Agenda item

‘It is recommended that the Performance Management – Q1 2024/25 be noted.

 

To consider item 8a

Minutes:

The Data Intelligence Team Manager advised Members that this report was for quarter one 2024/25 (April – June). The report had changed, there was now more commentary to support some of the information in the report, and also provided, were three additional highlighted measures.

 

The first highlighted measure was the availability of On-Call, this was for newer Members and gave a bit more information as to why the figures looked the way they did, and a look forward as to how they would be addressed.

 

The second highlighted measure was regarding appraisal completion, highlighting how important they were to the Service, it was a way of thanking staff, but also developing them.

 

The third highlighted measure was bank shift costs. The establishment numbers were in a good position now, and this had a positive impact on reducing the bank shift costs. In the first quarter alone, the Service was £100k below the same period last year.

 

A Member asked how the Service would address On-call in 2025/26.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer advised Members that On-Call would be a big focus in the coming months. In the draft Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) On-Call was something that would be looked at over the next five years. Officers wanted to bring the focus back into the Service after focusing over the last eighteen months on wholetime recruitment and workforce planning which was now in a good place.

 

The Authority had supported the transformation funding to improve the access to training courses, which would be used to boost recruitment for On-Call firefighters. A lot of work had been done on social media in targeting and ‘have a go’ days.

 

A Member asked if the appraisal completion improved in the next quarter.

The Data Intelligence Team Manager advised that the Service achieved 95% on both objectives and end of year appraisals by the end of Quarter two which was incredible. This had been a main focus which had worked well.

 

A Member asked about ‘non-domestic property fire accidental’ in June the figure was red. As the Service no longer responded to automatic fire alarms (AFAs) without charge, was there a correlation between those two things.

 

The Data Intelligence Team Manager advised that it was hard to get the target tolerances correct as they were very small numbers. The AFA pilot did not start until 8 July, so would not have affected the figures in the first quarter. The AFA pilot was going well, and of all the calls challenged, only one turned out to be a real incident.

 

A Member asked about fire safety audits as it was still red through the first quarter.

 

The Head of Protection, Assurance and Development advised that he had introduced the target in light of feedback from HMICFRS, and there not being a reliable risk-based inspection programme in place. A year on, the risk-based inspection target had been met for the very high risk and managing the demand led activity in terms of post fire inspection and complaints, and the number of audits undertaken in the last twelve months had doubled compared to the previous twelve months.

 

The Chairman asked about the high-risk site information, which was an area the Service had been criticised for in the HMICFRS report, as it was showing a deterioration on level 4 and also was the level 3 target sufficiently stretching.

The Data Intelligence Team Manager advised that for a level 4 high risk site, the Service would visit on an annual basis to familiarise itself with the risk. This relied on crews being available, and not being called out and the buildings staff being able to accommodate the crew as well. Sometimes the delays were not due to the Service, but not being able to get access to the site. It was a high priority, and dashboards were provided to each station so they knew what sites would be coming up. The Service was also moving to a new system, which was a lot more informed.

 

The Chairman asked about the internal audits measure which had only been green or blue twice in the last twelve months, was this in hand.

 

The Director of Finance and Assets advised that to give Members reassurance, it was measuring overdue actions as a percentage of total outstanding actions. In terms of total audit actions, it had come down, but as a percentage it was still relatively high for the ones that were overdue. There might be a new audit report come in with a number of actions on it which would make the figure go back up. These were scrutinised and closed off at every Overview and Audit Committee meeting.

 

The Chairman asked when Members would be able to see the 2023/24 Carbon Emission figures to measure the current ones against.

 

The Director of Finance and Assets advised that there had been some issues in getting figures out of the energy company and officers continued to chase them. On a positive note, smart meters had been installed at all sites.

 

The Chairman asked if it would be possible, where there were measures that were of concern or a highlighted measure, was there a way of bringing a rolling month update, so that Members could understand whether the trend was continuing?

 

The Data Intelligence Manager advised that he would look into it.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Performance Management – Q1 2024/25 be noted.

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