Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED:   Councillor Tony Holmes be appointed Chairman for the meeting.

No declarations were made at the meeting.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Panel meeting held on 31 January 2022 approved and signed by the Chairman.

Questions to the Commissioner are invited from members of the public who live or work in Staffordshire.  Notice of questions must be received by no later than three clear working days before the Panel meeting.  More information on where and how to submit a question can be found at https://bit.ly/34arVDw

No questions were submitted in time for this meeting.

Child Exploitation and Missing Service – 008

SCP-D-202122-008.pdf (staffordshire-pfcc.gov.uk)

Details were submitted of decisions published by the Commissioner since the last Panel meeting.

1.   Child Exploitation and Missing Services - 008

SCP-D-202122-008.pdf (staffordshire-pfcc.gov.uk)

There was no questions on the decision.  Cllr Edgeller expressed her appreciation for the work of the service and the continued support of the Commissioner.

RESOLVED – That the decisions be noted.

The Commissioner introduced his report which set out the proposed budget and precept proposals for the Fire and Rescue Authority for 2022/23.

The Panel received a presentation from the Commissioners Chief Finance Officer, which was considered along with the Fire Revenue Budget Report (including the MTFS and Precept).

It was reported that the Settlement Funding for 2022/23 had been confirmed at £13.652million, made up of; Revenue Support Grant (RSG) which had been set at £4.923million; Local Business Rates revenue of £2.670million and Business Top up of £6.059million.  It was noted that the RSG had reduced by £9million since 2012.  The total budget requirement for the service was £42,472million.  The Commissioner was proposing to part fund the balance from Council Tax funding of £28.532 million andproposed an increase of 1.99% per annum (£1.57 pa per Band D property). The Commissioner informed the Panel that this figure was in line with the referendum limit.  Consultation on the proposed budget had resulted in 70% support for the increase.

Referring to Appendix 1 of the report, it was explained that the Pay costs for 2022/23 had increased by £1 million due to an assumption of pay increase of 3%.  It was noted that there were also significant risks and uncertainties beyond 2022/23 which included the impact of national pay awards, implications of the Sargeant/McCloud High Court judgment on pension costs and risks associated with cost increases and the upcoming formula funding review and high levels of inflation.  All of which made future planning a challenge.

The Panel also considered the following documents:

·                The Treasury Management Strategy for 2022/23 which set out proposals for the management of the Fire Authorities cash flows, borrowing and investments and the risks.

·                The Reserves Strategy update paper considered the overall level of reserves held by the Authority at 31 March 2022.  The paper focused on two key areas of reserves that impacted on the future financial strategy.  These were the General Reserve balance forecast as at 31 March was £1.9million and Earmarked (specific) Reserves, to meet future or predicted requirements balance at 31 March 2022 was forecast to be £7.5million. 

·                The Fire Authorities Capital Strategy and Capital Programme 2022/23 to 2024/25 (Including Minimum Revenue Provision Policy).

It was explained that the transformation programme was key in order to deliver savings and that there were a number of areas which were being worked upon, all aligned to the Safety Plan 2020/24 and the Fire Plan 2021-24.  These were:

• Corporate Reform
• Response and crewing reform
• Prevention and Protection reform
• Estates and shared services reform.

Following a question on how the efficiency savings (pay efficiency and non pay efficiency) on appendix 7 would be met (both lines £156,000) and their relationship to the transformation plan savings of £2million, it was reported that the overall £306,000 was split evenly between the two budget heads and would be achieved as a result of the transformation plan.  They were therefore part of the same saving.  The Commissioner felt that the transformation plan savings were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.

The report provided the Panel with an update on the delivery of the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service Safety Plan (SP), Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP).

Following the transfer of governance from the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Authority to the Staffordshire Commissioner, a new Safety Plan 2020-2024 was developed which was published in August 2020.

The Safety Plan was designed to underpin the Staffordshire Commissioners Fire and Rescue Plan and four priorities for the Service were determined following consultation across Staffordshire in 2020.

The four priorities outlined in the current Commissioners Fire and Rescue Plan were:

·       A flexible and responsive service

·       Protect people and places

·       Help people most at risk stay safe

·       A fire and rescue service for tomorrow

Detail on the priorities and the progress to date was contained in the report.

Following a question on the relationship between the Fire Service and Housing Associations, the Commissioner agreed that liaison with housing companies throughout the County needed to be developed and would be looked at.  There was an expectation that Fire services would be more involved with building regulations in future.

The way that building inspections were prioritised and audited was discussed.  It was explained that this was risk based and the methodology would be sent to the Panel for information.

With regard to the retro fitting of sprinklers and the rational of match funding for one project, it was asked if this had set a president for other, private landlords to apply.  It was explained that his was a programme aimed at large buildings at the moment.  The Commissioner agreed to investigate the cost of the programme and its effectiveness.

The Panel asked the Commissioner to pass on their thanks to the service for their help during the pandemic, particularly helping with the rollout of the vaccination programme.

RESOLVED:

a)   That the report be received

b)  That information on the rational of building inspections be forwarded to the Panel for information.

Members of the Panel questioned/sought the views of the Commissioner on the following issues and received the responses indicated:

The reserved date of 22 February (Precept setting) was no longer needed for a meeting and would be cancelled.

The Chairman asked for detail of the Fire Service Transformation plans, as discussed in the previous item, to be added to the MTFS update report in October 2022.

RESOLVED – That the dates future meetings be noted.