County Durham and Darlington Fire Authority, Efficiency and Productivity Plan 2023/ 2024

all beds are right out! - lol - they probably put in recliner chairs - lol

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County Durham and Darlington Fire Authority - England (2 counties)

protect 620,000 people - have 15 stations - 60% fulltime staff -
operate 15 to 26 whole time engines based on 'degradation plan' - most
WT engines have crews of 4 - have 5 engines with crews of 5 - seek to
reduce all engines to 4 man crews

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https://www.ddfire.gov.uk/emergency-response -

Emergency Response

Our Service Response Standard:

We will attend Accidental Dwelling Fires within 8 minutes on 70% of
occasions - (lets say they can attend 100% of fires in 10 minutes -
that would yield an average of 5 minutes)

We will attend Non Domestic Fires within 9 minutes on 70% of occasions

We will attend Road Traffic Collisions within 10 minutes on 70% of occasions

We will receive 90% of our emergency calls and mobilise resources
within 90 seconds

(why do they give 70% goals - why not 90% like USA? - maybe because
there is no mathematical or statistical basis for using 90%)

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https://www.ddfire.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2023-03/CDDFRS%20Efficiency%20and%20Productivity%20Plan%202023%2024.pdf

Working Routines and Shift Patterns

In order to utilise additional capacity within station based shift
systems the Service took the decision to modernise station based work
routines and shift patterns. In depth analysis into productivity
identified that there was an opportunity to increase capacity by 33%.
This was achieved through altering start and finish times slightly by
reducing the hours on a night shift including the removal of all
sleeping accommodation on fire stations and increasing the number of
positive hours on a day shift whilst also introducing a more
structured approach to work routines. The move ensured we were more
efficient and effective in our prevention and protection work through
transferring work from headquarters based functions to station based
personnel. As a result of these transformational changes, we were also
able to protect front-line posts, avoid station closures and negate
the need to reduce the number of fire appliances protecting our
communities whilst at the same time benefitting from a significant
increase in productivity.

Operational Cover Contracts & On-call Detachments

The Service's introduction of Operational Cover Contracts (OCC) and
on-call detachments have addressed staff shortages by offering staff
the opportunity to undertake additional work over their contracted
hours. This enables staff to commit more time to the Service and
increase earnings if they wish and has proved to be successful. We pay
our staff their standard hourly rate plus 10 percent as an incentive
and we believe this efficient use of resources has resulted in the
Service's use of overtime being lower than the national rate across
England.

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also see post with fire video - coming up next