Agenda and minutes

Mr. L. Yates CC, Local member for Glenfields (for Minute 44)

The minutes of the meeting held on 30 September 2015 were taken as read, confirmed and signed.

The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 35.

The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 7(3) and 7(5).

There were no urgent items for consideration.

The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to declare any interest in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting.

The following members each declared a personal, non-prejudicial interest in respect of the item to consider the fire proposals s members of the Combined Fire Authority (Minute 44 refers):

Mr. M. H. Charlesworth CC

Ms. M. E. Newton CC

Mrs. C. M. Radford CC

Mr. R. J. Shepherd CC

Ms. M. E. Newton and Mrs. J. A. Dickinson CC each declared a personal, non-prejudicial interest in respect of the Annual Performance Report as they had relatives who were employees of the NHS. Mr. R. J. Shepherd declared a personal, non-prejudicial interest in respect of this item as a member of Charnwood Borough Council (Minute 45 refers).

There were no declarations of the party whip.

The Chief Executive reported that no petitions had been received under Standing Order 36.

The Commission considered the Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service’s (LFRS) Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) 2016-2020. The matter was before the Commission today as a result of an extraordinary meeting of the County Council held on 8 October which had resolved that the Scrutiny Commission should consider the consultation proposals in the first instance with a view to submitting its comments to the Cabinet for consideration at its meeting on 18 November in order that a properly considered response could be debated at the full County Council meeting to be held on 2 December. It was noted that a detailed briefing on the consultation proposals and LFRS’s budget position had been had been held for all members of the Council on 2 November.

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting the following representatives of LFRS who were in attendance to deliver a presentation to members and respond to any questions:

Richard Chandler, Chief Fire Officer

Alison Greenhill, Combined Fire Authority Treasurer

Steve Lunn, Deputy Chief Fire Officer

(A copy of the slides forming the presentations delivered by Messrs. Chandler and Lunn and by Ms. Greenhill is filed with these minutes.)

Arising from the presentations delivered, the following points were noted:

Budget

·           The number of posts that had been “disestablished” as a means of avoiding compulsory redundancy was 101. A “six point” plan was in effect to avoid compulsory redundancy, which included options such as career breaks and secondment, however it was not possible to “force” firefighters down these routes. Compulsory redundancy of firefighters would in all probability result in local and national industrial action;

·           21 operational staff would be in a position to retire over the next 5 years. It had been forecast in the budget that firefighters would retire when eligible. Funding to cope with this had been built into the budget accordingly;

·           7% capital financing in the County was not considered to be excessive, given the Service only received very small amounts of grant funding. The figure was higher for the City;

·           The CFA aimed to build a contingency fund of £300k per year over the next four years as a result of the ongoing uncertainty of the budget position as set by the Government;

·           The “Grey Book” was a term used for national conditions of service for firefighters, however LFRS worked outside the terms of the book for some of its services;

·           LFRS had of the leanest upper management tiers of fire services in the country. 18 members of middle management staff had recently been removed. The Service had also employed a member of staff from the City Council as its Treasurer and were exploring with the County Council the possibility of legal and governance services being provided as a means of identifying further savings. Opportunities for further reductions were being explored on an ongoing basis, as well as more innovative solutions, such as possible mergers of some services with the Police Service and East Midlands Ambulance Service. Fire Investigation and Urban Search and Rescue Services were already shared with Leicestershire Police;

IRMP - General

·           The modelling work on which the proposals had been formulated identified the level of risk in each “super output area” and included data around travel distances and the best routes to follow for incidents. The modelling data was published on the LFRS website;

·           External audit of the Fire Service was undertaken in respect of finance and governance. The last peer review that had been conducted at Leicestershire was around four years ago. This was considered to be the average in terms of timescale;

·           The consultation documents did not include the availability of cover  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

The Commission considered a report of the Chief Executive concerning the County Council’s Draft Annual Performance Report 2015. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 2”, is filed with these minutes.

The Chief Executive explained that the Annual Report was currently a draft and would be considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on 18 November, alongside the comments of the Commission, prior to consideration at the full County Council meeting scheduled for 2 December.

The Chief Executive reported that there were strong examples of delivery in the Annual Report across the priority themes. Some areas required a continued focus on delivery and improvement. It was noted that improvement plans were in place related to these. There was some time lag in the data and therefore a higher risk that reductions in Government funding, such as the public health grant, would in future make it difficult to progress improvements.  An inequitable approach in terms of Government funding also made it harder for the Council to maintain previous good comparative performance levels moving forwards. It was therefore important that the Council continued to press for fairer funding for the County and its services, including schools.      

Arising from a discussion, the following points were noted:

·                Members were informed that a review would be undertaken of the Council’s Park and Ride Service to assess performance and whether it had impacted congestion levels. Further information would be provided to members in relation to this in due course;

·                A report had been considered at the Environment and Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee in September regarding a recent spike in road casualties. Early data for this year suggested that levels might now be reducing to previous levels;

·         The Better Care Fund was still in its infancy with regard to measurable impact, though a significant amount of activity was underway and a range of projects had been commissioned. This was already having a positive impact on reducing delayed transfers of care, reducing admissions to care homes, improving reablement and helping to reduce continued high levels of hospital admissions;  

·                Extra national funding had been expected to impact on improved mental health service delivery. However the new funding now identified had still to be translated into agreed improvement plans and delivery on the ground. Work was underway to progress this;

·                Monitoring of feedback from carers was carried out in the most part via surveys. The number of key performance indicators for carers had now grown as a result of the implementation of the Care Act. Overall reported Adult Social Care performance showed a mixed picture, in part due to performance on a number of perception indicators from the Adult Social Care service users and carers’ surveys. Work was underway to understand any issues that lay behind the perceptions and to progress improvements; 

·                The proposed Combined Authority, if approved, was considered to be the primary vehicle through which joint and more efficient way of working could take place with the City Council and district/borough councils regarding issues such as transport, planning, housing and skills;

·                A number of the service changes and transformation projects, such as those related to library services, sought to mitigate the impact of Government funding cuts;

Members noted the generally positive position but questioned whether, given the importance of continuing to press the Government for fairer funding for the County, the report contained sufficient information on the risks to the continued delivery and performance of services as a result of continued funding cuts.

The Chief Executive highlighted that the report was not prepared for the purpose of lobbying Government but rather to allow the Council to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

The Cabinet Lead Member for Finance and Resources, Mr. J. B. Rhodes CC, has been invited to attend for this item.

RESOLVED:

That the item be deferred to the Commission’s meeting in January.

The Cabinet Lead Member for Finance and Resources, Mr. J. B. Rhodes CC, has been invited to attend for this item.

RESOLVED:

That the item be deferred to the Commission’s meeting in January.

It was NOTED that the next meeting of the Commission was scheduled to take place on 27 January 2016 at 2.00pm.