Money and health top the agenda at the LGA Fire Conference

Government & Politics

Lt d

Money and health top the agenda at the LGA Fire Conference FIRE Correspondent Catherine Levin reports from this year’s Local Government Association Fire Conference which took place in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, on March 10–11

hin g

an dM ed

The other old chestnut that looks like it might achieve some savings and is guaranteed to irritate everyone: mentioning the possibility of a national Fire Service for England.

lis

Peter Dartford, President of the Chief Fire Officers Association

Pa

vil io

nP ub

Number Crunching Kieran Timmins, Deputy Chief Executive of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and Chair of the Fire Finance Network took a literary theme to his presentation with Dickens and Aldous Huxley to capture the audience’s attention.

Kieran had been crunching some numbers and showed a range of simple but effective graphs reminding the audience about pay levels, reductions in spending power and reductions in staff. He reminded everyone about the backdrop of falling incident numbers and the breadth of prevention work. Some simple maths from Kieran revealed that numbers of incidents per fire station per day were just 1.3 in 2009/10 and even lower by the end of last year. Going forward, it is a brave new world indeed.

And then there is the easy target: the fire funding formula. There is always a hope that one day it might be changed enough to make everyone happy. It was standing tall, only for the Minister to confirm no plans on that one.

Clive Betts MP, the Chair of the DCLG Select Committee, was all for moving the distribution of fire finance from DCLG to a local body along the lines of the Office of Budget Responsibility.

He had the audience positively purring after his words of love for localism.

ia

T

his year’s conference in Gateshead had two distinct themes: money and health.

There was much talk about reductions in budgets and the impact any further cuts may have on public safety in the future.

There was also a glimmer of optimism with investment made through the Transformation Fund; new money that would accompany pending legislation about smoke alarms in the private rented sector; and potential funding for statutory flooding duties if a Labour government comes into power in May. On the health front, there was much talk about fitness levels, pensions and the treatment of staff. There was also discussion about opportunities to work with the health sector to really integrate fire and rescue services into the community and better reach those most vulnerable communities, improving outcomes for the most at risk.

8 | April 2015 | www.fire–magazine.com

“I passionately believe that building on our fantastic record on prevention we should move into other areas”

Single Service Illusion To be fair to Lyn Brown MP, the Shadow Fire Minister, she did say that in response to a survey she had been conducting that “some favour a single Service”. They did not appear to be in this audience. She was pretty clear that 46 (soon to be 45) was not the right number but had no suggestions for an alternative figure.

The Shadow Minister was left in no doubt about the position of this audience: David Acton from the LGA had the last word in his conference session by telling the Shadow Minister “a national English Fire and Rescue Service would not work”. In a later session, Matt Wrack, President of the FBU concurred. “Fortysix is not the right number; but one isn’t either”.

This side of purdah, the Minister was not shy in coming forward with the lure of money for the Fire and Rescue Service. She firmly took the wind out of the sails of the lobbyists by announcing that she agreed that it would be a good idea to mandate private landlords to put smoke alarms in private rented properties.

Regulations under the Energy Act are to be laid before the end of this Parliament, coming into force in October 2015. There was no mention of money at this stage, but it is sure to follow.

The Shadow Fire Minister had money too.

She told the audience that she would make responding to flooding a statutory duty for the Fire and Rescue Service. It is likely that every chief officer around the country was totting up the bill during her speech and relishing the prospect of a large injection of funds for this ‘new’ burden.

It was good to hear what some fire and rescue services are already doing with their money from the Transformation Fund. Steve McGuirk was on good form; he is in his last few months as Chief of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service and was effusive about the new Community Risk Intervention Teams (see pg 22 for focus on Greater Manchester).

Government & Politics

Pa

vil io

Health of the Nation There was a running theme focused on health at this year’s conference. The Minister set the tone early on with her recognition that increases in the number of pensioners, dementia sufferers and those over 85 will have an impact on fire and rescue services.

It was Peter Dartford, current President of CFOA, who continued with the health theme when he told the audience: “I passionately believe that building on our fantastic record on prevention we should move into other areas.” He talked about “healthier, safer and more resilient communities” and the “fantastic opportunity” to work with the health sector and the NHS. Ron Dobson, Commissioner of London Fire Brigade, focused his talk on people and inclusive leadership. He reflected what Kieran Timmins had highlighted earlier in the day: with call rates so low it is no longer possible to justify having a Service with seven per cent utilisation rates. “If we carry on the way we are,” he cautioned, “we will go out of business”.

For the Commissioner, the Fire and Rescue

ia

Lt d

Service has reached a watershed. It is time to think about what the Service will look like and what the journey will be to get there. Part of this change is increasing capacity and knowledge to deal with health issues in communities. And in order to do this best, fire and rescue services need to reflect those communities. At the start of his presentation, he told the audience “we haven’t improved enough”, but he did end on a more optimistic note. “The future is bright. We can change the way we work”.

Matt Wrack, General Secretary of the FBU, was asked during the final session of the conference about co-responding and whether there was an expectation that firefighters would become paramedics. In the US many fire departments are Fire Service based emergency medical service (EMS) organisations where staff have dual functions. Matt responded by saying it was just “flavour of the month”.

The health theme continued with talk about the pensions debate and the conditions of service review recently carried out by Adrian Thomas.

Clive Betts MP had an impressive grasp of the nuances of the pensions debate. “What an unholy mess this has been,” he told the conference as he proceeded to dismantle the arguments and conclude that guarantees and discretion are not necessarily synonymous.

The Minister had inevitably talked about the change to the pension scheme during her talk the previous day. She confirmed that the final Statutory Instrument for the new pension scheme had been tabled. She also reminded the audience that the National Framework had been changed “to give older workers reassurances if they lost fitness”.

an dM ed

hin g

FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack

“If we carry on the way we are, we will

lis

go out of business”

nP ub

£3.7 million buys a few converted ambulance chassis replete with Battenberg branding (but no blue lights for now); 30 staff on short-term contracts and some fancy new facades to brand joint fire, police and ambulance stations.

“Sometimes you just have to do something because it’s right,” said CFO McGuirk. And while it’s a bit disconcerting that he does not have a plan about what will happen after the first two years are over, there is no doubt it will be something that new CFO Pete O’Reilly will be wowing the LGA Fire conference with in a couple of years time.

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service shared how it is using its Transformation Funding to fund new joint rural response units with the police. The realities of joint working were honestly assessed and like many of the collaboration projects funded under this scheme, there are challenges as well as benefits.

There was great interest in the experience of merging Dorset and Wiltshire fire and rescue services. Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service received £5.54 million from the Transformation Fund. The Chief of Wiltshire, Simon Routh-Jones, talked about the financial pressures faced by smaller brigades and the hard decisions that have to be made to remain viable. Indeed the Fire Minister agreed when she said it is “not easy to do. It took great political and professional leadership and will benefit the communities you serve”.

While the merger is confirmed and Chief Fire Officer designate Darren Gunter appointed, there is much to be done to create a cohesive new organisation – choosing the shirt colour one of the more prosaic and yet controversial decisions to be made. See forthcoming issue of FIRE for merger focus.

Conditions of Service Consternation It was the conditions of service review that caused the greatest consternation at this conference. Adrian Thomas was commissioned to “unearth the answer to the question about changes in Service conditions”. He has consulted, he has written and he has submitted his report but it had not been published in time for this conference. And this cast a fog over the rest of the conference as without it there was not much that could be said.

The audience heard that Adrian had visited 21 out of 46 fire and rescue services in England. He confirmed that he had made 45 recommendations in the report. He used word clouds to provide graphical images of themes emerging from his consultation and the dominance of the word bullying was no surprise given the content of the Minister’s speech the previous day.

The Minister and Matt Wrack both provided many statistics around the number of Fire and Rescue Service personnel who had responded to surveys saying that they had been bullied and/or harassed in the workplace. Dany Cotton, London Fire Brigade Assistant Commissioner April 2015 | www.fire–magazine.com | 9

Government & Politics

lis

hin g

vil io

Pa

10 | April 2015 | www.fire–magazine.com

Lt d

an dM ed

Fire Minister Penny Mordaunt said the Fire and Rescue Service has made "substantial progress"

“What an unholy

nP ub

UK Fire Service at a “crossroads” Reflecting on her 35 weeks in post, Fire Minister Penny Mordaunt told delegates that the Fire Service had made “substantial progress” in that time “in the profile of the Service across Whitehall and in our communities”.

“From the Home Office to Foreign Office the Fire Service’s activities are highly regarded, whether it is its resilience role, its contribution to international development or getting businesses back to work quickly, the breadth and quality of what you do is recognised and appreciated.”

The Fire Minister said that the Service’s role in prevention is well understood and third parties are alive to the possibilities that are opened up with the Fire and Rescue Service as a partner.

The Minister praised a range of initiatives including: • Merseyside’s campaign to deliver important safety messages such as having working smoke alarms on each floor of the house.

• Devon and Somerset’s chip pan fire demonstrations • Humberside’s awareness raising during Chinese New Year on the dangers of lanterns • West Midlands’ push on volunteering in the fire service and the cadets • Cheshire’s internationally-recognised leadership in road safety and its innovative work with primary and secondary schools • Lancashire’s focus on reducing levels of antisocial behaviour and associated fire-related incidents through football • New services designed and developed in Norfolk which stemmed from the ideas front line firefighters had for using specialist dogs to trace fatalities through the water • West Midlands have developed, and will advance, 999 Eye with other emergency services, health care professionals and community services, which will make use of social media to build up a picture of the scene of an incident to enable the ideal response to be mounted • Humberside, which has set up a trading arm to deliver training in CPR and supplement the ambulance and first responder service • Dorset and Wiltshire for their move to merger • Oxfordshire and Staffordshire have dedicated business support managers and teams that work with partners, businesses and communities to prevent fires and in cases where there are devastating fires this function can advise and

assist those in returning to normal which benefits business, staff and the community.

“The Fire Service is continuing its excellent record on prevention and community engagement,” she said, “in reaching the most hard-to-reach, and the most vulnerable and in cracking the tough stuff. That is recognised not only within government but with agencies and the third sector who are focussed on the communities you serve.

Ms Mordaunt also announced that following the consideration of responses to the public discussion paper on Property Conditions in the Private Rented Sector, the government is introducing regulations requiring private sector landlords to install smoke alarms on each storey of their property, carbon monoxide alarms in the rooms considered most at risk from high levels of carbon monoxide and to check the alarms are in working order at the start of any new tenancy.

To aid this, the government will be providing additional one-off funding to fire and rescue authorities this financial year to enable them to support landlords in the transition to complying with these new regulations. Estimates suggest that the regulations will result in up to 36 fewer fatalities and 1,529 fewer injuries over a tenyear period.

Alongside this targeted regulation for carbon monoxide alarms the government intends to pursue non-regulatory alternatives to encourage installation of carbon monoxide alarms in all private rented sector properties.

To conclude, Ms Mordaunt set out her vision for the Service: • A Service whose reach touches every vulnerable person in the community • That acts seamlessly with its neighbours and its partners • The go-to place for innovation, training and community action • Where all employees work in an environment where they are valued and can thrive • Where their ideas and vision are acted on • Where their race, age, gender and sexual orientation is irrelevant to the facilities they have access to, or their promotion opportunities and reflects the community they serve • A Service which provides a uniform that fits and modern, fit for purpose kit • Where best practice is shared and best value achieved • Where every firefighter can be a member of whichever union they chose, or none • Where everyone has everyone’s back • A Service which is respected and valued by the community it serves • Where the parents, as well as the kids, wave and cheer as it goes by • A Service where everyone in it understands its values and purpose and how they can deliver on both • A Service that is the hall mark of leadership, integrity and duty.

ia

and Chair of Women in the Fire Service, also intervened in the debate to relay what her members had said.

It was hard to get underneath all of this after short conference speeches and clearly there is much more to be said and action to be taken once surveys and government and others publish reports. This important subject will carry on well past the May General Election and is likely to dominate the discussions around the Fire and Rescue Service for any new government.

mess this [pensions] has been”