Agenda and minutes

To approve, and sign as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Fire Authority held on 12 October 2022 (item 2)

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Fire Authority held on 12 October 2022, be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

The Chairman to invite officers to provide verbal updates on any actions noted in the Minutes from the previous meeting.

FA26 - The Director of Legal and Governance advised that a Member had asked if there was any promotional material that could be made available to Members of the Authority to raise awareness of the risks of various heating materials during the winter months and had been advised that the information had been circulated to the Member who had requested it.

FA27 – The Director of Legal and Governance advised that where the Authority approved the Safety Centre Funding Agreement, the Chairman had requested a visit be organised for Members of the Authority after the February Fire Authority Meeting which was being held in Milton Keynes Council Chambers. An invitation had been sent to Members and additional information would be provided nearer the time.

FA28 – The Director of Legal and Governance advised that a Member had raised concerns about the condition of High Wycombe fire station and he understood that the Deputy Director of Finance and Assets and the Lead Member for Finance and Assets, Information Security and IT visited the station yesterday and the Lead Member would give an update.

The Lead Member for Finance and Assets, Information Security and IT advised Members that it was a very productive visit, they undertook a full tour of every room in the station. There was already in place prior to the question being raised at the last meeting, a plan to significantly improve the facilities. The majority of the improvements would be completed by March 2023 and he would return at the end of March to make sure the improvements had been completed on time.

(Councillor Darlington joined the meeting)

Members to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests they may have in any matter being considered which are not entered onto the Authority’s Register, and officers to disclose any interests they may have in any contract to be considered.

None.

To receive the Chairman’s announcements (if any).

The Chairman announced that the Chairman’s Announcements below had already been circulated, but he wanted to firstly congratulate the Members from Milton Keynes on receiving their letters patent, and also draw attention to the item on the independent review of culture at London Fire Brigade. As he was sure all Members would agree, it was a difficult report to read, with some quite shocking accounts. In the Chairman’s Announcements it set out the steps the Chairman had asked the Chief Fire Officer and senior management team to take, to enable Members of the Authority to gain assurance that there were not similar issues with the culture in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.

The Chief Fire Officer echoed what the Chairman had said about not being complacent about our own culture. Members of staff were being encouraged to come forward if they had any complaints or thoughts about the process. The Service already held staff surveys, but these would be increased in the coming years, if a budget bid was successful. The ED&I group would be looking at the recommendations in the report and working through the implications. There was also a Leadership day to talk to managers in the service about the report and the next steps. The day after the report was released, the Chief Fire Officer produced a VLOG which had gone out to all members of staff.

Knife Angel

The National Monument Against Violence and Aggression will be in Milton Keynes from 3 December 2022 to 7 January 2023 and the Safety Centre is one of the three major partners involved in the thirty days of action, starting with the opening ceremony. Staff and volunteers from the Safety Centre will be delivering a wide-reaching program of knife crime education to coincide with the Knife Angel being in Milton Keynes before it moves on to Slough in the New Year.

Annual Service of Remembrance

Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Ceremonial team, and colleagues from Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service recently travelled to the Belgium town of Ypres for the annual service of Remembrance. Each year on Armistice Day, a large parade is held through the town, where military personnel, cadet forces, and fire services from the UK all join to remember those lost during the First World War, and subsequent conflicts. Closer to home, many staff represented the Service at Remembrance events held in our towns and villages, and in the City of Milton Keynes. Group Commander Shaun Cunningham also represented BFRS at the Cenotaph in London, where the Remembrance Sunday commemorations were led for the first time by our new King.

Letter Patent MK

On 15 August 2022, the Crown Office announced that the Queen had ordained by letters patent that the (then) Borough of Milton Keynes should have city status. On 18 October 2022, members of the senior management team attended the Civic Offices of Milton Keynes to witness the Lord Lieutenant issuing the Mayor with their official City Status, which was a fantastic and historic  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To receive a verbal update

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that Members would be aware of the tragic events that occurred on the 22 May 2017 when an attack took place at the Manchester Arena. A suicide bomber detonated his device in a publicly assessable area, adjacent to the arena bowl, as a concert by the singer Ariana Grande came to an end. The bomb killed 22 people who had attended the concert, or were waiting outside for those who had, and injured many more.

Following these tragic events, an independent public inquiry was established by the Home Secretary, on 22 October 2019, to investigate the deaths of the victims of the Arena attack. Thit was chaired by The Honourable Sir John Saunders.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised Members that Volume 2 of the public inquiry report was published on 3 November 2022 and covered the emergency response element. Volume 1 covered Security for the Arena which was published previously in June 2021.

A number of recommendations had been made following the issues around the emergency response on the night. Many of the Volume 2 recommendations were in respect of national learning for police, ambulance, fire services and wider partners to consider, and to be considered by a number of bodies including the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE), His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), National Operational Learning (NOL) and Joint Operational Learning (JOL) and wider partners.

There were also specific recommendations made in respect of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service and Northwest Fire Control as well as for Local Resilience Forums.

Any national learning would feed back through the National Operations Committee and via the Local Resilience Forums structure of which the Service was embedded at all levels, and was well sighted and involved from both a strategic and operational perspective in respect of any national on more local changes.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised Members that there was an existing National Co-ordination and Advisory Framework for the Fire Service in England that supports fire and rescue services in dealing with major incidents. Within this framework, there were a number of National Resilience capabilities forged to deal with large scale incidents termed as ‘new dimensions’ incidents, for example Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) which was hosted here in Buckinghamshire, High Volume Pumping, Mass Decontamination and Detection Identification & Monitoring of Hazmat. In addition to these, Marauding Terrorist Attack (MTA) capabilities were located strategically across the country within fire and rescue services to support a national response to these types of events.

Whilst the Service does not host a specialist MTA response capability here in Buckinghamshire, all its responders had guidance and training on MTA at the appropriate level and were aligned across the Thames Valley, fully in compliance with the current Joint Operating Principles.

The Service had already identified and closed a number of gaps identified by Lord Kerslake’s earlier report into the MEN Arena attack.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Overview and Audit Committee –  9 November 2022

Procurement Strategy 2022-2026 and Review of Standing Orders Relating to Contracts

“That the Authority be recommended to approve:

1.                  The Procurement Strategy 2022-2026 (Appendix 1)

2.                  The Standing Orders Relating to Contracts as amended (Appendix 2)”

 The report considered by the Overview and Audit Committee is attached at item 9

OVERVIEW AND AUDIT COMMITTEE – 9 NOVEMBER 2022

PROCUREMENT STRATEGY 2022-2026 AND REVIEW OF STANDING ORDERS RELATING TO CONTRACTS

The Procurement Manager advised Members that these two documents had been reviewed jointly as they fed into one another for the procurement activities across the Service. The existing Procurement Strategy expired in 2020, and the new strategy was deferred whilst awaiting the outcome of Brexit and subsequent changes to UK legislation relating to Public Procurement, which had further delays, and also some impact from the pandemic. Work had continued in the interim period, but there was a lapse between the last strategy and this one. The Strategy aligns to the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) Procurement Strategy which included a self- assessment that was carried out against the strategy. There were three key themes in the strategy, leadership, commercial practice and delivering local benefits. The Service assessed itself against those and set targets to be achieved throughout the duration of this strategy.

The Procurement Manager advised Members that one of the areas the Service was keen to focus on was the local benefits, social value and sustainability. The Service was proud of the fact that currently 58% of contracts were with SMEs, and the Service would like to continue to support and improve on it, and this strategy should support that.

During the Overview and Audit Committee meeting, a question was raised around which social value model was going to be used. The Service would be using the government social value model, which was published a while ago, and had five key themes running through it. The themes were there to be used optionally, however, the Service preferred to use it in its procurement where possible and where it was relevant.

The Procurement Manager advised that this strategy would be reviewed in 2025, but it may be sooner as the Service was waiting for the latest UK Procurement Bill to go through Parliament, and there may come changes out of it that would need to update the strategy.

The Procurement Manager advised that the second document supports the strategy and was the review of Standing Orders Relating to Contracts. The main change to this document was the change from the current lowest threshold of £10k to take it up to £25k to align with the Service’s collaborative partners, who already had a threshold of £25k. This would enable the Service to undertake more collaborative work, more efficiently if aligned with the same thresholds. The Service was also aligning with the latest government transparency requirements, which required all contracts to be published at a value of £25k and above. Training was being rolled out to staff involved in all areas of procurement activities to ensure lower value procurement activities were carried out compliantly.  Also, Contract Management and Supplier Relationship Management training packages were to be provided for those officers responsible for the ongoing performance of established contracts.

A Member asked for more information on social value as in the report it said  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

To consider item 10

The Chairman advised that this report outlined the process and timescales for developing the next set of Service plans that would succeed the existing Public Safety and Corporate Plans.

The Corporate Planning Manager advised Members that the current Service Plans, comprising of the five-year Public Safety and Corporate Plans, run out at the end of March 2025. Although that was a long way off, in planning cycle terms it was not, particularly in light of the feedback from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) in relation to the current Public Safety Plan and also with the advent of the new Fire Standard for Community Risk Management Planning, together with an underpinning range of new risk analysis and management methodologies that were emerging. The analysis of these indicated that future planning would be a more data and resource intensive process than was previously the case. This meant the Authority needed to get the planning process underway if it was to be in a position to go live with new plans with effect from April 2025.

Appendix 1 showed an outline process and timeline for production of the new plans which would cover the period 2025-2030. These would comprise of the Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP), to align with the Fire Standard, and follow on Corporate Plan.

The Corporate Planning Manager advised Members that alongside the analytical and modelling work, there would be a public consultation process. The approach to this would be based on the ‘Gunning Principles’ which set out the key legal and good practice requirements for proper consultation which state they should “be conducted at a formative stage, before decisions are taken; allow sufficient time for people to participate and respond; provide stakeholders with sufficient background information to allow them to consider the issues and any proposals intelligently and critically; and, be properly taken into consideration before decisions are finally taken”.

To meet these requirements, the consultation would be conducted in two stages. The first ‘listening and engagement’ stage would be designed to explore public and other stakeholder perceptions of risk in the community, expectations of the Service and some of the potential ways that it might approach meeting the challenges that would be faced. The outcomes of this would be used to inform the development of the new CRMP which would then be subject to a full 12 week public consultation before being presented to the Authority along with the outcomes of the consultation and any recommended changes to the CRMP.

A Member asked whether, whilst the plan would run from 2025-2030, the evidential information would be looking further out than five years and also as the Authority was only two years into its current five year plan, how did the Authority ensure officers didn’t lose focus on the current one.

The Corporate Planning Manager advised that officers do look further out, the national framework plan was a minimum of a three year period, but the Authority opts for a refresh every five  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

To consider item 11

The Health and Safety Adviser informed Members that this strategy set out the strategic health and safety objectives for the next four years and focused on how leadership was key in setting out the direction to improve health and safety and physical mental wellbeing in the workplace. This strategy sat alongside the wellbeing strategy and aligned with the Authority’s Public Safety Plan. The mission statement was leading the way to a healthier and safer workforce. There were five strategic objectives: positive and effective leadership; drive improvement in health and safety performance; lead the way in reducing work related ill health, with a specific focus on mental health and stress; lead the way in protecting the environment and continue to drive a positive and effective health, safety and wellbeing culture.

This strategy was the foundation on which the Service could build on providing direction to all employees and relevant stakeholders on how it would improve health, safety and wellbeing, including culture, over the next four years.

A Member asked why mental health was not in the strategy.

The Head of Protection, Assurance and Development advised Members that mental health was part of the Wellbeing Strategy which covered those specific areas.

The Chairman noted that all areas of the Equality Impact Assessment were neutral, and he would like to have a better understanding of the approach that led to that outcome. The Chairman also wanted assurance that the Health and Safety Strategy environment was tracking any disproportionate impacts on certain types of protective characteristics.

The Health and Safety Advisor informed that the reasoning behind all aspects of protective characteristics was considered, and determined it was broadly neutral as this strategy should maintain a positive health and safety culture. The data used for analysis, did not target any particular protected characteristics.

RESOLVED –

That the Health and Safety Strategy 2023-2027 be approved.

To consider item 12

The Health and Safety Advisor informed Members that the report this year focused on the key projects that had been ongoing during the financial year, such as the Breathing Apparatus (BA) replacement project and the new health and safety recording system. It also focused on employee wellbeing, contaminants update, and detailed the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, whilst maintaining business as usual. The report also covered performance and the safety statistics for the year 2021/22, identifying there had been a decrease in the number of personal injury safety events. However, there had been no change in the number of equipment damage events, and an increase of 15.8% in the number of vehicle damage safety events. The new system currently only reports near misses and safety events; however, it was hoped there was capacity to make hazard reporting easier and more accessible for everyone.

A Member asked if the mental health of operational staff was being properly considered.

The Head of Protection, Assurance and Development assured Members that the mental wellbeing of all staff, not just operational staff was of upmost importance and a priority.

A Member asked that although overall numbers were down, the number of serious reportable offences had gone up by almost 100%. Did officers have the split between those incidents which were preventable by actions of a firefighter or those incidents that were preventable because it was a policy or process failure.

The Health and Safety Advisor responded that a report of underlying causes could be run and split down into any actions being taken by an individual or anything that the organisation would need to highlight to reduce injuries moving forward.

A Member asked about damage to vehicles, was it Authority vehicles, or was it damage done to other vehicles through bad parking etc.

The Health and Safety Advisor responded that vehicle damage related to any vehicle collision, either the Authority’s own vehicles or damage to members of the public’s vehicles, would be counted as reportable. Vehicle damage would also include anything that was picked up by officers on routine checks, or though means of driving where it was not though a collision but by other means that could not be determined and would be investigated.

A Members asked for more details around the three violent incidents, was this towards the Authority’s officers.

The Health and Safety Advisor reported that it was acts of violence to members of staff, one example was fireworks being shot at a fire appliance.

The Chairman asked for some assurance on the underspend in the budget. Was it as a result of lack of engagement from staff for training, or were there not courses for the budget, as it was showing an underspend of just under £10k.

The Head of Protection, Assurance and Development advised that it was not because of lack of engagement, training was planned on previous trends of how many people would need to do certain courses. For example, it was planned for 8-12 candidates to undertake a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

To consider item 13

The Group Commander Community and Business Policy advised Members that this report was an update of the Building Risk Review and some of the Protection work being undertaken and the self-assessment against the Protection Fire Standards. The Building Risk Review was completed at the end of last year and concentrated nationally on high risk residential buildings. The review was completed ahead of schedule, and work continued to take place on these buildings as business as usual.  This would continue and incorporate the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022.

The Group Commander Community and Business Policy advised Members that the Service continued to deliver the Protection Uplift Programme, utilising the associated grant funding to deliver improvements in fire safety and training, improved software and wider support for business engagement, including an additional role of a Business Engagement Officer. Other spending had contributed to the improvement in the Premises Risk Management System to improve the communication and coordination of Site Specific Risk Information, Prevention activity and Protection audits to improve the way the Service could make its staff and communities safer.

The Group Commander Community and Business Policy advised that the Service aimed to fully comply with the competency framework and was aligning with the Competency Framework for Fire Safety Regulators, which recommended that all fire safety inspectors, working on high risk premises, should be third party validated.

The Group Commander Community and Business Policy advised Members that the Fire Standards Board had been set up to oversee the identification, organisation, development, and maintenance of professional standards for fire and rescue services in England. The Board had since launched the Protection Fire Standard which could be seen at Appendix 1. The Service had undertaken the self-assessment which could be seen at Appendix 2. Members should note that question two around equality impact assessments had now been removed, as it was considered this was ongoing and part of what was undertaken on a daily basis and part of any audit process.

Members would also be aware that there were a number of legislative changes to fire Safety including the Fire Safety Act, The Fire Safety (England) Regulations and the Building Safety Act which officers had been working on to incorporate into the Protection function.

(Councillor Lambert re-joined the meeting)

The Chairman asked if it would be possible for Members to have a briefing session to take them through the Building Safety Act to understand what the implications were for the Authority.

The Group Commander Community and Business Policy would provide a presentation at the next Fire Authority meeting.

A Member asked in terms of building risk, if the FBU would be balloting on strike action, what contingency plans would be in place to cover high rise building and whether the government had offered appliances to cover those high risk buildings in the event of strike action.

The Chief Fire Officer advised that the Fire Brigades Union had informed the Authority of its intention to ballot for strike action and plans were going ahead to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

To consider item 14

The Head of Technology, Transformation and PMO advised Members that this report was presented at the Executive Committee on 16 November 2022 and showed the Performance for Q2 across a range of measures. For Q2 one new measure had been added in the response section and that was the Site Specific Risk Information High Risk Site Completion. In the Public value section, percentage compliance with standing orders relating to contracts, work in progress measure data had now been populated. All other work in progress measures should be populated by the end of the financial year.

The Head of Technology, Transformation and PMO advised that at the Executive Committee meeting there were a couple of measures highlighted by Members that she would like to provide an update on. The first was Appraisal Completion. Since April 2022 when the end of year submissions for 2021/22 and objective setting for 2022/23 became due, reminders had been sent to managers to prompt them to complete any overdue appraisals These prompts had each time resulted in an increased return of overdue performance and development packs.

The Organisational Development (OD) team were now undertaking engagement sessions with employees to understand the barriers to appraisal completion. Alongside understanding the barriers, they would also use the opportunity to discuss career development, talent management, succession planning and leadership development.

The Head of Technology, Transformation and PMO advised that with regard to Mandatory Elearning, the OD team continued to remind staff and managers of the elearning modules that were mandatory, utilising different communication channels.

The Head of Technology, Transformation and PMO advised  that with regard to Complaints, of the 14 complaints, only one had been upheld. The highest number of complaints related to damage to property (6), and these included damage to trees and hedges.

The Data Intelligence Team Manager advised that the Key Performance Measure report helped officers to understand how the Service was performing. It also enabled officers to highlight certain measures to Members and staff.

Based on feedback from quarter one, an additional page had been added which reflected on the previous quarters highlighted measures. Reading the summary pages, it might feel that there were many measures showing outcomes not in line with expectations and targets, but it’s worth noting that during this reporting period, the Service experienced two heat waves that saw extreme demand on it and the sector. With this in mind, only one measure was highlighted in Q2 - Average attendance time to all incidents. The Service’s average attendance time to all incidents had increased from being within three seconds of previous year in Q1 to being 36 seconds slower than the previous year. The above was a common theme across several measures, most of which would be covered within the summer pressures final report.

A Member asked in relation to the fire and wellness visits and the HMICFRS Inspection report, as the Service was behind in meeting its target (1800 visits should have been completed by September, and 732 had been undertaken),  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

To note that the next meeting of the Fire Authority will be held on Wednesday 15 February 2023 at 11am

To note that the next meeting of the Fire Authority will be held on Wednesday 15 February 2023 at 11am, at Milton Keynes Council Chamber.

THE CHAIRMAN CLOSED THE MEETING AT 12.35 PM.