Agenda and minutes

Councillor Eunice Campbell  -  other City Council business (substituted by Councillor Brian Grocock)

None.

Of the meeting held on November 4 2016.

The minutes of the meeting held on 4 November 2016 were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Tracy Crump, Head of People and Organisational Development at NFRS updated Members on key human resources metrics for the period 1 October – 31 December 2016.

The following points were highlighted:

(a)  efforts are being made to make sure employees feel confident to declare their sexual orientation, religion and ethnic origin under equalities monitoring statistics;

(b)  NFRS have been in the Stonewall Top 100 for the past few years, and retained this again this year by being placed 99.  NFRS are a relatively small organisation, with over 430 organisations entering the index.  A lot of these 430 entries were large private sector organisations that have a lot of resources at their disposal;

(c)  HR Business Partners are involved with all shortlisting and attend all interviews, giving an independent overview.  Adjustments are made for candidates with disabilities;

Following questions from members, further information was provided:

(d)  there is an induction programme for all new employees, as well as online equalities training, which is mandatory for all employees.  There is specific training for management roles;

(e)  half day sessions are run for new starters touching on issues such as vulnerability.  Mental health training has been provided in the past.  There has also been more specific training aimed at firefighters that attend areas where more targeted training is needed.  Gypsy Traveller training would be an example of this;

(f)  female firefighters have been asked if they would be willing to act as ‘buddies’ to mentor female applicants;

(g)  taster sessions are still offered to potential recruits.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  endorse the report;

(2)  provide equalities monitoring information on a half yearly basis.  If issues arise in between these updates, then they should be brought to the attention of the Human Resources Committee;

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Matt Sismey, Equality and Diversity Officer at NFRS provided Members with the results of the internal audit work undertaken in relation to applications received to support staff and retained duty system recruitment.

Members suggested that, to try and avoid wasting applicants’ time, as well as the time of NFRS, there could be a need to communicate the availability and location requirements at the application stage.

The ‘five minute rule’ has been relaxed on a couple of occasions but this depends on the staffing levels of the station in question.

RESOLVED to note the outcomes from the report.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Tracy Crump, Head of People and Organisational Development at NFRS provided an update on the apprenticeship reforms being introduced by the government, and the potential implications for NFRS.

The following points were highlighted:

(a)  it will be highly difficult for the service to draw down the Levy funding in the first year as there are very few relevant apprenticeship frameworks in operation;

(b)  the target for public sector organisations will be that 2.3% of new starters need to be on apprenticeships.  For authorities that don’t meet the target, there would need to be a statement put out outlining why targets can’t be met, as well as notifying the Secretary of State;

(c)  it has been accepted that a trailblazer Operational Firefighter Apprenticeship Scheme will be developed during 2017.

Members expressed concern that the Levy was lacking in detail and nuance.

RESOLVED to note the report.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Wayne Bowcock, Deputy Chief Fire Officer at NFRS introduced a report outlining potential restructure of the Community Safety Team.

RESOLVED to support the permanent deletion of the role of Risk Reduction Officer to support the transfer of Prince’s Trust activities to the Community Safety team with effect from 1 February 2017.

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 in the public interest in disclosing the information

RESOLVEDto exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining item 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, as defined in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Schedule 12 A to the Act.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Wayne Bowcock, Deputy Chief Fire Officer at NFRS introduced the report on the Restructure of the Equipment and Transport Sections.

RESOLVED to agree the recommendations in the report.