Archived decisions

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority Item

11 February 2009

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]) Tel: 02380 626830

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 21 January 2009.

2

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2.1

That the content of this report be noted.

3

Charter for Elected Member Development

3.1

The SERMB Members received a presentation from Mark Palmer, Head of Improvement and Governance (South East Employers), on the South East Charter for Elected Member Development. The presentation outlined the Charter's aims and detailed the five stage process leading to achievement of the award.

3.2

At the HFRA meeting on 4 June 2008, Members supported the proposal to sign up to the South East Employers Charter for Elected Member Development and to work towards achieving the award in 2010. A further report was submitted to the Authority on 17 September 2008 where it was resolved that Members would undertake a self assessment questionnaire to support the analysis of Member development and the formulation of an action plan.

3.3

Hampshire is the first Authority within the South East region to sign up to the Charter and one of only six Fire Authorities across the country engaged in this development process.

4

Regional Control Centre (RCC) Update

4.1

Revised Cut Over Dates

In November 2008 CLG announced a delay to the implementation of the RCC project. The first three RCCs in the North East, East Midlands and South West are expected to cut over nine months later than previously planned, with Hampshire scheduled from February 2011.

Following the announcement, the SE Project Board put forward a proposal to CLG for Hampshire to cut over at the same time as West Sussex (June 2011) and agreement in principle has been received for this option to be further developed.

The SERMB members were advised by HFRS that whilst the proposal for Hampshire to align with West Sussex would create considerable advantages for the project and for staff, this would also result in a potential cost to HFRS.

4.2

Business Case

The Regional Project Team are in the process of collating comments from SE FRS to compile a regional response to Part Two of the FireControl Business Case: The National Case, published on 26 November 2008. The HFRA will be advised of both the regional and Authority's submission in due course.

4.3

Project Team

As reported to the Authority in December, the SERMB endorsed a proposal to create a Regional Project Director post. Board were advised that 14 applications had been received and following short listing, x applicants have been selected for interview on 9 February.

The project team are also in the process of recruiting a Project Support Assistant and a legal advisor to replace the current incumbent. The RCC project team is funded by "New Burdens" income provided to both the region and nine individual authorities in the south east.

4.4

RCC Client Liaison Group

Terms of Reference were circulated in respect of the newly established RCC Client Liaison Group. The group consists of a Chief Fire Officer representing each of the sub-regional clusters (Hampshire, Kent, Royal Berkshire and Surrey) together with the Chief Fire Officer from West Sussex in his role as advisor on FireControl to the RMB. Part of this group's remit is to provide the Officer interface between the LACC and the SE Regional Project during the transitional phase and to represent client interests in policy development, contract and performance management.

5

A Vision for Response Resilience at Regional Level

5.1

Improving regional resilience is vital to ensuring the safety of all communities in the south east. With the advent of the Regional Control Centre and the risk of large scale threats such as terrorism and climatic change, work is being carried out to identify areas where collaboration and standardisation will lead to improvements in service across the region.

As part of its commitment to the development of response resilience, Board were asked to approve a response resilience vision and endorse the seven key areas for regional collaboration and standardisation as listed below:

5.2

Vision:

`To provide modern, efficient fire and rescue services that continuously improve the safety and sustainability of the communities of the South East that we serve through greater collaboration, improved interoperability and where appropriate, the adoption of common approaches to emergency response procedures'.

5.3

Key areas for collaboration:

· Task analysis

· Premises risk assessment

· Relevant standard operating procedures

· Specific incident procedures (e.g. high-rise buildings)

· Collection of risk information and the provision of safety critical information to frontline incident commanders

· Standard templates and terminology regarding the attributes of our people and their skills, appliances and equipment

· Provision of breathing apparatus and other key equipment critical to firefighter safety.

6

Equality and Diversity Update

6.1

Equality and Diversity (E&D) has become a standing item on the SERMB agenda. The SERMB were provided with case studies of notable E&D practice taking place throughout the region and were updated on individual FRAs progress in meeting Level 3 of the Local Government Equality Standard.

6.2

On 20 November 2008, the government invited applications for the National Fire and Rescue Service Equality and Diversity Awards 2009. The aims of the scheme are to encourage the development and sharing of good practice, support the promotion of equality and diversity across the fire and rescue service, raise awareness about the issues and celebrate achievement.

6.3

The South East Fire Improvement Partnership (SEFIP) will be submitting an application on behalf of the SERMB within the category of `leadership', reflecting the important role of the Board in leading the equality and diversity agenda across the region.

6.4

As part of its commitment to meet the needs of all equality strands, the SERMB endorsed the development of a `virtual' network to support lesbian, gay, transsexual and bisexual staff (LGBT).

7

Progress against the Plan

7.1

The Board considered a progress report for the period October to December 2008 against each of the workstreams in the Regional Business Plan. In general it was noted that good progress had been made across the workstreams, but that some project slippage had occurred. The following key points were highlighted:

7.1.1

Community Safety

Work to promote the benefits of water suppression systems is continuing with two seminars being developed to take place in the new financial year.

7.1.2

As part of the Comprehensive Area Assessment for 2009 a `Place Survey' will be carried out to seek residents' views in relation to the service provided by local government. SERMB were advised that the survey would provide minimal intelligence to FRAs as it contained only one fire related question. To provide more meaningful data, SEFIP have contracted Opinion Research Services to survey residents across the south east to ascertain satisfaction levels with the Fire Service. The results will be analysed against `Mosaic', a lifestyle data software program, to further support intelligence maintained within each individual Authority.

7.1.3

Response and Resilience

SE FRAs have contributed to the development of a draft framework which will provide a consistent approach to premises risk management.

7.1.4

Improvement

The SERMB approved the region's submission to the consultation on the Operational Assessment process and toolkit (attached as Appendix 1). SEFIP have been working with the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) to develop a cohort of accredited peer reviewers to conduct peer reviews within the region. The response seeks to raise concerns with the Audit Commission over their proposal that peer reviewers will be prohibited from conducting any work within their "Home" region.

7.1.5

Procurement

The first meeting of the South East Regional Strategic Procurement Advisory Forum took place in October. At that meeting business cases for the following projects were approved:

- Regional Procurement Portal

- Regional standardisation of appliances/equipment and regional mini-tender

- Regional BTEC management training, water rescue and investigative training tender/contracts

7.1.6

A report for potential shared service arrangements was circulated to Officers within the south east summarising the vision, scope and areas identified for shared service or greater collaboration.

Savings are beginning to be realised by FRAs for regional collaborative activity and an updated position for the year end will be presented to the SERMB in April.

8

Equality Impact Assessment

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.

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 21 January 2009.

http://www.sefip.gov.uk/resources.shtml#8