Information

FIRE ASSURANCE & ACCOUNTABILITY MEETING

Welcome and introductions.

 

Attendees:

PFCC Danielle Stone (DS)

Marianne Kimani (MK)

Jonny Bugg (JB)

Louise Sheridan (LS)

Paul Fell (PF)

CFO Nikki Watson (NW)

ACFO Phil Pells (PP)

ACFO Jim Powell (JP)

 

Minutes and decisions of previous meeting

 

• DS welcomed everyone to the problem-solving meeting.
• Apologies from Vaughan Ashcroft, Nick Alexander and Paul Bullen

 

Performance Review

 

The items for discussion and previously notified to the Chief Fire Officer relate to NFRS fleet utilisation data, sickness levels and data in relation to protected characteristics.

 

Fleet utilisation

• NW provided additional commentary.
• Utilisation of vehicles is not a particularly helpful measure of productivity.
• Has looked to see if there is any comparative national data but other services do not measure in the same way – The standardised measure is appliance availability
• Will re-run data without fire appliances and look at cars.
• Additional work for the new CRMP and ‘Your Future Service’ is in the final stages and will be helpful in agreeing a new standard of response going forwards.
• This will include the most appropriate appliance or vehicle that is dispatched to an incident depending on the nature of the emergency.
• MK suggested that it would be useful to have a breakdown of how vehicles are used – what they attend and how often

• NW confirmed that they are already looking at that and gave recent examples where the Service had dispatched a car to review the incident before sending an appliance to an RTC.
• Recent data shows that from 36 calls, Fire Control only dispatched an appliance to 17 incidents.
• PP confirmed that they are also looking at crew productivity at each station – not only what they do, but what more they can do.
• However important that don’t undermine a crew’s ability to respond whilst balancing training, maintenance of equipment versus the time spent on standby.
• NW commented that low utilisation of fire appliances is good as it equates to not many fires. In addition, the overall fleet is relatively small.
• PF reiterated that the reason for the challenge was not so much a measure of how busy or productive fire colleagues are. However, the appliances/vehicles in the fleet are only being used a very small percentage (3.5%) of time and with the current budgetary challenge, is there a better way to use the fleet.
• Don’t want the budget being used up with vehicles the Service doesn’t use.

ACTION – NW to get a re-run of fleet utilisation data broken down into different categories of vehicles and share with the Commissioner and for this data to be used in the discussions about 2025/2026 budget savings.

 

Sickness

• NW confirmed that full details of sickness absence is no longer captured in Fire Watch as this has been switched off.
• Sarah Crampton is looking at getting the data manually
• NW accepted that there is a lot more work to do to understand the situation and will be able to give a more informed update in 3 months’ time.
• NW is however confident that sickness levels are not impacting operational resilience but is having an impact on overtime costs.
• Need a lot more information and focus on this
• PP advised that short term sickness is more of an issue than long term sickness.
• Looking at fitness tests and running a campaign to do more exercise and guidance on portion control.
• Traditionally, Services that do well in terms of productivity enforce fitness training during shift.
• JB asked about the police scheme Oscar kilo and whether it could be linked in with Fire.
• PP was aware of some cross activity with the welfare dogs and agreed to explore what more could share/learn

ACTION – PP to investigate sharing options of Police Oscar Kilo programme.

 

• There was a discussion about sickness/absence causation data
• PP advised that he has looked at the H&S thematic review on injuries related to slip trips and falls which can lead to periods of sickness/absence.
• Manual handling incidents also have links into some cases of long-term sickness.
• The Service is currently transitioning across to a new Occupational Health contract (same as police).

• There was a discussion about modified duties to encourage people back to work following an injury or illness.
• PP confirmed this is standard practice however it relies on the persons GP signing them off as fit to return.
• There was a discussion about a higher cancer risk/vulnerability amongst firefighters.
• PP confirmed that there is no data on rates in Northants.

ACTION – it was agreed to revisit sickness levels in 4 months’ time once better data is available.

 

Protected characteristics

• NW confirmed that the Service has had a massive push on checking this data. This data related to staff declaring any protected characteristics that they had. While accepting that there is no requirement for them to do so it was important that the service had as clear a view as possible to make sure that it can support staff and treat them appropriately.
• Much of this information was previously left blank so have been going out to stations to complete and check.
• Whilst the data is now better it is still not fully complete and there will always be occasions where someone prefers not to disclose.
• On ethnicity, this was previously 39% unknown. This has decreased to 15% unknown.
• Likewise, on sexuality this was previously 61% unknown, and this has now decreased to 20%
• Disability data is still to be checked.
• Process to update is via Unit 4 which staff have to log into. On call firefighters want to spend their time doing drills so they have been given paper copies to complete and return.
• NW acknowledged that the Service is not ethnically diverse at the moment, but there is little opportunity to change that in the short term as recruitment cohorts are irregular and small n size/
• Helen Cook in the Positive Action team is looking at how the next campaign can attract more ethnically diverse applicants.
• The Culture work that has been undertaken is also an important part of the recruitment and retention strategy and the Service is in a much better place as a result.
• However nationally the Service is in the bottom 50% for diversity of its workforce although for Gender it is 8^th best in the country (11% female firefighters)
• Analysis from a recent People survey will be available at the end of April and should provide a more up-to-date position.
• DS confirmed she would like to get to a position where our harder to reach communities feel that the Fire Service is a viable recruitment option.
• It is important that people feel wanted when they join
• A Mosque visit is planned in April and the Positive action team will attend the next Black Professionals network meeting at the end of the month.
• NW confirmed that recruitment literature has been updated and the Service will run more ‘Have a go days’

• JP highlighted a Summer Internship scheme which had been successfully delivered in his previous Service for 18 year olds – some of whom had gone on to become firefighters or safety inspection officers.
• DS requested more information about this scheme.

ACTION – JP to send DS more information about the Summer Internship Scheme.

 

Assurance Statement:

 

The Commissioner was concerned in relation to the levels of reported fleet utilisation. She fully accepted that there are parts of the fleet where low utilisation levels might be welcomed, such a appliances, meaning that the need to deploy them to incidents was limited but given the overall size of the fleet and the relative number of such vehicles she wanted to be more assured that the fleet was being used at it’s most effective and the service was securing value for money and optimising the use of the fleet to its maximum.

 The Commissioner asked for a deeper insight to be provided into the utilisation data for the whole NFRS fleet, broken down into types of vehicles as well as a whole.

 In relation to sickness levels and absence reporting the Commissioner expressed some concerns over based on the data she had been presented the number of firefighters and staff off sick appeared high. She raised questions as to whether the service did all it was able to prevent this and to integrate those4 that had been ill back into operational activity as soon as possible. She recognised the system changes that had affected the effective reporting of this and stated that she required a deeper insight into this in 4 months’ time.

 The Commissioner was pleased that improvements had been seen in getting staff to declare any protected characteristics that would allow managers to have greater insights into their workforce and to then ensure that appropriate mechanisms or interventions were in place to meet their needs and support them, driving forward a more welcoming and inclusive workplace. Following the discussion, she looked forward to the improvements that were planned as a result of this.

 

 

 

Grenfell Inquiry Part 2 report

The Grenfell Inquiry Part 2 report was published on 4^th September 2024.

The Commissioner requires a paper that outlines following this how NFRS have responded to the recommendations and findings of this report.

She seeks reassurances that the service has put into place or where this is not the case the reasons why all learning from both Part 1 and Part 2 reports.

 

• The paper provided in advance of the meeting was taken as read with PP giving additional commentary.
• Phase 2 of the inquiry has now been completed.
• There is robust governance both nationally and locally
• PP clarified the definition of a ‘Tall building’

• There are 24 in Northants although only 11 would meet the national criteria. The service locally have self declared the rest as tall buildings as in reality any response would need to be similar.
• This should provide reassurance that the Service are being extra diligent with a dynamic response in place to manage any incident for these.
• There was a discussion about Incident Management software – Fire is a small market so no major suppliers for an automated system. This is under constant review should a suitable one become available.
• In terms of overall governance. Northants was one of 25 Services inspected and have been reviewed positively by HMICFRS.
• Following the publication of Phase 2 of the Grenfell report, NFRS have reestablished a Gold group to provide strategic oversight of the Phase 2 recommendations.
• Gap analysis has been carried out against the five thematic groups for the Phase 2 recommendations and PP is working to address or close off as appropriate.
• Joint preparedness with partners is key.
• DS expressed her concern about the worried integration of systems and the fact that there are lots of different systems that have to log into.
• PP agreed, but advised that whist the enquiry said integration would be beneficial having one platform doesn’t solve the issue.
• How emergency services pass information more effectively between each other in a major incident is key (police, fire and ambulance)
• In house systems are expensive, difficult to update and maintain.
• There was a discussion about Multi Agency Information Transfer which has been around for a decade.
• Fire are just starting to use it.
• Aim is for all blue light services to share response information including the Coast Guard.
• JB asked if, as the Fire Authority, is there anything else the OPFCC should be doing.
• PP advised that nothing comes to mind, but he will reflect on the question.
• DS commented that at a local level, NFRS not having a say in local planning decisions is a concern especially as in the CRMP have made a strategic priority statement on how the Service can give professional advice.
• Apart from that the Commissioner was assured by the governance of Phase 2 of the Grenfell report.
• She would like an update to be given at a future Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting.

Action – PF to ask Stuart McCartney to schedule via the Panel clerk as presentation on how NFRS has responded to Phase 1 and Phase 2 Gre3nfell Inquiry reports

 

Assurance Statement:

 Following this report and a previous one submitted at an earlier accountability board, (Grenfell Inquiry Part 1), the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner was pleased with the local response

She was assured that the service locally understood the implications for itself and had structured effective governance to make sure that there was senior oversight in relation to the adoption and implementation of recommendations.

 She was especially pleased that NFRS had stretched the definition of a tall building to ensure that there was an effective attendance and mobilisation plane based on local risk rather than simply a national definition.

 

 

AOB

No further business was raised.