Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from County Councillor Elizabeth Oades and Councillor Zamir Khan.

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.

None received.

With reference to resolution 9/16 (1) the Clerk reported that a response had been received from the Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service to confirm that budget setting meetings held in February each year could be held after the 15^th of the month.  Members then considered the draft budget setting dates and agreed these to be: 20 February 2017 and 19 February 2018.

RESOLVED: - That the Minutes of the CFA held on 20 June 2016 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman.

RESOLVED: - That the proceedings of the North West Fire Forum held on 14 July 2016 be noted.

RESOLVED: - That the proceedings of the Audit Committee held on 23 June 2016 be noted.

RESOLVED: - That the proceedings of the Resources Committee held on 29 June 2016 be noted.

RESOLVED: - That the proceedings of the Audit Committee held on 29 June 2016 be noted.

(Oral report)

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the Service had actively taken the opportunity to learn from significant events through multi-agency debriefing sessions with partners and hot debriefing sessions on fire stations.  He introduced Area Manager Mark Hutton who presented Members with an overview of the learning from Storms Desmond and Eva which occurred in December 2015 and advised how the Authority’s investment would support future improvements. 

AM Hutton reminded Members of the impact on Lancashire of the storms which had had the greatest impact in the North of the county.  He gave an overview of the Service contribution to the response phase, the debrief processes and  lessons learned, including how these had influenced the next Integrated Risk Management Plan, future training, equipment and the provision of flexible swift water rescue capability.   It was noted that AM Hutton would be attending a national, multi-agency event the following week to share accumulated learning from the past 12-months where he would be giving an insight into the types and speed of events.

On behalf of the Authority, the Chairman gave thanks to all staff for their flexibility and commitment during that difficult time. 

RESOLVED: - That Members noted the content of the report.

As part of the Local Government Finance Settlement the Secretary of State announced an offer of four year funding settlements for local authorities in return for publishing an efficiency plan.

The draft four year settlement included in the Local Government Finance Settlement identified a reduction of £1.8m for the current year, with further reduction of £3.7m over the next three years:-

As part of the Settlement the Secretary of State announced an offer of four year funding settlements for local authorities, in order to help authorities plan ahead, subject to the Authority wishing to pursue this and the submission of a suitable efficiency plan.

Subsequent to this the Secretary of state had re-affirmed that the offer of four year settlements was unaffected by the budget cuts announced earlier in the year. However it was possible that other changes might arise in the future which could impact upon it.

Furthermore, whilst it was not clear what the impact would be of not accepting this offer the Secretary of State had re-iterated that he ‘could not guarantee future levels of funding’ for councils which declined to submit an efficiency plan, thereby rejecting the four-year settlement. Based on this it was hard to see any scenario whereby those authorities who did not accept the offer subsequently recovered an enhanced settlement.

The report recommended accepting this offer, thereby giving greater certainty to future funding levels and enhancing financial and service planning.  Members considered the draft efficiency plan which had been based on the medium term financial strategy included as part of the February budget setting exercise.

RESOLVED: - That the Authority apply for four year funding and approved the efficiency plan as now presented.

Under Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, employers must prepare, and where necessary revise, a written statement of health and safety policy. The existing safety, health and environment policy document, which was last considered by the Authority in September 2013, had been recently reviewed, amended as required, and was now presented to Members for consideration.

As the health and safety and environment functions were managed in a similar way it was considered appropriate for the Authority to declare its intent for both health and safety and the environment in the same document. 

Members considered the aims and objectives which were:

·        Understand and ensure compliance with safety, health and environmental regulatory and other requirements that apply to our activities;

·        Be fully committed to the prevention of injury and ill health to staff and visitors;

·        Provide and maintain high facility, workplace and housekeeping standards;

·        Continually develop and maintain systems and procedures to ensure that all equipment, plant and premises are safe and do not have an adverse effect on health and wellbeing;

·        Consult and communicate with staff and representative bodies promoting Safety, Health, Wellbeing and Environmental expectations and standards;

·        Identify hazards, aspects and reduce risks to as low as is reasonably practical whilst being risk aware rather than risk adverse;

·        Raise awareness, train staff in safety, health, wellbeing and environmental matters and encourage our staff to play an active role in reducing impacts and risks and contributing to policy and procedural implementation;

·        Support staff fitness and wellbeing;

·        To plan and set objectives, targets and programmes and monitor and review our systems using proactive and reactive methods to continually improve our safety, health, wellbeing and environmental performance reporting progress each year;

·        To implement and adhere to a framework of policies, procedures and processes that comply with the requirements of British and International Standards such as ISO 14001:2004 and OHSAS 18001: 2007;

·        Have appropriate plans/arrangements to deal with emergency situations;

·        Recycle and reduce waste wherever possible and make efficient and environmentally responsible use of energy, water and other natural resources;

·        Periodically review our systems especially following safety or environmental events.

The policy formed an integral part of the Integrated Risk Management Planning and Corporate Planning processes and Business Continuity Arrangements.

RESOLVED: -  That the Authority endorsed the revised policy.

In December 2007, the Authority introduced the ‘Champion’ role.  These positions were currently filled by:

§    Equality and Diversity – Councillor Terry Aldridge

§    Older People – County Councillor Mark Perks

§    Environment – County Councillor Ken Brown

§    Road Safety – Councillor Fred Jackson

Reports relating to the activity of the Member Champions were provided on a regular basis to the Authority.  This report related to activity for the period up to August 2016.

During this period, all had undertaken their respective role in accordance with the defined terms of reference.  Their activity to date:-

Equality and Diversity – County Councillor Terry Aldridge

An Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy had been developed and implemented.  Further to the revision of the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) process, 25 members of staff had attended briefings and a standard had been established in relation to the development of an EIA where a policy or a decision might impact on members of staff or the community.  A corporate mechanism for retaining the information had also been established.

Equality, diversity and inclusion were part of the many activities that Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) delivered.  Equality objectives had been established and linked to the development of the Annual Service Plan.  An equality, diversity and inclusion action plan had also been developed for 2016/2017 to demonstrate how the Service was progressing against the objectives.  Progress in relation to the equality objectives would be reported within the LFRS Annual Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report to demonstrate how LFRS met its legal duties under the Public Sector Equality Duty. As part of the development of the new Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) equality objectives would be established based on the issues that had been identified through the Strategic Assessment of Risk.

The Absence Management Procedure had been revised and training on the implementation of the Procedure was due to commence in October 2016, the training included the implications of the Equality Act 2010 and the undertaking of stress risk assessment.  The Harassment and Bullying Policy and Grievance Procedure had also been revised and development for line managers would also take place during 2016/2017.

County Councillor Aldridge advised that 1 October 2016 was the International Day of Older Persons to campaign for elderly people and raise awareness of the difficulties and issues they faced.

Older People – County Councillor Mark Perks

The Older Person’s Member Champion, County Councillor Perks had actively worked across all Service Delivery areas.  Community Safety Teams in all Areas had been actively involved in working with dementia groups and a commitment had been made to attempt to train all of the public facing members of Lancashire Fire and Rescues Service staff as Dementia Friends.  To facilitate this task, each Area had a number of Dementia Champions who could roll out the awareness training, this would enable staff to ensure that the correct advice was given and useful actions were taken to aid those living with the condition.

County Councillor Perks advised that he  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

A report detailing prosecutions in respect of fire safety management failures and arson related incidents was provided.

There were 3 successful prosecution cases reported throughout July and August.  Fire protection and business support information provided an example of how partnership work had resulted in a number of arrests and a drop in secondary fire activity in an area in Blackpool.  There were also no arson convictions reported during the previous 2 months however, it was noted that there were a number of cases awaiting sentencing and the reduction in arson convictions was complemented by the increase in fire safety prosecutions under the Fire Safety Order.  Close working arrangements with Lancashire Constabulary on arson cases continued to be very successful with detection rates consistently running at approximately 2½ – 3 times the national average.

RESOLVED: - That the Authority note the report.

This report included information for the 2 Unitary and 12 District Authorities relating to Community Safety activity and Incidents of Operational interest.

County Councillor Taylor expressed her thanks and good wishes to the fire crews who had worked with the coastguard to rescue 2 horses from drowning on the beach at Knott End the previous day.

RESOLVED: - That the Authority note the report.

(Oral report)

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that there had been no complaints since the last meeting.

RESOLVED: - That the current position be noted.

The next meeting of the Authority will be held on Monday 19 December 2016 at 1000 am at Washington Hall Training Centre, Euxton.

The next meeting of the Authority would be held on Monday 19^th December 2016 at 10:00am at the Training Centre, Euxton.