Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed members to the meeting.

Apologies were received from Mark Hardingham, NFCC Chair. CFO Phil Garrigan deputised.

There were no declarations of interest.

Jonny Bugg, Head of Home Office Fire Strategy and Reform Unit, to attend.

The Chair invited Jonny Bugg (JB), Head of Home Office Fire Strategy and Reform Unit, and Stuart Harwood, Home Office Head of Governance, to give a presentation on the White Paper.

JB set out the Government’s case for the reforms proposed in the White Paper, with Covid 19, HMICFRS inspection reports and the Grenfell Tower and Manchester Arena disasters all highlighting the need for change in how FRSs are run. JB briefly ran through some of the proposals in the White Paper under 3 headings:

1)    Professionalism

·       Establishing an independent College of Fire & Rescue

·       Introducing minimum entry requirements and development schemes

·       A mandatory 21^st Century leadership programme

2)    People

·       Carrying out a review of the pay structure

·       Defining the role of a firefighter

·       Unlocking talent and diversity

·       Developing a firefighter’s oath

3)    Governance

·       Transferring FRA functions to a single elected (ideally directly-elected) individual

·       Introducing operational independence for CFOs

·       Separating strategic Fire and Rescue Plans from operational Independent Risk Management Plans.

JB stressed that the Home Office was keen to work closely with local areas, particularly around governance reform, to try and come up with solutions that were acceptable to all parties. He encouraged members to respond to the consultation which would be running until 26 July. Regional roadshows would also be organised.

Lucy Ellender (LE), LGA Senior Adviser, expanded upon the proposed governance changes and their implications for FRAs and highlighted the table in the White Paper on potential demarcation of responsibilities between the political (executive) leader and the Chief Fire Officer (CFO). LE explained that the White Paper poses the question of whether, apart from combined authority mayors and PCCs, there is anyone else who fire governance could be transferred to that would fit the Government’s vision. The LGA had done some preliminary work on what could be possible within the current framework of Combined Fire Authorities (CFAs) and had sought legal advice. This would be brought to the Fire Commission on 10 June for further discussion.

The Chair urged any members/FRAs submitting responses to the consultation to copy in Lucy at the LGA so these could be taken into account in the LGA’s own response.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       Members agreed that it would be helpful for the LGA to share its work on alternative governance options at the Fire Commission.

·       Members welcomed the decision by the Minister not to include mandation of governance transfer to PCCs and/or Mayors in the White Paper but queried whether CFAs would be forced to adopt a new model. There was evidence from HMICFRS that CFAs were working well in many areas and so abolishing them was considered unnecessary. PCCs still had very little public recognition and turnout in PCC elections remained very low and so the value of transferring fire governance to them was a moot point. The link with the Levelling Up White Paper and its proposed expansion of the Mayoral model of local government was also discussed in relation to fire governance. Reservations were expressed about  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Emily McGuinness, LGA Local Government Support, to provide a verbal update

The Chair invited Emily McGuinness (EM) from the LGA Improvement Team, to introduce the update.

EM informed members that the LGA wanted to develop a sector-led improvement offer for FRAs and she was currently consulting members about what this should entail. She had received positive feedback at the Annual Fire Conference in Gateshead and had subsequently had constructive meetings with Simon Davis at the NFCC. EM stressed that there was currently no funding for delivering an SLI offer and so it would require Home Office funding in order to progress. Phil Garrigan, NFCC vice-Chair, welcomed the joint working with the LGA on this and stated that peer review and sharing best practice were crucial tools in bringing all services up to standard.

EM agreed to forward a presentation on to FSMC members which contained more information about the proposal.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       It was suggested that the sector was not generally good at sharing best practice and so this needed to be a key feature of the new offer. EM said that sharing best practice is an inherent part of the LGA’s improvement work and so this would be reflected in the fire offer.

·       Would both officers and members be involved in the improvement offer? EM said that this would depend on what aspect of the service was being looked at – e.g. governance would heavily involve members. EM agreed to circulate a couple of examples of previous peer review reports to give members an idea about what a new offer could look like.

Decision:

Fire Services Management Committee noted the update.

Actions:

EM to forward presentation and previous peer review reports to FSMC members.

The Chair invited Charles Loft (CL), Senior Adviser, to introduce the update.

CL highlighted two developments on the remediation front since the previous meeting:

1)    LGA was working with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) on identifying ‘missing’ buildings – buildings with interim measures in place where no application had been made to the Building Safety Fund.

2)    NFCC was carrying out a Medium Rise Risk Review - initially a desk-based review of buildings 11-18m with interim measures. Potentially 6-9,000 buildings will need remediation.

CL reported that the Building Safety Bill had now received Royal Assent. It was still not clear exactly how this would work in practice as the Government hadn’t as yet made the required funding available. The Fire Safety Act had also now commenced – Fire Risk Assessments would need to be reviewed using the new prioritisation tool. The majority of the Grenfell Inquiry phase 1 recommendations due to be implemented in January 2023.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       Clarification was sought on the implications of the Building Safety and Fire Safety Acts not aligning properly. CL explained that there was a danger that landlords would have to do a Fire Risk Assessment under the Fire Safety Act but which wouldn’t necessarily meet all the requirements of the Building Safety Act. In his view, this had not been adequately thought through.

·       Members queried whether the Joint Inspection Team was adequately resourced to carry out the work required. CL reported that it had recently received enough funding to triple the number of inspectors, which should enable activity to be ramped up.

·       Now that the two Acts had been passed, what should the LGA be concentrating its lobbying on? Mark Norris, LGA Principal Policy Adviser, said that there would be a significant amount of secondary legislation coming forward under the Building Safety Act giving more detail on how the new regime would work in practice, and the LGA would no doubt need to lobby on some of this.

Decision:

Fire Services Management Committee noted the update.

The Chair invited Phil Garrigan (PG), NFCC vice-Chair, to introduce the update.

PG highlighted the following points from the report:

·       The recent deployments and logistical support to the fire service in Ukraine.

·       The newly-appointed Chief Operating Officer, Susannah Hancock, who will be starting work on 4 July.

Decision:

Fire Services Management Committee noted the update.

The Chair invited Cllr Nick Chard and Phil Garrigan to introduce the update. Cllr Chard indicated that they were happy to take questions on the report.

Decision:

Fire Services Management Committee noted the update without discussion.

The Chair invited Lucy Ellender (LE), Senior Adviser, to introduce the update.

LE highlighted the current HMICFRS consultation on their criteria for the 3^rd round of FRS inspections and asked members to get in touch if they had any views. Due to the short deadline (6 June), a response would be agreed through the Lead Members.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       It was suggested that an additional meeting be held in the Autumn to do some broad horizon scanning of key issues affecting FRAs, such as senior staff retention and pensions. PG said that the NFCC had done some work around CFO turnover which he was happy to share. Members agreed that pensions was a key issue that needed to be resolved and any guidance that the LGA could provide FRAs with would be welcome. It was agreed to put this on the agenda of the next Lead Member meeting for further discussion.

·       A request was made for the LGA to look into how many of its member authorities had stopped paying travel expenses for members wanting to attend meetings in person now that hybrid options were provided. It was felt that members should not be discouraged from attending in person in this way.

Decision:

Fire Services Management Committee noted the update and agreed that Lead Members should look into holding a horizon scanning meeting later in the year.

Action:

Lead Members to sign off response to HMICFRS consultation.

Gill Gittins (GG), Senior Adviser (Workforce & Negotiations) and Claire Hey (CH), Senior Fire Pensions Adviser, provided members with a confidential update on workforce and pensions matters.

Decision:

Fire Services Management Committee noted the update.

Charles Loft, Senior Adviser, provided members with a confidential update on the latest situation with Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans and set out the LGA’s proposed response to the latest Government consultation.

Decision:

Fire Services Management Committee noted the update and endorsed the proposed response to the Home Office consultation.

The Chair invited Lucy Ellender and Gill Gittins to introduce the update.

LE reminded members that at the previous FSMC meeting they had agreed that the document should be split into two – a high-level strategic narrative and a more detailed research document. The document before members today for agreement was the strategic document. This was structured under 3 themes - Service Delivery; Leadership, People and Culture; and National Infrastructure and Support. Under each of these themes were a number of improvement objectives and what FRA/FRSs at local level and the partners at national level would do to achieve these. As well as the FSMC, the document would go to the NFCC and the National Employers (England) for agreement.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       Clarification was sought on the ambitions set out under theme 2, in particular how they related to potential changes to terms and conditions for employees. GG confirmed that these were broad ambitions and that if Fit for the Future was agreed, a process would need to begin to identify and negotiate any specific changes through the usual mechanisms. It could not mean CFOs would  be able to unilaterally change employment contracts.

Decision:

Fire Services Management Committee:

·       Approved the final draft of Fit for the Future

·       Agreed that the now approved Fit for the Future document could be published (which will be both as a document and online web content)

·       Agreed that communication of Fit for the Future by the partnership to the wider service and sector can begin.

·       Agreed that the partnership will continue to support implementation, keep the evidence base up to date and propose amendments to Fit for the Future if needed.

Decision:

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 March 2022 were agreed as an accurate record.