Agenda item

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer provided an update on His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) activity.

HMICFRS had commenced Round 3 inspections in early 2023.  The three pillars of effectiveness, efficiency and people remained the same as Round 2 as did the 11 diagnostics under each pillar which the inspectorate graded judgements against.

It was noted that HMI Michelle Skeer, recently retired Chief Constable of Cumbria Constabulary, had three meetings planned with the Chair of the Authority, the Chief Fire Officer and Trade Union officials / staff network group representatives at the start of December. In addition, the Chair of the Authority and the Chief Fire Officer had recently attended a HMICFRS’ Chief and Chairs event in London.

Early engagement with the Service’s liaison lead, Dominic Mika had taken place with Chief Fire Officer Justin Johnston and Area Manager Tom Powell (Service Liaison Officer).  Dominic would start to be introduced into the Service over the coming months in the build up to LFRS’ inspection which was anticipated would take place around late spring / early summer 2024. The Organisational Assurance Team within the Service Improvement Department continued to track progress against our previous inspection, monitor national themes and prepare LFRS for our Round 3 inspection.

HMICFRS was publishing reports on a rolling basis for Round 3 and had so far published eight reports on fire and rescue services (FRS). With the introduction of the ‘adequate’ grading, many FRS’s had seen ‘good’ gradings from Round 2 change to ‘adequate’ gradings in Round 3 due to identified ‘areas for improvement’. A summary of the gradings for all eight FRSs inspected so far in Round 3 was detailed in the report.

Misconduct within fire and rescue services

Members noted that HMICFRS had commissioned Crest Advisory to carry out research on misconduct within fire and rescue services in England. The goal was to better understand misconduct within the fire sector so its processes and policies could be strengthened and improved.

Crest Advisory was conducting two online surveys; one aimed at current members of staff and the other aimed at former members of staff who had worked in a fire and rescue service within the last five years. Current members of staff could take part in the survey which was open until 4 December 2023. Former members of staff could register their interest to take part in research interviews with registration open until 11 December 2023. LFRS had shared details of the surveys with both current and former members of staff.  Information shared in the research would typically remain confidential, unless there were safeguarding, or criminal issues raised that require it to be shared with a third party (e.g., the police). Reporting of data obtained via surveys and interviews would be anonymised.  The findings would be reported by HMICFRS in June 2024.

Values and culture in fire and rescue services

Values and culture in fire and rescue services remained a focus for HMICFRS and LFRS had already been working proactively in terms of promoting its values and engendering an organisational culture where all employees could thrive. 

Members noted that the Authority’s Resources Committee had recently received a report on the progress the Service had made in relation to equality diversity and inclusion (EDI) as part of our EDI Annual Report. 

The Resources Committee was also updated on progress the Service was making regarding the HMICFRS and National Fire Chiefs Council recommendations in relation to values and culture.  In response to Member questions, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer confirmed that there were 35 recommendations and 20 of those were for Chief Fire Officers to implement which included: methods for individuals to raise concerns (including an anonymous reporting line), the review of background checks, the implementation of Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks and a 360° feedback process for leaders and managers in the Service. 

The Principal Member Services Officer confirmed that the progress report to the Resources Committee was publicly available on the Service website and agreed that this would be circulated separately to Members of the Committee for information.

The Authority Chairman commented that collaboration was discussed at a national conference he had attended where the vast majority of attendees were against governance of fire by a Police and Crime Commissioner; this was something that the Authority had previously unanimously opposed.

Resolved: that the report be noted and endorsed.