transform the way we deliver fire protection services in West Yorkshire. This includes the development of new Grey book positions within the team to ensure our team approach is a holistic one, not one based on specific terms and conditions.

We are currently looking at how we can develop the roles of watch managers to support our protection activities in areas such as the reviewing of prohibition notices, fireworks, and petroleum inspections.

Charging Policies

The Authority has arrangements in place to generate income through the charging for several of our services, for example, special service calls, COMAH, Youth Intervention Team and National Resilience Distributed Learning. During the fiscal year 2021/22 this generated income of approximately £0.840m.

Since the change in policy in 2012 regarding the attendance to automated fire alarms, we have attended on average 4,700 fewer unwanted fire signals meaning approximately 6,700 fewer appliance mobilisations. This has resulted in 27,000 firefighter hours being made available for other activities such as prevention and protection. In addition, the charging for unwanted fire signals (False Alarms) generated £0.140m.

Asset Management

Equipment, appliance checks, inventories, and defect recording 

In 2021, we reviewed our Equipment Management System (EMS). Various options were explored utilising new technology, which was offset with the need for firefighters to maintain their competencies in operating and maintaining the equipment. Firefighters can now use mobile tablets to access and record tests on the EMS whilst undertaking the tests.

The vehicle workshop invested in a transition to paperless systems for vehicle and equipment maintenance. We have transformed how we achieve planned preventative servicing for vehicles and equipment and standardised service intervals to align with significant investment in the Tranman fleet management system. This reduces waste through unnecessary journeys to collect equipment from station, which now arrives with the fire appliance and is serviced together.

The Redkite EMS is a record of operational equipment, its location, and test history. Periodically, standard tests and inventory checks on specific equipment are performed by firefighters across the Service to confirm the details stored on the database.

Routine appliance checks are performed by nominated drivers, and all other maintenance schedules are managed by Workshops. Systems are in place to replace defective operational equipment 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Supplies has streamlined its ways of working and now own the ‘buying’ process of products. This has led to a more efficient and smarter ordering process (OPEX) for personnel and has significantly reduced waiting times for products to be delivered.

Investment in Technology 

Our Digital and Data Strategy outlines our digital investment and is focused on equipping our service with the right systems, technology, and data. We continue to make major changes to our digital infrastructure, keeping up to date with data and technology developments. This enables us to determine how these digital systems could better support the way we transform and deliver our services to our staff, partners, and the community.

We have seen £3.2m capital investment in our IT over the last four years. The journey started with investment in the back-end infrastructure which would become the foundation through which all other services were built upon. We have standardised all our end user hardware such as desktop computers on stations, large touchscreen Audio Visual (AV) equipment in all station training rooms, laptops for all desk-based staff, and software, whether commercially bought or developed in-house.

Operationally, we have issued tablets with our in-house developed applications for use in the community. Furthermore, command support technology and connectivity has been developed in our command support vehicles, and we have moved away from fixed phones in appliances and replaced them with smart mobile phones with corporate applications and accessible data.

All officers now have SIM cards in their laptops which enables them to access the Internet immediately, and we have developed an Incident Command handbook as a digital application which can be accessed on mobile phones.

A working group is currently in place to explore how we can utilise Microsoft Teams for bespoke and smarter coordination and management of incidents from a Command Support perspective. We are moving towards the use of Microsoft Power Platform technology for the digitisation and automation of processes, which will see the debrief process being facilitated in a fraction of the time.

The move from traditional phone lines to a data network-based phone system has enabled us to reduce physical telephone handsets by deploying software-based phones on laptops. Also, the use of large touchscreen AV panels in fire stations for the delivery of classroom and remote training reduces the need to travel; this was particularly useful during the pandemic as it aided remote working.

All trainee firefighters are issued with laptops whilst they complete their initial training, and crew commanders and firefighters who are completing their NVQs have also been issued with laptops for the duration of their course.

Other ICT initiatives include:

• Smarter working through our Enterprise Service Management self-service portal for all ICT and Property support requests.
• The roll-out of a managed print solution which will see all fire stations having the same printing capability, allowing staff to print, scan, and copy documents with ease.
• In-house development and roll-out of the Safe and Well application on tablets.
• In-house development of a bespoke Competency Dashboard which houses all the training undertaken by firefighters, which has seen efficiencies realised by retiring the previous commercial product.
• The benefits realised through these investments included a high success rate of users adopting ICT services, increase in productivity using Microsoft 365 technology, and finding new ways of smarter working at a departmental and organisational level. An example of this includes reducing the flow of emails and attachments internally by reimagining collaboration using Microsoft Teams and One Drive.

As we look to mature our ICT products and services over the next few years, greater emphasis will be placed on a self-service culture through digital enablement. This will include empowering our staff to develop low level solutions to problems using the applications we provide, reimagining manual processes in a digital format which leverages the power of automation, and accessing business intelligence data and interpreting trends to improve the services we offer.

Investment in Equipment

In 2020, we initiated a project to establish the best fire appliance and fire station designs that would meet the Service’s needs over the long-term. A set of ‘Fire Station Design Principles’ were developed which are adopted in new and existing fire stations. These principles consider Diversity and Inclusion requirements, building suitability, space relationship, creating an efficient and effective working environment, minimising environmental impact, and the incorporation of a design and layout that reduces exposure to contaminants.

We are invested heavily in a £17m fire appliance replacement programme to implement ‘clean cab’ ways of working to reduce firefighter exposure to contaminants, and to make the best use of new technologies to support operational firefighters. The use of technology will allow improvements in communications, driver/vehicle interface and operational capability, with technology used to simplify tasks and improve reliability. 

We have rationalised our aerial fleet, reducing it from five to four, which provides efficiency savings of approximately £0.75m in capital, and year on year servicing efficiencies of £20k. Removing the fifth aerial from Halifax has allowed us to align our resources to risk and relocate wildfire resources to where they are required the most.

In 2016/17 we invested heavily in our flood response capability which saw approximately £0.5m spent on new flood vehicles, boats, and personal protective equipment (PPE).

In recent years we have increased the life of our fire appliance fleet from 10 years to 15 years which provides an annual capital saving of £1m. Efficiency savings were also realised by increasing special vehicles (Prime Mover) age from 15 years to 20 years.

Telematics data was used to support a fleet review in 2019 and 2021 which found that 40 vehicles were not efficiently utilised, thus were removed from the fleet with year-on-year savings of £137,000. This saving was used to offset the procurement cost of 32 Toyota Hilux vehicles for operational use and to increase the fire protection fleet.

A further fleet review will be carried out in 2024/25, which will rationalise fleet vehicles to the minimum number required, taking into consideration the impact of hybrid working and new technologies (Microsoft Teams) on the long-term transport requirements.

Resourcing 

Our fire appliances and specialist resources are located and staffed to provide the optimum level of emergency cover based on local risk.

Prior to 2010, 76% of our frontline fire appliances were available 24/7 working a 224-duty system. Over recent years, we have reviewed duty systems to ensure fire cover is more closely aligned to our demand profile. As a result, we have reduced this to 59%, making us more efficient and effective with our resources by reducing non-productive hours during the night.

Table 5 below shows the number of fire stations and staffing model across our 40 fire stations:

Table 5: Table showing number of fire stations and duty system.

Our whole time 224 shift hours incorporate an 11-hour day shift and 13-hour night shift. The times were developed to increase firefighter capacity to allow more time for operational training, prevention, and protection work, with consideration also given to more family friendly start and finish times.

Command, Leadership and Management 

In December 2018 the Fire Authority approved the next stage of the Command Leadership and Management Programme (CLM) which aimed to improve flexibility, change responsibilities for station-based personnel, and contribute towards the £2.4m savings requirement to provide a balanced budget.

The CLM Project would see WYFRS introduce an innovative approach to operational response, removing watch managers from fire appliances and placing them in a separate blue light vehicle. This enables them to carry out alternative prevention and protection work in addition to that already being carried out by crews on fire appliances, and empowers crew managers, giving them more autonomy in the day to day running of their shift.

Maintaining 10 watch managers a day operating out of response cars roughly provides 14,680 hours (27%) of additional capacity. It is forecast that every operational watch manager would see an average of 117 hours per year freed up by no longer attending incidents that can be safely resolved by a single fire appliance with a crew manager in charge. These additional hours enable watch managers to add value in other areas, which include:

• Operational assuring of smaller scale incidents.
• Shift planning and organisation.
• Training and development.
• Risk reduction activities.
• Supporting community partners and district-based initiatives.

Operational Staffing

In 2022, a project was initiated which saw an investment in 34 whole time firefighter posts. In addition, we commenced a review of all operational staffing with the objective being to improve the flexibility, resilience, and efficiency of staffing on whole time fire stations.

To achieve our objectives and to increase productivity, we are reviewing:

• The requirement to use overtime to backfill shortfalls in staffing.
• How firefighters over and above standard staffing can support risk reduction initiatives and operational training without impacting fire cover.
• The role of stations and the district team in leave and absence management.
• How the Employee Resource Team support district teams with leave and absence management.
• The management of non-establishment posts.
• Recruitment, retention, and development of ‘Safe to Command’ firefighters.
• Training budgets and training course bookings.
• The distribution and management of specialisms, including driver numbers across watches.

Group Manager Duty System

In 2019, a new Group Manager duty system was introduced. The system increased the number of midweek days that Group Managers worked and removed the requirement to attend work at weekends. The model aligned more appropriately with internal and external demands and has increased productivity. Table 6 below shows the changes to the Group Manager rota.

Table 6: Changes to Group Manager rota.

On-call Staffing

We have introduced an ‘On-call Steering Group’ and a dedicated ‘On-call Liaison Officer’ to improve communication and engagement with On-call staff.

Our new On-call payment system and improved recruitment and retention has been successful. Appliance availability has increased from 67% in 2018 to 76% in 2023, and since October 2018 we have recruited 104 On-call firefighters, 14% of these being female.

Fire Protection

Fire Protection has seen growth in staffing numbers, which is in line with the national picture and is on the back of the Fire Protection uplift grant. We are reviewing our protection structure and highlighting areas that enable the recruitment of staff to be more streamlined and efficient.

Currently it takes an individual 2.5 - 3 years to complete training to become a Fire Protection inspector, they then need time to develop their competence. Our previous structure of Green Book staff meant that when a member of staff left the organisation, it took 3+ years for that individual to be replaced.

We have now developed a new structure which encompasses the lower Business Advisor Role and enables us to recruit and train individuals in this role to the Level 4 Certificate. Whilst carrying out the role they gain many of the core competence qualities of an inspector. Then should an inspector vacancy arise, the development timeframe for a BFSA to Inspector is just under 12 months. This drastically reduces the time the team is without a competent inspector in post and helps to minimise any impact upon productivity.

Procurement 

In 2019/20, we conducted an internal procurement review and as result we implemented several new working practices which has resulted in a total annual saving of approximately £0.321m in 2020/2021. A new procurement team and processes have been established along with a self-service purchase order system.

The Authority is a member of the Yorkshire and Humberside Procurement Group who work together to identify and implement collaborative procurement projects. In the last three years we have delivered three major regional procurement projects:

• Firefighting PPE (trousers and jackets).
• Rescue jackets.
• Laundry services.

A fourth project explored recently was the procurement of breathing apparatus and associated products and services. However, due to differences in status of individual FRSs contracts, it was agreed that WYFRS, and South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service would work together on a servicing and maintenance contract.

Efficiency savings identified because of procuring from NFCC frameworks equate to approximately £0.435m, furthermore, all regional procurement projects list the regional partners so that future access to contracts is streamlined and readily available. It is estimated that each partner will save £1,000 by using collaborative procurement projects, due to not having to undertake a Find a Tender Service procurement exercise.

We collaborate with other UK FRSs in the capital purchase of appliances and specialist vehicles through the NFCC Emergency Response Vehicle framework. Support and unmarked flexi duty system response vehicles are sourced through collaboration with the Devon and Somerset framework for the supply of light support vehicles. These procurement routes maintain compliance with contract procedure rules and the principles of best value.

Productivity 

The Authority is engaged in the NFCC Efficiency and Productivity work streams. We closely monitor the performance of our firefighters at an operational level to enable us to understand firefighter capacity and to identify how we can increase productivity.

Whole time firefighter activities are aligned to the delivery of our CRMP. Station and district dashboards have been developed to enable district teams to monitor performance at a district level. Station dashboards monitor daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual tasks, whilst the district dashboards capture operational and risk reduction assurance visits, operational engagement, CPD sessions, watch commander briefings, and training.

Examples of tasks undertaken by WYFRS whole time operational firefighters when on duty are:

• Operational training to maintain firefighter competence.
• Equipment and vehicle safety checks.
• Fitness training to maintain operational fitness levels. 
• Station work routines and health and safety checks.
• Cross border operational training with neighbouring FRSs.
• Community engagement – e.g., school visits.
• Prevention activity – ‘Safe and Well’ Visits.
• Protection activity – Site Specific Risk Inspections.

The Safer Communities Prevention Strategy 2017 – 2022 redefined how WYFRS provides support to people in their homes and communities. We deliver ‘Safe and Well’ visits to individuals who are most at risk from fire in the home and provide advice to those less likely to experience a fire.

Our focus is to visit households that are referred to us by our partners; however, to improve efficiency and the productivity of our firefighters we will complement our partner-led approach and start to visit households that we have calculated are very high-risk based on the NFCC definition of risk and Acorn datasets.

Using Acorn, we will increase the number of ‘Safe and Well’ visits we carry out by using an intelligence led targeted approach. The increase in quantity will be recorded and the focus on very high-risk households will be verifiable.

Household Acorn, and Wellbeing Acorn, segment households and post codes into demographic groups that enable us to better understand their likelihood of having a dwelling fire and likely consequences of such a fire.

Our new performance management system (OneView) will provide transparency, accountability and be the platform to share data with our fire service colleagues, partner agencies, and the communities of West Yorkshire. The system will future proof our collation and analysis of data, allowing us to make informed decisions about how to identify and address risk and vulnerability within our communities.

Operational Training

Over the years we have seen the number of emergency incidents reduce. As a result, there is less opportunity for our firefighters to gain real incident experience, however the risk of these emergencies remains. To overcome this, we apply a risk-based training strategy that is delivered through district teams. We also continue to invest in our central training programme to ensure firefighter skills remain at the highest level.

Firefighters train and exercise in the environments in which they are most likely to attend emergencies, and we endeavour to provide our firefighters with the best equipment, and relevant operational guidance to enable them to stay safe when responding to emergencies.

Operational training is undertaken by all firefighters to maintain competence against a set of national occupational standards. The average time spent training by a wholetime firefighter when on duty is:

• Day Shift – Operational training – 120 minutes.
• Night Shift – Operational training – 60 minutes.

Several stations also carry out specialist training in addition to operational training. The average time per firefighter spent on this specialist training is dependent on the capability and differs from station to station. The list below highlights some of our specialist capabilities:

• Aerial operations.
• Swift water rescue (MOD3).
• Flood rescue (MOD4).
• Rope rescue.
• Technical rescue.
• High Volume Pump.
• Wildfire.
• Mass Decontamination.
• Foam.

A competency dashboard and recording system is used by all operational staff to record training and learning required to maintain their core skills and competencies.

Operational learning is a key element of how we improve as a Service. We highlight areas of good practice and areas that we can develop to improve both firefighter safety and the service we provide to the communities of West Yorkshire.

We are committed to learning, developing, and adopting best practices in all that we do. Our operational staff follow National Operational Guidance (NOG) produced by the NFCC and we evaluate and share operational learning following incidents at a local, regional, or national level.

District training strategies are developed by the district command teams and are aligned to the specific districts risk profiles to ensure risk management plans are effectively delivered.

Our Training and Development Framework defines how the Service aims to achieve a clear link between training, competence, and operational effectiveness. We constantly review and adapt to changing operational training requirements, in line with legislation and NOG.