Issue - meetings

Report of Tony Hunter, Director of Protection and Strategy, Planning, Performance & Continuous Improvement (SPPCI).

Tony Hunter, Director of Protection and SPPCI, GMFRS, provided an overview of the HMICFRS inspection regime, GMFRS inspection activities, and the response to the recommendations.

The following key points were highlighted:

·         The HMICFRS published its report into GMFRS’ 20th June 2019, on their website detailing how it had been graded.  The Service was graded as ‘Good’ at:

-          Understanding the risk of fire and other emergencies and responding to fires and other emergencies.

-          Making the fire and rescue service affordable now and in the future.

·         The report also highlighted several areas for improvement, with recommendations, where the Service should take actions to address.  The report identified 19 ‘Areas for Improvement’, 2 ‘Causes of Concern’ and 4 ‘Recommendations’.

·         Following the publication of the inspection report GMFRS had developed an action plan detailing the four recommendations and the planned actions to address these areas (Appendix A).  The action plan had been aligned to the Programme for Change, so that areas of work could be progressed simultaneously. The action plan was progressing with vigour and would be updated regularly, with these published on the GMFRS website on the ‘About Us’ page.

·         It was not yet clear when the next formal inspection of GMFRS would take place or whether the format would be a subsequent full inspection or themed against specific areas.  An ongoing relationship would be maintained with the inspectorate through the HMICFRS SLO and sharing of progress updates against the action plan.

The Committee welcomed the update and requested that the next update be focussed upon how they were addressing the two areas which had been rated inadequate; equality and diversity, and culture.

RESOLVED:

1.      That the report be noted.

2.      That the recommendations for action form the HMICFRS report and GMFRS improvement plan to address these be noted.

3.      That a progress report be provided in December 2019 focused on the areas which were rated ‘inadequate’ (equality and diversity, and culture).