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Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Fire Authorities’ Regional Management Board

Meeting held on Thursday 20 October 2005 at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Birkenshaw

Present:

Humberside Fire and Rescue Authority
Councillor C Randall
Councillor N Sherwood

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority
Councillor E Broadbent
Councillor J Morley

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority
Councillor J Andrews
Councillor J Bird
Councillor P Scriven

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority
Councillor G Beever
Councillor P M Harrand (for items 1 – 8 and 10 only, Min nos 19 – 26 and 28 refer)
Councillor M Khan (for items 7 – 14 only, Min nos. 25 to 32 refer)
Councillor R Light

Secretariat:

Mr M G Barnes
Mrs N Houseman

Treasurer:

Mr M Price

In attendance:

Mr F Duffield Humberside
Mr K Marshall Humberside
Mr N Hutchinson North Yorkshire
Mr C Anderson North Yorkshire
Mr A Trowsdale North Yorkshire
Mr S Swarbrick South Yorkshire
Mr M Davis South Yorkshire
Mr P Toase West Yorkshire
Mr K Arbuthnot West Yorkshire
Mr S Pilling West Yorkshire
Mr M Redfearn West Yorkshire
Ms J Freeman ODPM, FireControl project
Ms M Winckler ODPM, FireControl project

19  Apologies for Absence

No apologies for absence were presented to the meeting.

20  Minutes of the Last Meeting

Resolved

That the Minutes of the Board at a meeting held on 21 July 2005 be signed by the Chair as a correct record.

21  Urgent Items

None

22  Admission of the Public

The meeting determined that there were no items which necessitated the exclusion of the public.

23  Declarations of Interest

There were no declarations of interest made in any matter under consideration at the meeting.

24  Minutes of the Local Government Association Regional Management Board Chairs’ Meeting

Resolved

That the Minutes of a meeting of the Local Government Association Regional Management Board Chairs’ meeting held on 20 September 2005 be received.

25  Regional Management Board – Progress Report - Overview

Consideration was given to a report of the Secretary which advised of progress made within the region against the six nationally set objectives for the Regional Management Board as identified in the National Framework Document.

Members were advised that all the regional projects had either been achieved or were on target to be achieved.

Resolved

That the report be noted.

Strategic Functions – Update

Resolved

That all future reports on the six strategic functions include a section for Member Champion comment.

26  Resilience

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer (West Yorkshire) submitted a report which provided an update on the issue of regional resilience and specifically on the
following areas;

• New Dimension programme funding

• Hazardous Materials and Unidentified Substance Incidents (Hazmat)

• Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) – roll-out expected late 2005

• High Volume Pumping – five Pumps based at Harrogate, deployment information attached at Appendix 1

• Command and Control – agreement due to be signed by Minister and control centre due to commence operation in 2006

• Operational logistics

• Civil Contingencies Act Part 1

• Management of resilience within the region – close monitoring required to ensure no overlap with other national workstreams

Resolved

That the report be noted.

27  Specialist (Common) Services

Consideration was given to a report of the Deputy Chief Officer of Humberside Fire and Rescue Service advising of the progress made by the Common Services Sub Group in the following areas;

• Information technology

• Fire Safety

• Fire Investigation – including level III mobilising criteria (adopted as best practice at a national level)

Members were advised that an amended Strategy and Terms of Reference for the Sub Group had been proposed for Member approval.

Resolved

(i) That the report be noted;

(ii) That the Website Content Protocol be approved as detailed at appendix B to the report now submitted;

(iii) That further work be undertaken on the design of the website with a view to making it more “customer friendly”;

(iv) That approval be given to the amended Common Services Sub-group Strategy and Terms of Reference as attached at Appendix C; and

(v) That the framework for Fire Investigation across the Yorkshire and Humberside Region, as outlined in Appendix E, be approved for implementation.

28  Regional Control Rooms

ODPM presentation

The Chair welcomed Ms Marie Winckler to the meeting who had agreed to attend, as representative of the ODPM national FireControl project, to provide
Members with an update of its progress.

Members were provided with some detail with regard to the progress made on the following issues;

• Technical and electronic contracts

• Employment – discussions ongoing with employers’ organisations

• National legal working group

• Appointment of the project’s Head of Communications (Ian Evans)

• Establishment of (regional) Member briefing meetings

• Business case – indicative at this stage and final version to be published after the infraservices contracts have been let in 2006

• Benefits management - not necessarily cash savings, national roll-out due June 2006

• Activities not “in scope” for Regional Control Rooms

Members continued to express their grave concerns about the status of the Business Case and, more specifically, with the fact that figures contained therein were still only indicative. They expressed their extreme disquiet with the fact that the constituent authorities worked within tight financial constraints which were only exacerbated by the lack of information with regard to the impact of the establishment of the Regional Control Centre.

Regional Control rooms – update

The Chief Executive and Chief Fire Officer of the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service submitted a report which advised Members of the status of the
FireControl project and which sought approval for a proposed communications strategy.

Members were advised of the local issues relating to;

• Procurement of technical solution – each constituent authority would be required to cooperate with the 3 national bidders during November 2005

• Organisational design – the Human Resources workstream would be addressing the issues of possible redundancies, redeployment
  opportunities, staffing arrangements and shift patterns, recruitment and selection

• Firelink – this project had slipped by six months, anticipated that contract would be awarded mid-November

• Communications strategy – it was proposed that all press notices regarding the Control Room would require prior approval from the Chair of the RMB

• Site visit – likely to be April 2006

• Cut-over order of West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Humberside and North Yorkshire

There remained a number of unresolved items which were detailed at paragraph 4.2 of the report now submitted.

Governance

The Secretary and Treasurer to the Board submitted a joint report which advised of the receipt of a request from ODPM with regard to the governance
arrangements for the Regional Control Centre.

Following the earlier consultation process when this RMB advised the ODPM that its preferred option for governance of the new Regional Control Centre was
the lead authority model, Members were advised that the preference of the ODPM was to establish a local authority company. The RMB were now being
invited by the Minister responsible to re-consider its original decision and to submit a response by 31 October.

Members repeated earlier concerns about the establishment of a local authority company in terms of legal and financial liability issues and the lack of
appropriate detailed information upon which governance decisions could be taken.

Resolved

i) That the Board declines to revisit its previous conclusion to support a lead authority model to run the new Regional Control Centre until the next meeting of the Board after such time as the ODPM provide copies of the proposed draft memorandum of association and articles of agreement for such a company and provides further detailed guidance on financial, taxation, legal and constitutional issues relating to the operation of such a company;

ii) That a letter be forwarded to the ODPM in respect of (i) above; and

iii) That the Regional Communications Strategy as detailed in the report now submitted be approved.

29  Procurement

Members considered a report of the Director of Support Services (South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service) which provided an update with regard to
national procurement issues as follows;

• launch of the National Procurement Strategy at the Fire 2005 Conference in early November

• the creation of a national body, FireBuy Limited

• the current status of the Integrated Clothing Project

• work of the Yorkshire and Humberside Procurement Working Group

Resolved

(i) That the report be noted; and

(ii) That a report be submitted to the January 2006 meeting of the Board advising of the implications for the region of the National Procurement Strategy.

30  Training

Consideration was given to a report of the Chief Fire Officer and Chief Executive of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service which updated Members on the
Training function and specifically on the following issues;

• Draft National Learning and Development Strategy – response submitted on behalf of the region (detailed at annex 1)

• Strategic Incident Command Development

• Supervisory Manager Practical Incident Command training

• Firefighter Development Programme

Resolved

(i) That the report be noted;

(ii) That the result of the options appraisal for Strategic Incident Command Development be submitted to the January 2006 meeting of the Board.;

(iii) That the response submitted on behalf of the Regional Management Board to the consultation document “Draft National Fire and Rescue
Service Learning and Development Strategy for England” and Fire Service Circular 25 – 2005 be noted; and

(iv) That, in respect of possible cross-over of responsibilities for the Training function with IPDS and Human Resources, a project management report
be submitted to the next meeting of the Board.

31  Personnel and HR Management

The Director of Human Resources at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service submitted a report which advised of the collaborative work which had been
undertaken with respect to Personnel and HR Management issues since the date of the last meeting.

It was reported that work had been progressed on the following issues;

• substantive move from Rank to Role – regional discussions for single model

• assessment and development centres – group established to assess implications for the region

• collaboration on National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ’s) – work commenced on identification of common areas

• Regional Control Centres – meetings taken place with Principal Fire Control Operators to discuss concerns.

• duty to promote disability and gender

• regional recruitment – Firefighter selection tests available for validation by brigades

Resolved

(i) That the report be noted; and

(ii) That recommendations related to the implications of the establishment of Assessment and Development Centres be submitted to the next meeting of the Board.

32  Date of Next Meeting

Resolved

That the next meeting of the Yorkshire and Humberside Fire Authorities’ Regional Management Board be held on Thursday 12 January 2006 at the offices of the South Yorkshire Joint Secretariat, Barnsley.

Chair

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