Agenda item

Report of the Director of Finance & Corporate Services (Treasurer) (PC/23/12) attached.

The Committee received for information a report of the Director of Finance & Corporate Services (Treasurer) (PC/23/12) detailing performance as at Quarter 2 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 (also reported elsewhere on the agenda for this meeting at item PC/23/13); and

·         an overview of the People Services Systems project.

Attention was drawn at the meeting to the following points:

·       Working at Height and in Confined spaces (SHACS) was showing as amber in the report but this was the only one area at amber which was at 92.6%.  There had been a slight increase on quarter 1 of 2022-23 but attendance at courses continued to be monitored. The Director of Service Delivery Service - Support 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;

·       On fitness, 1520 staff were required to test with 98.2 % (1493 staff) passing and 27 in the red zone (1.78%);

·       Work had commenced on the Control of Substances hazardous to Health (COSHH) audits which would be undertaken over the next 12 months at a proportion of service locations and work continued on reducing the risk for contaminants

·       Accidents – there had been a slight increase in in the overall trend over the past 12 months but in quarter 2 of 2023-24, these were down by 28 on quarter 1 at 51.  The Organisational Road Risk Group was meeting monthly now to monitor the position more closely;

·       Near misses – there were 14 near misses in quarter 2 of 2023-24, a 50% reduction on reporting in the previous quarter of 2023-24 (14 events).   The Service’s wider culture on “safe to” would help to make improvements in this area;

·       Personal injuries – the rolling 12 month statistics showed a decrease with a reduction  of 7 injuries in quarter 2 of 2023-24 - a 37% decrease;

·       Vehicle accidents – there had been a 33% reduction (17 incidents) in quarter 2 of 2023-24, most of which were due to non blue light activity.  This represented just 0.4% of mobilisations during quarter 2;

·       RIDDOR – there had been 3 reports in quarter 2 of 2023-24.

·       total sickness had increased marginally to 10.2 days/shifts lost in quarter 2 of 2023-24 due largely to the time of year but the Service continued to work on getting staff back to work quickly.  Total sickness was 4.80 days/shifts lost to quarter 2 of 2023-24 as compared to 5.06 days at the same quarter in 2022-23 so positive news.  Mental health issues (41% of days/shifts lost) continued to be the prevalent cause of sickness absence above musculoskeletal injuries (24% of days/shifts lost).  Mental health absences were not always caused by work related issues but more personal matters such as the current financial crisis although the Service continued to offer support wherever possible and to signpost staff where appropriate. 

·       The Committee was apprised of the work being undertaken to address diversity and inclusion issues including (but not limited to) the training that had been implemented in October and November 2023 for middle managers on managing difficult conversations and conflict. 

·       Strategic workforce planning - reference was made to the monthly meetings held to monitor workforce planning and the point that this was improving the levels of engagement.  A new On call recruitmet process had been introduced which had achieved 100% attendance at practical assessment centres and 90% of candidates progressing to the next stage; and

·       the People Services project was going live on 31 October 2023 which had been a huge undertaking for the Service and staff involved.

NB.  Minute PC/23/8 below also refers.