Decision details

The County Council acting as the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Authority (WSFRS) must meet its statutory duty with regard to receiving calls and mobilising to an emergency incident.  This service is currently provided through a joint arrangement with East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service under a service delegation Agreement made under section 16 Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004.

The Leader on behalf of the Cabinet Member for Safer, Stronger Communities took a decision (ref: SSC4 18.19) to serve notice of termination on the current Section 16 Agreement. The notice was issued in August 2018 and the termination is effective from February 2020.

This is a time critical project with a short delivery window to ensure the statutory duties of the Fire Authority are met. Over the past eight months officers have been evaluating suitable mobilising options for West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service.

These evaluations considered around 20 different options with five being considered as options worthy of further appraisal. These five options were investigated taking into account collaboration opportunities for Fire and Rescue, Technological and Financial aspects of delivering this service to provide a balance of excellent service to our residents, safety of our firefighters and value for money.

There are significant additional collaboration opportunities identified within the proposal through entering into a new Section 16 Agreement with Surrey Fire & Rescue Service.  This sets the foundations for wider future collaboration opportunities across other services.

The Cabinet Member for Safer, Stronger Communities has approved that:

1)   the Director of Operations be authorised to engage with Surrey Fire and Rescue Service to formalise a partnership through a new Section 16 Agreement aimed to deliver a joint mobilisation system and control centre to take effect no later than 17 February 2020, be authorised; and

2)   the Director of Operations be authorised to explore wider Fire and Rescue IT collaboration opportunities to realise efficiencies and improve effectiveness for both services as set out in Section 4 of this report. 

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