Executive Board Minutes – 27 June 2023

Mabs Hussain (MH)       – Deputy Chief Constable, NYP

Simon Dennis (SD)           – Chief Executive & Monitoring Officer, OPFCC

Tamara Pattinson (TP)   – Director of Delivery & Assurance, OPFCC

Amanda Wilkinson (AW) – Director of Public Confidence, OPFCC

Michael Porter (MP)       – Chief Finance Officer, OPFCC

Jonathan Dyson (JD)      – Chief Fire Officer, NYFRS

Mathew Walker                – Deputy Chief Fire Officer, NYFRS.

Gordon McQueen (GM) – Interim MD enableNY

Mike Clements (MC)        – Head of Finance, enableNY

Rachel Antonelli (RA)      – Force Solicitor & Head of Legal Services, NYP – Evolve

Maeve Chappell (MCh)    – Corporate Communications Lead, enableNY

Jenni Newberry – Director of Commissioning and Partnerships, Assistant Commissioner and Victims Champion.

Damien Henderson (DH) –Director of Service Improvement & Assurance, NYFRS

Charlotte Clarke (CC)        – Deputy Force Solicitor, NYP – Evolve

Sarah Davies (SJD)         – Executive Assistant OPFCC (minutes)

There were no significant issues to report. 

b.      For Information and Discussion 

MH highlighted some key items from COT minutes:

·       Officer training – new pilot outside of degree pathway to start 2024 – NYP may be a part of this.

·       Process Evolution working with NYP looking at demand, people, assets, crewing etc. Will present findings by Oct 2023.

·       CROMU backlog now 2.5k which is a marked reduction. The quality will be looked at in July as part of the PEEL (Police Effectiveness, Efficiency and Legitimacy) inspection.

·       DFU (Digital Forensic Unit) is expanding due to increase in staffing – new locations being sought for the team due to sensitivity of the work.

·       OMU – inspection due in July in relation to management of Sex Offenders.

MH presented the Force Management Statement (FMS5).

A statement is being prepared to demonstrate how everything that has been completed within NYP aligns to the plan on a page and the Police and Crime Plan.

c.       Decisions Required 

Nothing requiring a decision was brought to the meeting. 

d.      Third party reports including update on HMICFRS progress against actions 

MH apologised for the late paper. He provided members with an overview of the milestone plan.

GM briefed on processes in place regarding recruitment and how this is progressing.

MH provided the PFCC (Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner) with details of the actions and how work was being progressed against the plan. MH stated they were on track with the plans associated milestones, with those in red on track to be completed.

It was noted that Service User Assessment Action updates have increased (to either amber or red) from 9 last month, to 26 this month. Some progress updates were missing. The PFCC asked for further assurance on those areas.

ACTION – MH to provide further assurance to the PFCC via TP on the escalated assessments in which updates were absent.

·       JD updated on a national 999 outage that occurred earlier this week.

·       It was noted that 151 Recommendations have arisen from the Manchester Arena enquiry. 

b.      For Information and Discussion 

JD provided the meeting with a verbal update of the key issues and decisions from the April Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) meeting for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue. 

c.       Decisions required

TH presented the paper for Officer Vehicles, requesting a decision for the further allocation of £253k to the £570k planned for 2023/24 from the Capital Reserve by the PFCC. JD reiterated the information presented at SLT to Executive Board, providing the background to the paper.

The PFCC approved the paper, save that the recommendation for the Volvo XC60 as an option for SLT was not approved as this is an additional cost which cannot be justified to the public at a time of significant resource constraint for FRS.

No Decision Notice was considered necessary in view of the specific detailed decision reached, which was not considered to reach the threshold of a significant public interest matter. 

d.      Third party reports including update on HMICFRS progress against actions 

JD provided the meeting with an update on the work being completed in respect of HMICFRS Improvement.

JD is satisfied with the work being undertaken and its associated progress against the timeline. Actions are being updated via ‘Huddle’ by NYFRS to ensure HMICFRS receive regular updates on progression ahead of their re-inspection.  DH has been liaising with HMIFRS Service Liaison Jemma Burgess regularly. 

·       Issues with procurement for radios in new police vehicles (circa 22 vehicles) – T’s & C’s being negotiated, with an off-framework purchase likely to avoid potential vehicle downtime.

·       TH been doing some work regarding leavers from FRS (fire and rescue services) to ensure that all items are collected when they cease employment. GM gave assurance that all processes are now in place to make sure ID cards, IT etc are returned. An issue was raised re: Keys for stations. JD stated that enable colleagues are looking at a process to track/Audit this. 

b.  For Information and Discussion 

·       ACO Lisa Stitt has started in post and will attend future meetings.

·       Welfare vehicle has been delivered and is ready for deployment across the estate.

·       Review of effectiveness and efficiently of enableNY – GM updated on an arising business case for an external assessment of services.

·       Head of Assets Post – only 2 people showed interest in the temporary post and very expensive to bring someone in on a temporary contract. GM is in discussion with LS about an alternative to manage the estates’ function whilst this gap exists.

c.   Decisions required 

·       WAN business case – Request to continue with procurement process described in paper. The PFCC agreed with progression of route to market.

·       BDA Sovereign Model business case – Closed item. Paper acknowledged and noted by the PFCC. 

No updates to report. 

b.      Collaboration agreement

No updates to report.

MP presented

·       Fire Finance Outturn Report 22 -23

·       Fire Treasury Management Outturn Report 22-23

No issues or matters arising from these reports.

PFCC Budget Monitoring Outturn Report 22-23 (Police) – presented a significant amount of slippage resulting in the breach of two sections of the Code of Corporate Governance. This has resulted in the requirement for money being extracted from reserves, creating future financial pressures. MP offered two recommendations for consideration to assist 23-24 pressures: –

1.       That NYP undertake a realistic assessment of what can be delivered within plans for July EB

2.       Plans and timelines associated with PCSO (Police Community support officers) recruitment is assessed.

Additional action also needs to be taken regarding Police Officer overtime, and its current management and financial controls.

The PFCC stated that a more detailed session is required outside of EB with the Chief Constable and MC however the PFCC firmly set an expectation in the meeting that financial control needs to be immediately addressed and managed.

MC discussed some of the work being undertaken in the short term, but that information presented in July will demonstrate whether the implemented changes to date are having an impact on budgetary controls.

MH stated that they have uncovered some issues with the management of Police Constables and the allocation of leave, there were no checks and balances in place. Meaning that Sergeants could go over the allocated leave entitlement in their team and then seek to backfill from Resource management unit, utilising overtime. MH stated they are getting a grip of this and that managers are now being required to seek appropriate authorisation and manage their budgets appropriately. Some work is ongoing regarding allocation/demand and risk. EF is going to have a report into this by the end of this week. MH stated that if overtime not under control by July 2023 – they will implement a zero-overtime policy.

MP presented Treasury Management Outturn Report 22-23 (Police). No issues or matters arising.

C&P to be updated by JN at the next meeting. SD highlighted ongoing cost and timeline pressures with Victims Centre. 

b.      OPFCC updates 

·       SD stated that the OPFCC had fed a refreshed monitoring officer protocol through IAC and JIAC. Policing Protocol 2023 is being approved as an SI in Parliament. This includes how the Police work with PCC – once it becomes law SD will update the PFCC/CC MOU.

·       Panel was challenging but positive in terms of how the PFCC assurance framework is operating.

·       SD offered thanks to NYP for smooth transition of OPFCC office move. 

c.       Devolution

A lot going on in transition now. Next week there is another programme board meeting – FBU have not recently attended, and it was agreed that they should be encouraged to do so. It is helpful to have representative bodies there. The trajectory towards MCA is speeding up. The OPFCC transition team is now fully staffed. There have been positive discussions about the PCC and PFCCFRA aspects of transition with the Home Office and other P(F)CCs to devise an optimum corporate model. The Chief Executives are meeting with Senior Civil Servants about this. This is thought to be one reason why the transition SI has not yet been provided. 

MH updated that some items since this was produced have been rescored and now moved to departmental risk register. 

b.      NYFRS 

Some issues regarding the risks which are owned to understand why people have identified it is a risk and ownership of this and the methodology sitting behind it. As a result, all risk owners will all be invited to the risk and assurance board.

Ongoing concerns about the access to ARM within NYFRS – training for ARM express is ready and will be delivered. GM said that NYFRS will be able to access ARM in the coming weeks following a pilot in West Yorkshire. 

c.       OPFCC

SD gave an overview of the OPFCC risk register, and the work being undertaken to enhance and improve the current format. The Business Risks register has been updated since the papers were produced and will be re-presented next time. Agreed to bring a more detailed overview of those changes to July meeting. JD and SD agreed that reflecting the FRA constitutional risks in the context of MCA, in risk registers, was important.

·       Fire safety campaigns (including water safety and warm weather messaging)

·       Organisational strategy / plan on a page

·       Co-ordination of a number of staff surveys

·       Recruitment campaigns

·       Collaborative events (Great Yorkshire Show)

·       Policing campaigns (including ASB week of action, summer burglary campaign, One punch campaign, Use of powers, County lines awareness, Closure of pride month, recognition board for police dogs