Fire And Rescue Service Mutual

Conference is extremely concerned that Cleveland Fire Brigade (CFB) has established a Fire & Rescue Authority (FRA) approved “trading arm.” The stated purpose of this trading arm” is to attract alternative funding in the guise of a profit making social enterprise company, whereby any operating profit would be reinvested in CFB. The stated long term aim of this project is that CFB will no longer remain a local authority Fire & Rescue Service (FRS) within the public sector, but would become a Social Enterprise Mutual. Conference notes that the proposals as reported in the Guardian newspaper on the 19th of April 2011 do not at this time relate to core FRS activity, but are connected with other safety critical tasks currently undertaken by private contractors in the petrochemical and other similar industries. Conference is alarmed that this move towards privatisation may at some time in the future also include those FRS functions which are a requirement of FRA’s under the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. Furthermore we see this as confirmation that funding within the UK FRS is totally inadequate and therefore call on government to review funding arrangements for the whole of the UK FRS. Conference will oppose any such scheme which involves the undertaking of any functions currently provided by a local authority FRS’s and commits to campaigning both politically and industrially where necessary, in the event that such schemes are proposed which impact adversely on members’ jobs and conditions.