Archived decisions

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority Item 13

15 September 2004

Regional Management Board Update

Report of the Chief Officer

Contact: John Bonney, Chief Officer - 023 80 626830

1

Introduction

1.1

This paper outlines the key issues arising from the South East Regional Management Board held on 14 July 2004.

2

Regional Management Board (RMB)

2.1

The RMB meeting held in July 2004 was dominated by papers on the business arrangements for the work streams relating to Human Resources, Procurement and Common and Specialist Services. Additionally, a paper was presented on establishing a Programme Manager position to co-ordinate, standardise and progress the plethora of projects falling out of the six main work streams. The position of Programme Manager is a formal role within the Prince II project management regime. Initially, costs will be absorbed by the Chairing Authority (Surrey), but ultimately there may be a need to appoint to a permanent post at which point costs will need to be apportioned.

2.2

The paper presented by Hampshire on Human Resources sets as a priority the need to produce a single business plan for both the personnel and training workstreams and through that, concentrate on a number of key areas (identified in the National Framework) to develop unified regional policies. On the training side (referred to as Employee Development) the early focus will be on Development Programmes, Awards and Assessment Development Centres. The paper also laid out a means of monitoring the various interrelated projects using the timelines approach already used by Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service and endorsed by the Audit Commission.

2.3

The debate following a paper on procurement concluded that there needed to be a commitment amongst all regional members to the national procurement strategy for purchase of major items. In light of the strategy not yet being finalised, the paper recommended developing a regional approach for items and services including consumable products, janitorial supplies, certain operational equipment and in the medium term, warehousing and distribution systems, as well as a research and development capacity.

2.4

In relation to common and specialist services, lead authorities were set for:

Specialist Operational and Incident Management - Hampshire

Community Fire Safety Campaigns and Health and Safety - Kent

Partnership Working - Oxfordshire

Co-responding - Berkshire

Fire Investigation - East Sussex

Contingency Plans - West Sussex

Regulatory Reform and Enforcement - Surrey

2.5

The RMB also received a presentation from the ODPM on the regional control centre project. The major issues around this for the board were a recognition from central Government that we are incurring costs purely by undertaking the project and secondly, to establish ODPM's position on cost apportionment between the authorities once the facility is in place. It was stressed that without this clarity, the regional business case remains incomplete. Significantly, the vehicle by which the regional control room would be managed has yet to be determined, although further advice should be forthcoming from the ODPM. West Sussex, as the regional project lead on SE regional control, supplemented the presentation with its own verbal report. It was outlined that a final decision on site will be made late 2004, early 2005 with an expectation for completion by early 2008. The anticipation being that a form of lease back arrangement will be created by which the region bears the ongoing revenue costs to pay for the service.

2.6

The ODPM will fund the information and communications technology, although the long term maintenance cost (but not replacement) will fall to local authorities. Details on these arrangements are yet to be finalised. It was stressed once again that the project timescales are unrealistic and indeed are causing some considerable confusion as phases of the project appear to be running into one another.

2.7

Amongst the RMB papers which have been previously circulated, I have enclosed a copy of the local regional control project structure, including lead references, for information (Appendix 1). For Hampshire, our lead is accommodation and involves us directly in the site selection process.

3

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 Authority notes the report.

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