Agenda and minutes

Venue: Main Conference Room, Service Headquarters, Fulwood

Contact: Diane Brooks,  Principal Member Services Officer

Items
No. Item

10/18

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Simon Blackburn and County Councillor Tony Martin.

11/18

Disclosure of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests

Members are asked to consider any pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the agenda.

Minutes:

None received.

12/18

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 65 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED: - That the Minutes of the last meeting held on 26 November 2018 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

13/18

Annual Service Plan and Strategic Assessment of Risk 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 56 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented a report on the Service's Annual Service Plan and Strategic Assessment of Risk for 2019/20. 

 

This year’s Annual Service Plan continued to provide Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service (LFRS) with the platform to highlight the priority activities that the Service intended to deliver over the upcoming year; leading improvements and innovation in the sector with some of the best firefighting equipment and training facilities in the country and a highly skilled and motivated workforce.  The year ahead would build on achievements by staying focussed on continuous improvement to make the people of Lancashire safer, particularly the most vulnerable members of our communities.  Many priorities were extensive, long-term initiatives that would transform the way we work and bring lasting benefits.

 

For the first time, this year’s Annual Service Plan was to be published alongside the Strategic Assessment of Risk.  First published in 2016, this document had been refreshed for the 2019/20 year and branded to mirror the Annual Service Plan document that it supported, by capturing the dynamic picture of risk in Lancashire.  The Strategic Assessment of Risk was a key part of our Risk Management Framework, where we continually assessed changing risk and prioritised our response framework.

 

Area Manager Norman discussed the detail of the plan.

 

Annual Service Plan

The Annual Service Plan was a core part of the planning framework which set out the activities intended for delivery during the next 12 months.  It was built around the Service’s four corporate priorities as detailed in the Integrated Risk Management Plan which were: -

 

1.   Preventing fire and other emergencies from happening and Protecting people and property when fires happen;

 

2.   Responding to fire and other emergencies quickly and competently;

 

3.   Valuing our people so they can focus on making Lancashire safer;

 

4.   Delivering value for money in how we use our resources.

 

The Annual Service Plan sat at the heart of the framework and informed activity that would be led across the Service as well as locally within district plans. Activities that were planned for delivery also informed staff performance appraisal process so that all staff understood the plans and were involved in helping to deliver key activities.

 

As in previous years, detailed under each corporate priority was a series of priority activities and projects with a brief description of each item to give further clarity and context. This ensured that all staff and the public were informed of the changes and activities the Service aimed to progress and how these items fitted within our priorities. This provided the opportunity for the Service to ensure that we continued to provide transparency and visibility of our plans in a clear concise format. The governance arrangements for delivery of the Annual Service Plan items would continue to be monitored through the Service's Corporate Programme Board.

 

As always the aim was to continually improve and refine our planning process and this year’s document aimed to add focus on achievable progress within the year, acknowledging that a significant  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13/18

14/18

AT Stinger (Water Tower Vehicle) Review

Verbal report.

Minutes:

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that at the meeting held in November 2017 the Committee resolved to purchase 2 AT Stinger appliances and replace the standard existing Fire Appliances at Blackburn and Skelmersdale and that an option to purchase a further AT-Stinger Appliance be reviewed after 12 months. 

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer reported that due to the build process and timescales involved the second vehicle was only due to be received by the end of the month although it was noted that the crews in Skelmersdale had already received training.  The review would therefore be reported to a subsequent meeting once the vehicle had been received and used and would include details of any new innovations.  In response to a comment from County Councillor O’Toole, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer gave assurance that the review would also include how many times the Stinger appliances had been operational and how effective they had been.

 

County Councillor Hennessy suggested that Members visit Skelmersdale fire station to talk to firefighters to get their views on the vehicle.

 

To share good practice, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that in July 2018 the Stinger and Drone were demonstrated to other Fire and Rescue Services from across the country.

 

RESOLVED: - That the Planning Committee noted and endorsed the report.

15/18

Blue Light Collaboration pdf icon PDF 65 KB

Minutes:

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented the report.  He confirmed that the report did not include any details following the Chairman’s meeting with the Police and Crime Commissioner as any decision concerning governance arrangements (ie: the formation of a small Board, as referred to at the last Authority meeting) would need to be made by the full Authority as the decision-making body.

 

The Chairman of the Authority, CC De Molfetta confirmed that together with the Vice-Chairman he had met in January 2019 with the Police and Crime Commissioner where the potential for further consideration of the delivery of Police Public Order Training from Service Training Centre and the potential for the relocation of Service Headquarters to Hutton were discussed.  He confirmed that no assurances were given and he made it clear that any benefits from collaboration would need to be shared.

 

The report did detail the work delivered to build on the initial work which focussed upon the drafting of an operational statement of intent and initial blueprint documents.

 

Operational leads had progressed project related documents to define work streams that were recommended for continuation and identified work streams that should be closed due to a lack of identified benefit.

 

The paper provided clarity on the operational scrutiny of the Blue Light Collaboration Programme and the operational responsibilities of the Deputy Chief Fire Officer/ Deputy Chief Constable and their respective teams.

 

Area Manager Norman advised that the most significant areas of work were:

 

·        Co-location of Public Order - scoping out the initial needs for the public order site had begun and a matrix was being created. Viewings of the LFRS Training Centre had been carried out by both partners’ estates departments and operational leads. Next steps were to assign a Lancashire Constabulary project manager to this work in order to define the scope and scale of the possible site sharing request.

 

·        Misper2 and Real Time Demand Management - scoping out the opportunities within Real Time Demand Management and the possible extension of Missing Person Searches. A LFRS officer visited the Force Control Room to gain an understanding of any incidents LFRS should be responding to such as entrapment. LFRS may be able to increase existing incident types for the benefit of public outcomes through quicker more effective response arrangements. Various meetings had taken place between operational leads and the LFRS officer was currently drafting reports detailing any recommendations for consideration.

 

·        Occupational Health – Operational leads had met to see if best practice, specialist expertise and site sharing opportunities existed. Early conversations had been open and engaging and further work was to continue to identify if benefits could be realised. Meetings were scheduled for further work to be delivered.

 

·        Integrated Volunteer Partnership – Work focused upon encouraging the integration of Police and LFRS Cadets and volunteers through joint training sessions and attendance of public events together to deliver joint working on community safety and engagement projects.

 

·        PCSO’s as Retained/ On Call Fire Fighters and Engagement / Visibility in place  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15/18

16/18

HMICFRS Update pdf icon PDF 67 KB

Minutes:

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented the report.  Lancashire Fire and Rescue Services HMICFRS inspection report was published publicly in December 2018. We were graded against the three core pillars of the inspection programme; efficiency, effectiveness and people.

 

We were graded as ‘good’ overall for each of the three core pillars and ‘good’ against ten of the eleven sub-diagnostics, which formed each of the three core pillars.

 

Lancashire Fire and Rescue was the only Service in the first tranche to receive an ‘outstanding’ grading for how we promote our culture and values.

 

The report highlighted our areas of best practice and we didn’t receive any formal areas for improvement. The report did however guide us to consider the following three areas;

 

·        The service should ensure that it has allocated sufficient resources to a prioritised and risk-based inspection programme.

·        The service should assure itself that it is making the most of collaboration opportunities and that they provide value for money.

·        The service should put in place an open and fair process to identify, develop and support high potential staff and aspiring leaders.

 

LFRS had already begun to further evaluate these areas and had drafted an initial action plan for delivering and measuring our improvements against them. To ensure we delivered these improvements, they would be embedded into our Annual Service Plan and report to Corporate Programme Board for monitoring and scrutiny.

 

LFRS was currently required to undertake quarterly data set returns for the HMICFRS. This involved providing the HMICFRS data teams with an array of data, ranging from overtime costings to fire engine availability. This would be an on-going requirement to assist the HMICFRS in determining our efficiency and effectiveness as a service. It also provided a platform for making national comparisons.

 

The reports for the tranche two inspections were due to be published around May / June 2019. Early indications suggested that the findings were similar to those identified in tranche one inspections, notably around protection and the people pillar.

 

Tranche three inspections would begin around May 2019 and should be concluded by July 2019. 

 

Once the results from tranches two and three had been publicised it was anticipated a ‘State of Fire Services’ report would be issued in December 2019 by Sir Thomas Winsor who would summarise the national findings from within the sector.

 

LFRS was continuing to embed the HMICFRS into the Service and horizon scan emerging themes from within the sector.

 

LFRS continued to build on our professional relationship with our HMICFRS Service Liaison Lead (SLL). We had regular engagement with our SLL and he would continue to visit both strategic and district level activities to assess how we were delivering effective and efficient services for the people of Lancashire.

 

RESOLVED: - That the report be noted and endorsed.

17/18

Date of Next Meeting

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 15 July 2019 in the Main Conference Room, at Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

 

Further meetings are:           scheduled for 25 November 2019

                                                proposed for 16 March 2020

Minutes:

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on Monday, 15 July 2019 at 1000 hours in the main Conference Room at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

 

Further meeting dates were noted for 25 November 2019 and agreed for 16 March 2020.