Executive Board Minutes – 28 November 2023

Mabs Hussain (MH)         – Deputy Chief Constable, NYP

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

Gordon McQueen (GM) – Interim MD enableNY

Jenni Newberry (JN)        – Director of Commissioning & Partnerships

Matthew Walker (MW)  – Deputy Chief Fire Officer, NYFRS

Louise Branford – White (LB-W) – Head of Finance and S151 Manager

Tom Stirling (TS)                 –  Corporate Communications Manager

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

Maeve Chappell (MCh)  – Corporate Communications Lead, enableNY

MH provided an overview of the current and significant issues emerging from both a national and local policing perspective.

b.      For Information and Discussion

Members were provided with a highlight of the key areas discussed at COT meetings for the previous month as the papers were circulated to members in advance of the meeting. An Update was provided on the proposed BDA sovereign model.

The DEI update paper was circulated to members for information. ZM noted that she was happy with the content and information contained within the report. MH summarised the work which has been completed to improve DEI including the key strategic priorities and the force action plan which are in place to monitor and evidence the improvements being made.

 c.       Decisions Required

Force Control Room Business Case

SB provided an overview of the Force Control Room business case. Members were informed that there has been an improvement of the call wait times and that the quality of service for the public has improved since the previous business case. Further work needs to be completed to improve call abandonment times and the second stage of investment is about delivering better performance over time along with significant improvements. 101 historically has had issues and although it has improved, more is needed to reduce call abandonment. The FCR business case 2 aligns to the national contract strategy through the NPCC.

Lack of resilience is the issue with sickness being high and the right people are needed in the room at the right time. There is no anticipation in reduction of contact from the public.

Option three in the paper was the preferred option but this is part of organisational redesign and this business case was not an ask for money.

ZM – acknowledged all of the hard work that has been done in the Force Control Room and that this will be a long term investment. There should be no further asks for the incoming Mayor in the immediate future. This is just for noting at this meeting and that this is built into the Organisational Design. ZM noted that she had provisionally approved the Business Case subject to an overall financial plan which will be part of organisational design.

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

The improvement plan has been closed down officially with no outstanding milestones. MH reassured members that the ongoing work will be to embed the work completed so that it becomes business as usual.

JD provided an update on National issues within the Fire Service. A discussion will need to take place outside the meeting with the OPFCC and NYFRS leads. An update will be provided to the Board going forward. 

b.      For Information and Discussion

The SLT minutes were circulated to members in advance of the meeting and JD briefly summarised the key points.

JD provided members with an update on the Strategic framework which replaces ambition 2025 and provides purpose and direction from now and going into the Mayoral Combined Authority. The Framework aligns to the Fire and Rescue Plan. Details of the revised governance structure was provided to members which separates the service leaders from the statutory officer leaders. ZM asked that a separate briefing be provided to her outside of the meeting.

RRM update on Huntington – Ben and the team have had significant success on how they have engaged with the crew and not a single dispute on the removal of the appliance. The crew have been supported and this has been acknowledged verbally.

c.       Decisions required

No items for this section

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

MW spoke briefly to the HMICFRS paper which sets out where the service is in terms of progress against key areas.

GM updated members with the Estates budgets and the work which will now be completed in the next financial year. ZM asked that she is briefed outside of the meeting with the details of this.

Recruitment within the People’s Services team was discussed, and members agreed to feed back on the exit interview survey.

b.  For Information and Discussion

Members were briefed on the Kirbymoorside estate plans. The proposals are yet to go through the correct governance mechanisms within the collaboration. Lessons learnt have been taken from the handling of this project.

GM informed members that the Enable Review tender was unsuccessful and that the review required is now much smaller than initially expected. The plan is to go to Direct Award with a representative from a fire service background and another from a policing background, both of which have been scoped and are ready to proceed. The cost of this has significantly reduced since the original proposal and ZM was happy for this to be progressed.

Members discussed the role of the OPFCC in the Enable review as they are users of the service. It was agreed that the overall accountability for the review remains with the services and that the OPFCC will have the input into the discussions which will go through the governance mechanisms.

GM presented the Telematics business case to members. The tender exercise has happened with two compliant bids which were over the allotted budget. These have now been through SLT and COT. JD would like to reassess and go back to market as the needs for NYFRS are different than for policing. NYP would like to proceed but more funds would be needed. MP advised that it would be best for a reassessment and that there is likely to be a supplier who can do this within the allotted funds. GM explained that there are limited suppliers for the quality of the work needed and that it is a key piece of kit. ZM sought reassurance about the additional cost and how this would be offset. It was agreed that MP and LB will review the Capital 5 year programme report and Enable will go back to the two compliant bids for review of the tender in time for the January 2024 Executive Board.

c.   Decisions required

The head of L&D – members discussed the review of the Learning and Development function. ZM happy to support.

b.      Collaboration agreement

MP provided an update of the budget for FRS and the future forecasting going forward.

LB-W spoke to the reports circulated to members in advance of the meeting. Discussions were had regarding the proposed spending in the Assets department. ZM asked for a discussion outside of the meeting regarding the Malton Estates Project with Fire representatives also in attendance.

MH updated members on the Targeted Variable Exception report which was brought to the PFCC for a decision on funding. The PFCC asked that NYP come back to her for a decision once they have looked further into the affordability of this project.

JN spoke briefly to the reports circulated to members, highlighting key the key areas.

b.      OPFCC updates

No updates provided.

c.       Devolution

The papers from the MCA Programme Board were submitted to members and JD asked that the papers be corrected with the names of the NYFRS representatives added to the pack. NYFRS will discuss the MCA changes to terms and conditions as part of their Senior Leadership Meetings. This will be noted in the MCA Programme Transition Board paper to ensure that there are not two duplicate workstreams running concurrently.

JN updated members on the strategic aspects of the Devolution programme progression. The Order for the MCA has now been laid in Parliament and the Inaugural meeting will be in early January. Members thanked JN for the work she is doing with the transition.

No updates this month due to the risk and assurance board running bi – monthly

b.      NYFRS

MW updated members on the status of the current risks within NYFRS.

 c.       OPFCC

JN provided an update on the risk registers belonging to the OPFCC. TP provided members with an update on the DPO status within the OPFCC.

ZM and MH to meet outside of the meeting to discuss Corporate Communications.

ZM asked members to discuss the Public Safety Service. ZM agreed to contact Health and come back to the meeting with this.

Forward Planner

ZM asked that members bring any changes to the forward planner to the meeting. Items must not be removed without permission from ZM.