Supply Contract provision of personal protecive equipment for firefighters

The Service has a duty to ensure that the appropriate personal protective equipment is provided and maintained to ensure fire-fighter safety. The Service has a duty to ensure that the appropriate personal protective equipment is provided and maintained to ensure fire-fighter safety.

As part of MCT2 saving Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service has reviewed its provision of Personal protective Equipment (PPE) for Fire fighters. The equipment they are provided with is supplied to them as personal over clothing coat and trousers which are fire proof, gloves, water proof boots, helmet and fire hood.

Although Fire Calls are continuing to reduce and in the last 10 years have reduced by 43% the need for fire fighters able to be able to respond appropriately still remains.

The previous contract for the supply and maintenance of the current PPE supplied by Bristol uniform under the ICP contract hads a natural break point at seven and half years which will be around June/July 2017. At this point the service had the opportunity to review its provision for PPE without being penalised by coming out of a contract early. GFRS have took taken the option to take the break point and the contract now finisheds in August 2017 .

At the break point the service had the option to withdraw from the ICP contract without any penalties. At this point the service has the choice to directly purchase the PPE ensemble, this would cost approx 34k. Before this wasis considered a condition survey off all the PPE and the likely life off all the PPE washas been completed. At this point the wear and tear of the PPE wasis not particularly high due to the reduction in operational incidents. The current condition survey showeds that the majority of the PPE would be fit for purpose for the next 2 to 3 years.

GFRS has now entered into an agreement with Bristol Uniform as part of a short term SLA to cover the cleaning, maintenance and repair of all PPE at a reduced cost and pay as you go. This has already released over £60K saving with another £100k in 2018/19.

At present EU and British laws puts a responsibility on any employer to provide protective personal equipment (PPE) that must be fit for purpose. Washing and repair reduce the life of any garment and depending on manufacture will depend on the number of washes a garment can have before it is classed as not fit for purpose. Helmets, gloves and boots also have a limited life-span and require replacing as per manufacture instructions (10 years).

GFRS had a legal responsibility to not only provide this equipment but also to maintain the repair of the equipment to meet the structural needs to protect against the environment in which it is likely to be used.

Recent research has highlighting links between heat stress in fire fighters and heart attacks and heart disease the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has commissioned further studies into fire fighters health and contamination of PPE.