Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority |
Item |
25 September 2002 |
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Response to Her Majesty's Inspector of Fire Service's `Inspection Report, October 2001' |
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Report of the Chief Fire Officer |
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Contact: |
Malcolm Eastwood, Chief Fire Officer Tel: 023 8064 4000 Ext 203 | |
1 |
Summary | |
1.1 |
Members are asked to endorse the response and action being taken in respect of the five specific recommendations made by Her Majesty's Inspector of Fire Services following the performance review inspection that took place during October 2001. | |
2 |
Introduction | |
2.1 |
Although the review and inspection was carried out in October 2001, the final report was not published and made available until the end of May 2002. This means that several of the issues identified in the report have already been addressed and/or are no longer appropriate. A copy of the report for those attending the meeting is reproduced as Appendix `A'; otherwise, the report can be accessed via the Office of Deputy Prime Minister's website at: www.safety.odpm.gov.uk/fire/hmfsi/inspection/pdf/hants01.pdf | |
2.2 |
There are several complimentary statements in the report particularly in relation to our community fire safety work and partnership arrangements, and also on our initiatives to raise the awareness of equality in the workplace and our equal opportunities training for HFRA Members and Service Management Team. The five recommendations made are welcomed and reflect areas already identified for action in the Authority's Corporate Plan. | |
3 |
Response to Recommendations | |
3.1 |
Recommendation 1 | |
"The Authority should adopt an appropriate and robust project planning methodology to support achievement of its corporate objectives." | ||
Response: | ||
During the Inspection, the opportunity was taken to show the Inspection Team the proposal for a new strategic planning process and performance management framework. This has been adopted and is now used as the basis of the Authority's website-based Corporate Plan. It provides an over-arching structure to describe the way the Authority plans, reviews and manages it corporate objectives. | ||
Following some helpful initial discussions with the District Auditor, it is now proposed that the Service will invest in some specialist training in project planning methodology. Subject to current budget provision being sufficient, it is intended that all senior managers will attend a basic two-day awareness session; and those staff engaged in leading/managing larger projects will receive more intensive training (probably five-day duration). It is likely that the industry standard `PRINCE 2' methodology will be adopted. | ||
3.2 |
Recommendation 2 | |
"The Service should urgently progress the production of its information systems and technology strategy so that it can fully and rapidly exploit the benefits of utilising the County Council's new system." | ||
Response: | ||
Given the significant investment involved in using many of Hampshire County Council's corporate support services and allied management information systems (including Hantsnet); the Authority has determined that it makes sense to adopt the County's new strategic IT platform and network (IT2000) and main application software (SAP). A major scoping study, and IT Strategy document, was commissioned to determine how IT2000 could be implemented - and funded - on a phased basis. | ||
The Authority approved a number of growth proposals to enable faster progress to be made on specific application from 2002/03 onwards. | ||
Now that the position regarding the radio replacement project has become clearer (i.e. the move to a national procurement process), the rest of the Authority's ICT strategy can be developed. The District Auditor has recently agreed to provide some guidance on the format of an appropriate strategy document. | ||
3.3 |
Recommendation 3 | |
"The Service should review its current management information systems to ensure that it can provide the information required of the Service both accurately and timely." | ||
Response: | ||
Significant progress has been made to improve systems and processes so that data can now be obtained in a timely and consistent way. Improvements in the Authority's ability to produce, in particular, performance management information on a more regular basis have resulted. | ||
Quarterly updates to performance information are now being produced on the website version of the Authority's Corporate Plan. | ||
3.4 |
Recommendation 4 | |
"The Service should urgently reconsider the levels of support currently given to the information technology and systems function." | ||
Response: | ||
This comment has also been made by the District Auditor in a review specifically dealing with `IT Management Arrangements'. | ||
The post of `IT Manager' has deliberately been left unfilled pending the outcome of the review that was commissioned to assess whether the Authority should move to a fully managed-service arrangement for the provision of `IT2000' (Hampshire County Council's strategic IT platform and network). A contract has now been agreed for the phased implementation of IT2000 (approved by the Authority's Finance and General Purposes Committee on 10 July 2002. | ||
Further, and as part of the wider review of the Service's organisation structure; the future management arrangements for Information Services Department are being considered. Current staff are being consulted on different options for the future management structure, but it has already been determined that, notwithstanding the adoption of IT2000, additional senior management support is needed. Of particular significance in making this decision is the demand that future major projects will have, notably: the replacement of the radio scheme; the future replacement of the command, control and communications system; the need to replace/upgrade several legacy systems; and input into the County Council's development of SAP. | ||
3.5 |
Recommendation 5 | |
"The Authority should urgently assess the situation regarding the maintenance of its building stock with a view to determining a suitable financial strategy." | ||
Response: | ||
Since the Inspection, the Authority has received its property adviser's updated `Condition Survey' which assessed building maintenance needs - and indicative costs - under four headings: urgent works - £85,000; short-term needs (1 to 3 years) - £1,315,000; medium-term needs (4 to 6 years) - £635,000; and long-term needs (7 to 10 years) - £1,331,000. These estimated costs represent only `repair and maintenance' works and do not include any provision for improvements to buildings. | ||
The restrictions on borrowing approvals (BCA) and other competing pressures for major (capital) funding makes it extremely difficult for the Authority to satisfactorily address this important issue. However, the Authority has been proactive in approving growth in its budget for building maintenance of £153,000 in 2002/03; and £278,000 in 2004/05. It was not possible, because of other priorities, to make any additional funding available in 2003/04. | ||
The Finance and General Purposes Committee approved a detailed programme of maintenance, repairs and other building works on 10 July 2002. | ||
The comprehensive condition survey has proved to be an excellent investment. It details the scale and significant financial implications the Authority is facing over the next ten years and beyond. It is intended to update the Survey on a regular basis. | ||
4 |
Responses to other issues highlighted in the Report | |
Note: the numbers in brackets correspond to the paragraph numbers in the Inspection Report. | ||
4.1 |
`Organisation and Structure': (10) "...there is already an expectation of change from within the Service, and in order that this is both positive and accurately informed, principal management might wish to consider early circulation of the project team details and terms of reference followed by regular reports on progress" | |
Response: The dedicated project team has been issuing regular briefings and bulletins to staff about progress. In addition, a first video on the restructuring exercise has been produced and issued to all workplaces describing in detail the rationale and implementation proposals for the changes agreed to date. | ||
4.2 |
`Business Planning': (13) "The Authority may find it helpful to revisit its corporate planning process with a view to including more specific references to the key objectives and expectation." (15) "The Authority should consider the adoption of a more formal linkage to assist in anticipating medium to long-term expenditure, particularly in those areas where difficulty is already being experienced such as building maintenance." (16) "The Service would benefit from principal management re-affirming its commitment to the [strategic planning] process and [its] importance to the organisation." | |
Response: See the comments under `Recommendation 1' (above). The Authority's corporate planning processes have been radically improved. The website version of the Corporate Plan makes it much easier to demonstrate links between specific functional and action plans to corporate aims and objectives. | |
It is surprising that the Inspection Team could not see the obvious link between the corporate and financial planning processes given that all budget proposals were (and are) justified in terms of their fit with corporate aims and/or functional plans and activities. | |
The Authority has a comprehensive condition survey of its built estate that was updated in the first quarter of 2002/03. Proposals for increasing the budget provision for building maintenance in 2002/03 and in 2004/05 were approved as a direct result of the information contained in the Survey. | |
4.3 |
`Information Systems and Technology': (20) "The initial and ongoing training requirements will need to be assessed, and supported by the Authority if the full advantages of effective management information are to be achieved." |
Response: Agreed. The significant training implications associated with the proposed new applications (particularly in relation to IT2000 and SAP) are fully appreciated. Staff concerned with application specifications and implementation plans is able to draw on the experience and expertise within the County Council. Several new applications rely heavily on associated Computer Based Training (CBT) packages. Training courses in respect of older back-office applications were deliberately reduced or cancelled because of crewing difficulties and in response to higher-priority training needs. | |
4.4 |
`Community Fire Safety': (28) "A clearer understanding of performance would be obtained by people reading the plan if service targets and achievement were shown in the same format as the corporate aims." |
Response: Agreed (assuming that HMI meant to refer to `corporate (or statutory) performance indicators' rather than `corporate aims'. As local performance indicators continue to be developed, these will be put into the same format that has been adopted for the statutory best value performance indicators. | |
4.5 |
`Legislative Fire Safety': (40) "The Service should examine its procedures and recording practices to determine why the performance indicators are poor, and to achieve an improvement in its performance in dealing with fire certificate applications." (41) "The Service should ensure that its inspection strategy implements the Authority's policy." (43) "[Misunderstandings of recording practices and the fire safety department being below its authorised establishment] are a cause for concern to the inspection team. All of the evidence suggests that the fire safety department is beginning to fail to meet its workloads, and that it is not implementing the Authority's policy." |
Response: It was pointed out at the time of the Inspection that we had identified some recording definition errors that have since been rectified. We remain puzzled by the comment on policy implementation especially given that we explained that a decision had been made to deliberately suspend the normal re-inspection programme in favour of a risk-assessment of all premises files. This action was taken so that, by December 2002, a representative sample of premises would be inspected with the aim of ensuring that resources are more appropriately matched to workload and risk in the future. | |
4.6 |
`Provision of Fire Cover': (46) "The inspection team advises that the Service reaffirms their legal position for this practice [ie carrying out timed-runs using audible/visual warning systems]." (47) "The Service should project plan its review of fire cover so as to be able to identify separate tasks, resource implications and to provide a means to measure the work being undertaken." |
Response: The use of audible/visual warning systems during both Emergency Fire Appliance Driver (EFAD) driving instruction and in carrying out timed-runs in connection with reviews of fire cover has been fully risk assessed and is undertaken with the agreement of Hampshire Constabulary. The reviews are carried out in accordance with the programme published in the Corporate Plan, but it is accepted that more could be done to strengthen the project planning of resources required for the reviews. However, it is worth noting that fire authorities have been waiting for some time for the ODPM to publish the revised standards for the provision of fire cover. | |
4.7 |
`Operations': (50) "[The operational de-brief] process would benefit from review to identify the different levels of analysis that it wishes to be carried out, by whom, the training required, who the results should be communicated to and for what purposes." |
Response: One of our Divisional Officers is, as part of his degree project, carrying out a review of the format of operational incident de-briefs. It is hoped that this study will provide some valuable insight of the effectiveness of current arrangements and suggestions for possible improvements. | |
4.8 |
`Personnel Management': (57) "There is no information available to inform the public on how a complaint will be dealt with." |
Response: The Service Order relating to the handling of complaints is being updated. Our website provides information on how to make complaints and how to make comments and suggestions about all our activities. Our Best Value Performance Plan summary leaflet (distributed to all households throughout Hampshire in March 2002) also provided information to the public on how comment about our performance. | |
4.9 |
`Occupational Health': (64) "[Ineffective information systems] will need to be reflected in any proposal to improve the current information systems and technology aspects of the Service. This is covered under a separate heading [paragraphs 18-22] within this report." |
Response: It is accepted that we need to improve our ability to produce robust and timely information relating to occupational health and safety. It is expected that the new `human resource' system within the County Council's SAP system will be capable of producing enhanced levels of management information in this area. We are reluctant to invest in a separate application - it should be fully integrated with other personnel-related data so as to avoid duplication of recording. | |
4.10 |
`Equality and Fairness': (66) "The Service should give serious consideration to how [station action plans might be developed to support of tasks within the Diversity, Fairness and Dignity action plan]." |
Response: It is generally recognised that the targets set for fire authorities to increase the number of women and people from minority ethnic groups within the operational workforce are extremely ambitious. Although HMI offers no particular examples of how station action plans might directly lead to the improvements in meeting the targets, it is accepted that there is scope to improve practical facilities at stations as a positive contribution to the `equality and diversity' agenda. Members will be aware of outline plans of three schemes of building works (supported by Supplementary Credit Approvals) to improve facilities. | |
4.11 |
`Training Policy and Planning' (70) "The Service should review the process for informing on the dates for review of policies and procedures." |
Response: It was intended to review the training policy document as part of the statutory best value of training; but, in the event, the timing of this review has been put back by the ODPM. However, the current arrangements for alerting the appropriate officers of the need to carry out reviews of policies and procedures have been tightened-up. | |
4.12 |
`Appliances and Operational Equipment' (77) "[The inability to provide information regarding front-line pump availability] is an unacceptable situation and the Service must now work towards producing the necessary information in a timely and appropriate fashion for future years." |
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Response: We consider this comment to be wholly inappropriate given that we have formally challenged the definition of this particular indicator and its validity and usefulness as an indicator of `front-line' vehicle-downtime. We are still awaiting a formal response to the concerns we have raised. |
4.13 |
`Best Value Review' (90) "The Service should ensure that the Best Value reviews fully encompass the four C's'. `Consultation should be used more widely to ensure those internal and external customers and stakeholders are happy with the level and quality of service being provided." |
Response: The `external challenge' element of future reviews will be enhanced. We were surprised at the suggestion that the consultation element was deemed to be relatively limited, so we will ensure that the full extent of such activity is more fully recorded in the course of future reviews. | |
5 |
European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 |
5.1 |
The proposals within this report are compatible with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998. |
Recommendation | |
That the responses and actions to the recommendations arising out of Her Majesty's Inspector of Fire Service's Inspection Report of the Authority (October 2001) be endorsed. | |
Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers | |
The following documents disclose the facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of the report. | |
Her Majesty's Inspector of Fire Services Inspection Report dated May 2002. | |
www.safety.odpm.gov.uk/fire/hmfsi/inspection/pdf/hants01.pdf | |
NB The list excludes: | |
1 Published works | |
2 Documents that disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act | |
Dir.fin HFRA 25 9 2002 Response to HM Report 19/8/2002 | |