Agenda and draft minutes

37.1     Apologies for absence for the meeting scheduled to be held on Monday 18 March 2019 had been received from Councillors Atkins, Franks, Khan, Mingay and Saleem.

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).

38.1     There were no declarations of interests.

39.1     The meeting was convened today in view of the number of apologies received for the meeting of 18 March 2019 and in order to meet deadlines of two of the papers.  The now superfluous meeting on Monday would be cancelled.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 10 January 2019

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 10 January 2019 be confirmed and signed as a true record, as amended for factual accuracy.

To consider a report

41.1     CFO Fuller submitted the 2018/19 Quarter 3 report on performance against Human Resources performance indicators and associated targets.  All performance indicators were on target with the exception of 7.  EQ1a (Percentage of new entrants to the retained duty system to be women) and EQ1b (Percentage of new entrants to the whole time operational duty system to be women) had missed their targets.  The appointment of female recruits remained a priority for the Service which was now waiting for the current recruitment process to be completed.

41.2     H1 (Number of serious accidents (over 28 days) per 1000 employees) missed its target due to two accident injuries that led to absences over 28 days and H2 (Number of working days/shifts lost to accidents per 1000 employees (excluding Retained Duty System employees) missed its target with 37 workplace accident injuries where 7 of those resulted in lost time. 98 of the 120 days lost were associated with the two events in H1.

41.3     T7 (Percentage of Flexible Duty Officers that have attended an Incident Command Assessment within the required frequency for their role) missed the target due to one nominated FDO being withdrawn from the course due to sickness absence.

RESOLVED:

That the progress made on Human Resources Performance be acknowledged.   

To consider a report

42.1     CFO Fuller submitted the 2018/19 Quarter 3 report on the Human Resources programme and projects to date where all projects were green.

RESOLVED:

That the progress made on Human Resource Programme and Projects be acknowledged.

To consider a report

43.1     CFO Fuller submitted the proposed Human Resources and Organisational Development indicators and targets for 2019/20.  The target for EQ1a (Percentage of new entrants to the RDS/On-Call operational staff to be women) had been stretched and set against the 5 year average, as had the target for EQ1b (Percentage of new entrants to the Wholetime operational staff to be women).

43.2     The target for EQ2a (Recruitment of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff across the whole organisation) had been reduced and set against the 5 year average.

43.3     EQ2b (Recruitment of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff across operational roles), EQ2c (Percentage of RDS/On-Call operational staff who declare as BAME) and EQ2d (Percentage of Wholetime operation staff who declare as BAME) had stretched targets but as these were new measures there were no comparisons.

43.4     EQ3 (Percentage of staff that have left who declare as BAME (All staff)), for this target less is better and so the target had been reduced and set at 1% above the BAME staff percentage.

43.5     HR1C (The percentage of the RDS/On-Call workforce with 4 or more incidences of sickness in a 12 month period (lower is better)) was a new measure as the nature of RDS/ON Call employment contracts means a % time lost indicator was not appropriate being as the retained were not always there.

43.6     OH1 (Percentage of personnel in operational roles who have completed an annual fitness assessment in the past 12 months (excluding secondments, career breaks and modified and LTS)) and OH2 (Percentage of operational personnel achieving a pass category in the annual fitness test) had both been stretched slightly. OH3 (Percentage of 3 yearly medicals due in year completed) was a new measure.

43.7     Training targets remained unchanged.

43.8     For H2 (Number of working days/shifts lost to accidents per 1000 employees (excluding RDS/On-Call employees) and H3 (Number of 24 hours cover periods lost to accidents per 1000 RDS/On-Call employees) because the yearly average changes, the targets change.  These targets had been stretched to achieve a 10% reduction on the 2018/19 targets.

RESOLVED:

The Fire Authority be requested to endorse the proposed Human Resources performance indicators and targets for 2019/20.

To consider a report

44.1     CFO Fuller submitted the Health and Safety objectives progress update followed by the proposed 8 Health and Safety objectives for 2019/20.

RESOLVED:

That progress made in relation to the 2018/19 Health and Safety objectives be acknowledged and the Fire Authority be requested to endorse the proposed 2019/20 Corporate Health and Safety Objectives.

To consider a report   

45.1     CFO Fuller submitted the report on progress made to date against current action plans arising from internal and external audit reports. There were no current requests for extensions to completion dates. All actions arising from internal audits had been completed.

RESOLVED:

That progress made to date against the action plans be acknowledged.

To consider a report

46.1     CFO Fuller presented the report on the Corporate Risk Register where there were no changes to the Corporate Risk Register individual risk ratings.

46.2     There had been one update to the register as follows:

46.3     CRR40 (if there is a retirement of a large number of operational officers over a short period of time then we lose significant operational and managerial experience within the service which could ultimately affect our service delivery and wider corporate functionality in the shorter term): The risk review date had been assessed and found to be satisfactory.  The timescale for risk control actions had been reviewed and similarly aligned to fit with this.  All actions for review in April 2019.

RESOLVED:

That the Corporate Risk Register be acknowledged and the review by the Service be approved.

To consider a report

47.1     The Work Programme for 2018/19 was received.  The next meeting was scheduled for 25 June 2019.

RESOLVED:

That the Work Programme be agreed.