Agenda for Nottinghamshire and City of Nottingham Fire and Rescue Authority - Policy and Strategy on Friday, 10th November, 2017, 10.00 am

Agenda and minutes

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

Contact: Cath Ziane-Pryor  Email: catherine.pryor@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

8.

CHAIR OF THE MEETING

Minutes:

RESOLVED for Councillor Michael Payne to Chair the meeting in the absence of Councillor Brian Grocock.

9.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Minutes:

Councillor Brian Grocock – personal (Councillor Liaqat Ali attending as a substitute)

Councillor Sybil Fielding – personal (Councillor Parry Tsimbiridis attending as a substitute)

10.

DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS

Minutes:

John Buckley, Chief Fire Officer, declared an interest in Agenda item 4, ‘Principal Officer Pay Review’ (minute 12) in that it affected him directly, and informed the Committee that he would withdraw from the meeting prior to, and for the duration of that item.

11.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 333 KB

Of the meeting held on 21 July 2017 (for confirmation).

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 21 July 2017 were confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair presiding at the meeting.

12.

PRINCIPAL OFFICER PAY REVIEW pdf icon PDF 187 KB

Report of the Clerk and Treasurer to the Fire and Rescue Authority

Minutes:

Prior to the Committee’s consideration of this item, John Buckley, the Chief Fire Officer, withdrew from the meeting , having declared an interest under minute 10. He did not return to the room until the item had concluded.

 

Malcolm Townroe, Clerk to the Authority, presented the joint report of the Clerk and Treasurer, informing the Committee of the outcomes of the Principal Officer Pay review which is required to be undertaken biennially.

 

The report informs the Committee that Chief Fire Officer Pay is set by a benchmarking exercise against other similar Fire and Rescue Authorities. Other Principal Officer Pay is calculated as a percentage of that total.

 

The report proposes that the current rate of pay is appropriate and so should not be altered.

 

Members of the Committee agreed with the findings of the report and commented that compared to some other Local Authority pay levels, the rate is appropriate.

 

It is noted that national pay awards are considered separately from this issue.

 

RESOLVED to submit a recommendation to the full Fire Authority that the current Principal Officer pay levels are appropriate and should be implemented from 1January 2018.

 

13.

EMERGENCY SERVICES NETWORK (ESN) UPDATE pdf icon PDF 181 KB

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Minutes:

Chief Fire Officer John Buckley, presented the report which updates the Committee on the progress of Emergency Services Network (ESN) since the last update in November 2016.

 

The aim of ESN is that emergency services collaborate to procure a mutually efficient, effective, robust and secure shared communications package with shared procurement, training and operational benefits and savings.

 

Central Government has now initiated a full national review of the ESN Business Case, including the national transition plan, to ensure that the scheme can be delivered to a realistic time scale and that suppliers are able to provide the technology required. This may result in changes to the document to which NFRS originally committed. This in turn is likely to have timescale and financial implications for the Regional Board and NFRS and results in uncertainty as to the relevance of work already undertaken. To date NFRS has budgeted £200,000 for ESN work and employed 3 full time equivalent staff specifically to work towards achieving the initial one year implementation target. Whilst Central Government has agreed to financially contribute to previous additional work, any further contribution is uncertain and therefore, to retain the specialist staff during the review period and once the revised document is released, the budget will need to be reviewed.

 

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report and agree to receive further updates as the project develops.

 

14.

TRI-SERVICE CONTROL UPDATE pdf icon PDF 172 KB

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Minutes:

John Buckley, Chief Fire Officer, presented the report which updates the Committee on the progress in implementing the Tri-Service Control Programme since the last update in April 2017, and sets out how the next phase will be implemented.

 

Working across three services has, at times, proved a little dis-jointed but the programme is progressing well and the system is stable.

 

Vulnerabilities have been identified in NFRS systems which are being addressed. Progress across the three services is pleasing and initial concerns regarding some suppliers have been allayed. Additional funding requests are not anticipated.

 

RESOLVED to note the content of the report and the progress made with the Tri-Service Control Programme.

 

15.

COLLABORATION UPDATE pdf icon PDF 165 KB

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Minutes:

John Buckley, Chief Fire Officer, presented the report which provides an update on collaboration progress with Nottinghamshire Police and current activity relating to East Midlands Ambulance Service, including suggestions for the potential collaboration around corporate communications, transport, and human resources.

 

Areas identified for collaboration include:

o  Estates;

o  Learning and Development;

o  Organisational Performance;

o  Prevention Activities;

o  Emergency Planning and Resilience

 

Further meetings are to take place to ensure a greater understanding of how each other work, including the existing Police collaboration in some areas between different forces.

 

It is believed that formal agreements could soon be possible, particularly with regard to estate sharing with EMAS at Hucknall on-call site (which is progressing well), facilities maintenance, and potentially sharing training resources with Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service at Ripley, although discussions are still at an early stage.

 

Although there are initial costs involved in working towards collaboration, the longer-term savings will far outstrip the initial costs.

 

Councillors welcomed the collaborative approach between services and suggested that informal discussions also take place between elected members of the respective areas.

 

RESOLVED to note the report.

 

16.

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 Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Minutes:

RESOLVED to 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 by virtue of Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

 

17.

RESILIENCE ARRANGEMENTS UPDATE

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Minutes:

John Buckley, Chief Fire Officer, presented the report which informs the Committee on the current resilience arrangements.

 

RESOLVED to note the report.