Agenda and minutes

Of the previous meeting held on 26 April 2023 (attached).

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 26 April 2023 be signed as a  correct record.

Report of the Director of Finance & Corporate Services (Treasurer) (PC/23/8) attached.

The Committee received for information a report of the Director of Finance & Corporate Services (Treasurer) (PC/23/8) detailing performance as at Quarter 1 of 2023-24 against those Key Performance Indicators agreed by the Committee for measuring progress against the following three strategic priorities as approved by the Authority:

3(a).   Ensure that the workforce is highly trained and has the capability and capacity to deliver services professionally, safely and effectively;

3(b).   Increase the diversity of the workforce to better reflect the communities we serve, promoting inclusion and developing strong and effective leaders who ensure that we have a fair place to work where our organisational values are a lived experience; and

3(c).   Recognise and maximise the value of all employees, particularly the commitment of on-call firefighters, improving recruitment and retention.

In particular, the report provided information on performance against each of the following key measures:

·         operational core competence skills (beathing apparatus; incident command; water rescue; safety when working at heights or in confined spaces; maritime; driving; and casualty care);

·         health and safety (a general overview of the work undertaken on station audits and the risk from contaminants, accidents [including near misses]; personal injuries; vehicle incidents (together with the correlation to appliance mobilisation) and reporting against the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR));

·         sickness and absence (including mental health) for wholetime, on-call, support, Control and casual staff, types of sickness absence, details of the health and wellbeing support offered by the Service. The report also provided comparisons with national fire service data and featured benchmarking for sickness absence against comparable, neighbouring fire and rescue services;

·         fitness testing (including support offered for red and amber groups);

·         diversity, with a particular emphasis on the work being undertaken on promoting inclusion and developing strong leaders within the organisation;

·         strategic workforce planning including details of staff turnover in all categories of the workforce;

·         employee engagement (reported elsewhere on the agenda for this meeting at item PC/23/9); and

·         an overview of the People Services Systems project.

 Attention was drawn at the meeting to the following points:

·       There was an error in the competence rating of Red Amber Green (RAG) for Working at Height and in Confined spaces (SHACS) which was showing as green in the report but this should be at amber; There was only one area at amber which was SHACS (92%).  The Director of Service delivery Service Improvement stated that she had asked for further information as to why this was still at 92% but initial indications were that this was due largely to competencies going out of date and being unable to catch up although she was happy with the tolerance on this matter;

·       Reference was made to fitness and the point that testing had commenced again for revalidation with 1538 staff tested to date.  2% of staff were in the red or amber category as requiring further support of whom 2 staff had failed to meet the required fitness.

·       Attention was drawn to paragraphs 2.4 and 2.6 of the report  ...  view the full minutes text for item PC/23/2

Report of the Director of Finance & Corporate Services (Treasurer)  (PC/23/9) attached.

The Committee received for information a report of the Director of Finance & Corporate Services (PC/23/9) setting out the purpose, methodology and high level findings of the people survey undertaken earlier in 2023 together with a presentation on the results at the meeting.

It was noted that the Service had received 813 responses to the survey representing 44% of the workforce which was above the industry recognised confidence level of 95.  From the survey findings, five key focus areas had emerged which were:

·       Inclusion of thought;

·       Bullying and harassment and the reporting of this;

·       Trust in leadership;

·       Support staff – differences in responses between operational opportunities and those available for support staff; and

·       Working together well (high negative).

It was highlighted that 58% of people felt they were happy in their work and would recommend the Service as an employer.  This was the first time this question had been included in this survey and would provide a benchmark against which future responses could be measured.  In response to a question, the Treasurer indicated that he was not content with this level of contentment and that the Service recognised there was a lot of work to do to improve in this area.

NB. Minute PC/23/2 above refers.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer (PC/2310) attached.

The Committee received for information a report of the Chief Fire Officer (PC/23/10) outlining progress to date against the Action Plans developed to address both the Cause of Concern and Areas for Improvement identified following the most recent Service inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).

In terms of the Cause of Concern and 14 Areas for Improvement identified by HMICFRS, 8 had been linked to the People Committee for tracking. 

Two of the actions within the Cause of Concern Action Plan were recorded currently as “In Progress – Off Track” due to:

·             01a.07: Expectations documents (charters). The toolkit for team charters (internal, staff to staff) had now been developed by the Organisational Development Team. This will be reviewed and then distributed across the Service by 31 August 2023. The customer charter had now gone through final testing. Feedback will be incorporated into the final document ahead of sign off from the Senior Leadership Team. The HMI Team were awaiting an update on the trainee/ trainer charter. This action was off track as the target completion date (28 February 2023) had now passed; and

·             01b.09: All recruitment and selection processes will include elements to assess applicants’ cultural awareness and how this linked to the Service Values. There was no update on progress against this action.

It was noted that one action within the Areas for Improvement action plan HMI-3.4-202215 (High Potential Staff), had been paused since March 2023 due to dependencies on the Area for Improvement around the selection and promotions process (HMI-3.4-202213).

The Committee sought clarification as to when the Cause of Concern on people and Culture would be removed and it was noted that HMICFRS would look at discharging this at the next inspection.

NB.  Minute PC/23/5 below also refers.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer (PC/23/11) attached.

The Committee received for information a report of the Chief Fire Officer (PC/23/11) setting out the progress made against the 35 recommendations in His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary & Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) published report into values and culture in the fire and rescue service.  19 of these recommendations were specific to the fire and rescue service and 15 required action at national level.

Two recommendations remain ‘In Progress’ despite the recommendation deadline (01 June 2023) now having passed. This is due to the following factors:

·            The Head of Organisational Assurance will speak to the Chief Fire Officer around the expectations and considerations required to determine whether the Service should create a professional standards function. The action will remain marked as 'In Progress' until these conversations had taken place (Recommendation 04).

·            Recommendation 32 (Diversity in succession planning) has not been fully addressed by the Service, therefore this recommendation will remain ‘In Progress’. 

9 recommendations had been closed following review by the HMICFRS Governance Board and the Service’s Executive Board with 7 in progress and on track and 2 in progress but the recommendation deadline had not been met.

NB. Minute PC/23/4 above also refers.