Agenda for Nottinghamshire and City of Nottingham Fire and Rescue Authority - Policy and Strategy on Friday, 29th January, 2016, 10.00 am

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Fire and Rescue Services HQ, Bestwood Lodge, Arnold Nottingham NG5 8PD

Contact: James Welbourn  Email: james.welbourn@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

25.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Minutes:

Cllr Jon Collins (substituted by Cllr Malcolm Wood).

26.

DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS

Minutes:

None.

27.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 211 KB

Of the meeting held on 13 November 2015 (for confirmation).

Minutes:

The Committee confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 13 November 2015 as a true record and they were signed by the Chair.

 

28.

EMERGENCY SERVICES MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAMME (ESMCP) FORMAL SIGN UP pdf icon PDF 245 KB

Report of the Chief Fire Officer.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

John Buckley, Chief Fire Officer at Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service introduced the report on the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) formal sign up.

 

The following points were highlighted:

 

(a)  the contract for Airwave Solutions has already been extended and cannot readily be extended beyond 2020.  Airwave is expensive, and the technology in this area has moved on;

 

(b)  there is some funding available from Government.  Currently, there is a grant for Airwave, which will likely be removed;

 

Following questions from Councillors, further information was provided:

 

(c)  the Police are the biggest users of this type of software, and are funded similarly to the Fire Service;

 

(d)  Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue will need to be fully connected to the Public Sector Network (PSN).  In the last week, civil servants have said that funding will be available for this; the Autumn Statement mentioned £74 million would be available for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to carry out work on the emergency service network; 

 

(e)  all control rooms across the country have an integrated command communications system.  Funding is available to upgrade these to work with the Public Sector Network;

 

(f)  since the adoption of Airwave 15 years ago technology has moved on considerably and now there are more cost effective and useful systems available;

 

(g)  when there is lots of activity involving blue light services, the Police have first call on the Airwave service;

 

(h)  those who live in rural areas might benefit the most from the ESMCP, as 4G technology will be rolled out in areas that don’t currently receive it;

 

(i)  an Inter-Operability Board in Nottinghamshire allows communications between blue light services.  At Officer level, there is a working group; this working group has enhanced relationships between officers of different services quite considerably.  The Police force is the bigger authority, but fire officers are leading on certain issues.

 

  Any opportunities to move forward with decisions would still need to come back through the relevant Fire Authority committee;

 

RESOLVED to participate in the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme and direct the Chief Fire Officer to sign and return the attached documentation on behalf of the Fire Authority.

29.

TRI-SERVICE CONTROL PROJECT UPDATE pdf icon PDF 146 KB

Report of Chief Fire Officer.

Minutes:

John Buckley, Chief Fire Officer at Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service introduced the Tri-Service Control Project update.

 

Following discussion and questions from members, the following information was highlighted:

 

(a)  the Tri-Service project is going to run into the next financial year; and this will bring costs.  Some compensation has come back from the supplier.

 

  There is a real commitment from the suppliers and others to resolve the problems with the project;

 

(b)  the general performance of the system is stable and there haven’t been outages for a significant period of time.  Phase 1 of implementation is on the verge of closing;

 

(c)  the suppliers are not seeking any further payments; the money input from Fire and Rescue is going towards staffing costs. 

 

  Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue are applying a degree of commercial pressure to get the project back on track; any delays from Fire and Rescue themselves are due to supporting this commercial pressure with staff;

 

(d)  the £220,000 from re-designated reserves should allow Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue to support implementation, improvements and developments to the system for the next 12 months;

 

(e)  it would be useful for the Finance Committee to have the figures to date for the project, including costs and savings.  John Buckley pointed out that the maintenance contract would be an immediate saving; in addition, savings are being made in other areas relating to the project, and staffing on control has been reduced.  Further savings could possibly be made if collaboration with other services is explored.

 

RESOLVED to:

 

(1)  note the update on the implementation of the Tri-Service Control system;

 

(2)  ask that a further update comes to next Policy and Strategy meeting.

30.

EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC

To consider excluding the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining 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 outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information by virtue of Paragraphs 1 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Minutes:

RESOLVED to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining 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 outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, as defined in paragraphs 1 & 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

31.

PRINCE'S TRUST UPDATE

Report of the Chief Fire Officer.

Minutes:

John Buckley, Chief Fire Officer, presented the Prince’s Trust update.

 

RESOLVED to implement option 4, which is contained within the report, and to provide a follow-up report to relevant Fire committees.