Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed members to the meeting. He introduced the new FSMC Equalities Advocate – Cllr Jane Hugo - and paid tribute to Cllr Keith Aspden (who was standing down as a councillor at the May 2023 elections) for all his work on the Committee as Lead Member for the Liberal Democrat group.

Apologies were received from Fiona Twycross, Cllr Roger Price and Cllr Darren O’Donovan. Cllr Les Byrom was substituting for Fiona Twycross.

The minutes of the meeting held on 9 December 2022 were agreed as an accurate record.

The Chair invited Mark Norris (MN), Principal Policy Adviser, to introduce the report.

MN set out some of the recent issues and incidents which had shone a light on culture within a number of Fire & Rescue Services (FRS) in England and Wales. The importance of the LGA continuing to work jointly with the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) on addressing the challenges was stressed. Comments were invited from members on the proposed next steps and future actions outlined in paragraph 35.

Cllr Jane Hugo, FSMC Equalities Advocate, stated that there was plenty of best practice and skills/expertise both within and outside the sector that could be shared, and stressed the importance of all partners working together to address the worrying situation.

Mark Hardingham (MH), NFCC Chair, stated that FRSs were not yet as diverse as they should be and, although there had been progress in recent years, e.g. through establishing a Core Code of Ethics and the Fire Standards Board, there was much work still to be done. The current situation represented a failure of leadership within the sector and the challenge of addressing it ranked alongside the responses to Grenfell and Manchester Arena. MH outlined some of the measures being taken by the NFCC, including internal restructuring and establishing an external advisory group. Finally, it was important to link this into the wider fire reform agenda currently being taken forward by the Home Office.

Alex Hill, HMICFRS, reiterated that their inspection process had highlighted the fact that the people pillar was the one area that FRSs struggled with more than any other. HMICFRS was currently producing a ‘spotlight’ report on this issue which could feed into the wider work to address the problems. HMICFRS was also learning and adapting its inspection process in the light of emerging incidents and also using learning from recent experiences in police services.

Jonny Bugg (JB), Head of Fire Strategy and Reform Unit, Home Office, stated that this was a key issue of concern for the Minister, and the Home Office response to the Fire Reform White Paper would likely contain more about improving values and ethics. A 4^th session Bill in Parliament was still on course. He reported that later in the Spring, the vetting system for FRS employees would be upgraded to move it in line with other public-facing professions. The vital importance of maintaining the trust and confidence of the public was emphasised

Members’ comments and questions:

·       Whilst there were 20 out of the 44 FRSs that HMICFRS had identified as requiring improvement on EDI issues, it should not be forgotten that 24 were performing well and there was plenty of good practice that could be used to support the 20. The LGA’s sector-led support offer was highlighted as a means of helping FRAs and it was suggested that there would be benefits of jointly delivering this with the NFCC

·       Support and training for EDI champions and other FRA members was requested to enable proper scrutiny of senior officers. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Richard Fowler – Head of Service Delivery and Improvement, NFCC, to attend

The Chair invited Richard Fowler (RF), Head of Service Delivery and Improvement NFCC, to introduce the update.

RF reminded members of the background and context to the establishment of the new Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and how it would be operating, with 9 regional teams and MoUs with individual FRSs, with work carried out on a recharge basis.

RF then outlined current concerns with the new system – (i) recruitment and retention of sufficient FRS staff; (ii) availability of training providers; (iii) sufficiency of funding to resource the required work; (iv) HSE stating that inspection of existing buildings will be the exception, not the norm; (v) definition of a building in multi-occupancy spaces.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       Allowing developers to employ their own building control officers was considered to be a mistake. Suggestion that recruiting ‘clerks of works’ roles could provide an additional layer of security. RF said that monitoring of building works should step up under the new system, albeit not necessarily under a clerk of works

·       Could the LGA provide support to FRSs on charging for their work, utilising experience of councils in this area?

·       Concern was expressed that funding from FRSs would get diverted into BSR activity and away from day to day fire service activities

·       Further clarity was sought on the MoUs and when these would be available for FRAs to see and comment on? RF confirmed that MoUs were being prepared between the 9 regional teams and their constituent FRSs and would be available shortly

·       Charles Loft, Senior Adviser, added that the LGA’s Grenfell Working Group was meeting later in the week and would be discussing writing a letter to the Minister on the concerns around the definition of a building. It was agreed that the FSMC Chair should add his signature to this letter.

Decision:

·       Fire Services Management Committee noted the update.

Alex Hill, HMICFRS, to attend

The Chair invited Alex Hill (AH), HMICFRS, to introduce the update.

AH reported on the recently published State of Fire & Rescue report (the first by new HMI, Andy Cooke), the final tranche of round 2 inspections and plans for the forthcoming round 3 inspections. The key points were as follows:

·       An ongoing call for reform in the State of Fire & Rescue report – of the 6 national recommendations, only 2 had so far been implemented

·       The importance of the inspection process in driving sustained improvement in services was emphasised

·       For round 3, inspections would be in small batches, rather than larger tranches, to enable services to receive their reports in a more timely fashion. In addition, there would no longer be ‘pillar’ judgements and a 5^th grade – ‘adequate’ – was being introduced. An innovative / promising practice section would be added to reports in order to help promote positive good practice

·       Overall, the results from tranche 3 had been good although there were 4 new causes for concern

·       Fire protection and risk planning had improved significantly

·       Many services were still not prioritising prevention activity sufficiently and almost half of services were below ‘good’

·       Responses to routine and major incidents remained excellent

·       Performance on efficiency varied considerably across services with appropriate allocation of resources against risk being a particular concern

·       Performance across the people pillar remained worrying with 26 services requiring improvement. An Engage process had been set up with a Fire Performance Oversight Group (FPOG) established. Two services had entered this process on the back of serious concerns around culture

Decision:

·       Fire Services Management Committee noted the update.

The Chair invited Rebecca Johnson (RJ), adviser, to introduce the update

RJ advised members that the full final conference agenda was now on the website. The Minister would now be joining the conference plenary session online rather than in person. The improvement workshop had had to be withdrawn due to speaker availability but there were still 4 other workshops to choose from. Over 180 delegates had signed up for the conference.

Decision:

·       Fire Services Management Committee noted the update.

The Chair invited Sarah Ward (SW), Principal Adviser, Workforce, and Claire Hey (CH), Senior Pensions Adviser, to introduce the update.

CH provided members with 2 updates since the report had been submitted:

1)    The Home Office had just launched a consultation on the changes needed to the pension scheme regulations to implement the retrospective part of the age discrimination remedy. Officers were currently working through this substantial document and would report back to members. Deadline for submission – 23 May 2023

2)    The Department for Work and Pensions had recently reset pensions dashboard activity, with a new later connection deadline to be agreed.

SW ran through the pay claims for green, grey and gold book staff as set out in paragraphs 37-48 of the report. Subsequent to the update being sent out, the FBU had just announced that their members had voted to accept the National Employers grey book offer, which had averted strike action by firefighters.

SW highlighted the workshop on the Core Code of Ethics that would be taking place the following day as part of the LGA Fire Conference. She also referred to the work of the Inclusive Fire Service Group and tie in with the Committee’s previous discussion on culture in the fire and rescue service.

Finally, SW highlighted the LGA’s proposed approach to responding to the Home Office’s Minimum Service Levels consultation for Fire & Rescue staff, as set out in paragraph 58 of the report.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       Cllr Chard, as Chair of the Employer’s Side, NJC for LAFRS, thanked the workforce team officers for all their hard work and support in relation to all the recent pay claims. This was echoed by the FSMC Chair.

·       The Chair informed members that this was CH’s final FSMC meeting before taking up a new role and put on record the Committee’s gratitude for all her hard work and support over the years of her employment at the LGA.

Decision:

·       Fire Services Management Committee noted the update and endorsed the proposed approach to responding to the Home Office Minimum Service Levels consultation set out in paragraph 58 of the report.

The Chair invited Marshall Scott (MS), NGDP Graduate, to introduce the update.

MS drew the following points from the report to members attention:

·       Latest DLUHC figures on remediation showed a marginal improvement

·       Officers continued to promote the work of the Joint Inspection Team

·       Ongoing concerns over the establishment of the new BSR (as discussed in item 4)

·       The HSE had just launched its ‘Be Ready’ campaign

·       The LGA had been finalising its response to the DLUHC consultation on proposed changes to Approved Document B

·       The LGA’s improvement work had been progressing well

Decision:

·       Fire Services Management Committee noted the update.

The Chair invited MH to introduce the update. MH indicated that he was happy for the report to be taken as read and to take questions as required.

Decision:

Fire Services Management Committee noted the update without discussion.

The Chair invited Cllr Nick Chard, the LGA’s representative on the FSB, to introduce the update.

Cllr Chard highlighted the conference plenary session on Fire Standards and encouraged members to attend to gain a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities as FRAs in relation to the Standards. Jonny Bugg reiterated the importance of the new Leadership and People Standards in helping to address the challenges highlighted in previous conversations on culture in the fire service.

Decision:

·       Fire Services Management Committee noted the update.

The Chair invited RJ to introduce the update.

RJ highlighted the upcoming Leadership Essentials course and thanked members for publicising this through their networks. The next meeting of the LGA’s EDI Network would also be taking place on 22 March.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       A further update on the ESMCP programme was requested for a future meeting

Decision:

·       Fire Services Management Committee noted the update.

Action:

·       Officers to schedule item on ESMCP at next FSMC meeting