Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors J Chatterley and D Franks.

RESOLVED:

That Councillor Franks be elected as Vice-Chair of the Policy and Challenge Group for 2016-17.

Members are requested to disclose the existence and nature of any disclosable pecuniary interest and any other interests as required by the Fire Authority’s Code of Conduct. (see note below).

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no communications.

*To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 10 March 2016

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 10 March 2016 be confirmed and signed as a true record.

* To consider Terms of Reference

The Group received its updated terms of reference. Following an internal audit of governance, RSM, the Authority's internal auditors, recommended that the terms of reference of the Policy and Challenge Groups and the Audit and Standards Committee be updated to clarify that "the Group has no delegated power to take decisions but its minutes are submitted to the FRA under a covering report from the Group's Chair with any recommendations."

Members requested that any collaboration issues affecting service delivery be brought to the Group for information.

RESOLVED:

That the Terms of Reference for the Service Delivery Policy and Challenge Group be updated to include a statement that the Group reports to the Fire and Rescue and Authority.

* To consider a report

DCFO Ranger submitted a report on performance for the year 2015/16 and an update on the progress and status of the Service Delivery Programme and projects to date.

DCFO Ranger reported that the Retained Duty System Improvement Project was underway with a revised date of the end of May 2016 to implement Gartan. The project in its entirety was scheduled over a two year period. Members were assured that iterative improvements would be introduced over that time. An example of this was the recently introduced phased alert process through rostering which was expected to improve availability.

AC C Ball advised that following legal intervention, there had been significant progress in relation to the Replacement Mobilising System (RMS). The Service was recently in receipt of the developmental system for testing and the full system was still scheduled to go live on 27 September 2016. The provider had also agreed to a reduction in the annual charges, although the figures had not yet been confirmed.

It was noted that the full Authority had approved additional funding up to £75,000 to enable the successful completion of the project.

Members discussed the RAG rating of the project in light of the fact that the delivery of the project was 18 months overdue.

The Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) was a national project to replace and upgrade the current Airwave System. This was currently RAG rated as amber as there were delays to the project nationally.

AC C Ball advised that, although the Service was currently awaiting information to determine what the Service could do at a local level, the national plan had set milestones and an end date in place which could still be met, although there was slippage against some milestones.

DCFO Ranger presented the end of year performance report for 2015/16. He highlighted the high level of performance that had been achieved during the year. He reminded Members that more stretching targets had been set for the current performance year and these would be reported on at the Group's next meeting.

In relation to PI02 (primary fire fatalities), DCFO Ranger advised that, although four fire fatalities had been reported during the year, a message had been received from the coroner that one of the deaths was not as a result of the fire. This brought the total number of fire fatalities to three.

Performance against PI05 (accidental dwelling fires) continued to improve, as it had exceeded the target in the context of an increasing population.

SOC G Jeffery advised that Members would receive a presentation on how the Service used MOSAIC data to identify the most vulnerable for targeted intervention at the next Member Development Day.

Members noted that the indicators measuring water related deaths would be removed from the report for 2016/17 at their request.

PI11 (the percentage of occasions when our response time for critical fire incidents were met against agreed response standards) had missed target by 2% and performance was currently being monitored. The agreed response standard  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16-17/SD/7

* To receive a verbal update

There were no exceptions to report.

* To consider a report

SOC T Rogers presented the review of the Corporate Risk Register and advised that there had been no changes to the risk register in relation to service delivery.

He reported on the following updates:

CRR01 (if we do not plan properly for major operational incidents then we may not be able to resolve the incident appropriately and thus affect our service delivery provision): the Service continued to play an active role in the Bedfordshire and Luton Local Resilience Forum, including ongoing command and control training.

CRR02 (if we cannot recruit or retain adequate numbers of part time fire fighters, particularly in relation to day cover, then we will not be able to fully crew our fire appliances and thus have a detrimental impact on our service delivery due to the unavailability of our fire appliances): all of the retained stations had now received training in the use of Gartan and were now using the software.

SOC T Rogers also provided an update on the Service's business continuity arrangements. A programme of testing was being developed to cover all business continuity plans on a cyclical process.

RESOLVED:

That the review by the Service of the Corporate Risk Register in relation to Service Delivery be approved.

* To consider a report

The Group noted that the review of the Retained Duty System and a detailed report on attendance standards would be considered as additional items at the Group's next meeting.

RESOLVED:

That the Work Programme be received.