Essex County Fire and Rescue Service - Estate Strategy

Estates Strategy 2021 – 2026

Contents

Foreword

Our future requirements

Our strategy

The core principles of our estates strategy

How we will deliver our strategy

Strategic management of our estate

What have we done

Where we are now

Governance

Review

Foreword

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS) is adaptive and dynamic and is always there to keep the people of Essex safe. We are focused on new ways of working and the opportunities this brings in being able to use our estate differently. We are looking at innovative solutions to allow our people to continue to engage with one another in a much more flexible and agile way. Our role – as Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner and Chief Fire Officer – is to be forward thinking custodians of the Essex County Fire and Rescue Service estate, that is ready to meet the needs of the future. We are committed to providing value for money and investing in the right way to deliver a progressive and forward looking approach. We will ensure that we are looking ahead and keeping pace with demographic changes that are driving new developments and infrastructure needs across Essex. We want to ensure that we are at the forefront of new opportunities to ensure that our buildings and workspaces are environmentally sustainable and moving us towards a zero carbon footprint at the same time as sharing and maximising the use of all of our facilities across Essex. We are confident that this strategy will deliver these requirements.

By Roger Hirst, Police Fire and Crime Commissioner, Rick Hylton, Chief Fire Officer.

The Essex County Fire and Rescue Service Estates Strategy 2021-2026 provides the strategic forward looking, progressive vision, ambition and commitment for the fire estate. It identifies our pledge to provide a fit for purpose, efficient and environmentally friendly estate that supports the work of the fire service at both a County and community level, keeping the workforce and people of Essex safe. The nature of the fire service is ever evolving and the demands across our prevention, protection and response delivery are very dynamic. Engaging our communities, working in partnership with other agencies and supporting our people to be the best that they can be, requires our assets to be the highest standards for today and for the future. The fire service sector continues to respond to a broad range of emergencies with commendable skill and professionalism and the service remains committed to protecting local communities. Safety critical, essential public services benefit from having a modern estate that allows our firefighters and corporate support staff to respond to the needs of the public. Innovation and advances in technology are allowing us to work in a more agile way, with greater flexibility in how we deliver essential services. Thorough analysis and assessment of evidence based performance, leads to sound decision making, which as a fire service ensures that we can provide a resilient, effective and value for money service to the communities of Essex. As we continue to recruit new firefighters and deliver against the priorities of the Fire & Rescue Plan, it is a necessity that we continue to develop our estate in a way that allows us to utilise our workspaces to be effective, environmentally sustainable and collaborative. We want our stations to be at the heart of our communities, engaging and accessible to the public so that we can maintain visibility and confidence. The Governments Fire Reform agenda sets a clear strategic direction, focusing on being efficient, accountable, transparent and representative of the communities served. This is further underpinned by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and the Fire and Rescue National Framework for England. Essex County Fire and Rescue Services Estates Strategy represents a significant proportion of our financial investment. It is therefore crucial that our buildings and facilities provide our employees with the most efficient, effective and productive environments to thrive, work, train and support them to achieve our vision.

Roger Hirst Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner

Vision

An estate that contributes to keeping the people of Essex safe through strategic investment, improved efficiency and embracing new ways of working.

Rick Hylton Chief Fire Officer/ Chief Executive

Our future requirements

Fleet Workshops Through our collaborative working with Essex Police we have identified an opportunity to have a combined, joint fleet workshop at Boreham. This is an excellent opportunity to build a modern and fit for purpose facility that allows our staff to thrive in the workplace and operate in a safe environment with the latest technology and machinery. A feasibility study is being commissioned to consider the onward development of this plan. Training Facilities Currently ECFRS training facilities are located at different sites across Essex, with hot fire training facilities based at the Ministry of Defence (MOD) site in Wethersfield. It has been determined that we will be required to explore alternative options due to new developments planned at this site. It is therefore our intention to look at the potential to relocate our training facilities to a more appropriate and centralised location. This will require a feasibility study to assess cost, timeframes and planning requirements. Upgrading of Wholetime Stations Many of our wholetime fire stations require upgrading to ensure they meet the requirements of a modern day fire station. This includes areas such as recreation rooms, training rooms and other key workspace areas that need urgent refurbishment and modernisation. Inclusivity is also at the core of our values and we want to ensure that there are facilities in place that meet everyone’s needs, providing privacy and dignity for all. This is key in enabling our people to work in a fit for purpose environment to be able to thrive and feel valued. Partnering with other Blue Light Agencies We are committed to ensuring that our buildings and facilities are maintained to the highest standard. Equally we want to ensure that whilst we invest in our workplaces we are maximising their usage. A number of our sites have been adapted to enable other blue light services to utilise the space we have in a functional way. We are now looking to extend these possibilities further to increase the number of shared and co-located facilities. This includes undertaking an assessment of shared electrical vehicle charging points to be strategically located across the estate as we move towards positively reducing our carbon footprint. On-Call Stations It is acknowledged that we have a small number of on-call stations that have required significant ongoing maintenance to keep them maintained to a functional standard. However, we also recognise that in some circumstances this is not a sustainable solution due to their diminishing structural longevity. There is a need to look at what options are available in these circumstances in order that we secure a longer term plan for continued use of the provision of services to their local communities. Our asset investment programme We will continue to invest in those assets that require maintenance and bring all of our buildings up to an equitable high standard. We will assess our current resources to ascertain how we now move at pace and start to deliver against our capital maintenance programme. This will all be aligned to our condition surveys and our overall strategic objectives.

Training Facilities

Fleet Workshops

Collaborate

Environmental

Deliverables

Asset Protection

Modernisation

The core principles of our estates strategy

Our strategy

Development of our Estates Strategy principles began in 2020. We have engaged with key stakeholders to understand their estate and facility needs for the future. Work has also been undertaken to understand the opportunities for a collaborative use of the estate with our partners as detailed within the direction set by the Emergency Services Strategic Collaboration Board. The outcome of this engagement has resulted in the following strategic objectives being recommended for the forthcoming Estates Strategy 2021 – 2026. It is imperative that this strategy is aligned and integrated into the forward delivery of other key ECFRS strategies and external reports. There are many interdependencies and the fundamental ambition and focus of our estates strategy is about enabling our buildings and facilities to deliver the right working environments.

1. Safe & Secure Working Environment We will create a safe working environment that allows our people to flourish and work in the most effective and efficient way.

2. Healthy & Inclusive Workplace It is important that we all adopt the practice of a healthy workplace with good infection prevention and control.

Linking our strategies together

4. Supportive Culture We recognise that we need to continue to support our people in new ways of working and we want to ensure that we support your health and wellbeing in the workplace through connecting in a positive, fulfilling environment.

3. Smarter – Sustainable Effective We want to adopt and develop new ways of working, ensuring that our buildings are smart, effective and sustainable to meet future needs. This means we need to harness and take forward our vision to meet the communities of Essex.

The core principles of our estates strategy (continued)

• To support our commitment to communities to ensure we can provide the best possible protection to the public as we make changes to our estate. We will ensure we take account of operational and community risk. • To create an effective collaboration programme with emergency services and other partners that will enhance our ability to achieve service benefits and stretch our property performance targets for the efficiency of the estate. • To be progressive in our application of agile working to maximise operational effectiveness and efficiency. We will build on significant recent successes to implement agile working in its many forms across all our services, whether delivered by firefighters, officers, staff, or volunteers. • To continue to provide accommodation that responds to the demands of a changing fire and rescue service, embracing the digital and cultural enablers that allow us to better use our physical footprint. • To continue to drive improvements to the economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of our estate, releasing much needed financial resources for reinvestment in the priorities of our fire and rescue service. • It is essential that ECFRS is closely monitoring and linked into future public development plans so that it can identify and plan for future risk. It will also provide the opportunity to be at the forefront of being able to determine and identify what our potential future estates needs may be and therefore embed ourselves into future population developmental plans. • To ensure the property portfolio is appropriate and fit for purpose and able to meet the support and wellbeing needs of our workforce. • We also want to ensure that our estate is meeting the environmental expectations of the future and recognising that we want to go green. Sustainability can no longer be considered as niche. Our workforce and communities expect us to be driving environmental improvements as a key objective.

How we will deliver our strategy

High Level Plan

To achieve these objectives, we will:-

• Utilise collaboration opportunities for land sharing in addition to the sale of assets to invest in the improvement of our buildings. We will start with those buildings with the greatest need, that deliver the best value and benefit for both the public and our staff. • Keep a flexible approach to our portfolio. Our operational bases change to reflect need and opportunities for sharing and collaborating with partners in the locations where we need to be. We will own properties where it makes sense and will look to share with partners where we can. • Address our high priority operational issues caused by poor condition of the estate and the associated deteriorating resilience. • Implement a robust approach to the analysis of the priorities, costs, and benefits of our investments, ensuring that any opportunities to ‘invest to save’ are fully explored. This will be delivered through the governance of our investment programmes. • Incorporate energy reduction technologies in line with the Environmental Strategy 2020 - 2030 and with investments to improve health and safety, security, equality, and diversity. • Monitor the condition of the estate, identifying appropriate requirements to ensure the portfolio is fit for purpose. Identifying asset improvement and asset protection works separately to ensure that we are making best use of our resources. • Maximise our approach within the Digital & Data Strategy to ensure that we are introducing new technologies that allow our estate to function in an agile, flexible and collaborative way. • Develop a Roadmap that details the cost, timelines and resource requirements to deliver the Strategy and feed into our Reserves Strategy and Capital Programme.

TODAY

21/22

22/23

23/24

24/25

25/26

26/27

Review of Strategy

Estate Strategy

Major Investments Projects

Relocation Fleet Workshops

Relocation of Training facilities.

Modernisation of Wholetime Stations.

Partnering with other Blue Light

Sharing Estates with Blue light partners

Electric Vehicle Replacement Programme

Electric Vehicle charging points

Delivery against Environmental and Sustainability Strategy

Strategic Review

Define Building Standards for stations

Forward Planning Risk – New Development – Keep Essex Communities Safe

On-Call Stations

New Ways Of Working – enabling Estate transformation

Planned maintenance programme for Estate

Phase 3

Phase 1

Review & Continue

Phase 2

Communication and Engagement – ongoing through all stages

The strategic objectives and principles that form the basis of our Estates Strategy will set out the investment and strategic workplan that is required across the estates portfolio to ensure successful delivery of the Fire and Rescue Plan. Crucially this work will be closely aligned to the Medium-Term Financial Plan and ensure a clear understanding of capital spend requirements over the course of the next five years. Asset Protection and Improvement budgets will be remodelled during the budget setting process.

Strategic management of our estate

What have we done

Perceptions of how we view buildings has changed. The social context of public sector estate has changed. The challenges facing those working in the built environment have never been greater and the public sector estate is a critical driver of this change. Whilst cost is a crucial factor it is one of the many strategic drivers of building operations. Cost and experience must be aligned. Value is the objective and data is the key. ECFRS is aligned to working in line with the principles set by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). It considers the changing nature of the role and expectation real estate plays, and indicates how an organisation should use data to support organisational objectives and inform the strategic management of assets. There will be no going back to the ‘old’ normal for public sector real estate. It will be up to our profession to shape its recovery, effect positive change, keep it relevant and demonstrate the value it delivers. This RICS document will support and aid this.

The ECFRS estates Strategy is underpinned by a number of the services strategic documents and closely aligns to our Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP). This strategy sets out how we intend to implement our ambition for the management and development of our property assets across Essex County Fire and Rescue Service. We have ensured that our buildings and facilities are in the right place and maintained to the right standard to manage risks in Essex, protect our communities, and respond to incidents, all against a back drop of financial challenges. We do however recognise that the risks and demands in Essex, like the rest of our County, continue to evolve and change, which requires us to regularly review our priorities and activities so that we are proactive and responsive to our community needs. Our Estates Strategy therefore cannot be a standalone plan and has taken into account the future needs of our people and the communities we serve. It is strongly aligned to deliver the life and ambitions of our Fire and Rescue Plan (FRP) and works to drive our Annual Plan, which includes areas like our continuous improvement work, change programmes and how we manage our budget. One of our core priorities is to ensure that we always strive to raise the standard of all of our sites to ensure that they are effective, efficient and meet the needs our people in an environmentally and sustainable way. We have a number of wholetime stations that require modernisation and re-design in order to deliver practical, agile and efficient use of space. Equally there are On-Call Fire Stations that require ongoing maintenance and in some circumstances a review of their longer term structural longevity. Whilst the review and plans are being commissioned for the work required to take place across our Fire Stations, we have also begun to review the longer term needs of our other essential sites. For example, our Fleet Services Workshop site and our Training Facilities arrangements. Our objective is to ensure that we are taking full advantage of the ability to look at co-location/shared services with other blue light partners as well as looking at a potential additional use of our current headquarters site based in Kelvedon. The service will have converted all of our day crewed stations to on-call stations by the end of March 2022 and this in turn will release a number of day crewed houses. The capital receipts return from these houses will be used to invest in the objectives set out within this Strategy and beyond. It is also important to us to ensure that in designing our estates strategy, we consider the environmental impact of both our existing and future assets. This will include reviewing the energy efficiency of our buildings and making improvements to reduce our carbon footprint. We already have a number of fire stations with solar technology in use and we will shortly be embarking on a review of our property and fleet assets in collaboration with Essex Police to look at Electric vehicles and charging points.

FIRE & RESCUE PLAN 2019-2024

MTFP

STRATEGY & PLANNING

PROTECTION STRATEGY

PREVENTION STRATEGY

ASSET MANAGEMENT DESCISION-MAKING

RISK & BUSINESS CONTINUITY

DIGITAL & DATA STRATEGY

IRMP

RESPONSE STRATEGY

ASSET PROTECTION/INVESTMENT

PEOPLE STRATEGY

Where we are now

• In partnership with Essex Police we have commenced the review of the available options regarding a joint, collaborative fleet workshop. We will then design the requirements and specification to move to a Full Business Case tender and award which will help inform the delivery roadmap. • Initial work has commenced on assessing options for a new training centre which will include all aspects of training delivery. We will equally explore opportunities of working with Essex Police around their training requirements. • The service has developed a robust annual condition survey process that has taken place across all of our building assets and we have published a performance report which will guide and shape out asset protection programme and capital requirements. This will also guide our backlog maintenance programme. All assets are assessed against core legislative standards. • There are currently a number of asset improvement works that are already underway, which include the provision of new Breathing Apparatus (BA) facilities, new training room facilities, new working at heights rig and a rebuild/modernisation of an on-call fire station in Shoeburyness. • ECFRS is constantly look forwards and horizon scanning to ensure that asset replacements are well planned and meet our strategic objectives in line with our IRMP and Strategic Assessment of Risk (SOAR). We will be at the forefront of meeting demographic changes that lead to the requirement for new developments and infrastructure changes, in a way that allows us to ensure we are making the public safer. • It is essential when managing a number of assets that require detailed information regarding their physical condition, occupancy, functional suitability, quality, environmental impacts etc that we use the latest technology to assist us. Currently all of our asset data is maintained through asset management software. This has proved to be very effective when applying maintenance schedules. We are now exploring location mapping which can be integrated with other key systems. • The Estates Strategy is strongly aligned to our Joint Environmental Strategy with Essex Police, as we recognise the need to be taking action now and into the future to reduce our carbon footprint to net zero. Key environmental performance indicators have been developed to ensure that we can monitor the impact of our actions and we are in collaboration with Essex Police to further explore how we can achieve this together. • With the recent and prolonged period of change brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has enabled ECFRS to review how we work. It is evident that there is the ability to work differently and scope to further improve how we can create a more agile and flexible environment for our people. We have established a New Ways of Working (NWOW) Board that is regularly assessing and looking at new ideas as to how we utilise our work spaces more effectively and the outputs of this will be built into future planning of changes to our workspaces. Work has already commenced, to look at workspace re-design and this is being achieved with essential engagement from a broad range of stakeholders.

The UK Government is committed to the delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and those that are most significant to both emergency services have been selected to be fully embedded within the environment strategy PFCC for Essex Environment Strategy

What the Service is Doing

Net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050

Actual Carbon Footprint

Trialling and evaluating new technologies and ideas through Research & Development in a Controlled and Logical Environment group (Radicale)

Working to implement the National Operational Guidance for Environmental Protection

Research into alternative fuelled vehicles for our fleet

Target Carbon Footprint

Key Targets

2008/09

2050/51

46% reduction of greenhouse house gas emissions by 2030/31

OUR SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT GOALS

What You Can Do…

Suggest new environmental ideas through Bright Ideas forum

Be mindful of the Right to Repair law coming into force. Manufacturers legally are obliged to make spare parts for products available to consumers

Governance

Governance Flow Diagram Property – Fleet – ICT – Asset Board

The delivery of the estates strategy will be overseen and monitored through a newly formed Strategic Estates Group (SEG). This is a decision making forum, chaired by the Director of Corporate Services. SEG will report into the Asset Board for monitoring against the capital expenditure programme as well as requiring approval of new capital expenditure, in line with the ECFRS constitution and financial regulations. Furthermore, the Service Leadership Team (SLT) will also be updated, informed and engaged on delivery against the estates strategy. Scrutiny of our delivery will equally be challenged through SLT and the Police Fire & Crime Commissioner (PFCC) Performance and Resources Board (P&R).

Start

Property Group

Descision made to approve

< 250K

YES

Capital approval rejected

Fleet Group

Asset Board

End

FIRE & RESCUE PLAN

Activity Identifiers

IRMP

Decision sheet submitted and approved onto PFCC/Strategic Board

Technology Group

> 250K

YES

Prevention Strategy

People Strategy

Response Strategy

Digital and Data Strategy

Protection Strategy

Review

Prioritisation

Annual Plan

It is important that this Strategy is kept under review and that progress against delivery is reported on a quarterly basis. It is recognised that we are working in a dynamic environment and need to respond dynamically to change when required. Changes to the strategy and any notable aspects affecting the delivery of the strategy will be reported through the governance structures in place. We also recognise that this strategy will evolve as we undertake the key feasibility studies to inform in further detail, the timelines, costs and resources needed to deliver our future requirements. This strategy will be further informed and underpinned by a detailed delivery plan and fully costed financial analysis.

Delivery

Annual Plan Delivery Plans

Large capital programmes affecting key strategic change will be required to be approved the PFCC Strategic Board, chaired by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner. The overall Estates Investment Programme for the period 2021- 2026 is outlined in the Medium Term Financial Plan and is referred to in the Treasury Management Strategy. Asset Protection and Improvement budgets will be remodelled during the budget setting process.

Kelvedon Park Rivenhall Witham Essex CM8 3HB www.essex-fire.gov.uk

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