Agenda item

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 moment for the people of Milton Keynes.

Chief Fire Officer

The Chief Fire Officer attended the Asian Fire Services Association conference (AFSA) and took part in a round table about the future of diversity and inclusion in the Service.

The conference also received an excellent presentation from Dylan Bettles-Hill (BFRS Business Fire Safety Inspector) entitled ‘Transitioning at Work’, who has been asked to present at a number of fire and rescue services following his excellent presentation. 

The Chief Fire Officer represented the Service at Thames Valley Police (TVP) for the White Ribbon event where the mission was to prevent violence against women and girls by addressing its root causes. He also pledged that BFRS would sign up and work through the accreditation process.

Operational Recruitment

The Workforce Planning Group meet on a monthly basis to progress plans for our operational recruitment:

Wholetime Firefighters - The latest Wholetime interviews have been completed; they are being assessed as to who will progress to the next stage for the March 2023 course. The aim is to recruit eighteen Wholetime Firefighters, of which three are in the ‘pool’ from the last recruitment intake.

We’ve secured an additional six candidates onto a January 2023 course at the Fire Service College. All six places have been offered and accepted. The final employment checks, medical and kit fittings are being completed.

Transferee Firefighters - The six external transferees that were recruited from the June 2022 recruitment intake, have all now been cleared to commence in role. They will be joining the Service on 5 December 2022 for their three-week conversion course with Training School, before being placed at Stations.

Armed Forces Cadets

Last week we held the penultimate cadet event for this year at Aylesbury Fire Station. We were joined by Councillor Shade Adoh and Kate Lole, the Regional Employer Engagement Director for SERFCA (South East Reserve Forces’ & Cadets Association). The session was a huge success and both have expressed interest in attending again next year. We recently had confirmation that the programme will be rolled out in High Wycombe commencing in the spring of 2023. GC Shaun Cunningham and AC Simon Tuffley also represented the Service at the Lord Lieutenant’s Annual Cadet Awards Ceremony at the Oculus on 1 November.

Safety Centre

On Thursday 24 November, BFRS staff and the Vice Chairman attended the Safety Centre in the City of Milton Keynes to hear about the vital work to empower children and young people with early knife crime intervention education. Our continued investment in the Safety Centre will support not only fire safety education but also wider safety education. I look forward to visiting the Safety Centre with Members in the new year.

Independent Culture Review of London Fire Brigade

In November 2022, the Independent Culture Review of London Fire Brigade was published, following work led by Nazir Afzal OBE.  The report highlighted examples of shocking incidents that had been reported to the review, and a number of failures to ensure the culture was free from discrimination, unfairness and inequality.  It made for very difficult reading for everyone connected with fire and rescue services and who cares passionately about the role they play in protecting our communities.

Following publication of the report, the Chief Fire Officer and Chairman immediately discussed the report and its findings, with an unequivocal shared view that we must not hold any complacency about the culture in Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.  The Chairman has asked the Chief Fire Officer to lead work to enable Members of the Authority to obtain the necessary assurance that our own culture is one that is free from discrimination, unfairness and inequality and to be clear on the steps to be taken where that is shown not to be.  This will include assessing BFRS’s own position against the 23 recommendations included in the LFB report.  This work has commenced and there will be regular updates to the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Group Leaders, as well as a detailed update to the next meeting of the Executive Committee and subsequent Full Authority meeting.

Chairman’s Activities

As well as the activities already listed, since the last Authority meeting the Chairman has continued to visit fire stations across the service, and in November attended a session with the Newport Pagnell boat team with Ben Everitt MP. 

The Chairman has been involved in engaging with all Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes MP’s on the issue of sustainable funding for the Service.  Alongside this, the Chairman has engaged with the National Employers on the pay negotiations for Grey and Gold Book staff.  The Chairman held his second meeting since taking post with local FBU representatives, along with the Chief Fire Officer, in November.

On 31 October 2022, the Chairman attended a national meeting of Fire Authority Chairs and Chief Fire Officers hosted by HMICFRS where a number of topics were covered including future inspection regime.

The Chairman laid a wreath on behalf of the Service at the Remembrance Day service in Chalfont St Giles.

The Chairman attended the two day LGA Fire Leadership Essentials Course in November.  This course was free to all Fire Authority Members and was highly recommended to support our collective work in scrutinising the work of the Service.

Carol Service

The Annual Christmas Carol Service was taking place at St Mary’s Church, Aylesbury, on Thursday 8 December 2022 at 7.30pm. The service will be followed by festive refreshments. It would be good to see as many Members as possible.

A Member congratulated the firefighters at the Blue Light Hub for making the White Ribbon promise and also the Chief Fire Officer and asked whether the Fire Authority, as part of its commitment to end violence and aggression towards women and girls and make a safer environment, could become White Ribbon UK Accredited, as part of the efforts of dealing with some of the cultural elements that the Chairman and Chief Fire Officer had been speaking about.

The Chief Fire Officer agreed and had attended the White Ribbon Accreditation for Thames Valley Police. In terms of the next steps, he had spoken to the Police and Crime Commissioner as he was Chair of the Thames Valley Collaboration Steering Group and suggested that he shares the learnings from their accreditation process with all three of the Thames Valley fire and rescue services; and that the Chief Fire Officer would ensure that it was raised at the next meeting of the Thames Valley Collaboration Steering Group