Introduction
Welcome to the newly refreshed and reformatted public page for the Extranet site for the Fire Services Consultation Association (FSCA) - I hope you agree with me that it is a great improvement and my thanks go to those that have worked so hard on its development.
My name is Philip Webb and I have served in the Fire and Rescue Service for almost 38 years. During that time I have seen many changes, many of which are bringing great benefit to our communities and our staff. Never were these improvements more apparent than in the field of consultation. We have moved from the erstwhile 'silent service', to one that enjoys unprecedented public confidence and support. We are a Service that is now heard and recognised in a range of forums as an organisation that can make our communities safer and really make a difference.
As a result of unprecedented consultation activity over the last year (as we prepared our Integrated Risk Management Plan), the people we serve have had a greater say in the decisions we made and in doing so have learnt more and more about the Service(s) we provide.
As Comprehensive Area Assessment moves to centre stage to replace comprehensive performance assessment, one can see the Governments message that the communities must have an even greater say on our priorities for the next few years. I don't know about you - but that suggests to me that there is a need to increase our engagement with our stakeholders both in and out of the Service to ensure their aspirations for their communities are met and exceeded.
With the current contract with our consultation provider coming to an end in 2009, your Management Group were heartened by the overwhelming support for them to begin the procurement process to find a new provider for the next 3-5 years.
All Chief Officers have been written to requesting that they support the procurement process and forward a one off payment of £400 to fund the process and cover the management team meeting costs for the 5 year term. Remember that once signed up to the process Brigades can then choose to participate in the Framework Contract or not as they deem sensible to their needs - if they do not pledge their support at the beginning they then cannot participate in the contract without financial penalty. Clearly without a critical mass of Fire and Rescue Services signing up to the process, the procurement exercise cannot be undertaken so I do urge every Service to support the process. If you have any questions on this process do please contact either myself or any other Management Group member.
About the FSCA
The FSCA was created as an independent body to procure consultation services and adopt a similar role to that of the FIRES Steering Group in terms of co-ordination and development.
It's main aims are:
- To procure consultation services for members of the Association
- To facilitate collaborative consultation activities
- To facilitate development of service specific consultation techniques
- To facilitate members’ capacity to undertake consultation activities without external assistance
- To promote and facilitate comparison and benchmarking between FSCA members and with other sectors
- To promote FSCA members' interests through dialogue and liaison with appropriate national bodies and government departments
- To identify common consultation needs and address such needs through the development of services and tool-kits
- To influence consultation requirements and guidance issued to UK fire and rescue services
Procurement of Consultation Service Provider
In October of 2003 an invitation to show interest for a Formal Tender, for the contract was advertised by the FSCA.
7 companies were deemed to be of sufficient quality to receive invitations to tender (7 being recommended by legal advisor to be competitive but manageable).
5 Tenders were received at January 27th closing date.
The Tender evaluation process took place 27th/28th January and 2nd/3rd February 2004.
On the basis of both quality and relative cost, Opinion Research Services (ORS) was selected as the preferred supplier.
About ORS
Opinion Research Services (ORS) is an established social research practice that works closely with public and private sector organisations across the UK to offer a wide range of carefully designed services. As a spin-out company of the University of Wales Swansea, ORS is not primarily commercial but is committed to the excellence and usefulness of its research work.
In working with clients, our primary aims are:
- Carrying out reliable applied research without compromising fundamental theoretical principles;
- Undertaking high quality work at fair prices, and providing added value;
- Working to deadlines - but not accepting programmes of work that are unrealistic or compromise quality;
- Writing clear and informative reports and delivering effective and powerful presentations that can readily inform the decision making process
ORS has an experienced and highly qualified team of colleagues who take a long-term interest in the development of sound esearch methodologies for our clients
We are not a loosley organised group of associates or consultants, but a permanent research team. We are committed to rigorous and effective research that applies the cross-disciplinary expertise of academics to practical issues relevant to the public policy agenda and across the private sector in the UK.
We have extensive experience of undertaking studies involving a large number of research methods. Through innovative project design we seek to provide reliable information that is based on clear assumptions, sound analysis and thoughful interperatation.
We are ready to give advice on research methods and strategies because we recognise that complex projects rarely have a single correct approach and we have gained a reputation for addressing clients' needs while providing robust independant research.
ORS does not maximise its turnover with a high volume of projects, but offers thoughful and insightful work. We provide a comprehensive service upon which clients can rely, based on a relationship of trust. Senior staff are directly incolved in all projects and clients can call ORS without feeling the clock is running.
ORS specialises in applied social research and regularly undertakes innovative and problematic studies requiring the highest methodological standards. The company’s expertise covers census analysis, database design and management, geography, housing, mathematics, philosophy, planning, politics, programming, psychology, statistics, and training needs analysis.
For further information on our services please visit our website. Alternatvely, you can contact us by calling 01792 704772, asking to speak to either Abigail Little or Catherine Perry.