Agenda item

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented the ICT Plan for Member consideration and introduced Jack Johnson, Interim Head of ICT who was covering the post due to long-term sickness and who had prepared the report. 

The ICT Plan supported the Data and Digital Strategy.  It set out the programme of investment, which underpinned the business strategies that formed the Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) 2022-27.

Data and Digital information were essential for Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) to improve fire response, prevention and protection services to the public given a huge amount of activity was dependent on effective use of data and information.  It was acknowledged that best practice guidelines from central Government, together with other partner agency collaborations, would be considered wherever possible. The Service would also look to align itself with established and accepted best practices and working patterns from across the technology sector.

Key objectives set within the ICT Plan aimed to support the creation of a positive, inclusive culture that encouraged innovation and continuous improvement. Achieving the right culture enabled the delivery of the best services and supported LFRS to be an outstanding fire and rescue service for our communities and visitors.

The ICT Plan focussed on ensuring that the workforce: i) could make effective use of technology to communicate, safely store and share information; ii) could work effectively from anywhere using the most appropriate device for their role, intrinsically increasing efficiency; iii) had easy access to data and intelligence relevant to their role and that the information was current to help increase safety and reduce risk; iv) was digitally engaged in the organisation and champion a digital first culture; and v) technology solutions were secure, but still allowed the workforce to work effectively and efficiently.

The report contained a glossary of technical terms and acronyms to support understanding.  Key elements of the ICT Plan were:

·         Service Support kept operations running smoothly as well as taking ICT service requests via the Helpdesk; 

·         Ongoing partnership work with the Prince’s Trust was through the delivery of WiFi, printing, iPads, projectors, and computers/monitors for all Prince’s Trust students;

·         Network Connectivity provided a robust and reliable network infrastructure that connected services across fire stations essential for effective and efficient service delivery.  Network links connected the Service’s 39 stations to central data centres located at Headquarters, North West Fire Control, Service Training Centre, Lancashire County Council for collaboration and delivery of the service’s financial systems and to the Internet.

·         Storage to protect data from unauthorised access, modification, or deletion.

·         Virtualisation - The strategic direction across UK Government was now ‘Digital by Default, Cloud First’ which required public sector organisations to consider and fully evaluate cloud solutions first before considering other options.  The term ‘virtualisation’ meant that software was used to create an abstraction layer over computer hardware which allowed the hardware elements of a single computer processor, memory, storage and more to be divided into multiple virtual computers, commonly called virtual machines each running its own operating system.  This enabled more efficient use of physical computer hardware and allowed a greater return on hardware investment.  Members noted that 90% of LFRS’ servers were virtualised.

·         Mobile Device Management was the remote control, monitoring and enforcement of policies on employee devices to support staff to securely work off?premises.

·         Telephony Solution – hosted desk-based phone services.

·         Communications - to ensure the integrity, performance and availability of LFRS’ operational communications infrastructure, in particular the key functional areas of the Airwave radio system and Mobile Data Terminal, in adherence with published and acknowledged best practice standards.

·         Cyber Security –given the security landscape was changing rapidly there was the need to evolve at a pace to reduce the likelihood and impact of a cyber-attack; best practice standards set by the National Cyber Security Centre had changed according to that change in the threat landscape.  LFRS had been awarded both Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation, which were government backed schemes that involved external auditing of IT systems. The certification also allowed for better collaboration with other authorities given the growing requirement to be security compliant.

The Authority Chairman thought the document had been laid out in a way which was easy to understand.  He requested that a short presentation be given by the Interim Head of ICT at the next Strategy Group meeting, and the ICT Plan be circulated to all Members at that time. 

CC Woollam queried the Service’s use of TikTok in light of nationally reported potential security concerns.  In response, the Interim Head of ICT advised that the Government’s National Cyber Security Centre had removed TikTok from Government devices.  He reassured Members that Service mobile devices were managed by ICT and the only department with access to use TikTok was corporate communications.

Cllr Scott queried the ability for Fire Services to communicate with each other.  In response the Interim Head of ICT advised that Airwave was the system currently being used which would be replaced by the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP).  This would move systems from analogue to digital to deliver the new Emergency Services Network (ESN) critical communications system.  He reassured Members that Fire Services did communicate effectively with each other.  The move to digital would improve efficiencies and enable blue light services to have fast, safe and secure voice, video and data across the 4G network and give first responders immediate access to life-saving data, images and information in live situations and emergencies on the frontline. 

In response to a question raised by CC Rigby the Interim Head of ICT advised that the 4G network would be upgraded as required to maintain the highest specification.

Resolved: That the report be noted and the ICT Plan endorsed.