Agenda item

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

The Chair, on behalf of the Authority, received a number of petitions from Councillor Dave Smith the Chair of the Community Safety Committee.

A representative of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) asked the following questions of the Chair regarding this item;

Question 1

‘the Fire Brigades Union is appalled at the potential loss of further front line pumping appliances. Is this Authority completely certain that Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service has exhausted ALL other means of saving money other than removing fire engines and their crews from their communities? ‘

The Chair replied as follows;

‘Since 2010 the Authority has received a £5m cut in Central government funding resulting in a reduced budget from £48m to under £43m. The Authority has already made significant reductions in all areas of the service.

The Balancing the Budget report agreed by Members in February this year identified further reductions in government funding and proposed a number of areas where further savings of £2.4m could be made. The Authority agreed that the majority of savings, £1.4m, would come from areas away from fire engines, leaving approximately £1m to be found from operational fire stations to assist in meeting that overall deficit.

The Finance and Resources Committee under the chairmanship of Councillor Wood, has robustly scrutinised all areas of spend in detail, however, due to the fact that a significant amount of the budget is related to employee costs, some 78%, it is inevitable that staff cost need to be reduced in order to meet the financial challenges. Hence reduction in both the operational fleet in tandem with other savings including none station staff costs, collaboration and partnership working are all now being considered.’

Question 2

‘the Authority has a duty to scrutinise the recommendations of service management. Therefore, is the Authority satisfied that by removing front line fire engines, that they are not making decisions that will compromise fire-fighter safety, or indeed reduce our capability to safely  and effectively perform rescues at life threatening fire incidents involving 3 engines, during peak times, at any location within the county?’

The Chair replied as follows;

‘the independently validated Fire Cover Review 2010 produced by professional officers provides robust risk analysis and information regarding the decisions being considered. The fundamental factors leading to the recommendations in the report recognises the infrequency of incidents and the close proximity of other resources when required to respond to emergencies.

Attendance standards and operational procedures for dealing with life risk incidents remain unchanged. The Chief Fire Officer, as the professional advisor to the Fire Authority, is confident that removing the number of appliances required to make the savings will not significantly affect overall operational effectiveness, or compromise fire-fighter safety.

Question 3

‘as the Fire Brigades Union in Nottinghamshire represents 97% of your fire-fighters, we are astounded and disappointed that our officials have not been consulted directly by members of this Authority, or indeed senior management with regard to these proposals.

In order to address this obvious lack of engagement, and to provide Authority members with a broader perspective of issues such as frontline cuts (amongst other issues), will this Authority, therefore, commit to developing an open framework (within the next 6 months), whereby CFA members will regularly meet with Nottinghamshire FBU officials, to discuss issues that are of importance both for the Authority and the members of Nottinghamshire Fire Brigades Union?’

The Chair replied as follows;

‘the Authority and its Officers have an ethos and track record of engaging with staff and their representatives. The proposals regarding consultation were agreed at the public meeting of the Policy and Strategy Committee on the 25^th April and formally launched on 19^th May. The FBU provided a written submission to ORS which has been considered within their outturn report.

I am aware that during the period of consultation Senior Officers have met both formally and informally with the trade unions.

In addition, I, on behalf of the Authority, have met with the FBU without exception, each and every time requested, this includes meeting a delegation from the FBU at Highfields.

The FBU is also afforded the opportunity to table written questions at all CFA meetings and committees on any agenda item, this is not common practice across other authorities.

You may also be aware that I have met with both local and regional officials of the FBU including a meeting with local FBU representatives last week and regional officials this week.

I have also in addition met jointly with The CFO and FBU representatives. I believe this has provided ample opportunity for the FBU to engage in the consultation process and comment fully on the proposals.’

The Chief Fire Officer, John Buckley presented his report setting out the outcomes of the consultation on the proposals to remove two appliances from operational service. The Chief Fire Officer reminded the meeting that at the meeting of the Fire Authority on 28 February 2014, a range of proposals that could achieve the required £2.4m of savings had been identified.  In response to that report, the Authority agreed to consult on proposals affecting six stations, namely Central, Collingham, Highfields, Mansfield, Stockhill, and Warsop. The Authority had also agreed that the Policy and Strategy Committee should consider and approve the consultation documentation and process. At its meeting on 25 April 2014, the Chief Fire Officer presented a report ‘Consultation on the Reductions in the Operational Fleet’ to the Policy and Strategy Committee. In response to the report the Committee agreed the consultation approach and tasked the Chief Fire Officer with presenting a report to this meeting identifying options for reductions in operational resources.

The consultation had been undertaken by Opinion Research Services (ORS) and Dale Hall of ORS attended the meeting and gave a presentation on the consultation outcomes.

As a result of the consultation, the Chief Fire Officer recommended to members the removal from operational service of the second appliance from Highfields and the deletion of 20 whole time posts from the establishment and the removal from operational service of the second appliance from Mansfield and the deletion of 12 retained posts from the establishment. These recommendations will realise £905,000 of the savings. The shortfall of £95,000 will be considered within the broader areas of the ‘Balancing the Budget in Future Years’ report of February 2014.

RESOLVED

(1)  to remove from operational service the second appliance from Highfields and the deletion of 20 whole time posts from the establishment;

(2)  to remove from operational service the second appliance from Mansfield and the deletion of 12 retained posts from the establishment;

(3)  to request the Chief Fire Officer to prepare a further report reviewing the impact of the decisions in resolutions (1) and (2) above in 12 months time and to present it to the Authority as soon as practicable thereafter.

The meeting was adjourned by the Chair at 12.45 pm for a comfort break and resumed at 1.00 pm. Councillors Stephen Garner and Ken Rigby left the meeting at this point.