Meeting Details

Cllr R Phillips declared that he is Chair of the Local Government Pension Scheme Advisory Board (England and Wales), and Chair of the NJC for Fire Service (Grey Book).

 Cllr J Shaw declared that her husband is employed by the Fire Service.

The Chairman welcomed new Members to their first meeting and hoped they would enjoy their time on the Fire Authority. Out-going Members were thanked for their time on the Fire Authority.

The Chairman wished the Deputy Chief Fire Officer Guy Palmer well in his retirement as this was his last working week. He expressed his sincere thanks for his career in the Fire Service and presented a plaque for his 32 years of service.

The Chairman welcomed the new Deputy Chief Fire Officer Grant Wills to the Service and looked forward to working with him in the future.

A report was presented by the General Counsel, 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.

Members noted that there was still a vacancy to be filled by Worcestershire County Council.

Cllr A Amos expressed his disappointment that Members of Reform UK, who were the largest party on the Authority, had largely been excluded from the appointment of Authority and Committee Chairs/Vice-Chairs.

RESOLVED that:

i)    The Authority welcomed the new Members who had been appointed;

ii)   Committee seats be allocated to political groups as set out at Appendix 2 of the report and in accordance with the wishes of Group Leaders, the membership of committees be as shown in Appendix 1 to these minutes.

iii)  The Authority determine the allocation of any remaining committee seats to non-aligned Members;

iv)  The Monitoring Officer be given delegated authority to review the political balance and make any necessary changes to the allocation of seats, in consultation with the Chairman and Group Leaders, once Worcestershire County Council confirm the allocation of the remaining seat;

v)  The terms of reference of Audit, Scrutiny & Standards Committee be amended to remove the restriction against Group Leaders being Members of that Committee;

vi) The Authority appoint:

a) Cllr D Boatright-Greene and Cllr D Toynbee as the Chair and Vice-Chair respectively of the Policy & Resources Scrutiny Committee;

b) Cllr D Morehead and Cllr S Bastow as the Chair and Vice-Chair respectively of the Audit, Scrutiny & Standards Committee;

vii) The Chair and Vice-Chair of the Authority be appointed as Chair and Vice-Chair respectively of the Appointments Committee;

viii) Cllr R Udall be appointed as Member Champion for Culture;

ix) Cllr D Morehead be appointed as the representative on the Health and Safety Committee;

x) Cllr R Morris be appointed as the Member Champion for the Fire Cadets;

xi)  The current practice for representation and voting on the Local Government Association and the LGA Fire Commission, as described in paragraphs 12 and 13 of the report, be continued.

The Treasurer presented the provisional financial results for 2025-26 for scrutiny along with the Treasury Management activities to review and the Prudential Code Indicators to confirm compliance.

Members' attention was drawn to two errors in the report:

• Appendix 1 – column 7 'Reserve Funded Projects', rows 4 and 5 should have been in rows 3 and 4. A corrected version is attached to these minutes.
• Paragraph 21b – Raymond Review should read Redman Review.

It was noted that until the external audit process was completed, the financial results technically remained provisional, however it was unlikely that they would change materially as a result of the audit.

Following scrutiny of the report, Members noted the net Revenue surplus of £0.377m compared to the budget at £0.009m, approved the transfers to and from Earmarked Reserves in accordance with the approved Reserves Strategy and noted the progress on approved capital schemes. It was further noted that at 31 March 2025 the Authority had long-term debt totally £8.488m, and during 2025-26 no loans were raised or repaid, leaving the total debt at 31 March 2026 unchanged.

Members confirmed that the Prudential Indicators for 2025-26 were within the limits set by the Authority and no matters required further action.

RESOLVED that the Authority:

i)   Noted the net Revenue surplus of £0.377m compared to the budget at £0.009m;

ii)  Confirmed the following transfers to and from Earmarked Reserves in accordance with the approved Reserves Strategy;

a) £0.693m from the Capital Projects Reserve;

b) £0.119m from the Fire Control (C&C) Project Reserve;

c) £0.071m from the ICT Replacements Reserve;

d) £0.038m from the On-Call Project Reserve;

e) £0.019m from the Prevention Grants Reserve;

f) £0.377m to the Budget Reduction Reserve;

iii) Noted the progress on approved capital schemes; and

iv) Confirmed that the Prudential Indicators for 2025-26 were within the limits set by the Authority and no matters required further action.

The General Counsel, Clerk and Monitoring Officer presented the Annual Governance Statement 2025/26 to allow Members to scrutinise the evidence compiled during the self-assessment review, which provided the assurances that sit behind the Annual Government Statement and to approve for publication.

[The Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner left the meeting at 11.07am].

Members noted that there had been a major revision of the framework for 2025/26 onwards and whilst the seven principles of good governance remained the same, the individual criteria or 'core arrangements' against which delivery of the principles is assessed, had been refreshed and updated.

Following scrutiny of the Annual Governance Statement Assurances 2025/26 and the Action Plan 2026/27, Members were satisfied that the values, principles and best practice had been met and approved the Annual Governance Statement 2025/26 for publication.

[The Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner returned to the meeting at 11.09am].

RESOLVED that the Annual Governance Statement 2025/26 be approved.

The Assistant Chief Officer - Director of Prevention presented the Annual Service Review 2025-26 for Members' scrutiny and approval.

Members noted that the Annual Service Review provided a review of the previous year's activity and performance and an overview of the Service organisation and budget. It provided information on the Service's main activities throughout the year, which included a wealth of information about the Service's frontline activities and incident statistics and focussed on some of the highlights of work behind the scenes.

It was noted that the Service attended 8,665 incidents during 2025-26 which was a 5% increase on the previous year.

The Chairman commented that this was an excellent user-friendly document, clear and easy to read, and ideal to pass onto town and parish councils for their information.

[Cllr Kenyon left the meeting at 11.26am].

Following scrutiny of the Annual Service Review 2025-26, it was approved for publication on the Service website.

[Cllr Kenyon returned to the meeting at 11.28am].

RESOLVED that the Annual Service Review 2025-26 be approved for publication on the Service website.

The Assistant Chief Officer - Director of Prevention presented the Annual Service Plan 2026-27 for Members' scrutiny and approval.

Members noted that the Annual Service Plan was a look ahead to activities planned for the coming year, with priorities arranged against the overall aims of the CRMP 2025-30 including the Service's Core Strategies 2025-30. It highlighted the key priorities for the Service in 2026-7 set out under the main CRMP headings for Response, Protection, Prevention, Valuing Our Workforce and Value for Money.

It was suggested that the Plan should include how the Service would respond to changing climate conditions in the future. The Chief Fire Officer explained that this was already detailed in the CRMP 2025-30, however would look at including it in the Plan for next year.

Following scrutiny of the Annual Service Plan, it was approved for publication on the Service website.

RESOLVED that the Annual Service Plan 2026-27 be approved for publication on the Service website.

The Assistant Chief Officer - Director of Prevention presented details of compliments, complaints, concerns and requests for information made by the public to the Service over the past 12 months.

Members noted that officers were satisfied there were no significant levels of recurring themes or trends in complaints being reported to give any cause for concern.

RESOLVED that Members noted that during the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026:

i)   a total of 180 Freedom of Information (FOI) requests containing 682 queries about the Service were received and a total of 11 Subject Access Requests (SARs) were received. There were 270 Miscellaneous Information Requests (MIRs) during this period. No requests were passed to the Information Commissioners Office for review.

ii)  a total of 82 compliments were received from the public;

iii) 43 complaints or concerns about Service activities were made;

iv) 19 other complaints or concerns were received about activities carried out by other organisations or individuals;

v)  2 complainants appealed the response provided and were passed to the Local Government Ombudsman for further investigation but no action was taken; and

vi) 5 concerns were received from staff via the internal 'Safecall' confidential reporting tool.

The Chair of the Committee presented the minutes of the Audit, Scrutiny and Standards Committee meeting held on 7 April 2026.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Audit, Scrutiny and Standards Committee meeting held on 7 April 2026 be received and noted.

The Chair of the Committee presented the minutes of the Policy and Resources Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 20 May 2026.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Policy and Resources Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 20 May 2026 be received and noted.