Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Deputy Leader of the Council

Forward Plan Ref: 2018/153

Contact: Paul Bremble, Group Manager – Strategic Risk & Assurance

Report by Chief Fire Officer (CA12).

The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 requires the Secretary of State to prepare a Fire and Rescue National Framework to which Fire Authorities must have regard when discharging their functions. The 2018 Framework requires each Fire and Rescue Authority to produce a publicly available Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP). Within Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (OFRS) we have called this our Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) to make it more meaningful to the public. In April 2017 OFRS published the CRMP 5-year strategy of Oxfordshire, this will cover the period from 2017 to 2022.

Each year the fire authority creates an action plan which proposes a number of projects to support the CRMP 5-year strategy.  This report outlines the proposed projects for 2019-20 and the consultation that has been undertaken on those projects.

The proposals in this report were presented to the Performance Scrutiny Committee in October 2018.

The agreed proposals within the 2019-20 action plan have been subjected to full internal and external consultation for a period of 12 weeks. Cabinet is therefore invited to comment on the proposed action plan, consultation responses and management responses to the consultation responses.

The following projects will be included within the fire authority’s CRMP for the fiscal year 2019-20:

• Project 1 - Risk profiling local communities.

• Project 2 - Prevention Review

• Project 3 - On-Call retention review

• Project 4 - Proactive Role in improving standards in rented housing

• Project 5: Establishing Community Safety Advocates or Wardens. 

• Project 6: To increase the diversity of the Operational Workforce to reflect the community that we serve.

Our medium-term financial plan and supporting business strategies underpin the proposals within our CRMP action plan.

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to accept the proposed projects and adopt in the final version of the CRMP Action Plan 2019-20.

Recommendation agreed.

The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 requires the Secretary of State to prepare a Fire and Rescue National Framework to which Fire Authorities must have regard when discharging their functions. The 2018 Framework requires each Fire and Rescue Authority to produce a publicly available Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP). Within Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (OFRS) we have called this our Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) to make it more meaningful to the public. In April 2017 OFRS published the CRMP 5-year strategy of Oxfordshire, this will cover the period from 2017 to 2022.

Each year the fire authority creates an action plan which proposes a number of projects to support the CRMP 5-year strategy.  Cabinet considered a report that outlined the proposed projects for 2019-20 and the consultation that has been undertaken on those projects.

Councillor Laura Price, Opposition Deputy Leader, appreciated the job done in increasing engagement. Referring to the valued wider communities role that the Fire Service undertook Councillor Price was concerned whether there was a need at a time of financial constraint to preserve the core offering. She noted that this concern seemed to come through in responses to the consultation. Councillor Price queried whether there was an official FBU response and that it would be good to see their response feature more strongly. Councillor Price referred to the general comments in the report and asked about the comments that whole-time staff were leaving more quickly.

Councillor Judith Heathcoat, Deputy Leader of the Council, and Simon Furlong, Chief Fire Officer responded to the comments made. The core role within a broader role was recognised. There was some tension in taking on call fire fighters away from their usual employment to do non-emergency work.One of the projects was aimed at addressing this issue. It was confirmed that the FBU had responded to the consultation.  People leaving more quickly was a societal changes but one which concerned the Chief Fire Officer and one which he sought understand.

Councillor Heathcoat moved the recommendations.

RESOLVED:             to accept the proposed projects and adopt the final version of the CRMP Action Plan 2019-20.