Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Martin Watson and Sarah Duxbury.

There were none.

There were none.

The minutes of the meetings held on 24 April and 14 May 2024 were approved as an accurate record.

Up to 30 minutes of the meeting is available for members of the public to ask questions on any matters relevant to the business of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Questioners may ask two questions and can speak for up to three minutes each. To be sure of receiving an answer to an appropriate question, please contact Andy Carswell (Democratic Services) at least two working days prior to the meeting.

Five members of the public addressed the Committee in relation to Item 4.

Penny Barry said four fire stations had been reclassified as resilience stations, and asked for clarification on how these would be managed or staffed. She asked if the resilience model had been used elsewhere. She stated her belief that the south of the county was short of cover in the event of an emergency. She said she welcomed contracted on-call cover at night and stated her belief contracted daytime on-call could be feasible. She said the new arrangements would lead to increased response times in the south and south east of the county.

Jill Machado said she was pleased overnight on-call cover would remain in Bidford on Avon and asked how the station would be staffed. She asked if the roles of Retained Support Officers and station managers would be reviewed. She noted no extra funding had been required in the original proposals and asked what the additional funding in the revised model would be used for, and why it was now needed.

Val Ingram said an imbalance in response times would remain if the south of the county was compared to the north, and stated her belief there was insufficient resilience provided to residents in the south. She said she had heard there had been no uptake to staff the resilience stations. She noted there had been a fire in her village last year and it had taken 25 minutes for a fire engine to arrive from Wellesbourne.

Penny Taylor asked for reassurances that the need for an increase in the budget to achieve the revised model would not leave Bidford on Avon's overnight on-call under threat.

Susan Juned stated her belief there should be a further period of public consultation on the proposals. Concerns had been raised in Alcester regarding flooding, as there had been previous incidents where the town had been completely cut off, and the flood defences had come close to being breached six times during the last winter. Concerns had also been raised regarding the response to traffic accidents on the A46 and A435, following an increase to traffic flow on both roads and an increase in the number of heavy goods vehicles in particular.

Up to 30 minutes of the meeting is available for the Committee to put questions to the Leader and Portfolio Holders on any matters relevant to the remit of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

There were no questions for Portfolio Holders.

The Chair reminded members that the Committee was not a decision making body and had been asked to consider and comment on the report. He said there was a real pride in the work undertaken by WFRS and its firefighters were all brave and hardworking, and asked for this to be taken into consideration during the debate.

The item was introduced by Ben Brook (Chief Fire Officer). He reminded members that the resourcing to risk consultation had identified four key issues that needed to be addressed: that more appliances were available at night, when there was a greater need for availability during the day; on-call availability was declining and had been identified nationally as not being sustainable in its current form; response time targets were not being met; and the Day Crewed Plus shift system was not nationally accepted and had been subject to legal challenge. The target was for an incident where there was immediate threat to life or property to be attended within ten minutes on 75 per cent of occasions, but this had not been met for several years.

Proposals that were intended to mitigate this were subject to a 13 week consultation, which included the week of Christmas. A total of 1,279 responses were received, along with 209 emails and questions. There were seven public meetings, eight meetings with town and parish councils, 28 workshops with WFRS staff and two sessions where WFRS staff were able to present alternative ideas. Ben Brook said this was a significant increase on previous consultations, but was mindful the feedback still represented less than one per cent of Warwickshire’s total population. The outcomes and feedback from the consultation were then considered by a group of stakeholders from outside WFRS, including experts in Fire and Rescue Operations, Community Risk Management Planning, Human Resources, Legal and Communications. They developed and agreed a set of assessment criteria based on the four key challenges and produced a revised proposal. The revised model included the following:

•        Guaranteed 14 fire appliances providing coverage during the day and 13 at night

•        An extra four ‘resilience’ fire appliances available within two hours at any time 

•        A modernised on-call model that would be used at night-time, in specific locations based on risk levels

•        Improved average first appliance response times across the county

•        Increased capacity to deliver Prevention and Protection activity by 27 per cent

•        Reconfiguration of shift systems. 

The revised model would require a revenue investment of £556,000 each year for a three-year period. This figure took into account cost savings that had been identified, including the removal of the role of Retained Support Officers. There would be 30 new full-time firefighter jobs, and their salaries were included within the revenue investment figure. There would also be a £600,000 capital spend on modernising and modifying existing fire stations.

Ben Brook said the resilience fire appliances would have a dedicated crew that would be ready and available in two hours. They would either be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Chair invited members to ask questions regarding the report. Councillor Feeney asked if changes to the Energy Strategy were incumbent on the outcome of the forthcoming General Election. A written response would be provided.

Councillor Boad noted there were no targets relating to fire-related deaths and injuries, and number of road traffic collisions attended by WFRS. The Chair said he had always been uncomfortable with the way this had been reported, while appreciating the importance of the need for the statistics to be recorded. He suggested a working party be put together to examine revised ways of recording the information. Councillor Sinclair said he was uncomfortable with it being given a RAG rating as it would inevitably be red, regardless of how much work took place to reduce incident numbers.

Councillor Sinclair asked about output delivery of schemes by the Property and Development Group and capital programmes, noting they were currently below target. Craig Cusack (Director, Enabling Services) said this was due to timings and complexities associated with some of the schemes, any delays would be recovered.  Significant work had been undertaken to improve overall management of capital schemes which should reduce future slippage.

Responding to a question from Councillor Sinclair regarding sickness levels, Bal Jacob (Director of Workforce and Local Services) said robust data was available to managers via dashboards giving greater visibility. A more proactive approach was taking place and more support and awareness was available, particularly in relation to mental health and wellbeing. Bal Jacob said it was known which areas had more significant sickness levels and additional support is provided to these services. She added that rising sickness absence was a national issue and not one that was unique to Warwickshire.

Members noted the contents of the report.

Rob Powell (Executive Director, Resources) said the treasury management had been a big positive for the Council in the last year and had been instrumental in navigating significant financial challenges in the last financial year. The Chair noted there had been a significant increase in revenue generated from higher interest rates, but this may not continue in future.

Councillor Sinclair noted the weighted yield for internally managed funds recorded in the report was lower than the benchmark. Rob Powell said this was a lagging measure and that some of the rates were fixed.

Members voted to formally endorse the Treasury Management and Investment (Non-Treasury) outturn reports for 2023/24.

Arising from the earlier discussions regarding sickness levels, members said they would like to receive a briefing note that went into more detail on which service areas had identified issues, any trends and additional information that would provide context, and if any activity was taking place that would address this. It was agreed that a briefing note would be provided by Bal Jacob.

Members noted the contents of the work programme.

There were no urgent matters arising.