Governance and collaboration: the route to transformation?

Government & Politics

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Governance and collaboration: the route to transformation?

FIRE Correspondent Catherine Levin reports from this year’s Local Government Association Fire Conference held in Bristol on March 8-9 of geography are against this policy with police and fire boundaries inconveniently at odds in many places across the country and notably in the south west.

Yet this sentiment does seem slightly at odds with the arguments that underpin the policy for this Bill, which are about local accountability.

The Police and Crime Commissioner is elected directly by the local people – who will do so for the second time on May 5 – yet, and this has been said many times, the 2012 cohort were elected on just a 15 per cent turn out. The hope is, of course, that coinciding the elections for PCCs with the local government elections will lead to more traditional levels of turnout – circa 30 per cent.

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Police and Fire Minister The Rt Hon Mike Penning MP, Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims, opened the conference apologising for the excessive length of his title, but reinforcing the point that it is right to bring all these areas under one minister. For fire, it brings the policy responsibility under a Minister of State, a step up in seniority from the usual Parliamentary Under Secretary.

Speaking without notes and with a swift apology to his staff for not following his prepared speech, the Minister set out his heartfelt interest in the Fire and Rescue Service.

He referred often to his time working for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service. Those days have clearly left an impression on him, but one of the vestiges of that time, the use of the term “fireman”, unfortunately remained and on International Women’s Day as well.

Tackling head on the issues surrounding the Policing and Crime Bill, the Minister said: “We shouldn’t be obsessed about who runs the show. The proposed governance model which could see a Police and Crime Commissioner taking on the functions of the Fire and Rescue Service will not suit everyone, “one size does not fit all”. Of course he is right, the vagaries

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t is incredibly good timing to have the LGA Fire Conference right in the middle of the discussion in parliament about the biggest change in governance for the Fire and Rescue Service in England in decades. The proposed duty to collaborate contained in the Policing and Crime Bill generated comment and debate in every session. Neither changes to governance nor compulsion to collaborate are universally welcomed: the conference offered a wide range of perspectives on both.

This conference is hosted by the Local Government Association and is for elected members of fire and rescue authorities, so governance and local accountability go to the heart of what they are all about. These proposals change fundamentally what elected members can do and not one will take these changes lightly. This debate is going to run and run.

Police and Fire Minister Mike Penning tackled head on the issues surrounding the Policing and Crime Bill, saying: “We shouldn’t be obsessed about who runs the show”

Opposition Stances Lyn Brown MP is Shadow Minister and said the proposed governance model was “unnecessarily complex”. Responding to the argument that PCCs are elected by the people to carry out the job set out in the legislation, the Shadow Minister said that members of fire and rescue authorities are elected by the local people as well.

She did not mention it at the conference, but the Shadow Minister has also gone on to expand this point during parliamentary scrutiny of the Policing and Crime Bill to note that when the PCCs stand for election on May 5 they will not do so with a mandate to take on Fire and Rescue Service functions, as the legislation will not be enacted at that point. It is a subtlety but a point worth noting.

The Liberal Democrat view on governance was clear: they should “stay where they are” with “democratically elected members elected by and in touch with local fire and rescue authorities”. Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville agreed with the LGA position and cautioned: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

There was an alarming point during the conference when Fire Brigades Union President Matt Wrack warned the audience that there was “a real danger of a joint FBU/employer love in”, such is the agreement that the FBU has with the LGA in opposing government policy about police and crime commissioners.

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Government & Politics

Matt Wrack spoke about collaboration and how the FBU “had adjusted its position along the way” to enable co-responding trials to take place across the country. “We are very committed to joint working.” The results presented by FBU and Surrey Fire and Rescue Service representatives at the conference for their six-month trial are an encouraging example of co-responding in action.

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Ambulance Service Perspective Despite the Ambulance Service not featuring heavily in the Policing and Crime Bill and the government consultation that preceded it, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) have created a new post called ‘Head of Tri-Service Development’ to focus on the Ambulance Service’s input and interest in the Bill. Adrian Healey from South West Ambulance Service is new in post. He spoke at the end of the conference, in what was by far the best session of the two days.

The AACE does not agree with the proposal to introduce a new duty to collaborate. Adrian spoke about a new future for ambulance services where collaboration would come in many different forms. He suggested aligning estates through co-location; an expansion in tri-service response; and even paramedic integration – putting paramedics on fire engines. He talked warmly of the Fire and Rescue Service’s extensive experience of prevention and what the Ambulance Service could learn from the approach to reduce demand on the health sector.

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Shadow Minister Lyn Brown said the proposed governance model was “unnecessarily complex”

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Existing Collaboration With all this focus on governance, it was hard to concentrate on the other big issue coming out of the Policing and Crime Bill and that is collaboration. So many speakers said that collaboration was happening all the time, so why did the government need to mandate it?

There were many examples of fire and health working together to improve outcomes for local communities.

Councillor Jeremy Hilton, who chaired the conference, confirmed that the LGA supports closer collaboration. The Transformation Fund that released so much money into the Fire and Rescue Service and funded a lot of innovative collaborative work is a casualty of the move from DCLG to Home Office. But there is hope – projects with a police interest will be considered, so that is a clear signal of the direction of travel now that fire sits firmly within the Home Office.

“We work really well together” said Chief Constable Alec Wood from Cambridgeshire Constabulary. “A huge amount of collaboration already takes place” and this leads to greater interoperability as set out in the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP) that all three services support.

CC Wood advised that police, fire and ambulance should demonstrate to the Home Office that the emergency services can and do continue to work together. He concluded that “it is not our ambition to take over fire… we are not interested in a land grab”. He went on to say that “locally delivered, collaborative services are the way forward”.

It was down to the CFOA President, CFO Paul Hancock, to remind the audience that “collaboration is more than police and fire”.

He, is of course, referring to the extensive work of the Fire and Rescue Service with health partners, which include ambulance services in co-responding but also the NHS in prevention (see pg 39 for focus on co-responding).

If the tenor of the Public Accounts Committee report published just recently is anything to go by, CFO Hancock’s advice to build an evidence base and generate outcomes for work beyond core duties is well timed and worth regarding.

This point was developed further by Councillor Rebecca Knox, the Chairman of Dorset Fire and Rescue Authority. She said that fire and rescue services are not good at showing value for money for prevention work. She suggested taking an “outcomebased accounting” approach, looking at the benefits of every £1 spent on prevention work. The idea of ‘return on investment’ for fire prevention work is not new but is not ingrained in this area. Councillor Knox provides a useful reminder ahead of the requirement by the Public Accounts Committee for the Home Office to respond on this point.

It was down to CFOA President, CFO Paul Hancock, to remind the audience that “collaboration is more than police and fire”. He was referring to the extensive work of the Fire and Rescue Service with health partners which include ambulance services in co-responding but also the NHS in prevention (see pg 39 for coresponding focus)

Thomas Review Delay It was hard for any other subjects to gain much headway at this conference as they competed with the heavy subjects of changes to governance and the introduction of a duty to collaborate. However, there were a few areas of interest. Notably the confession from the Minister that he did not have a date for the publication of the Thomas Review into firefighter conditions of service. He said it was “slightly early for me”, which is hard to hear when at last year’s conference Adrian Thomas provided an overview of his 45 recommendations and two fire ministers later the report still has not been published.

One subject that did not gain much traction was scrutiny. The Home Secretary has previously made it clear that she thinks the lack of scrutiny into the Fire and Rescue Service is unacceptable. She has noticed that there is no Inspectorate for the Fire and Rescue Service unlike the police. HMFSI went years ago and was replaced by ‘sector-led improvement’ with the LGA firmly in the lead with peer reviews, which are sold as improvement tools.

Enabling Closer Working The government’s response to the consultation on enabling closer working between the

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Adrian Healey from South West Ambulance Service spoke about a new future for ambulance services where collaboration would come in many different forms.

He suggested aligning estates through co-location; an expansion in tri-service response; and even paramedic integration – putting paramedics on fire engines.

Photo by Kieran Hancock: kieran-hancock.squarespace.com

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emergency services kicked the subject of scrutiny firmly into the long grass and it was not mentioned by the Minister at this conference. However, CFO Hancock raised the subject during his address and asked all the questions that need asking about timing, transition and so on. He argued for the Home Office to retain a commitment to peer review.

He talked about making the journey from selfimprovement (the LGA way) to independent review (the Inspectorate way). Maybe the two can live in harmony?

CFO Hancock concluded that an “agenda for improved public safety” was firmly in place.

This echoes, albeit in softer tones, the words of the Minister, who in the Westminster Hall debate called before the Policing and Crime Bill was laid in Parliament, said: “We need to

“He has made it clear that he wants change, he wants governance to be part of that change and that transformation of the Fire and Rescue Service must take place”

protect our public better than we do now and where it works, I will not have belligerence and bloody mindedness blocking that sort of care in other parts of the country.”

He has made it clear that he wants change, he wants governance to be part of that change and that transformation of the Fire and Rescue Service must take place. He will be busy in parliament making this happen, particularly as he said there are 132 amendments to go into the already 200 page Bill.

“I hope I understand your ethos and will be your Fire Minister for many years to come.”

That might be a long shot given the history of fire ministers who generally last about a year in post before moving on.

Let us see what transformation can take place in the remaining months.

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