One for all!
Published: 01 September, 2008
Three months ago saw the final phase of the Integrated Clothing Project (ICP), at last bringing a national procurement strategy to the fire services. One contracted supplier, Bristol Uniforms, is now on hand to supply and maintain a comprehensive clothing range to all the UK’s firefighters, via the central procurement body Firebuy. F&R puts some questions to Roger Startin, MD of Bristol Uniforms, and Steve Taylor, Work Stream Director at Firebuy.
Which brigades have so far signed up to ICP?
(Roger Startin) A number of FRAs are already in discussion with us about the supply of both PPE and the clothing range. The final elements of the contract with Firebuy were only signed recently and, therefore, it is still “early days” in terms of the delivery of the ICP given that many existing supply contracts have anything up to four or more years to run. However interest is building rapidly now that FRAs can have access to the contract documentation.
What have been the biggest challenges in catering for female firefighters and ethnic minorities?
(Roger Startin) The implication that catering for female firefighters has been a challenge is to misunderstand Bristol’s position prior to the ICP.
Bristol considers itself to have been a leader in developing a sizing regime which, for quite some years, has provided PPE garment sizes in as broad a range for females as for males. The ICP had equalities and diversity as a central plank throughout the procurement and in addition to our PPE range of clothing our range of corporate and station wear solutions fully address the needs of an ever increasingly diverse workforce in the fire and rescue service.
Fire brigades are notoriously proud of their identities – how do you think they will react to a national identity?
(Steve Taylor) National Identity was another objective for the ICP to deliver. The range of clothing provided by the project offers FRAs an opportunity to adopt a fresh new image which provides for a colour palette that can not be confused with any other emergency services or trades. FRAs will still be able to express their individuality through badges and name patches on the garments whilst meeting the public’s wish for an easily identifiable common identity as enjoyed by the ambulance service for example.
Do brigades have the option to mix and match their PPE with non-ICP gear?
(Steve Taylor) The ICP contract solutions are as offered with every garment from station wear through to PPE being designed to work together. Where FRAs have existing contracts for either PPE or non-PPE in place they can continue to utilise those until such time as they expire, before gaining the benefits of the ICP integrated approach.
Apart from practical benefits such as admin time saving and technical evaluation costs in procurement procedures, are there any other cost savings associated with ICP?
(Steve Taylor) By letting a contract of this size, Firebuy was able to secure a technically advanced solution and commensurate service delivery standards for all FRAs – not just those who traditionally have been able to command such a response from industry. This was demonstrated in the price differential identified as part of the procurement for a national versus regional lots solution.
As a potentially single supplier to all fire brigades in the UK, how will you as a company cope with such a large customer base?
(Roger Startin) It is anticipated that the national adoption of the ICP, given the comments above, will take up to five years to take full effect as existing supply contracts expire. Over this period Bristol will expand its manufacturing and service facilities in line with the growth resulting from the uptake of the benefits available to FRAs through using the ICP and indeed trigger points have been built into the contracts by Firebuy to ensure that sufficient capacity and resilience is maintained.
