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
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