Agenda and minutes

None

None

Last meeting held on 4 April 2014 (for confirmation)

Save for an amendment to confirm that Councillor Chris Barnfather was in attendance, the Committee confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 4 April 2014 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Neil Timms, the Strategic Director of Finance and Resources, presented the Chief Fire Officer’s report on the financial performance of the Service in the year 2014/15 to the end of May 2014, analysing the significant variances against the original programme.

·  the total revenue budget for 2014/15 is £42.9 million and the forecast outturn variance at this stage is an under spend of £424,000, which represents an overall variance of 1 %. However, there is still ten months of the year to go, during which time many factors could influence the final outturn;

·  a capital programme for 2014/15 of £4.364 million was approved by members at the full Fire Authority meeting and to this has been added a budget of £1.091 million for the remaining expenditure expected on the Tri-Service Control and Mobilising system for which a capital grant was received in 2012/13. This brings the total capital programme budget for the year to £5.455 million.

RESOLVED to note the content of the report;

Report of the Treasurer

Peter Hurford, Treasurer to the Nottinghamshire and City of Nottingham Fire and Rescue Authority, presented his report informing the Committee of performance to 31 May 2014 relating to the prudential indicators for capital accounting and treasury management.

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Neil Timms, the Strategic Director of Finance and Resources, presented the Chief Fire Officer’s report bringing to the attention of members the annual report prepared by the Authority’s Internal Auditors. Neil Timms introduced John Bailey, Head of Internal Audit, Nottinghamshire County Council, who had prepared the report which concluded that the overall level of internal control is satisfactory and that the Chief Fire Officer and senior managers had responded positively to all recommendations made in the reports that have been finalised.

John Bailey introduced Kate Buckley who has taken over the role of the Authority’s internal auditor with effect from 1 April 2014.

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Neil Timms, the Strategic Director of Finance and Resources, presented the Chief Fire Officer’s report informing members of the updated Strategic and Corporate Risk Registers.

RESOLVED

(1)  to note and endorse the Strategic Risk Register;

(2)  to note and endorse the Corporate Risk Register;

(3)  to note the most significant risks facing the Authority;

(4)  to note and endorse the revised Corporate Risk Management Policy and Strategy.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Neil Timms, the Strategic Director of Finance and Resources, presented the Chief Fire Officer’s report advising members of the work being undertaken to address the risks associated with at-work driving. The Business Risk Manager has prepared a report for the Corporate Management Board and as a result, the Business Risk Manager has been asked to implement measures within the next six to nine months in order that they, and their effect, can be reported in the next invitation to tender for motor insurance which will be written around August 2015 and sent out to the market for an April 2016 renewal.

Members felt that it would be useful to find out how other fire and rescue services were addressing the problem of rising motor insurance premiums and whether there would be any benefit in seeking to work collaboratively with any other services with a view to keeping costs down. The Chair requested that a report be brought back to the next meeting of the Committee giving a breakdown of the level of risk in the various categories of accident, the cost of the accidents, what training is in place to counter the risks and how NFRS compares with other fire and rescue services.

RESOLVED

(1)  to note the measures being taken to reduce the Authority’s exposure to the risks associated with at-work driving;

(2)  that the Business Risk Manager bring a report to the next meeting of the Committee giving a statistical breakdown of the levels of risk involved in various categories of accident, the costs of accidents, the training in place to counter the risks and a comparison with other fire and rescue services.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Neil Timms, the Strategic Director of Finance and Resources, presented the Chief Fire Officer’s report setting out  the current strategy for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to inform thinking around such areas as capital planning.

Gavin Harris, Head of ICT made a presentation to the Committee, the key points of which were as follows:

·  the overall aim of the ICT Strategy for Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS)  is to achieve a balance of organisational efficiency and new innovations, ‘to reduce organisational risk by creating a foundation of standardised, resilient and integrated systems with simplified processes; delivered by cost-effective ICT services and solutions that are focussed on the needs and objectives of NFRS’;

·  the successful delivery of ICT services across NFRS demands more than the implementation of technology.  The approach and attitude of ICT staff is key to ensuring a professional service and as a consequence the NFRS ICT Department will endeavour to embrace the principles of ‘IT as a Service’

i.e an operational model where the IT organization of an enterprise is run like a business, acting and operating as an internal service provider. 

In this model, IT simplifies and encourages service consumption, provides improved financial transparency for IT services, and partners more closely with lines of business. This type of IT transformation is business focused rather than cost focused, leading directly to improved levels of business agility. 

·  the aspirations of  ICT services is to deliver a service that is known as:

o  making a positive contribution to running and transforming NFRS;

o  customer focused and striving to deliver excellence to meet the needs of staff and the service;

o  highly available and resilient so that the ICT infrastructure becomes invisible;

o  embracing appropriate innovation;

o  demonstrably value for money;

o  helping to drive through transformational change to improve NFRS;

o  outward looking, owning problems, proactive and communicating well;

o  empowering staff to make best use of their ICT facilities.

·  the high priority projects are:

o  migration to the new Wide Area Network (WAN) – complete;

o  migration of all desktop and laptop PCs to Windows 7 – complete;

o  renewal of the Corporate Mobile Phone contract – complete;

o  migration to a Microsoft Exchange 2010 email system – complete;

o  upgrading the existing Wi-Fi provision at sites – complete;

o  implementing laptop data encryption – complete;

o  replacing the old Corporate Telephone System – underway;

o  creating ISO27002 compliant policies and procedures – underway;

o  upgrading System Centre and replacing e-Service Desk – underway;

o  replacing the old Storage Area Network (SAN) – underway;

o  trialling Windows Surface tablets – underway;

o  trialling Microsoft Office 365 with Mobile Users – underway;

·  the overall aim is to reduce costs through converged communications, reducing travelling times and the number of meetings required.

The Chair thanked Gavin Harris for his presentation

RESOLVED to note the report.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Neil Timms, the Strategic Director of Finance and Resources, presented the Chief Fire Officer’s report informing members of a joint capital scheme involving Eastwood Fire Station. This is the subject of a capital grant bid of £1.575 million to the Department for Communities and Local Government. The idea is to create a single campus style development which includes buildings for Police, Fire, EMAS and NHS and to share common areas such as a canteen, reception desk, community and meeting rooms

RESOLVED to approve this joint scheme and agree to the project being accelerated forward in the Capital Programme.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Neil Timms, the Strategic Director of Finance and Resources, presented the Chief Fire Officer’s report updating members on the progress, costs and programme of the new Station 18 project

RESOLVED

(1)  to note the report;

(2)  to approve the latest cost estimate of £4.95 million notwithstanding that this will be offset by £2.5 million of capital receipts and any subsequent rental agreement with the City Council