Communities and Local Government

• Fire and resilience
• Resilience and response to emergencies
• FiReControl project
• Implementation
• Project organisation

Fire and resilience

Project organisation

The FiReControl team is committed to ensuring a smooth transition to the new Regional Control Centres (RCCs). The team and its advisers are drawn from Communities and Local Government officials, secondees from the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) and the Chief Fire Officers Association, consultants and other professionals all with wide-ranging areas of expertise.

The project has been described as a national project delivered regionally; as such the team is structured as follows:

National team

The National Team is divided into workstreams that cover:

• business case - creating and maintaining business case documentation, cost assumptions and supporting models
• project management - overall direction, planning and coordination of delivery and management of risks and issues
• solution assurance and integration - ensuring the IT systems, organisation and ways of working meet the overall concept of operations for the RCCs
• business and user design - determining the scope of FiReControl, including identifying the activities that are either in or out of scope for the RCCs
• accommodation - delivering the accommodation (both the building and the site) for each region
• people and organisational design - developing the staffing structure for RCCs, along with a range of human resources tools and guidance to support the transition from existing control rooms to the new RCCs
• Infrastructure Services (IS) package delivery - overseeing the delivery of the IS solution, the majority of which will be delivered by EADS
• contract and service management - managing the relationship with EADS, including the IS contract. Also managing the service management of the contract, and liaison with the FRSs and regions
• testing - responsible for devising and scripting the tests for products and services to be delivered by suppliers and managing their execution. The primary focus of the testing work will be the supply of the IS

• business relationship management team - acting as a liaison between the national teams and the regional teams, supporting delivery through positive engagement and issue resolution. The team leaders also take particular policy responsibilities (legal, finance and Firelink).

• communications - ensuring effective internal and external communication on the project

• secretarial and correspondence - coordinating ministerial correspondence, parliamentary questions and general correspondence. Also provides secretarial support to various groups

• transition - ensuring the successful transition from 46 Fire and Rescue Authorities control rooms to nine RCCs.

Each team works closely with regional project teams to deliver workshops and training in preparation for the rollout of FiReControl.

Regional project organisation

Each region is organised slightly differently, however the basic structure includes:

• Regional Project Director (RPD) - in most regions, the RPD will act as the senior responsible owner for the regional project and will chair the regional project board
• Regional Project Manager (RPM) - responsible for managing the regional project and reports to the RPD and regional project board. The role of the RPM is to make sure that FiReControl is delivered to time, quality and cost and support each FRS in its planning and delivery for transition activities
• regional project team - led by the RPM, consisting of project delivery and administrative support or other appropriate staffing to support delivery within the regional structure
• FRS Coordinator - working within each FRS in England there is a coordinator who focuses on planning and coordinating the delivery of the FiReControl Project in their respective FRS.