Agenda item

Spirit of Fire Awards

The Chief Fire Officer reported that the Service had been nominated in two categories for the Spirit of Fire Awards: Supporter of the Year – Dependant (Cameron Moore) and Team of the Year (Leighton Buzzard Fire Cadets). The nominees had attended the awards ceremony in London and had met the Home Secretary.

River Festival

The Chief Fire Officer advised that there had been no major incidents at the River Festival. The Service’s Positive Action Team had been in attendance handing out leaflets to interested individuals.

Review of Governance

The terms of reference for the review of governance had been received from the internal auditors and agreed internally. The audit report, when completed, would be submitted to the Corporate Services Policy and Challenge Group.

Incident at Fire Service College

The Chief Fire Officer reported that one of the instructors overseeing the recruits at the Fire Service College had been hospitalised with heat stroke following his collapse during a Breathing Apparatus exercise. He had been discharged on 16 July after a week in hospital and had travelled back to Bedfordshire on 17 July 2018. The Authority was advised that support had been provided to the recruits following the incident.

A letter would be signed by the Chair on behalf of the Authority wishing the individual a speedy recovery.

The Chair commented that a number of Members had not been present on the visit to the Fire Service College, which was unfortunate as both the Service and the College had gone to great lengths to organise the visit and it had been very informative. It was suggested that a similar visit should be arranged in two years’ time to allow other Members the chance to visit the College. This should be arranged to take place when new recruits were being trained at the site.

The Police and Crime Commissioner commented that she would have liked to have been invited as she recognised there was potential for police training to be undertaken at that site.

Members were reminded that the passing out parade for the new recruits would be held on 30 August 2018 and were invited to attend in support of the Service’s new fire fighters.

Home Office Consultation

The Chief Fire Officer advised that he had received a letter the previous day requesting a response by 7 August 2018 to a Home Office consultation on recognising longer lengths of service as a result of changes to the pensionable age. Previously, only 20 years of service had been recognised. Recognition of 30 years of service and 40 years of service with additional bars was being proposed. The recognition of 40 years of service only would be retrospective.

He suggested that it may be appropriate for someone with more than 30 years of service to have that length of service recognised retrospectively if they were still in employment, as the last time their length of service would have been rewarded would have been upon completion of 20 years of service.

It was agreed that the Chief and Chair respond on behalf of the Authority as Members had not been given sufficient time to consider the consultation proposals.

The Chair requested that the letter be circulated to all Members of the Authority for information.

HMICFRS Inspection

The Chair reported that the Principal Officers had given a detailed presentation to the HMICFRS inspection team the previous day and suggested that the presentation could be given to Members at a forthcoming Member Development Day.