Agenda and minutes

Of the meeting held on 24 January 2024 attached.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2024 be signed as a correct record.

Report of the Assistant Director (Corporate Services) (PC/24/4) attached.

The Committee received for information a report of the Assistant Director - Corporate Services (PC/24/4) detailing performance as at Quarter 4 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);

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

·         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 musculoskeletal, mental health and other absence) for wholetime, on-call, support, Control and casual staff, proportion of sickness absence per reason, details of the health and wellbeing support offered by the Service;

·         diversity (although a separate report on the Annual Diversity Data was included elsewhere on the agenda for this meeting);

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

·         an overview of the People Services Systems project.

These areas were expanded upon in more depth at the meeting as follows:

·       operational core competencies, all performance measures were on or above target of 95% (green) with the exception of Working at Height and Confined Spaces (SHACS) which was at 92.8% (amber).  The reasons behind this were explained at the meeting;

·       fitness, it was noted that 1504 staff had been tested as of 18 March 2024 and had met the required standard with 11 staff failing to meet the required fitness level;

·       the Health & Safety team had completed all of the audits in respect of the Control of Substances Hazardous ot Health (COSHH);      

·       Accidents - there had been a decrease in the overall trend for accidents during 2023-24. The quarter 4 accident numbers were down by 12 on the previous quarter and down 12 for the same quarter in 2022-23. Vehicle related safety events remained the greater proportion of safety events though;

·       There were 12 near misses in Quarter 4 of 2023-24, a 15% (3 events) increase on reporting from the previous quarter with a total of 70 recorded incidents for the year. The benefits of near miss reporting continue to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item PC/23/16

Report of the Assistant Director (Corporate Services) (PC/24/5) attached.

The Committee received for information a report of the Assistant Director, Corporate Services (PC/24/5) setting out the Service’s Diversity Data Annual Report for 2023 in accordance with the requirement placed on public bodies under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 to publish all information pertaining to the makeup of its workforce.  The report covered all protected characteristics including gender, disability, ethnic group, religion and sexual orientation.

The key findings included (but were not limited to):

·       Female Wholetime new starters in Crew Manager and/or Watch Manager positions rose by 12.5% to 25% in 2023;

·       The percentage of female promotions in Wholetime positions rose from 5.6% to 10.3% in 2023;

·       Total promotions for support staff were 16.7% male and 83.3% female, an increase of 29% for female staff;

·       No applicants who identified as People of Colour were hired in support staff roles in 2023 (21.3 % of applicants).

The report set out a number of key recommendations, progress against which would be reported back to the Committee in due course.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer (PC/24/6) attached.

The Committee received for information a report of the Chief Fire Officer (PC/24/6) 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. 

The key point highlighted was that all actions under the Cause of Concern had been completed now and the recommendation for closure approved by the Executive Board on 19 March 2023.

There were three Areas for Improvement marked currently as “In Progress – Off Track” and the reasons behind this were set out within the report. 

Report of the Chief Fire Officer (PC/24/7) attached.

The Committee received for information a report of the Chief Fire Officer (PC/24/7 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.  20 of these recommendations were specific to the fire and rescue service and 14 required action at national level with 1 specific to the Police.

One recommendation (REC24 – Monitoring and Evaluating Feedback) had been closed following review by the HMICFRS Governance Board and the Service’s Executive Board since the previous meeting of the Committee.  4 actions were “in progress” (as below) with the reasons behind this also set out within the report:

·             REC09– background checks;

·             REC12 – staff disclosure, complaints and grievance handling standard;

·             REC14 – Misconduct allegations standard; and

·             REC32 – diversity in succession planning.