Agenda item

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Craig Parkin, Chief Fire Officer, introduced the report which had been requested by members to support the Efficiencies Strategy (Futures25) and the resulting associated risks to the community from the £3.3 million deficit in funding at that time.

 

The deficit has since been massively reduced but there is still a focus on resourcing to risk for the current £1.2 funding deficit. There are very few feasible options to address the risk within the available budget, but these must be carefully considered.

 

Damien West, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, presented the report, which seeks to discharge the task allocated by members to address the resourcing to risk concerns, most significantly highlighted at the Ashfield Fire Station.

 

The following points were highlighted:

 

a)  the tree main elements considered are

i.  Resourcing to Risk;

ii.  CRMP commitments;

iii.  the available budget;

 

b)  the report is based on the risk evidence provided from the Independent Fire Cover Review and the current resourcing model, with the re-instating of 24 hour crewing;

 

c)  To achieve the 24 hour crewing model, an additional 12 additional posts will be required at a cost of £600,000 per year, which, with the budget deficit, is not viable, and so amendments must be made within the current establishment of 356 without impacting on the level of fire cover across the City and County;

 

d)  it is proposed that crewing models be amended to a ridership of 24 personnel for a single pump station, and 44 personnel at a double pump station, with a minimum crew of 4;

 

e)  65% of responses were crewed by 4 firefighters overall which rose to 85% at the height of the summer response demand;

 

f)  This will result in an increased crewing risk with the occurrence of sickness or other abstractions from ridership, but the Service does have mechanisms in place to support this, which would be more likely to impact on multiple appliance responses;

 

g)  Productive hours will be increased and the average attendance time for second appliances is likely to remain under 6 minutes;

 

h)  Current operational procedures will also be reviewed to ensure the safety of firefighters and our communities;

 

i)  4 operational posts will be released to other areas within the Service;

 

j)  Changes will take a project based approach led by ACFO West, with implementation by the end of November 2023, with regular monitoring and updates;

 

k)  Ongoing monitoring, including Quality Impact Assessments will be undertaken regarding attendance, training and resources, with monitoring of any impact on communities and the workforce;

 

l)  The additional cost of reinstating 24 hour cover at Ashfield is £36,310 per year, the responsibility for which has been delegated to the Chief Fire Officer, and can be managed from current crewing levels;

 

m)  The Authority does have a statutory duty to provide a balanced budget;

 

n)  Section 8 to the report sets out identified risks associate to the recommendation.

 

The Chair invited the formally submitted questions from representatives from the Fire Brigades Union:

 

FBU question: Resourcing to Risk – Para 2.7

 

The current crewing model in Nottinghamshire allows for additional hours to cover sickness, maternity, retirements, and other gaps in the ridership. These new proposals will reduce the number of hours available by 28,634, leaving us with a deficit of 11,875 hours.

 

Not only does this remove all our capacity to cover deficiencies in the ridership, but it also removes our ability to maintain standard crewing levels even with the full establishment levels listed within the policy.

 

Will this fire authority commit to increasing the establishment by 12 to properly crew Ashfield without affecting the level of fire cover provided elsewhere?

 

The Chair responded:

The report of the Chief Fire Officer, and the proposed deployment of resources acknowledges that there will be increased occasions where appliances are crewed with 4 personnel. However, the approach being proposed does mean that the Service is not adopting an approach of permanently crewing with 4 personnel and maintains the flexibility of self-rostering for personnel. The Service also has well-established processes to managing the levels of ridership and availability of both wholetime, and on-call, appliances.

 

As outlined in the medium-term financial strategy, and referenced in this report, the Service faces continued uncertainty in the levels of funding for coming years and there is an anticipated deficit for next year in the region of £1.2 million. The approach proposed by the Chief Fire Officer addresses the requirement of using the current resources in the most effective way to address the identified risk in the Ashfield area, whilst maintaining current levels of fire cover across the City and County.

 

 

FBU question: Resourcing to Risk – Para 2.5

 

2.5 of the report states that there will be an additional cost of around £600,000 to create additional posts at Ashfield.

 

This figure does not consider that current recruitment plans mean up to 50 firefighters will be on apprentice wages by the end of 2024.

 

These individuals are on substantially lower wages than a competent firefighter.

 

In addition, due to current establishment vacancy levels we believe the majority of costs can be contained within current budgets in the short term.

 

Does the Fire Authority commit to use reserves to cover the slight increase in costs until the true financial implications can be seen?

 

The Chair responded:

 

The Service does not currently employ any firefighters on an apprenticeship wage and has, in fact, recently taken steps to ensure that all new firefighters are paid at a higher, development rate of pay from their starting date with the Service. The Service is also undertaking actions to address some of the vacancies in the wholetime establishment within this financial year. It would not be prudent, nor appropriate, to commit to additional expenditure that would present an even greater deficit than is currently forecast, and which would present a greater risk to the Authority in delivering its statutory duty of ensuring a balanced budget.

 

The use of reserves is not sustainable and is not advised by the Head of Finance and Treasurer as an appropriate approach to funding established posts within the Service’s structure.

 

Members and the Chief Fire Officer will continue to lobby for a more realistic and longer-term funding settlement for the Service, as this is the key to a sustainable future that ensures the safety of our communities.

 

This report has been a difficult piece of work but provides a balance between the legal requirement to present a balanced budget, against supporting the communities of the Ashfield District.

 

FBU question: Resourcing to Risk – Para 2.12

 

Whilst the FBU support the intent behind the proposal to reinstate wholetime night cover at Ashfield with the addition of 12 posts, we do not understand why they are at the same time looking to remove a further 4 posts from the ridership.

When day shift crewing was first implemented at Retford & Ashfield it was done so with the removal of 44 posts from the ridership. It is completely unacceptable to reinstate this cover, lowering ridership figures at all other wholetime stations whilst simultaneously removing an additional 4 posts.

 

This will lead to serious and dangerous shortfalls in the crewing of other appliances and affect firefighter safety.

 

Will the fire authority commit to keeping these 4 posts in the ridership rather than see them reallocated to other departments?

 

The Chair responded:

The disposition and direction of resources is a matter for the professional judgement of the Chief Fire Officer, providing advice to the Fire Authority. The Service has many commitments to its communities in its Community Risk Management Plan, and it is the responsibility of the Chief Fire Officer to ensure that the available resources of the Service are used effectively to address all of these.

I know that the Fire Brigades Union are committed to the work relating to developing the culture in the Service and efforts to increasing the establishment figure through positive action and recruitment over the coming months. It is vital that these areas of work are resourced effectively, whilst also presenting opportunities for the development of operational colleagues, by offering alternative roles within the Service.

It should also be noted that all operational personnel maintain their operational competencies and remain available to be deployed if required, even when their role is outside of the operational ridership, therefore maintaining a resilience and support for the availability of fire appliances when required.

 

The Chair thanked the FBU for the constructive way in which it has engaged on a difficult issue for everyone involved, stating that the good relationship with the Trades Unions is much valued. The Chair assured all present that he would continue to work with Trades Unions for longer term settlements from Central Government and the work against the way in which this Service has been singled out disproportionally for funding cuts over several years.

 

Other contributions included:

o)  on behalf of himself, Councillor Jason Zadrozny and the community of Ashfield, Councillor Tom Hollis thanked everyone involved in working towards today’s decision. In Councillor Jason Zadrozny’s unavoidable absence, Councillor Hollis read the following on behalf of Councillor Zadrozny, Leader of Ashfield Council;

‘I would like to thank the thousands of residents who have joined the Ashfield Independent campaign for a full time Fire Station. We’ve always said that the decision to move to a part-time station in 2018 was the wrong one. The Ashfield Independents instigated the Ashfield Fire Service Review and led Ashfield’s response to the consultation, working with communities to provide positive results and make life safer. This is why we do the job we do and why as the Council Leader, I’m delighted with the decision to be taken today’;

p)  Councillor Hollis added that the cross-party working of Fire Authority Members for the benefit of the community has been phenomenal, as has the activity and sensitive responses by the Fire Service to community fear following local Ashfield tragedies. Disappointment was expressed at the lack of involvement by the Ashfield MP regarding the consultation, but the hard work of everyone else is acknowledged and appreciated;

 

q)  Cllr Nick Raine welcomed the decision as a positive move for the Ashfield Area but expressed concern that within risk management implications listed in the report, risk is still recognised as ‘mitigated in part’ with regard to the availability of resources. With funding being consistently cut the need to reform is ongoing, and whilst this is a significant reform, there are still problems and there is real concern around the increasing effects and pressures on the workforce, particularly as numbers are reducing but workload increasing, including ridership regularly reducing from 6 to 4. This makes some members of the Authority uneasy, primarily regarding firefighter safety, but on a broader level with regard to hours and overtime and the increasing complexity of many premises, specifically within the City, but with fewer firefighters riding, this is a grave concern;

 

r)  The CFO welcomed the scrutiny and being held to account by members, highlighting that policies have changed over many years, assuring members that this is not an outright policy decision. The risk to communities has been considered and whilst there is less risk to communities, the professional people who deal with that risk will be carrying additional risk but in a different way. Many other Services already have already implemented a ridership of 4 policy, and have been successfully operating it for several years. This Service had not implemented such a policy, but to achieve the required coverage, this is the only feasible option within the current financial restraints. Incident command training will be reviewed to take into account the changing risk profile. The Service is scrutinised on many levels beyond blue light response, including culture, which is not specifically resourced, along with Equalities Diversity and Inclusion, Building Safety Inspection, and Fire Protection; which all requires resourcing. Whilst this is a positive outcome for Ashfield, the decision affects every station across the county. Nationally, consideration is required with regard to crewing models and how they are funded;

 

s)  Councillor Wheeler, as Group Leader of the Conservative membership, welcomed the lowering of the response times across the county as a result of this decision, acknowledging the stated risks and requested an update report in six months’ time to the November meeting and then ongoing, to include response times, to ensure that any required adjustments are highlighted and acted upon promptly;

 

t)  The CFO noted that wholetime availability monitoring and evaluation is already taking place and reported to the Community Safety Committee along with On-Call availability, but that a report focused on this decision could be provided.

Resolved

1)  to support and endorse the approach of the Chief Fire Officer in the deployment of resources to risk;

 

2)  to agree to receive further updates at full Authority meetings relating to this workstream.