Meeting documents

To consider Item 7

The Head of Service Development advised Members that the Service had commissioned Operational Assurance Limited (OAL) to undertake an independent and in depth examination of the Authority’s operational delivery and internal operational assurance processes. This was undertaken in October 2016. After receiving OAL’s positive and constructive report, an action plan was put in place to address the thirty recommendations made. OAL were invited to return to carry out a ‘Check Point Review’ to assess the progress the Authority had made against their recommendations.

This report was provided by the Assurance Team from the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme (JESIP). The team visited the service in June 2017 and undertook a review of how we had implemented and developed joint interoperability with the other two blue light services.

(Councillor Teesdale joined the meeting)

David Cartwright, Chairman of Operational Assurance Limited (OAL) introduced himself and the company and Garry Jones Lead Auditor, gave Members a brief overview of the report.

Garry Jones advised Members that in October 2016 the initial team had come in, and an in depth review was undertaken of the arrangements for providing operational assurance. The review considered the application of a newly developed operational assurance model and examined two core areas: incident command and operational training. As an outcome of that review, 30 recommendations were identified of which 26 were agreed with officers. In November 2017 OAL returned to review the progress that had been made in the implementation of those recommendations. OAL’s conclusion from the Checkpoint Review was extremely positive. It had been identified that an impressive array of work had been undertaken by the service and virtually all the recommendations had been subject to significant progression.  In particular, the three key areas that had been identified as being priority recommendations had received substantial attention.

A Member asked if OAL had examined collaborative cross border working and was advised that this was not a specific part of the review, but while OAL were here they attended a cross border incident which was attended by supporting services and the interaction between the officers was observed.

The Head of Service Delivery advised Members that the review focussed on the governance of operational assurance and an Operational Assurance Group was set up within the service and following on from the work done by OAL, monitoring officers attend incidents and monitor performance, especially if there were crews from other services attending.

A Member asked if the Authority’s inspection was not until Spring/Summer 2019, how the service would maintain momentum and was advised that the Operational Assurance Group had been set up along with an operational assurance plan. This was a dynamic live document where completed activities would be removed and archived and new activities introduced. The Authority was also in the process of procuring a service that would deliver a three year plan of external independent scrutiny of operations to ensure operational excellence, not just for inspection, but for the long term.

A Member asked if OAL’s reports on other fire and rescue services were in the public domain so that he might read them and was advised that the reports produced were the property of the individual service and it was for them to decide if they wanted to publish the report or not.

RESOLVED –

1.            That the content of both the OAL ‘Checkpoint’ review and JESIP Assurance visit report be noted.

2.            That the progress made against each improvement recommendation detailed within the update OAIP, be noted.