Agenda and minutes

Overview and Scrutiny Management Board - Wednesday 30 January 2013 10.00 am

Venue: Warspite Room, Council House. View directions

Contact: Helen Wright, Democratic Support  Email: helen.wright@plymouth.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

102.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest made by members in accordance with the code of conduct.

103.

CHAIR'S URGENT BUSINESS

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

Minutes:

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

104.

DEVON AND SOMERSET FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE DRAFT PLAN 2013/14 TO 2014/2015 pdf icon PDF 2 MB

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Board will have an opportunity to scrutinise the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service Draft Plan 2013/14 and 2014/2015.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

On behalf of the Board, the Chair welcomed representatives from the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service (DSFRS) who were in attendance to present its Draft Plan for 2013/14 and 2014/15.  Members heard –

 

(a)

 

the Government grant had been reduced by 10.3 per cent for 13/14 and 7.3 per cent for 14/15 equating to a reduction in funding of £5.5m;

 

(b)

 

the DSFRS had worked hard over the last few years to ensure that the impact of any cuts on public safety was minimal and that the effectiveness of their emergency response was maintained.  This was being achieved through the introduction of an integrated approach, namely that –

 

·         stations, vehicles, crews and equipment would match local risk;

·         prevention and protection activity would be targeted to those of the highest risk;

·         staff would be working in a new more flexible way

 

(c)

 

details of the proposed internal and external changes which it was anticipated would achieve savings totalling £6.8m –

 

internal

 

·         reduce support staff by at least 5 per cent by investing in technology;

·         make savings through greater efficiencies in back office support functions;

·         ensure support functions effectively support new model for front line service delivery;

·         continually challenge and carefully manage recruitment for the foreseeable future;

·         create flexible staffing approach to provide improved efficiency, fire cover and prevention activities;

 

external

 

·         roll out Light Rescue Pump vehicles

·         implement changes to automatic fire alarm responses to target high risk premises only

·         mobilisation of one co-responder directly from home/work

·         reduce number of middle/senior managers

·         invest £450k in additional prevention activity in 2013

·         change crewing of  three fire engines in Plymouth to ‘on call’ rather than whole time -

o    

Plympton and Plymstock fire engines become ‘on call’ crewed

o    

Camels Head retains one fire engine crewed by whole-time firefighters

o    

Crownhill receives the fire engine moved from Camels Head having two appliances, one crewed by whole-time and one crewed by ‘on call’ firefighters

·         crew the Aerial Ladder Platform (ALP) at Crownhill fire station with ‘on call’ staff

·         end Yeovil fire station pilot where an additional four firefighters are provided

·         change crewing arrangements of second fire appliance at Taunton from whole time to ‘on call’

·         change crewing arrangements of second fire appliance at Torquay from whole time to ‘on call’

·         change crewing arrangements of fire engine at Ilfracombe from day crewed to ‘on call’

 

(d)

 

that in Plymouth –

 

·         the proposed changes would still leave seven frontline appliances within the city boundaries

·         over 50 per cent of incidents were false alarms

·         response times varied between 10 and 13 minutes

 

(e)

 

the draft plan was now out to consultation and views on the proposals would be welcomed up to the closing date of 22 April 2013.

 

In response to questions raised, Members heard further that –

 

(f)

 

no stations would be closed in Plymouth nor would there be any reduction in the number of appliances serving the city;

 

(g)

 

the council’s civil protection unit were invited to participate in the consultation and both services  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104.

105.

BUDGET AND CORPORATE PLAN SCRUTINY REPORT 2013 (TO FOLLOW) pdf icon PDF 599 KB

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Board will receive for its approval the Budget and Corporate Plan scrutiny report, prior to its consideration by Cabinet on 12 February 2013.

Minutes:

The Chair and Lead Officer presented for consideration the draft report arising from scrutiny of the council’s budget priorities and corporate plan for 2013/14.

Agreed the report subject to the following amendments –

(1)

 

the addition of a bullet point to paragraph 3.7.1

·         Recruitment and retention of nursing staff

(2)

 

the addition of an extra paragraph 4.8 to read “about the commitment of the partner organisations to working with the Council to improve public safety”;

 

106.

EXEMPT BUSINESS

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it (they) involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) … of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Minutes:

There were no items of exempt business.