Archived decisions
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority Item 10
11 February 2004 South East Regional Management Board Report of the Chief Fire Officer |
Contact: Deputy Chief Fire Officer John Bonney - 023 8062 6832 |
1 |
Summary | |
1.1 |
The national draft framework issued by the Government in December 2003 lays out its expectations for the fire service in the future. A central element of their vision is much closer regional collaboration between fire services in six key areas: - Integrate common and specialist services, eg, fire investigation. - Put in place effective resilience plans for large scale emergencies. - Introduce regional personnel and human resource functions. - Develop a regional approach to training. - Establish regional control rooms. - Introduce regional procurement within the context of a national procurement strategy. | |
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1.2 |
In order that such collaboration is placed on a formal legal basis, central Government is insisting that progress in these areas is delivered through Regional Management Boards (RMBs). The detail of how these Boards should be constituted has been left to individual regions, however, whilst there is considerable discretion the requirement to deliver change in the six key areas is not - see appendix 1 for LGA guidelines on RMBs. This report puts before the Authority a recommended constitution which meets the Governments requirements but in a way agreed by the South East Fire Authorities Forum | |
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Report | |
2.1 |
In the light of the Government requirements, the South East Regional Forum, which is comprised of Chief Fire Officers and Chairman of the nine south eastern fire brigades, has met on a number of occasions to discuss and agree a strategy for the development of a RMB. | |
2.2 |
The Forum collectively recognises that there is little option but to constitute an RMB, as the Government has been quite categoric that failure to have one constituted from 31 March 2004 will lead to intervention. As a result the consensus is that whilst the RMB must satisfy the Government expectations a `light touch' approach should be adopted. In so doing the RMB should focus on and have executive power confined to the six key areas detailed above. The Board's decisions would be subject to ratification by the constituent authorities This would include this Authority's agreement over any budgets identified for any of the specific projects that the South East Regional Management Board may undertake, thus allowing discretion as to if and to what extent this Authority may wish to participate in any project. | |
2.3 |
The arrangements put in place to support the board and the resources committed to it should be limited hence the proposal for an annual rotating chairman and the in-house provision of clerking and financial services to which all authorities would pay a proportional amount. | |
2.4 |
For simplicity both in terms of financial contributions and business operation, the proposal is that each Authority has one representative with power to appoint a substitute member if the principal representative cannot for any reason attend. This proposal raised concern amongst members of this Authority at the last full meeting on 10 December 2004 and, as a result, the Chairman and Deputy Chief Officer, John Bonney, made proposals at the last Forum meeting for some form of proportional representation. This, however, failed to gain the agreement of the other Authorities and the simple principle of one Authority, one representative was passed. | |
2.5 |
In view of the principles agreed at the last South East Forum meeting, a revised draft constitution was produced and circulated to the Clerks of the constituent brigades for amendments and agreement. The most recent draft is now attached (Appendix 2) for the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority's consideration. A meeting is taking place between legal advisers to the nine Fire Authorities on Friday 6 February to fine tune the constitution. Any significant changes will be reported to the Authority by the Clerk at the meeting. | |
2.6 |
Not surprisingly, given the experience elsewhere of modernisation issues in the fire service, the timetable is extremely challenging. All Authorities in the South East Region are expected to consider the draft constitution and give approval at the South East Forum meeting on 10 March 2004. At that point the RMB can be formally established and thus meet the Government's deadline of 31 March 2004. | |
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European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 | |
3.1 |
The proposals within this report are compatible with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 and considered in the light of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. | |
Recommendation | ||
That the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority agrees to:- | ||
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The establishment and participation in the South East Fire and Rescue Services Regional Management Board as a Joint Committee under Sections 101 and 102 of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis of the draft constitution attached to this report. | |
2 |
The Clerk to the Authority be given delegated power (in consultation with the Chairman and the Chief Fire Officer) to agree any subsequent changes to the constitution that may be required and to sign the final version of the agreement bringing the South East Fire and Rescue Services Regional Management Board into effect. | |
3 |
The Chairman of the Authority being appointed as the Authority's representative on the South East Fire and Rescue Services Regional Management Board with either of the two vice-chairman being appointed as the substitute member, should, for any reason, the Chairman be unable to attend. | |
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. None Note: The list excludes: (1) Published works (2) Documents that disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act | ||
Appendices: | ||
Appendix 1 - |
LGalert 28 1 2004 - Developing Regional Management Boards for Fire Authorities: Part Two | |
Appendix 2 - |
South East Forum draft Constitution | |
HFRA 11 2 04 SE Management Board JB/CM/JMW/28/1/2004 | ||