The Chair welcomed members to the meeting.

Apologies were received from: Cllrs John Briggs, Linda Taylor, Steven Lambert, Amanda Peers, Carolyn Lambert, Lesley Rennie, Janet Willis, James Doyle, Frank Biederman, Trevor Ainsworth, Tudor Davies, Morris Bright and Simon Coles.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2021 were agreed as an accurate record.

The Chair invited Anjli Mapara (AM) - Deputy Head of Fire Strategy & Reform Unit and Stuart Harwood (SH) – Head of Governance, from the Home Office to give a presentation on the White Paper.

AM 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. The proposals in the White Paper were 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.

AM stressed that the Home Office was keen to have conversations with local areas, particularly around governance reform, to try and come up with solutions that were acceptable to all parties. She encouraged members to respond to the consultation which would be running until 26 July.

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). Feedback was requested from members on the two possible alternative governance arrangements proposed in the covering report.

Members’ comments and questions:

·         Members welcomed the Government’s commitment to improving fire and rescue services through the White Paper although it was suggested that they needed to be clearer about exactly what outcomes they wanted from the process.

·         Members felt very strongly that it should be up to local areas to determine the governance arrangements that best suited their individual circumstances, not for central Government to dictate. The rationale for changing governance of FRAs was queried and whether enforced changes would actually improve service delivery. Putting power in the hands of one individual would reduce accountability and scrutiny, and valuable local expertise in FRAs would be lost. It was considered that there were a number of other more pressing issues, such as pensions, recruitment/retention of senior officers and diversity and inclusion that needed to be resolved and would have a much greater impact on improving services. None of this was addressed in the White Paper. Members queried what the process would be, should there be disagreement between central and local government in a particular area. AM confirmed that this process had not yet been determined but reiterated that the Minister’s preference remained for a single directly-elected individual to take on governance. Members agreed that the two alternative options put forward by the LGA in the report should be worked up and put forward in the consultation response.

·         A Mayoral governance model could be made to work  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

CFO Ben Ansell, Dorset & Wiltshire FRS and Mark Hemming, Buckinghamshire FRS, to attend.

The Chair invited Mark Hemming (MH), Buckinghamshire FRS and CFO Ben Ansell (BA), Dorset & Wiltshire FRS to introduce the report.

BA reminded members that it was currently year 1 of a 3-year Spending Review settlement from Government although services had only been provided with year 1 figures. The local government finance settlement for 2022-23 contained mixed news. Whilst giving the lowest 8 council tax FRAs the ability to raise their council tax precept by £5 was welcome, it was disappointing that this, or increased flexibility, was not extended to other FRAs. Whilst discussions with the Home Office were ongoing, it was unlikely that there would be any changes to the fire funding formula before 2025 at the earliest. It was therefore important for both the NFCC and the LGA to continue to lobby both DLUHC and the Treasury for greater flexibility around the council tax precept.

MH reminded members of the commitments made around efficiency and productivity (and the Forum established to help deliver these) as part of the Spending Review submission. The biggest challenge was around data collection and a standardised efficiency plan template was therefore being worked up through the Fire Finance Network. This would enable services to demonstrate efficiency gains and to aggregate these up nationally.  MH explained that a full-blown submission to Home Office would not be required this year but several key issues such as pay awards, pensions and inflation would be highlighted to Government in terms of their impact on FRA finances. In particular, research was being carried out into the impacts of the rapidly increasing energy costs for FRAs.

Members’ comments and questions:

·         Members agreed that the current joint working arrangements with the NFCC on finance had been very helpful and should continue.

·         Members felt it would be helpful if a projection of the various expected cost increases could be made for individual FRAs in order to help with budgeting, as well as lobbying. BA said that additional in-year funding was not expected and so FRAs would have to continue to plan within their current budgets. MH added that individual FRAs were being surveyed around increased costs and this would be aggregated nationally to try and produce a range of inflation scenarios to help FRAs plan ahead.

·         It was considered important to distinguish between genuine efficiencies and cuts to services that would damage outcomes for residents.

Decision:

Fire Commission noted the previous work of the NFCC and LGA and endorsed continued joint working on lobbying for sustainable funding for the sector.

The Chair invited Georgia Goddard (GG) – NGDP Graduate, to introduce the update.

GG took members through some of the key points from the update paper:

·         Discussions taking place with DLUHC and NFCC to support a coordinated risk audit within medium-rise residential buildings

·         The Joint Inspection Team has secured funding for the next two years which will see it triple in capacity by the end of this financial year

·         The Building Safety Act has now received Royal Assent but there will be a significant number of pieces of secondary legislation needed in order to set up the new Building Safety Regime. The LGA’s outstanding concerns were set out, in particular, a lack of Government funding to achieve desired outcomes.

·         Fire Safety Act and a number of Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase 1 recommendations had now commenced.

·         The Government had just published the consultation outcome on the review of the ban on the use of combustible materials in and on the external walls of buildings alongside updated guidance to fire safety and building regulations.

·         The Government had also published a third consultation on PEEPs, containing new proposals, including a proposal called Emergency Evacuation Information Sharing. Fire Services Management Committee had agreed that the LGA should not support the proposals in the consultation as they don’t require the responsible person in a building with simultaneous evacuation to have a plan on how a resident with a disability would evacuate in the event of a fire. The LGA’s view was that such a policy would be unlawful under the Equalities Act if adopted by local authorities.

Members’ comments and questions:

·         Concerns were raised over the Government’s latest proposals on disabled residents in high rise blocks. Charles Loft, Senior Adviser, welcomed the establishment of a working group with residents and landlords to look in more detail at the issues but warned that it was not sustainable for the Government to effectively transfer responsibility from the duty-holder to the fire service for ensuring the safety of disabled residents in blocks with Simultaneous Evacuation.

Decision:

Fire Commission noted and endorsed the LGA’s building safety related work.

The Chair invited Mark Hardingham, NFCC Chair, to introduce the update.

MH passed on his thanks to colleagues who had facilitated the deployment of three convoys of UK fire service kit and equipment to Ukraine over the last two months, providing vital life-saving equipment to firefighters there. The Fire Commission Chair also recorded his appreciation for those firefighters.

Decision:

Fire Commission noted the update.

The Chair invited Cllr Nick Chard to introduce the update.

Cllr Chard highlighted and welcomed the new Leadership Standard which was going out to consultation.

Decision:

Fire Commission noted the update.

The Chair invited Lucy Ellender (LE), Senior Adviser, to introduce the update. LE indicated that she was happy to take questions on the report.

Decision:

Fire Commission noted the update without discussion.

The Chair invited Gill Gittins (GG), Senior Adviser (workforce and negotiations), to introduce the update. GG indicated that she was happy to take questions on the report.

Decision:

Fire Commission noted the update without discussion.