Horsham Teams Relocation

Background and Context

Proposals

Proposed changes to work locations and the impacts on travel to work journeys, and how additional travel expenses may be claimed for those eligible.

Impacts of Change

Based on the above relocations and comparison of journeys for current post holders, the following table sets out the impact on journey times.

Protection

The Protection Team is currently made up of 37 staff (35.5 FTE) comprising of 23 green book and 14 grey book. Twenty-five post holders are in scope to be relocated to a different hub. Twenty-three are contractually based at the existing Horsham Fire station at Hurst Road so will need to be relocated to either Worthing, Haywards Heath or Bognor Regis fire stations. Two roles, one currently based at Bognor Regis and one at Worthing will be relocated to stations closer to their homes.

Impact of location changes

• Of these 25 post holders, 18 are positively impacted by reduced journey times, while 7 are negatively impacted by increased journey times. The additional return journey miles range from four to twenty-four miles.
• Green Book staff with increased travel mileage will be able to claim expenses for these in keeping with the office relocation policy provisions.
• Of the seven who are negatively affected, one is an apprentice who will be out of contract, and should he apply for the substantive post it will be advertised at the new location, and three are grey book colleagues whose additional miles will be between four and eleven miles. One member of staff is absent and not expected to return to work. This leaves two green book colleagues who are negatively affected and therefore eligible to claim.
• Flexi duty officers are not eligible to make additional mileage claims while they have use of a service vehicle for duty. The Flexi Duty officers are impacted potentially by additional travelling time although they are personally affected financially.
• Four Grey Book staff who will potentially have increased journeys of between four and eleven miles are not eligible to claim for the additional travel because the additional distance is less than 20 miles, over which additional expenses can be payable. It may be possible to mitigate this with occasional working from home.
• Every effort has been made to move individuals to a work base closest to their home. Face to face team meetings happen monthly and each month a different location is chosen to make travel times fair across the team. The majority of the travel for these once-a-month meetings is carried out using pool cars or car shares to minimise cost.
• Please see the consultation pack (opens in new tab) on page 5 to see location changes

Technical Rescue Unit (TRU)

The Technical Rescue Unit Team is currently made up of 10 staff (FTE) all of whom are on grey book terms and conditions. The proposal is to relocate the team from Horley Fire Station to Worthing Fire Station and is intended to follow with the relocation of the Operational Training Team to the new facility at Highwood Mills, Horsham.

The team all have access to Service Vehicles during duty periods and work the TRU crewing system with four 24-hour shifts on Duty (12hrs shift on duty followed by 12 hours on-call) followed by eight 24-hour periods off duty. Their current terms and conditions state their normal place of work at Horley, and with a requirement to be within 40 minutes of Pulborough during periods of duty (including when on call). Staff use the Horley site as a base of operations with locker facilities and storage of equipment with individuals attending Horley station once a week to complete service vehicle routines. They also hold meetings there and use the facilities to wash down when required following incident attendance.

Currently, TRU staff self-manage their journeys to minimise travel time and mileage by travelling to the contractual work location (Horley) in their private vehicles, only during the course of their duty period following an incident and/or to complete vehicle routines with their service vehicle/or to attend infrequent meetings. The team in the main utilise other locations for training and exchanging vehicles.

Post relocation, they may be required to travel to the new location at Worthing Station to collect their service vehicle if the swap cannot be arranged more conveniently (hence potential increases in travel as highlighted above).

Impact of location changes

• Of these 10 post holders, 6 are positively impacted by reduced journey times, while 4 are negatively impacted by increased journey times. The additional return journey miles range from four to four six miles. One of the members of staff who are positively impacted will be leaving in May 2023.
• Two Grey Book staff who will potentially have increased journeys of between four and fourteen miles are not eligible to claim for the additional travel because the additional distance is less than 20 miles. It may be possible to mitigate this with occasional working from home. Two Grey Book staff will have an increased journey and will be able to claim above the 20 miles.
• Every effort has been made to move individuals to a work base closest to their home. Face to face team meetings happen monthly and each month a different location is chosen to make travel times fair across the team. The majority of the travel for these once-a-month meetings is carried out using pool cars or car shares to minimise cost.

An initial assessment of impacts on journey times and travel mileage indicates the following:

• Positive impacts: 6 individuals who will benefit from reduced travel journeys from their current home address to Worthing Fire Station.
• Negative impacts: 4 individuals who will see increased travel journeys and mileage. While the impact on increased mileage is mitigated eligibility under provisions of the Expenses SOP to claim for additional miles travelled, the additional mileage incurred for 2 individuals is under the threshold for which they would be eligible to claim for this additional mileage which is approximately four and 14miles for a return journey.
• Please see the consultation paper on page 7 to see location changes

As a general point, personal wellbeing can be impacted by increased journeys.

Please see Appendix 1 – Summary of provisions for claiming for additional travel expenses for a summary of the policy provisions relating to additional expenses incurred due to the requirement to relocate.

Consultation Approach