Agenda item

The Chair invited Mark Norris (MN), LGA Principal Policy Adviser, Alex Hill (AH), Portfolio Director HMICFRS, and Susannah Hancock (SH), COO NFCC, to introduce the item.

AH said that the HMICFRS culture spotlight report was produced on the back of 5 years of inspections where a number of problematic issues in FRSs had been reported, with a significant number of services requiring improvement in the ‘people’ pillar. He ran through some of the key findings from the spotlight report and the recommendations aimed at various organisations. Since publication, strong feedback had been received about the crucial importance of middle managers in transforming the culture of FRSs. Andy Cooke, Chief Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services, had recently written to services and relevant organisations explaining how the spotlight report’s recommendations would be monitored.

SH outlined how the NFCC was addressing the challenges around culture and inclusion in FRSs. This included a two-day culture conference out of which an action plan had been developed. Consultation with partners had taken place to get feedback on the action plan and the final version would be published in July. Some of the proposed actions were directly linked to HMICFRS recommendations in their report such as independent reporting lines, safeguarding measures and developing cultural dashboards with FRSs. An external advisory panel was being set up to provide advice and challenge on progress against the action plan. The NFCC’s People, Culture and Leadership Coordinating Committee, led by Oxfordshire CFO – Rob McDougall, is driving the work on culture and inclusion. Progress against the action plan would be published for transparency and accountability. The importance of working on the issues with all relevant partners, such as the LGA, HMICFRS, the Home Office and trade unions was stressed, and the Inclusive Fire Service Group would be key to achieving this.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       The focus on promising and innovative practice was welcomed.

·       Caution was expressed about the effectiveness of enhanced DBS checks in rooting out unacceptable behaviours. The picture was more complex than this. Jonny Bugg, Home Office, welcomed the Government’s proposed strengthening of DBS and vetting requirements and said that they would be a powerful new tool for FRSs.

·       It was considered important that the current focus on culture was not just a one-off effort, and positive practices needed to become embedded, which would take a lot of hard work from all partners.

·       Would the Home Office be providing any additional resources to enable FRSs to employ additional staff to tackle the deep-seated cultural issue identified by HMICFRS and others? This in the light of cuts to funding for FRSs in recent years. Jonny Bugg responded that the identified cultural problems had been around for many years and FRAs had the flexibility to allocate their resources where they saw fit. The Home Office had made significant contributions to the issue by funding both HMICFRS and NFCC programmes.

·       The specific challenges for on-call stations, particularly in smaller rural areas, were highlighted, and needed to be given greater prominence in the action plan given how widespread they are across the country.

·       The fire service could learn lessons from the police in terms of improving diversity and the joint inspectorate was also useful in this regard.

The Chair thanked everyone for their contributions and said that it was important that everyone took ownership of this issue if it were to be comprehensively addressed. Nobody should be a bystander and staff should be able to flag up unacceptable behaviour without fear of recrimination, in the knowledge that it will be acted upon.

Decision:

Fire Commission endorsed the revised next steps set out in paragraph 38 of the report.