Archived decisions

AT A MEETING of the HAMPSHIRE FIRE AND RESCUE AUTHORITY PERFORMANCE REVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE held at Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Eastleigh on 18 June 2008.

PRESENT:

Councillors: R.J. Baulk (Vice-Chairman); K.G. Chapman; L.T. Dunsdon; L. Hunt; Sam Payne and D. Simpson.

113 APOLOGIES

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors D.A. Kirk; I.F.E. Beagley and P. Marsh-Jenks.

114 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, they should, normally at the time of debate, declare their interest and having regard to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the Fire Authority's Code of Conduct consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 12 of the Code.

    There were no declarations of interest made by members under this item.

115 MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting held on 5 March, 2008 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Vice-Chairman.

116 DEPUTATIONS

There were no deputations made under this item.

117 REVISION TO THE PERFORMANCE REVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE TERMS OF REFERENCE

The Committee considered the report of the Chief Officer (Item 5 in the Minute Book) on the revised Terms of Reference of the Performance Review and Scrutiny Committee, as agreed by the Authority at its meeting on 4 June 2008. The main changes highlighted to the Committee were the powers to carry out scrutiny reviews and the incorporation of duties relating to equality and diversity. The Committee noted that the new format of the Terms of Reference would be replicated across both the formal committees of the Authority, and more widely across working groups and panels throughout the Service.

    Members agreed that the increased focus on equality and diversity reiterated the importance of the issues involved and affirmed the Authority's commitment to work at officer and Member level towards the promotion of equality.

    RESOLVED:

    That the revised Terms of Reference, subject to the substitution of the word "preparations" with the word "work" in Paragraph 2 bullet point 1 of the Terms of Reference be noted.

118 FLEET MAINTENANCE CENTRE PERFORMANCE SUMMARY FOR 2007/08


    The Committee considered the report of the Chief Officer (Item 6 in the Minute Book) summarising the performance of the Fleet Maintenance Centre between April 2007 and March 2008. The findings had been generally positive, with progress made and an increase in productivity equivalent to 1300 working hours, facilitated through the move to the new centre on the Headquarters site, as well as the introduction of several new policies aimed at developing and fostering best practice. More challenging targets had been set for a number of areas of work, with the result that some indicators that had previously exceeded targets, were not currently meeting the targets set. The volume of outside work carried out had been reduced to accommodate the disruption caused by moving site although, due to the facilities available on the new site, increased requests had been received from outside bodies, particularly for the testing and maintenance of ladders. Parts and supplies were identified as a significant budget pressure due to price rises resulting from increased demand, particularly increased global demand for resources such as oil and metal.

    Members thanked the staff of the Fleet Maintenance Centre for their hard work in improving productivity. Members agreed that a further report on productivity, as well as the introduction of a new software system for workshop management. Members noted the improvement to levels of staff sickness which, due to the small team working within the Centre, had a significant impact on workload.

    RESOLVED:

      (1) That the findings of the report are accepted and the improvement in the performance of the Fleet Maintenance Centre during 2007/08 is noted.

      (2) That a similar report is produced for the Performance Review and Scrutiny Committee for 2008/09

      (3) That an interim report on progress to reduced non-productive hours and on the implementation of a new computer system is produced for the Performance Review and Scrutiny Committee for later in the year.

119 BEST VALUE PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND LOCAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS


    The Committee considered the report of the Chief Officer (Item 7 in the Minute Book) highlighting performance indicator data for the fourth quarter of 2007/08. The Equality Standard (BV2a) had remained at level 2, with the increase to level 3 planned for December. This delay was to ensure that the level 3 rating would be robust and be able to stand up to internal and external scrutiny.

    Members noted that staff absence (BV12ii) due to sickness had improved, and was now below target, and were informed that a new working group had been established to find ways of reducing staff absence.

    Whilst there had been some progress in recruiting staff from ethnic minority communities (BV17a), the target was increasing at a faster rate than progress was being made to meet the target. Members noted that officers had carried out research on how organisations with higher levels of recruitment from minority groups, such as other Fire Authorities and the Police, to identify best practice in this area.

    The Committee was pleased to note the significant progress that had been made to reduce the number of primary fires (BV142ii), which highlighted the benefit of prevention activities such as education and Home Fire Safety Visits, although this was tempered by the increase in accidental fires (BV142iii), which reinforced the need to avoid complacency.

    Members noted that there had sadly been two fire deaths in the last quarter (BV143i), and that a new indicator had been proposed that would record all fire deaths which, in addition to deaths in accidental fires, would include arson, car fires and suicide.

    The indicators for arson (BV206i and BV206ii) highlighted the importance of the educational work carried out by the Authority to work to reduce and prevent arson.

    Whilst the target of reaching a response time of eight minutes in 80% of incidents (LPI20a) was not yet being achieved, Members were pleased to note that the average response time (LPI20b) was less than seven minutes.

    RESOLVED:

    That the performance of the Service be noted and that the strategies to meet the targets are endorsed.

120 PROGRESS REPORT ON ACTIONS TAKEN TO MEET THE RECOMMENDATIONS DETAILED IN THE REPORT OF THE BEST VALUE REVIEW OF SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS WITH HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

    Councillors R.J. Baulk, K.G. Chapman, L.T. Dunsdon and Sam Payne declared personal interests as Elected Members of Hampshire County Council.

    The Committee considered the report of the Chief Officer (Item 8 in the Minute Book) on the progress made in the review of Service Level Agreements. Good progress had been made, and the review was nearing completion, and benchmarking exercises would be carried out to compare the prices charged by Hampshire County Council to those charged by outside organisation. Similar exercises had been carried out in relation to some of the services provided by Property, Business and Regulatory Services, and had found that these services were provided at a lower cost to the Authority than comparable private sector services.

    RESOLVED:

    That the updated Action Plan be approved and that further updates on progress are received.

121 PROGRESS REPORT ON THE BEST VALUE REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

    The Committee considered the report of the Chief Officer (Item 9 in the Minute Book) on the progress made in the best value review of environmental impact. A variety of schemes had been introduced across the organisation, and had achieved significant positive results. Despite this, there was still work to be done, with continuing to increase staff environmental awareness highlighted as a key priority for future work. Once the Authority's carbon footprint had been calculated, it would be possible to set targets and highlight areas for reduction.

    The Committee thanked Eunice Mabey for her impressive work and the amount of progress made in a short timeframe.

    Members discussed possible considerations for the review, such as the use of renewable energy sources, including wind turbines and solar panels. It was agreed that it was important to bear in mind the environmental impact of incidents and that by preventing fire, the associated release of greenhouse gasses and other pollutants was also prevented.

    RESOLVED:

    That the progress to date be approved and that future updates are received.

122 MEASURES TO REDUCE FALSE ALARMS

    The Committee considered the report of the Chief Officer (Item 10 in the Minute Book) on measures introduced to reduce false alarms and the performance of the existing policy relating to False Alarm Malicious (FAM) calls. The FAM policy was introduced in 2005 to reduce the number of malicious false alarms received, and had had significant success through a policy of challenging suspected FAM calls in order to screen out FAM calls, resulting in savings due to reduced call outs, as well as ensuring staff and public safety due to fewer emergency callouts. This policy of challenging calls had been extended to Automatic Fire Alarms, and had had a major impact on the number of false alarms that resulted in an emergency callout.

    Members congratulated the staff involved for their success in achieving this reduction

    RESOLVED:

    That the report is noted, in particular the success of the challenge policies in producing significant cashable and non-cashable savings, and reducing risk to staff and the public.

123 CHANGE IN CREWING ARRANGEMENTS, ANDOVER FIRE STATION

    The Committee considered the report of the Chief Officer (Item 11 in the Minute Book) on the change in crewing arrangements at Andover fire station from day crewing to continuous crewing. This change had resulted in significant improvements in the service provided to Andover and the surrounding area, particularly in average response times, arson reduction/prevention and the number of Home Fire Safety Visits carried out, and had demonstrated the positive benefit of the change in crewing arrangements, particularly in an area that had been highlighted as at risk.

    RESOLVED:

    That the considerable improvements in service delivery that have resulted from the change in crewing arrangements be noted.