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1 |
Summary |
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1.1 |
The Improvement Planning Register provides a comprehensive `signpost' to the wide variety of improvement strategies, actions and activities that are being taken or pursued under the Authority's Integrated Risk Management Plan and its supporting strategic and medium-term functional plans. It also provides a convenient tool for monitoring our commitment towards continuous improvement. |
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1.2 |
The Performance Review Committee have agreed to receive regular updates to the Register to monitor progress. It will be reported to the Authority annually, at which point, subsequent to Authority approval, the completed items will be deleted from the Register. |
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2 |
RecommendationError! Bookmark not defined. |
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2.1 |
That the latest update of the Authority's `Improvement Planning Register' be noted. |
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2.2 |
That it be a recommendation to the Authority that the pool of members available to sit on the Improvement Planning Steering Board be increased to six, and nominations be requested on the basis set out in para.3.8. |
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3 |
Introduction Error! Bookmark not defined.and background |
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3.1 |
All fire and rescue authorities were subject to the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) process for the first time in 2005. This year, authorities are undergoing a further external assessment under the `Fire and Rescue Performance Framework 2006/07'. Both processes aim to secure continuous improvement in the way that services are managed and delivered and there is an expectation that authorities will have in place some form of improvement plan. |
3.2 |
We actually commenced formal improvement planning in the Autumn of 2004 as part of the initial CPA self-assessment process. We identified a number of immediate actions we wanted to take. Some of these helped to shape and provide the content of our Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP). |
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3.3 |
After receiving the draft CPA report in May 2005, we continued to develop an `Improvement Planning Matrix'. This document attempted to capture the outcomes and proposed actions from several recent audit, inspection and review processes, including: our own internal review of expectations contained in the National Framework; the Pay and Conditions Verification Studies 1 & 2 conducted by the Audit Commission; our self-assessment exercise; the pre-CPA peer challenge review; and the CPA report itself. Inevitably, there were many common findings and overlapping actions. The matrix was progressively refined and was presented to the Authority in September 2005. |
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3.4 |
From the outset, we have been keen not to develop a completely separate `improvement plan'. Instead, we want to ensure that all our various strategic and medium-term functional and business plans - particularly our Integrated Risk Management Plan - are thoroughly reviewed and updated to include objectives and actions (identified in the matrix) that will deliver improvement. This approach was discussed and accepted as a sensible way forward at the post-CPA `round table' meeting held in July 2005 (when representatives from the CPA team, Her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate, our external auditor, the regional business change manager for the fire and rescue service, met with the Principal Officers and leading Members of the Authority). |
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3.5 |
We have since further refined the matrix and developed this into the attached `Improvement Planning Register.' The various strategies and actions for improvement have been collated under five generic themes: _ engaging our staff and communities _ managing our capacity to deliver _ managing our performance and raising our game _ embedding risk management _ living our values
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3.6 |
As with the matrix, the Register is not a stand-alone plan. Essentially, it provides a `signpost' to the improvement activities that have been delivered, or are being pursued, as integral actions within our IRMP and the numerous associated supporting strategies and plans. However, by collating the key areas for improvement in the Register it enables us to more easily identify common issues, determine which are high priority, and monitor progress on their implementation. The Register is being maintained as a dynamic or `living' document which is frequently updated - rather like the Authority's Strategic Risk Register. |
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3.7 |
It is intended that the Register will be formally presented for review by the full Authority at its annual meeting in May. It is appropriate that it should also be periodically reviewed by the Performance Review Committee - probably two to four times per year - dependent upon the number and significance of the changes being made. Day-to-day management of the Register is being undertaken by the Performance Review Team working to a joint Member/officer Steering Board which meets approximately every six weeks. The current standing membership of the Board is: |
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3.8 |
It is sometimes difficult for both Councillors Chapman and Price to attend every meeting because of competing diary pressures. It is recommended that the pool of members that could be drawn from to attend the Steering Board meetings should be increased to six. (Three from the Conservative Group, two from the Liberal Democrat Group, and one from the Labour Group). This is not a Standing Committee of the Authority, and the rules of proportionality need not apply, but it would make sense to ask for nominations on this basis. |
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3.9 |
The Committee is asked to review the Register and endorse the process for managing it. |
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4 |
Contribution to corporate aims and objectives |
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4.1 |
The Improvement Planning Register enables us co-ordinate and monitor all the strategies and actions we are taking - under thematic areas for improvement - which we feel are essential to the successful and early achievement of our corporate aims. It enables us to more easily identify any common barriers or issues that might be hampering progress towards meeting our aims and helps us to determine priorities (and non-priorities) for current and future resource deployment. |
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5 |
Risk analysis |
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5.1 |
Failure to demonstrate our genuine commitment to continuous improvement would potentially leave the Authority vulnerable to criticism (from external audit and inspection assessments) with consequential damage to its reputation. The Improvement Planning Register provides clear evidence that the Authority continually reviews strategies and actions being taken on a number of fronts to address any identified weaknesses in the way we deliver and manage our services. The Register also informs the updating of the Strategic Risk Register. |
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6 |
Resource implications |
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6.1 |
There are no significant additional financial implications in the production and management of the Register when it is examined in isolation, but it does add to the workloads of some senior and middle managers (and some Members) many of whom are struggling with the demands and expectations placed on them by increased levels of external audit and inspection. This is an activity we fully accept we should carry out, and we are determined to do it well, but it inevitably adds to the general case for increasing managerial capacity. |
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7 |
Equality impact assessment |
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7.1 |
There are no specific equality issues to report in the production and management of the Improvement Planning Register. It is worth noting, however, that a number of strategies and actions in the Register - particularly those under the themes of `engaging our staff and communities' and `living our values' - specifically mention the equality and diversity improvements we are pursuing. |
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7.2 |
The proposals within this report are considered compatible with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Human Rights Act 1998, and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. |
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Background information (Section 100D of Local Government Act 1972) |
Appendix A Improvement Planning Register |
There are no other documents which disclose the facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based or which have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of the report. All documents referred to within the Improvement Planning Register itself can be made available on request. |
