Agenda item

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

The Vice Chairman asked the following question in respect of Minute FA21 of the Authority Meeting on 13 October 2021.

“In connection with the officer’s report about the Authority’s people strategy, I asked questions of the Chief Fire Officer and Deputy Chief Fire Officer about the culture within Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (BFRS) particularly in light of the horrific events arising from the actions of serving Metropolitan Police officers. I was heartened by the Chief’s responses which are recorded in the Minutes in respect of the acknowledgement of the need to redouble events within the fire and rescue service to ensure that its hard-earned public trust is not tarnished and for services to better reflect the communities which they serve. I am aware that the Home Secretary has commissioned Sir Tom Winsor, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabularies and Fire and Rescue Services, to undertake a thematic inspection of the vetting and counter-corruption procedures in policing across England and Wales with a view to strengthening these procedures. May I ask what vetting of firefighters is currently undertaken by BFRS?”

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that BFRS uses Buckinghamshire Council as its ‘umbrella body’ to undertake DBS checks on recruits and 3 yearly renewals for employees.  In 2016 BFRS moved to require ‘enhanced DBS’ vetting in order to allow it to obtain details on applicants’ convictions and cautions, both spent and unspent; police reprimands and warnings; and relevant police information. To achieve this was somewhat of an uphill struggle with the umbrella body, as the role of firefighter was not an ‘excepted occupation’ in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, nor was the firefighter’s role a ‘regulated activity’ as defined by the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. This meant that ‘enhanced DBS checks’ could not be undertaken universally across the fire and rescue sector as a matter of course, nor even the less stringent ‘standard DBS’ checks.

However, enhanced DBS vetting was something that the Chief Fire Officer pushed for, and in which he was supported by the FBU locally, in order to guard and protect the ‘trusted brand’ which enabled close working by our firefighters with vulnerable groups, young people, blue-light partners, and healthcare providers. The costs to BFRS of enhanced DBS checks reduced from £44.00 per check to £40.00 on 1 October 2019, with the 3 yearly update fees being £13.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that In July 2019, in advance of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) adopting its Safeguarding Position Statement, the Chief Fire Officer wrote to the NFCC expressing his disappointment about the lack of progress made by the sector to increase the vetting of its employees. It had been the agreed position over two years’ previously in the CFOA National FRS People Strategy 2017/2022 that ‘DBS (disclosure and barring) checks for all firefighters needed to become the norm’.

The NFCC Safeguarding Position Statement adopted in 2020 stated that “NFCC endorse[s] the position that basic disclosure checking is used as a minimum to ensure the suitability of staff and volunteers to undertake their roles. The NFCC recommend[s] that the Disclosure and Barring Service is utilised for all roles which bring staff and volunteers into contact with the public. The NFCC encourages Fire & Rescue Services to consider the need for increased level of checks for those roles that are required to carry out specific or regulated activities.” The basic DBS certificate contained details of only unspent criminal convictions, conditional and unconditional cautions, or a statement that the individual ha no such convictions or cautions. It currently costs £23, the same as a ‘standard DBS’ check.

The Chief Fire Officer as well requesting the NFCC in July 2019 that its Safeguarding Position Statement be strengthened to endorse ‘standard DBS checking’ as the minimum requirement, had been lobbying the Home Office to bring forward legislation to amend the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 so that vetting procedures for firefighters were strengthened as a matter of course in every fire and rescue service.

The Chief Fire Officer has been supporting the NFCC Strategic Lead for Safeguarding in her submission of a series of businesses cases to the Home Office, the latest version of which was submitted on Wednesday 17 November, which put the case that a change in national legislation was long overdue and should be enacted as soon as possible.

The Chairman asked the Leader of the Labour Group if he was in agreement for a letter to be sent to the Home Office and the NFCC Chairman from the Group Leaders to push for enhanced DBS checks.

The Leader of the Labour Group was in agreement.

The Chairman would also ask the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group who was not at the meeting.