How we work
There are a number of areas where further improvements will be made to how Services work together across the region, building on the changes made in the last plan. This section summarises these improvements and why we are doing them now.
Improvement through collaboration
Members of the Board have stated that they would like more radical, challenging solutions to the issues which Services face. Tougher financial settlements, coupled with top-sliced efficiency savings, mean that a different way of working will be needed to release the capacity necessary to invest in improving service delivery to the public. This is even more important in the context of the ongoing financial downturn.
Working more-closely together, in an explicit and controlled way, will help Services deliver better services to the public, and maintain their individual identity. It will also assist in being able to give clear statements of efficiencies delivered through regional working, which is required under the National Framework. We have been successful in generating significant real savings and will do more.
Setting the strategic direction for the region
The direction set out in this plan should give clarity to those charged with delivering it. The projects set out in this plan are Members and Chief Fire Officers' priority projects, and they will scrutinise that progress is being made against each of them. Programme management will be strengthened over the life of this plan to ensure delivery and to provide this assurance to Members and Chief Fire Officers. SEFIP will be the commissioning agent as well as programme managers.
Working together in strategic groups
The concept of strategic alliances to drive regional business was set out in the last plan. The model adopted was generally to form into four natural blocks which give a broader equality of scale and influence [Thames Valley, Surrey/East Sussex/West Sussex, Hampshire/IoW & Kent]. Each Chief Fire Officer involved in this grouping will take soundings from the colleagues he is representing.
This will release pressure on diary time, and also allow quicker progress to be made in priority areas. Not only that, these groupings make geographic sense in a way that, for example, Kent and Buckinghamshire collaborating may not on some issues. Funding is available via SEFIP to support clustering arrangements in this way.
We have also adopted an arrangement where there are phase 1 and phase 2 Services for some projects, allowing those that want to press ahead to do so. This concept, whilst not radical, will significantly alter how regional business is transacted and the pace of progress in the region.
We also recognise the importance of looking outside the region’s boundaries as we often work with neighbours and European partners.
Improving the commissioning of projects in the region
We will agree all projects in the plan via the programme management function, and the programme office will monitor delivery against the project plan. Projects in the plan can be delivered in any of the following ways:
- By an individual Service
- By a sub-regional group of Services
- By an existing CFOA work stream operating in the region
- By using a specialist resource
- By drawing on regional resources from IESE.
The SEFIP stakeholder group oversees the programme function, and will agree how projects are to be delivered.