Report - Fire Brigades Union

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SECTION B — FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE POLICY committees and forums that fall under the various subdepartments of CLG and the subordinate agencies dealing with the major issues confronting the FBU, its members and the fire service. B3 FRS policy – government responsibility – Northern Ireland Fire and rescue policy in Northern Ireland is a fully devolved matter and is the responsibility of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS). The fire and rescue service effectively makes up the public safety element of this, the largest local government department, which accounts for approximately 40% of the Assembly budget. Currently, the minister responsible for DHSSPS is Michael McGimpsey MLA. As a minister, Mr McGimpsey forms part of the Stormont executive, in effect the local Northern Ireland cabinet. The five largest local political parties are represented at this level: the Democratic Unionist Party , Sinn Fein, the Ulster Unionist Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party and the Alliance Party. The minister reports to the Assembly, which in addition to the above political parties, also includes a number of smaller parties and independents. There is also a scrutiny committee: the health committee. All the main parties are represented on this by their designated health spokespersons. The FBU has been able to utilise this unique and useful aspect of devolved government on a number of occasions. Funding comes directly from the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP). The executive also has an important role here. The Fire Brigades Union continues to enjoy involvement at all levels across the political spectrum. There have been a number of issues in 2010 which have been dealt with or are ongoing at government level which are of import to the FBU. The main issues of concern during 2010 were: ● ● ● ● funding – implications of the Comprehensive Spending Review 2011-2015; pensions issues; the Audit Commission report; and an ongoing review of the fire service by the Delivery and Innovation Division (DID) team of the Department of Finance and Personnel. Throughout 2010 FBU officials and members have met politicians from all parties on a number of different issues. We have sent delegations to Westminster and Stormont to lobby against cuts in funding and have also held meetings locally to discuss specific fire service matters. In addition to these meetings, the FBU in Region 2 held a very successful political school in November which attracted senior politicians from all parties and gave officials and members the opportunity to speak directly to those in power about issues affecting the fire service. B4 FRS policy – government responsibility – Wales Region 8 has been extremely active within the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), including participating in a number of forums over the past 12 months. WAG review of service standards – fires in domestic dwellings The FBU is and always has been supportive of a single standard for Wales. In principle, notwithstanding the diverse geographical and topographical make-up of Wales, a single standard avoids the risk of the good reputation of the service being damaged by delivery standards dropping across the principality The review of the current service standard for Wales is now complete, and it would appear that there is a clear intent to remove the pan-Wales standard, agreed some four years ago, which required Welsh fire and rescue services to attend fires in domestic properties within 10 minutes on 80% of occasions. WAG’s proposal is that this standard is to be replaced with “The Welsh Fire and Rescue Service Guiding Principles for Dwelling Fire Response Standards” underpinned by the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009. The consultation period on this proposal ended on 21 January 2011. The FBU Wales responded to this proposal. National framework document The FBU also secured a seat on the national framework scoping group during 2010. This scoping group however, was prematurely shelved. This was in response to the decision by Carl Sargeant, the minister for social justice and local government, to defer the production of the fire and rescue national framework 2011-14 and keep the current framework 2008-11 extant until March 2012. This decision was taken in response to the impending Comprehensive Spending Review, the fiscal climate, and the upcoming assembly elections in May 2011. Whilst concerns were raised as to whether the commitments contained within the document could or should be maintained at this time, WAG, following a final meeting of the scoping group to discuss the impact of maintaining the current commitments, took the decision that this was possible. 30 FBU Annual Report 2011
SECTION B — FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE POLICY Retained Duty System (RDS) Working Group The RDS review was also completed during 2010. A report written by Paul Young, WAG’s fire adviser, was produced and distributed to the three fire and rescue services in Wales and the Fire Brigades Union for response. FBU representation on this working group was provided by the regional retained representative and the regional secretary. Fire and Rescue Consultative Forum (FRCF) – terms of reference The constitution and terms of reference of the Fire and Rescue Consultative Forum (FRCF) was reviewed during 2010 with three options tabled for discussion. The three chief fire officers and the FBU opted for a slimmed down version of the forum for the future, to include the three CFOs, the FBU and the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA). It was felt that it was necessary to recognise the forum as an opportunity for the Assembly government and FRAs to maintain a regular dialogue, and retain only representation from the FRAs (CFOs), WLGA and the FBU (regional secretary). Risk Reduction Planning (RRP) Guidance Working Group The FBU in Wales currently also has a seat on the recently convened Risk Reduction Planning (RRP) Guidance Working Group. Work is ongoing in this area, and is planned to extend well into 2011. B5 FRS policy – government responsibility – Scotland 2010 came to be dominated by one main issue – the dramatic and far-reaching budget cuts imposed from the UK government across all departments. The Scottish budget was consequently hit badly by a significant cut which will impact on all public spending in Scotland for many years to come. Whilst we can argue that this economic policy is damaging and will impact most on those who can least afford it, there seems little prospect of a change in strategy from London any time soon. In Scotland the government has focussed much of its spending power on protecting services and jobs by minimising the cut to revenue budgets. However, it can still be anticipated that there will be large-scale job losses from both the public and private sectors over the coming years. Against this backdrop, considerable discussion has taken place regarding the future of the fire and rescue services in Scotland. The service can expect a similar cut to other local government services and, whilst the 2011 budget cut of 2.6% may be manageable, it is still being forecast that by year four the service will need to function on just 80% of the current budget. The stark choice facing the service is: what parts of it will continue to be delivered and what parts will not? We have debated this throughout the year and our belief is best described as “protecting the ability to deliver the frontline”. We recognise that the service cannot function with just a frontline, nor can it continue to function by reducing that frontline. Almost every proposal that has been brought forward to date by management attacks the number of firefighters on appliances and in control or their conditions. We have taken the view that it is the protection of the delivery of the service to the public that will best protect our members. We have over the past year done preparatory work around service restructure and in many of our previous briefing notes and consultation responses we have called for a more centralised approach to decision making. The governance of the service has not served our members or our communities well over the last five years. Our calls for commonality and consistency across Scotland have been ignored to the point where interoperability is now being damaged. As conference meets, we will have completed a public consultation on the restructure of the service. Three of the four main political parties believe that one service will be the best option. Our position is that this will offer the best opportunity to provide a quality service that protects the maximum number of jobs in uniformed posts. We have over the past four years worked exceptionally hard at positioning the FBU at the heart of the service in Scotland. We are seen as the advocates for that service and as honest brokers for our membership. We may well be moving into unknown territory but we go into the restructure strong, determined and so long as we maintain our unity and strength of purpose we can be the significant players in shaping the service of the future. Our view looking ahead is that the restructure of the service is not just about spending less money providing it, but on providing a world-class service where our members can be respected as professionals and work in an organisation that they can be proud of. During the year the FBU attended ministerial advisory group (MAG) meetings on the following dates: 1 March 1 June 29 September 14 December. An FBU paper on “Welfare arrangements for specialist incidents” was noted by the MAG but again highlighted the difficulties of getting this implemented eight times over. The region also produced a policy on fasting and abstinence in the fire and rescue service. The MAG established a sub-group to consider the options around restructure. Regular meetings were held from October through to December with attendance by the FBU. Phase 2 of this work has progressed with more detailed consideration of the future shape of a Scottish service, with the FBU again being active in the process and advocating on behalf of members in Scotland. FBU Annual Report 2011 31
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Report - Fire Brigades Union

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