Agenda and minutes

Standing item.

The Chairman welcomed County Councillor Terry Hurn who had replaced County Councillor Ash Sutcliffe on the Authority.

Apologies were received from: County Councillors Hasina Khan and Sean Serridge.

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.

RESOLVED: - That the Minutes of the CFA held on 3 October 2022 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman.

In response to a request from Councillor Williams, Chairman of the Committee, the Head of Human Resources confirmed it would be possible to present to a future meeting, details of how the Service was aiming to increase firefighter applications from females.

RESOLVED: - That the proceedings of the Resources Committee held on 28 September 2022 be noted and endorsed.

RESOLVED: - That the proceedings of the Member Training and Development Working Group held on 3 November 2022 be noted and endorsed.

The Chairman commented that the Strategy Group was a good opportunity outside the committee structure to receive a lot of information and to make comments.  At the last meeting Members received a really good report on the Emergency Cover Review (ECR) from the Deputy Chief Fire Officer.  Members were interested, involved and asked a lot of questions.  The Chairman was pleased at the number of Members who had attended and encouraged all Members to continue to attend this important meeting in future.

RESOLVED: - That the proceedings of the Strategy Group held on 7 November 2022 be noted and endorsed.

RESOLVED: - That the proceedings of the Planning Committee held on 21 November 2022 be noted and endorsed.

Members received a report which was presented to Planning Committee on 21 November 2022 (detailed minutes from which had been considered by the Authority earlier on today’s agenda).  The report set out details of the consultation process and analysis, presented amended Emergency Cover Review (ECR) proposals refined post-consultation and included an updated full equality impact assessment. 

The Chairman, County Councillor O’Toole stated that a letter had been sent to Authority Members and Senior Officers in the Service via email the previous evening (late on 18 December) from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) providing further comments on the ECR.  He invited Officer comment.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer felt it worth reflecting that at the Strategy Group meeting held early November he went through a comprehensive presentation on the ECR consultation process and outcomes, and the subsequent Planning Committee had considered the revised proposals in detail.  He found it disappointing to receive the letter in the late evening before this meeting, which may not yet have been read by all Members, when there had been discussions with the FBU on the whole ECR over the course of the last 10 months and the FBU feedback from the consultation process was included in the agenda pack (pages 197-202).  He advised that the letter contained a number of inaccuracies as follows:

i)       The letter referred to the proposal to introduce a new Flexible Wholetime Duty System or to reduce the staffing establishment on the existing 2-2-4 duty system to 24 (from 28) should an agreement not be reached with the Trade Unions (page 60 of the agenda pack) citing a report produced by the National Fire Chiefs Council regarding the working patterns project.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the letter had only referenced from the report 1 Fire and Rescue Service as having looked at crewing levels whereas, there were at least 2 other Services that referenced establishment levels lower than 28.

ii)      The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the letter correctly referenced the proposed reduction in firefighter crewing levels on Day Crewing Plus (DCP) stations however, this was being proposed in order to balance the whole budget (page 60 of the agenda pack).

iii)    The Deputy Chief Fire Officer was disappointed that the letter referred to job losses and loss of fire cover, when this was not the case.  The proposed ECR put 8 wholetime firefighters into the Service and potentially some additional on-call firefighters dependent on the final arrangements agreed for Penwortham and St Annes.  The loss of fire cover was not accurate; throughout the ECR process the aim of maintaining all 39 fire stations and 58 fire appliances remained.  The letter also challenged the data that supported an overall county impact of 0.1% (as referred to on page 62 of the agenda pack) without citing any alternative view.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer confirmed that the data used to inform the ECR had been externally analysed by a third party across tens of thousands of incidents over  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50/22

The Chief Fire Officer presented the report. The Fire and Rescue National Framework for England (2018) set out the Government’s high-level expectations, priorities and objectives for Fire and Rescue Authorities (FRA’s) in England.  Included within the framework was the requirement that all FRA’s must provide assurance on financial, governance and operational matters.

The Statement of Assurance was considered by Members. It aimed to provide the required accountability and transparency to Lancashire communities and the Government that Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service continued to deliver efficient, effective value for money services.

This statement sat alongside the Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP), Statement of Accounts, the Annual Governance Statement, the Annual Service Plan and Annual Progress Report.  It detailed what measures were in place to assure that the Combined Fire Authority’s performance was efficient, economic, and effective and provided further evidence that LFRS continued to deliver under the expectations detailed within both the National Framework and its own Risk Management Plan.

RESOLVED: - That the Authority approved the Annual Statement of Assurance 2021?22 as presented and approved the signing of this by the Chairman of the Authority and the Chief Fire Officer.

The concept of Member Champions was introduced in December 2007.  A review of the areas of focus for Member Champions was considered at the Authority meeting held in June 2017 where new areas of responsibility were agreed.  The current Member Champions and their areas of responsibility were:

·         Community Safety – Councillor Jean Rigby

·         Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – Councillor Zamir Khan

·         Health and Wellbeing – County Councillor Andrea Kay

·         Road Safety – County Councillor Ron Woollam

The Chairman thanked the Member Champions for their work.  Reports relating to activity were provided on a regular basis to the Authority.  In presenting their sections of the report each Member Champion took the opportunity to thank the staff that worked with them for their dedication and support.  This report related to activity for the period up to 30 November 2022. 

In response to a question raised by County Councillor Pattison, County Councillor Woollam confirmed that work was undertaken with Lancashire County Council (LCC) colleagues to provide ‘Slow Down, Save Lives’ stickers and these were available from LCC for distribution as appropriate.

RESOLVED: - That the Authority noted the report and acknowledged the work of the respective Champions.

The report summarised Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service prosecutions pertaining to fire safety offences and set out convictions resulting from 5 arson incidents which had progressed via the criminal justice process. 

Fire Protection and Business Support information was also included in the report to provide Members with an update on the continually evolving regulatory position and how the Service was developing and adapting both its services and workforce to ensure it kept pace with the changes to keep public and firefighters safe in the built environment. 

RESOLVED: - That the Authority noted and endorsed the report.

The report provided Members with information relating to operational incidents of note over the period 1 September 2022 – 30 November 2022.

Councillor Jane Hugo queried whether any multi-agency lessons had been learned from the counter-terrorism exercise in Blackpool (as referenced on pages 267 and 268 of the report).  In response, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that there was a significant number of resources that attended the exercise which was organised through the Lancashire Resilience Forum (LRF).  Attendees included category 1 responders (emergency services and local authorities) and some category 2 agencies.  Numerous debriefs had been carried out over the course of the previous month including a strategic debrief the previous week.  All feedback was being collated through the Service’s Response and Emergency Planning Team.  Learning from the exercise would be progressed internally by the Service and by the LRF with other agencies.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that government ministers were involved in discussions given it was such a significant incident.  The exercise was well organised with staff in attendance a credit to the Service.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer confirmed that Members regularly received details of business continuity test exercises and this would bereported in due course.

County Councillor Clarke referred to an incident on Poulton Road in Fleetwood (page 266 of the agenda pack) where the Service attended a major building fire at a property that had been derelict for a number of years.  He commended the actions of the firefighters in attendance who were able to stop the fire spreading to neighbouring properties.

In addition to the report, County Councillor Kay wanted to thank staff at Fleetwood Fire Station who had responded to support her following a number of reports of antisocial behaviour in the Wyre area.

Councillor Williams thanked staff from Bispham Fire Station who had attended a road traffic accident in Blackpool involving 3 people including a pregnant lady.  The Service removed the roof of the vehicle using hydraulic rescue equipment and the lady was rescued safely.

County Councillor Shedwick acknowledged the range of activities detailed in the report including the work of the activity dogs.  He also thanked staff for attending a further road traffic accident which had occurred the previous evening in Thornton.

County Councillor Singleton thanked staff who attended the road traffic collision in Singleton village (page 268 of the agenda pack) where there had unfortunately been a fatality and multiple casualties.  He understood that speed cameras would now be made available on the road where the accident occurred.

RESOLVED: -  That the Authority noted the report.

Standing item.

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 20 February 2023 at 1000 hours at Washington Hall Training Centre, Euxton.

The next meeting of the Authority would be held on Monday 20 February 2023

 at 10:00am at the Training Centre, Euxton.

The Authority is asked to consider whether, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, they consider that the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, indicated under the heading to the item.

RESOLVED: - That the press and members of the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, indicated under the heading to the item.

(Paragraphs 1, 3 and 4)

(Paragraphs 1, 3 and 4)

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer provided Members with an update on the current approach to business continuity in the event of industrial action.

RESOLVED:-  That the report be noted and action outlined endorsed.

An item of business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Clerk should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

(Paragraph 3)

Members received an update from the Chief Fire Officer of the potential impact on the Service during industrial action planned by North West Ambulance Service staff for later that week.

RESOLVED: - That the report be noted.