Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority Item

4 June 2008

Improvement Planning Register

Report by the Chief Officer

Contact: Philip Webb, Performance Review Manager

Telephone: 023 8062 6828

E-mail: [email protected]

1

Summary

1.1

The Improvement Planning Register provides a comprehensive `signpost' to the wide variety of improvement strategies, actions and activities that are being undertaken under the Authority's Fire and Rescue Service Plan and its supporting strategic and medium-term functional plans. It also provides a convenient tool for monitoring and demonstrating our commitment towards continuous improvement.

2

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2.1

That the latest update of the Authority's `Improvement Planning Register' which details the actions taken to address the corporate issues identified for improvement be noted and received.

2.2

That those strategies and actions that have been completed, be discharged from the Register.

3

Introduction Error! Bookmark not defined.and background

3.1

All fire and rescue authorities were subject to the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) process for the first time in 2005. During the years 2006/07 and 2007/08, authorities underwent further assessment under the `Fire and Rescue Performance Framework', and will continue to do so in the future. 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 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 which helped to shape and provide the content of our Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP).

3.3

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 Fire and rescue Service Plan (formally named `Integrated Risk Management Plan') - are thoroughly reviewed and updated to include objectives and actions (identified in the Register) 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).

3.4

We have since further refined the document and developed this into the attached `Improvement Planning Register'. It was reported to Members of the Fire Authority in June 2007, and the latest version is being presented to the Authority as an appendix to this report. It includes items that have been identified as actions for improvement, and their status. Issues arose from the original CPA report, and the `Fire and Rescue Performance Assessment 2006' which consisted of three separate but linked areas of assessment. They were:

3.4.1

Service Assessment

(split into an Operational Assessment of Service Delivery and Comparison of Key Performance Indicators)

3.4.2

Use of Resources

3.4.3

Direction of Travel

Increasingly the Register also includes `self identified' areas for improvement. The key at the front of the Register denotes the origin of the issue.

3.5

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.

3.6

The strategies and actions are collated under the following five themes:

_ Living our values/meeting our goals

_ Driving excellent performance

_ Learning and Innovation

_ Managing our resources better

_ Minimising our impact on the environment

3.7

Strategies and actions that have been completed are identified by an entry in the `date closed' column on the right hand side of the Register. Evidence has been gathered and retained to provide an audit trail for any future review.

3.8

Day-to-day management of the Register is being undertaken by the Performance Review Team. It is periodically reviewed by the Performance Review and Scrutiny Committee, and since April 2008, Corporate Management Team have taken over the regular review of the Register from the Improvement Planning Steering Group

3.9

It should be noted that consideration is currently being given to a rationalisation of the Register in order to simplify and streamline the review process for the future.

4

Contribution to corporate aims and objectives

4.1

The Improvement Planning Register enables us to coordinate and monitor the strategies and actions being undertaking - 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.

5

Risk analysis

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 keeps under continual review strategies and actions being taken on a number of fronts to address any identified weaknesses in the way we deliver and manage our services.

6

Resource implications

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 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. Middle manager capacity issues are addressed in the Register.

7

Equality impact assessment

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 `Living our Values/ Meeting our Goals' - specifically mention the equality and diversity improvements we continue to pursue.

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.

8

Conclusion

8.1

The Authority is asked to receive the latest version of the Improvement Register and approve the discharge of completed actions.

Background information (Section 100D of Local Government Act 1972)

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.

Appendix 1 Improvement Planning Register version number 16.2