Meeting Details

RESOLVED that Cllr C B Taylor be elected as Chairman of the Fire Authority for the ensuing year, to hold office until his successor becomes entitled to act.

RESOLVED that Cllr R J Phillips be elected as Vice-Chairman of the Fire Authority for the ensuing year, to hold office until his successor becomes entitled to act.

The Chairman welcomed members of the public to the annual meeting and hoped they would find the meeting interesting.

The Chairman announced the following:

• Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) briefing sessions were being set up for Members in July, Committee Services would be sending out invites following the meeting.
• Assistant Chief Fire Officer Elliott had recently signed the Armed Forces Covenant.
• The Fire Cadets passing out parade had recently taken place at Droitwich Fire Station, which he had attended. The weather had been kind and the Fire Cadets were extremely impressive. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

At the start of this agenda item, the Chairman thanked Officers and staff for their hard work in providing a detailed and completely comprehensive review.  He then handed over to the Chief Fire Officer to present the report.

The Chief Fire Officer presented Members with the responses from the Resource Review consultation process with a view to agreeing the proposals being put forward in relation to the Resource Review. It was noted that Members had received an extra week to read through the documentation in readiness for the meeting.

The Chief Fire Officer informed Members that a comprehensive consultation process had now been completed and amendments made to the Resource Review proposals they had before them. He explained that Officers and many staff firmly believed this was the only viable and efficient solution to address the very significant issues currently being faced in regards to Wholetime and On-Call staffing. It was also incumbent on the Service to provide an efficient provision of resources with the tax payer funded budget it receives and to retain fire engines with low availability and very low usage would neither be an effective or efficient use of public money.

Members questioned the various vehicles mentioned in the review. The Chief Fire Officer assured Members that every station in the review would be provided with the vehicle that was most appropriate for their needs.

Following discussion, Members were asked to carefully consider how the Service could keep ahead of these issues and retain an efficient and effective response to the communities. They were also reminded that in the most recent HMICFRS report it clearly stated that the Service should continuously look for ways to improve effectiveness, efficiency and productivity. Maintaining eight On-Call fire engines with poor availability, very low usage and no reasonable long-term prospect of improving would not be demonstrating an efficient and effective Fire and Rescue Service.

An amendment to Recommendation ii) regarding Malvern's second On-Call appliance was agreed with the additional wording added 'any proposal to remove the second appliance at that stage be subject to appropriate further public consultation'.

An amendment was also agreed to Recommendation v) 'that the Fire Authority receive an implementation update report in two years'.

Following a vote, the decision was agreed as follows (Cllr D Boatright-Greene and Cllr J Kenyon voted against the proposal).

RESOLVED that, following full consideration of the responses received as part of the Resource Review consultation process, the:

i.    Fire Authority authorised the removal of the following On-Call staffed fire engines at the identified locations:

a. The third (On-Call) fire engine at Redditch.

b. The fourth (On-Call) fire engine at Wyre Forest.

c. The third (On-Call) fire engine at Worcester.

d. The second (On-Call) fire engine at Droitwich.

e. The second (On-Call) fire engine at Bromyard.

f. The third (On-Call) fire engine at Hereford.

g. The second (On-Call) fire engine at Leominster.

ii.   Second (On-Call) fire engine at Malvern be retained, subject to a further review in two years’ time based upon the usage and availability over that period. Any proposal to remove the second appliance at that stage be subject to appropriate further public consultation.

iii. Third (On-Call) fire engine at Wyre Forest remains, but is required to be crewed at night time only and may recruit staffing from a wider area within an eight-minute response time radius of the fire station.

iv. Resources available as a result of these operational changes to be reinvested to provide:

a. Additional Wholetime crewing to add resilience to the Wholetime duty system across the Service and to provide increased fire engine crew sizes, as often as possible, on the first fire engines at: Worcester, Wyre Forest and Hereford fire stations.

b. Provide a contingent of Wholetime Firefighters at each of Leominster and Bromyard fire stations to improve the availability of those appliances and undertake additional fire prevention activities in those areas.

c. Provide 4x4 type vehicles (or similar alternatives) for the utilisation of additional available On-Call Firefighters to provide a more flexible way of deploying them to support operational incidents, at the following stations: Worcester, Hereford, Redditch, Wyre Forest, Bromyard and Leominster.

v.   The implementation and timing of these changes be delegated to the Chief Fire Officer, with an implementation update report to the Fire Authority within two years.

A report was presented by the Clerk and Monitoring Officer to consider the allocation of Committee seats to political groups in accordance with the requirements for political balance, the appointment of Members to those committees and appointments to outside bodies.

It was noted that the current arrangements with regard to membership of committees and appointments to outside bodies had proven to be effective and it was recommended that these continued.

A final copy of the Committee membership would be appended to the Minutes for Members' information.

RESOLVED that:

i)     there be no change to the allocation of Committee seats to political groups as set out at Appendix 1;

ii)    the current chairmanship and membership of Committees, as set out in Appendix 2, remain unchanged for 2024/2025;

iii)  Cllrs E Marshall and N McVey be reappointed as Member Champions of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion;

iv)  Cllr B Clayton be reappointed as Member Champion on the Health & Safety Committee;

v)   Cllr R Morris be appointed as Fire Cadets’ Member Champion;

vi)  the current practice for representation and voting on the Local Government Association as set out in Appendix 2 be continued; and

vii) the place and vote on the Local Government Association Fire Commission continues to be exercised by the Chairman of the Authority.

[Councillor Boatright-Greene left the meeting at 11.35am].

The Treasurer presented the provisional financial results 2023-24, the Treasury Management activities and the Prudential Code Indicators.

The Treasurer explained that the two areas covered by the report normally came under the Terms of Reference of the Policy and Resources Committee, however the timetable of meetings did not provide a suitable date for this to be done, therefore this report was always considered by the Full Authority.

Members noted the impact on individual reserves which showed that whilst balances fell significantly it was not quite as fast as was anticipated in February 2024. This was because expenditure on some Invest to Improve projects had not incurred as early as was anticipated, although these projects were well underway.

Members also noted that the Audit and Standards Committee will consider the full Statement of Accounts; which will be completed on the basis of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and published following completion of the external audit. Until the external audit process was completed these financial results technically remained provisional, but it was unlikely that they would change materially as a result of the audit.

Finally the Treasurer confirmed that the Prudential Indicators for 2023-24 were within the limits set by the Authority and no matters required further action.

RESOLVED that the Authority:

i)   Noted the provisional financial results for 2023-24;

ii)  Approved the transfers to and from Earmarked Reserves in accordance with the Reserves Strategy:

1. £367,355 from the Organisational Excellence Reserve;
2. £324,108 from the On-Call Recruitment Reserve;
3. £84,318 from Fire Control Project Reserve;
4. £428,026 from the ICT Replacement Reserve;
5. £95,916 from the Fire Prevention Reserve;
6. £46,000 from the Taxation Income Guarantee Reserve;
7. £854,551 from the Capital (Building) Projects Reserve;
8. £7,197 to the Protection Grants Reserve;
9. £94,000 from the Development Reserve;
10. £24,592 from the Safety Initiatives Reserve;
11. £616,808 from the RPE/BA Replacement Reserve;
12. £47,435 from the Property Maintenance Reserve;
13. £24,726 from the Pensions Reserve; and
14. £139,439 from the Budget Reduction Reserve.

iii)  iii) Confirmed that the Prudential Indicators for 2023-24 were within the limits set by the Authority and no matters require further action.

The Assistant Chief Officer (Director of Prevention) presented Members with the Annual Service Review 2023-24, which was a look back at the range of work undertaken over the last year, including headline activities and incident statistics, to adopt and approve for publication on the Service website.

[Cllr Hart left the meeting at 11:40am].

RESOLVED that the draft Annual Service Review 2023-24 be approved for publication on the Service website.

The Assistant Chief Officer (Director of Prevention) presented Members with the Annual Service Plan 2024-25, which sets out the Service's key priorities for the coming year arranged against the overall aims of the Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) 2021-25 and the Service's Core Strategies. The finalised plan will be published on the Service website.

[Cllr Hart returned to the meeting at 11.42am].

RESOLVED that the draft Annual Service Plan 2023-24 be approved for publication on the Service website.

The Assistant Chief Officer (Director of Prevention) updated Members on the progress made against the recommendations from the 2023 HMICFRS Spotlight Report on Values & Culture in Fire and Rescue Services.

The HMICFRS report focussed on the values and culture of all 44 Fire and Rescue Services in England and made a series of 35 recommendations, 20 of which were aimed at Chief Fire Officers to consider and implement along with deadlines for each recommendation.

Members noted the responses and recommendations made by Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service and that 18 of the 20 recommendations had been completed and fully implemented. Outstanding recommendations were planned into workstreams for 2024/25.

RESOLVED that the actions and progress made against the recommendations in the HMICFRS Values & Culture Spotlight Report be noted.

The Chief Fire Officer presented the Culture Statement of Intent, setting out the key ambitions for the Service's organisational culture, to adopt and approve for publication on the Service website.

Members noted that the Culture Statement of Intent will support the Service in continuing to improve and foster an inclusive, safe culture and will make the EDI strategic intent more explicit across the organisation, which was recommended by the cultural audit. 

RESOLVED that the Culture Statement of Intent be approved for publication on the Service website.

The Chairman of the Committee presented the minutes of the Audit and Standards Committee meeting held on 17 April 2024.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Audit and Standards Committee meeting held on 17 April 2024 be received and noted.

The Chairman of the Committee presented the minutes of the Policy and Resources Committee meetings held on 6 March 2024 and 8 May 2024.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Policy and Resources Committee meetings held on 6 March 2024 and 8 May 2024 be received and noted.

[Cllr Boatright-Greene returned to the meeting at 11.54am]