Agenda item

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer updated Members regarding His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) activity and LFRS planning arrangements.

Values and culture in fire and rescue services

HMICFRS had published a spotlight report on 30 March 2023 which focused on the values and culture of all 44 fire and rescue services in England.  Since the start of inspections in 2018, HMICFRS reported that they repeatedly found evidence of poor values, culture and behaviour, including bullying, harassment and discrimination in many services.  This led to recommendation that the sector should have a code of ethics, which was introduced in 2021.  The spotlight report was the first time HMICFRS looked in such depth at the cumulative issue of values and culture across all services.  They particularly focused on issues that had been seen in more than half (at least 26) of services and which were having a detrimental impact across the sector. These included: i) bullying, harassment, and discrimination; ii) lack of fairness and diversity; and iii) reporting and handling of concerns, including allegations of misconduct.  The report examined what was working well, what needed to change and the barriers to making improvements.  HMICFRS found that while some services had made improvements since their first round of inspections in respect of values and culture, many needed to do more. 

The report contained 35 recommendations, which were aimed at chief fire officers, chief constables, and national bodies and a request to implement the relevant recommendations by stated deadline(s).  Fire and rescue authorities were also asked to note that fire and rescue services were required to update HMICFRS on how the recommendations were being actioned. Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service had provided HMICFRS with an update on the implementation of the recommendations, including a short self-assessment narrative per recommendation.  HMICFRS would be monitoring these recommendations closely.

Positive Practice Portal

The National Fire Chiefs Council’s (NFCC) Positive Practice Portal launched on 10 May 2023.  The Positive Practice Portal would share case studies and examples of positive practice captured by HMICFRS, enabling fire and rescue services to learn from each other and improve their services for the benefit of the public. The Positive Practice Portal provided details about interventions, which had been developed to address a particular need, concern or organisational change and were recognised by HMICFRS as innovative or promising practice.  These practices covered areas such as organisational culture.

HMICFRS Spring Data Collection

In accordance with timescales LFRS submitted the spring data collection in June 2023.

Round 3 Overview

In the next round of inspections, ‘Round 3’, HMICFRS would continue to inspect how effective and efficient Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) were at carrying out their principal functions of fire safety, firefighting, and responding to road traffic collisions and other emergencies, whilst taking a more in depth, robust, look at certain aspects.  As Members were already aware, HMICFRS had moved away from a tranche system to a more rolling approach. It was anticipated that this would ensure publication of the reports would be sooner after the inspection had concluded, which would enable FRSs to be able to react to feedback in a timelier way.  Also, as previously reported, there were now five gradings with the new judgment of ‘adequate’. Whilst it was not set in stone, indications suggested that where a service had an identified ‘area for improvement’, it had the potential to move a ‘good’ grade to ‘adequate’.

Round 3 started in February 2023 and inspection activity was now underway for the first 12 services in the programme.  Over a two-year period HMICFRS would inspect all 44 FRSs in England, using a similar methodology to the Round 2 inspections.

Whilst it was still not certain, planning assumptions remained that Lancashire would likely be inspected either late 2023 or early 2024 (the first 15 FRSs on the list had been given inspection dates up to September, and LFRS were 28^th on the list.)  The running order may be subject to change, which could be due to reasons including changes in performance or risk.  Services affected by this would be informed of any planned changes at the earliest opportunity.

The newly formed Organisational Assurance Team within the Service Improvement Department would track progress from our previous inspection, monitor national themes and prepare LFRS for the round 3 inspection. AM Powell was LFRS’ Service Liaison Officer.

In response to Member questions the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that one of the HMICFRS national recommendations from the spotlight report was for staff to have access to an independent reporting line to report anything anonymously.  He confirmed that following researching a number of options, Safecall (an anonymous whistleblowing hotline) was now in place at LFRS. 

CC Dad queried how many of the 35 recommendations were in place at LFRS.  In response, AM Powell advised that 20 of the 35 recommendations related to Chief Fire Officers to implement within recommended deadlines.  He confirmed there was a HMICFRS action plan that the Service needed to feed into and LFRS had reported back on the recommendations.  The remaining 15 recommendations were for other bodies and / or were reliant on future regulatory changes and with some deadline dates of 2024 and beyond. 

Further to the earlier discussion CC Hennessy requested that the action plan on the implementation of the recommendations including the short self-assessment narrative be brought to a future meeting.  In response, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that he would ask the Head of Human Resources to bring a report to a future Authority meeting.

Resolved: That the Planning Committee noted and endorsed the report.