Surrey Fire and Rescue Service currently has one of the slowest emergency response times in England.

Source: CLG Review of Fire and Rescue Service Response Times

The residents, businesses and commuters in Surrey deserve far better emergency response time than those that are currently being achieved. Response times in Surrey have worsened rapidly of the last few years but the service currently has no plans in place which will improve them.

However, the service is planning changes which will worsen the emergency response times still further due to budget cuts being imposed by Surrey County Council (SCC).

Should Surrey Fire and Rescue Service provide a service with the aim of saving life, property and possessions or simply a service to clear up the mess after all has been lost?

To bring Surrey’s Emergency Response Times in line with the average nationally will require additional funding on the frontline service. To bring Surrey’s Emergency Response Times into the top 25% nationally will require additional funding on the frontline service.

Surrey County Council appears to have taken the decision on behalf of the public that it should provide a cheap inadequate service which ironically will cost the public far more in financial terms through insurance premiums, lost business, lost wages, lost jobs and uninsured losses.

Response Times Data

Surrey compared to the other Fire Authorities

Nationally, of the 46 Fire Authorities in England, Surrey ranked 34th on speed of response to dwelling fires in 2006. The data shown of the next few pages is taken

from CIPFA and CLG covering the years 1996 to 2006. Up to date response times have not yet been made available nationally but the average response time’s data for all emergency calls for the current year (2009/10) for is available in Surrey which also shown in this chapter.

Another way of comparing Surrey’s response time is below; comparing Surrey to the other Fire Authorities (FA’s) within its Family Group which the Public Value Review has set out to do.

Surrey’s 11 year average is the worst in the group with no sign of improvement at the end of 2006 as the table shows an 11 year worsening trend. The slowest times for each year are highlighted. Surrey had the slowest average response times for 6 out of the 10 years shown.

On the data shown so far, Surrey is in the bottom 25% nationally and the bottom 15% in its Family Group. Compared in terms of proportion WT to RDS crewing, its performance is the worst nationally by a considerable margin.

SF&RS recognise the importance of achieving good response times. Although response times are not a measure of ultimate performance of a fire service; all fire service’s (and all other emergency service’s) recognise that their ability to meet the legal core functions is heavily reliant on the ability of the service to respond in good time. In the simplest terms; if we aren’t present at the scene of an emergency we can’t save lives or mitigate the loss to property; as the ENTEC (referred to earlier) report proved. So maintaining strong performance on the inputs is equally as important as measuring ultimate outputs.

Until 2004, all fire authorities used the national response standard; 1985 Standards of Fire Cover. Fire authorities would monitor measure and report their response time’s performance against that national standard.

However, in 2004 with the introduction of Integrated Risk Management Plans (IRMP’s), individual fire authorities were afforded the option of introducing local standards of fire and emergency cover to tailor the service to meet their local risks as opposed to using a national standard.

In 2006, Surrey introduced its new emergency response standard to replace the national standard it had previously measured their response times performance against. SF&RS’s Emergency Response Standard introduced in the 2006 IRMP stated a response standard for all emergency calls;

“We will deliver a Surrey Standard for response, through the flexible and effective allocation of resources across the county, to all

incidents we attend.

 75% of Surrey’s population will receive an initial appliance within eight minutes.

 Where necessary, 75% of Surrey’s population will receive two appliances or equivalent within 12 minutes.

 Reach 100% of Surrey’s population with an initial appliance within 18 minutes.

It is our aim to improve the Surrey Standard for response by 2010 to achieve the following:

 80% of Surrey’s population will receive an initial appliance within eight minutes”

The data shown in this chapter shows that SF&RS have failed to achieve their Emergency Response Standard

The IRMP’s are subject to all stakeholder consultation including the public. This Emergency Response Standard was agreed by the county council but the public are not been made aware that SCC have failed to achieve it.

Supporting Documents – available as downloadable PDF’s:

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service Response Times Response Times

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service Establishment and crewing levels

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service Costs

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service Summary November 2010

Source: http://www.fbu.org.uk/newspress/pressrelease/2010/11_17.php