Case study: delivering change
The events of 9/11 and other crises, including the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, prompted the government to review the UK’s ability to detect, prevent, prepare for and respond to major emergencies.
The Department for Communities and Local Government’s New Dimension programme, which has a total budget of around £200 million over three years, was set up to address the need to transform the existing resilience capability of the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) in responding to major emergencies.
The key to the success of the programme is, in part, due to Serco’s decision to turn what was a procurement programme into a capability-based one. Serco’s consultants used scenario testing to determine where and how new equipment could be used. It also put new equipment into the hands of the FRS including a high-volume pumping capability and urban search and rescue equipment to locate people trapped in collapsed buildings.
The project is outcome driven: Serco put an interim resilience capability in place while the work was ongoing and ensured that there was a smooth transfer of skills to civil servants and FRS employees. Paul Lawrence, Serco’s Sector Director in charge of central government resilience contracts, believes the success of the programme is due to the collaborative efforts of the three stakeholders. Serco worked closely with the DCLG and the FRS to determine what was needed. “That combination was critical to getting the right capabilities so that all operational procedures and training could be handled,” explains Lawrence. He adds that the best way to use consultants is alongside internal teams and only for as long as they are needed. “Get them in and get them out again as soon as you need,” he says. It’s rare that large-scale public investments show tangible returns while a programme is still being developed. However, the events surrounding the 2005 Buncefield fuel depot blaze showed the effectiveness of the new capabilities.
With twenty fuel tanks ablaze and seven others in danger of igniting, the DCLG mobilised fifteen high volume pumping units (HVPs), from across the country. The quality of the pumping equipment and the training in its use, both provided by the New Dimension programme, were highly praised.
Compiled by Anna Ronay, editor of Ethos
