Agenda and minutes

None

None

Last meeting held on 25 October 2013 (for confirmation)

The Committee confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 25 October 2013 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Assistant Chief Fire Officer, David Horton presented the report of the Chief Fire Officer, updating the Committee on human resources issues within the Service.

The following key points were drawn to the Committee’s attention:

·  absence rates fell by 28% across the workforce as a whole during Quarter 2 (compared to the previous quarter).  The average absence for the Quarter (1.09 days) was below the target of 1.56 days per person; 

·  absence for non-uniformed employees, reduced by 36% (-152 days) and met the target for the period;

·  the total cumulative average taken over the last 12 months is 6.17 days per employee and compares favourably to the average public sector average of 6.5 days but is higher than the private sector average of 5.8 days;

·  target absence figures for 2013/14 have remained the same as for 2012-13: whole time and control: 6 days, non-uniformed:7 days and whole workforce: 6.25 days;

·  fire-fighter roles are over-strength by 18 posts, with 9 vacancies at supervisory level and 1 at Station Manager level.  The trainee fire-fighter programme, which commenced in September 2013, saw an intake of 15 trainees and 3 RDS employees migrated to the whole-time establishment at the same time, resulting in an over-establishment of 18 fire-fighters.  However, this is compensated for by under-establishment in other areas, resulting in an overall over-establishment of 7 FTE roles.  This ‘front-loading’ of trainee fire-fighter roles is part of succession planning for projected retirements during 2014-15, and the promotion of competent fire-fighters into vacant supervisory roles;

·  in terms of support roles (non-uniformed posts) there has been a significant amount of recruitment during Quarter 3, with 10 appointments to vacancies. 

The Chair congratulated the Officers on their success in achieving reduced  absence rates.

RESOLVED to endorse the report.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Assistant Chief Fire Officer David Horton presented the report of the Chief Fire Officer, notifying the Committee that no applications had been considered by the Job Evaluation Panel in respect of changes to the permanent non-uniformed establishment, during the period October to December 2013 (inclusive).

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report.

TO CONSIDER EXCLUDING THE PUBLIC FROM THE MEETING DURING CONSIDERATION OF THE REMAINING ITEM(S) IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 100A(4) OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 ON THE BASIS THAT, HAVING REGARD TO ALL THE CIRCUMSTANCES, THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN MAINTAINING THE EXEMPTION OUTWEIGHS THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN DISCLOSING THE INFORMATION

The Committee decided to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining agenda items in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information, as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Assistant Chief Fire Officer David Horton presented the report of the Chief Fire Officer, seeking the approval of the Committee to the recommendations of the Discretionary Compensation Board in respect of voluntary redundancy applications received from non-uniformed and control employees.

The Chair thanked the Officers for their work on the process.

RESOLVED

(1)  to approve the recommendations of the Discretionary Compensation Payments  Board to accept applications for voluntary redundancy, as set out in the report;

(2)  to approve the enhanced compensation payment for the employee referred to at section 2.9 of the report;

(3)  to make a recommendation to the Finance and Resources Committee meeting on 4 April 2014 that an earmarked reserve be created at the end of the current financial year to help cover the cost of redundancy, if there is sufficient revenue budget under spend to do so;

(4)  to note that the Service may need to consider compulsory redundancies to achieve future savings.