1. FiReControl Update – Fire Forum Friday February 22 2008 Speaking notes

2. Accommodation & Company Update Four Regional Control Centre buildings have achieved practical completion and the others are on course. The London RCC location has been chosen – London Borough of Merton. Facilities Management (FM) presentations to LACC boards are scheduled for March and April. Presenting the FM contract and the preferred bidder. Six out of eight regional companies are established RCC Companies starting to make key decisions such as regional staffing levels and shift patterns

3. Technology Current engagement with EADS (our prime contractor) is focusing on key areas including: Mobile Data Terminals (MDT), early station ends and confirming New Ways of Working (previously Convergence) products. Data capture and migration toolkit first release (DCMT1) – first FRAs in March – rest by mid May There have been challenges to delivery schedule but we have commitment from the senior EADS team that we will meet the Oct 2009 deadline for cutover of first FRS to RCCs. The transfer of all activity to RCCs complete by Oct 2011. Design and planning for the early replacement of station end equipment in some FRSs is well underway. Close working with Firelink to ensure approaches are aligned.

4. Testing and Assurance FRS involvement – regional workshops have taken place in all 9 regions. Explained testing arrangement to FRAs and our senior users We are ensuring that: –the solution is thoroughly tested at all stages by EADS and by us working in conjunction with RCCs and FRSs –potential ways in which the solution could fail are addressed as early as possible, with FRSs having a mechanism to add tests It is for each Fire Chief to confirm everything is in order before cutover.

5. Transition Initial staff pool proposals agreed in Feb by senior users for early regions FRSs commencing Gazetteer data capture and conversion, CLG is funding matching of FRS gazetteer data against the future NLPG data set (undertaken by a 3 rd party) for those FRSs that want it. New ways of working implementation underway – some products already issued – more next Friday Transition checkpoint 2 due April 4 th, with Gate 1 also due for the earliest FRSs and regions.

6. Human Resources Guidance has been developed with the fire and rescue services on organisation design, generic staffing model and terms and conditions of employment. These are currently being finalised and implemented by the FRSs in light of local circumstances. It is their decision. RCC HR function in place in earlier regions 5 Regional Control Centre Directors appointed, three others are progressing (London doesn’t require a recruitment process).

7. Business Case : Publication Plan was to publish the business case in February However, having consulted elected members and other stakeholders, they agree that there will not be sufficient information available in February to enable members to take a final view and that publication of the business case should therefore be deferred to June 2008. Regional costs and savings added to the June release in the form of Regional Annexes

8. Finance FRAs will not have to meet any costs until their FRS is using the RCC, this will means FRSs within a region start paying as they individually join the RCC. CLG has agreed to meet any net additional costs to local authorities arising from the project under the New Burdens principle. 2nd payment of £7.5m for 2007/08 made in January 2008, bringing total for year to £17m A total of just over £90m of funding indicated in the recent funding circular for CSR 07 period. Of the £90m a total of £57m has been allocated over the three years 08/09 to 10/11, the remainder being held back pending greater certainty of where funding need is greatest

9. Business Case : Background notes The advantage of waiting until June to publish the business case is by that stage we will have: Completed the current cost verification exercise being undertaken with FRA Treasurers to provide a realistic baseline. Completed the assumptions review being undertaken with working groups. Continued to work closely with FRSs to build stakeholder confidence in the data and acceptance of the costs and savings. Completed our visits to the FRSs to “operationalise” the staffing model. These provide greater confidence in the assumptions relating to staffing levels and address key criticisms arising from earlier versions of the FBC. We also intend to develop regional annexes which will be explicit on the benefits and costs and savings for each region. These annexes will be developed with regional project teams and will include information based on local decisions such as staffing where this is known.

10. Communicating the Business Case changes We intend to send out a joint letter from the LGA, CFOA and CLG to FRA and LACC chairs communicating why we have decided to publish the business case in June.

11. Questions and Answers after the presentation When do FRAs start paying for the RCC. At the point the RCC starts taking calls for that FRS The cost of the London RCC building will be higher than the current accommodation costs, London doesn’t want to be disadvantaged by the RCC network. The aims of cost apportionment is for all FRAs to benefit from the savings FiReControl will deliver. If a regions changes the staffing model to generate greater savings, can they keep this benefit? The same assumptions will be applied at a national level to determine the business case numbers and proposed savings. If regions vary these assumptions, they will keep any benefits or costs that result within the region.

12. Questions and Answers after the presentation The date of the Olympics is fixed and impacts London’s cutover The project is committed to ensuring London is cutover to the network 18 months before the Olympics There are Olympic events that impact FRSs outside of London We will be undertaking consultation with all FRSs as their cutover approaches (within the 12 months prior to their cutover) to ensure that we do not undertake cutover on the same date as significant local events). The floods around Gloucestershire required command and control to take place at a local level, will the FiReControl solution support this? Sir Ken Knight is leading a challenge group to ensure that the RCC network is robust and resilient in the handling and management of major events within the Fire and Rescue Service. This work is currently underway. Can we have a similar presentation from FiReControl every month? We will provide an update at each LGA meeting and also the slides that we present so that members can use them. We will also provide an update to the LACC group.