Archived decisions

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority Item 13

10 December 2008

Error! Bookmark not defined.South East Fire and Rescue Services Regional Management Board - Update

Report by the Chief Officer

Contact: John Bonney - Chief Officer ([email protected])

1

Summary

1.1

This report outlines the key issues arising from the South East Fire and Rescue Services' Regional Management Board (SERMB) meeting held on Wednesday 8 October 2008.

2

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2.1

That the contents of this report be noted.

3

Presentation by Firebuy

3.1

Terry Brewer, Chief Executive Officer, gave a presentation detailing work currently being undertaken by Firebuy. The presentation provided details about the changing structure of Firebuy, key areas in procurement delivery (FireCat, respiratory protective equipment, telecoms and insurance) and contracts and relationship management (including the long term capability management of new dimensions assets) and the Integrated Clothing Project (ICP).

4

Regional Control Centre Project Director

4.1

As Members will be aware, a significant amount of work is being undertaken to manage the transition to a South East Regional Control Centre and implement both the Firelink and Incident Recording System projects. Since the establishment of the Regional Management Board the work area lead for the Regional Control Centre and Firelink projects in the South East has fallen to West Sussex. The officer advisor to the Member representative is the Chief Fire Officer of West Sussex who also fulfils a project director's role by acting as the main conduit between the south east project team for FiReControl/Firelink and its regional and national stakeholders. Following the announcement of the current postholder's retirement as Chief Fire Officer in December, Chief Fire Officers in the South East recognised the need for succession planning and revised management arrangements.

4.2

The SERMB endorsed a proposal to create a Regional Project Director post and it was resolved that:

· The selection process detailed within the report be adopted with the addition that a Member from the SERMB forms part of the selection panel (The Chair in the first instance and if not available, the Vice Chair will assume the role).

· Authority would be given to the selection board to adjust arrangements in light of candidate interest and market circumstances.

· The employment of the Project Director would remain with West Sussex as the Regional Management Board work area lead on the Regional Control Centre.

5

LACC/RMB Decision Governance for the Regional Control Centre

5.1

As we move towards implementation of the Regional Control Centre, a number of strategic corporate decisions will need to be taken. Due to the unusual governance circumstances surrounding the projects it was felt that greater clarity was required in determining which `Board' (RMB/LACC) should be approached for approval. As such the following model was proposed and agreed by the SERMB for adoption.

Web link: http://www.sefip.gov.uk/viewDocument.jsp?document=778

5.2

The RCC project naturally divides itself into three distinct areas of operation; existing arrangements, transitional arrangements and a final or `ready state'. In line with this model it was agreed that the SERMB would take responsibility for existing and transitional arrangements, whilst the LACC will be responsible for decisions on the way the service is provided post RCC `go live'. It will become the Project Director's responsibility to determine the most appropriate forum for decision making and make the necessary arrangements.

5.3

To add further clarity during this transitional process, the SERMB agreed to the formation of a `South East User/Customer Liaison' group comprising representatives from; Surrey, West Sussex, Kent, Royal Berkshire and Hampshire, to take responsibility for the monitoring of the practical delivery of the service to fire and rescue authorities.

6

Equality and Diversity Update

6.1

Doug Feery, Regional Associate of the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), provided a presentation which updated members on progress against the Local Government Equality Standard across all nine fire and rescue services. This was accompanied by a report put forward by Buckinghamshire FRS which summarised the actions taken across the region to address the Board's aspiration of all south east fire and rescue services achieving Level 3 of the Equality Standard by December 2008 (SERMB Business Plan 2007/10).

6.2

The South East Fire Improvement Partnership (SEFIP) commissioned a series of diagnostic assessments to assess each Authority's position in relation to the standard. This was followed by a series of support events designed to assist all FRAs to progress towards Level 3. Doug Feery referred to the south east region's approach to the equality and diversity agenda as an exemplar and suggested that consideration be given to how the project could be shared across the country.

6.3

It was noted that there was excellent leadership of the diversity agenda at both Member and Chief Officer level. However it was recognised that further support was required from external agencies to continue to embed equality at the heart of the service delivered by FRAs to the public. The SERMB therefore endorsed the recommendation to develop a new contract of support for equality and diversity issues with an appropriate supplier in consultation with the SEFIP stakeholder group and Chief Fire Officers. Funding will continue to be made available from the SEFIP.

6.4

Following advice received by the Regional Associate (IDeA), it was resolved that a revised target of all fire and rescue services achieving Level 3 by March 2011 be adopted. As Members will be aware, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service received confirmation that it had reached Level 3 of the Equality Standard for Local Government following an external assessment carried out on 24 and 25 November.

7

Consultation on the Draft National Procurement Strategy for Fire and Rescue 2008/11

7.1

It was resolved that a regional response to the draft National Procurement Strategy would be formulated. This is based upon key issues identified within the south east fire and rescue service's individual responses (a copy is attached as appendix A).

8

Progress Against the Plan

8.1

The Board considered a progress report against each of the workstreams in the Regional Business Plan for 2008/11:

8.2

· Community Safety - work on an evaluation toolkit for community safety activities has concluded. This tool will be useful in determining future use of resources and demonstrating value for money.

Improvement and Efficiency South East (IESE) has committed £60k for an innovative survey using Experian's Mosaic lifestyle software tool to provide data from a regional survey giving robust information within an area of a fire and rescue service. This development is timely as it coincides with CLG Circulars which assert that fire safety messages should be tailored to the issues of concern for each section of the community and supports work being undertaken by HFRS using intelligence to identify `at risk' groups.

8.3

· Human Resources - two successful recent events were noted which were hosted by HFRS; a water rescue seminar and `Equality in the Dock'.

Work is developing on a recruitment portal for the first stage of firefighter recruitment. A website has been developed to manage firefighter recruitment in a much more efficient way by reducing expenditure and officer time used in the process.

8.4

· Improvement - Following successful lobbying by the Chairman of the Improvement work area, fire now have a seat on the Chief Executive's Group which support the Improvement and Efficiency South East Members' Board. It is likely that the CFO of Kent will become the representative at this group. Fire and Rescue will also become a member of the performance improvement group which controls allocations of capacity building funding. The representative at this group will become the CFO of Isle of Wight.

8.5

· Resilience - Work is being undertaken to develop a `vision' for regional resilience to support the transfer to the RCC and deal with issues such as interoperability. A draft vision document will be presented to the SERMB in January 2009.

Members will recall that the SERMB agreed a business continuity framework at its meeting in April. Since then British Standard 25999 for Business Continuity has been published. Work will therefore be undertaken to revisit the Framework to ensure that the principles of BS25999 are included. Work to develop common standard operating procedures continues.

8.6

· Procurement - The first SE Regional Shared Workshop took place on 1 August. The purpose of this first meeting was to identify the scope of shared services. A report from this workshop and a subsequent meeting will be presented to CFOs for a decision to be taken on how to move the project forward.

8.7

· Regional Control Centre and Firelink - until detailed information from CLG is made available, the project team will continue to monitor and ensure consistency of FRS data migration work. The Firelink project is progressing with all control room installations complete.

Members discussed the formulation of a response to the RCC Business Case part two. It was agreed that each FRA would seek the views of its Members before a final submission be made. Hampshire's contribution was submitted following consultation with CMT members.

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

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:

· Agenda, reports and draft minutes of the South East Fire and Rescue Services Regional Management Board meeting held 8 October 2008.

http://www.sefip.gov.uk/resources.shtml#9