In relation to matters on the agenda, seek declarations of interest from Members, in accordance with the provisions of the Fire Authority’s Code of Conduct for Members.

There were none.

Apologies had been received from Councillors Dowling, Maples and Osborne and a vacancy remained on the Fire Authority.  Councillors Denis, Howell, Kirby-Green and Tutt had been appointed to attend as substitutes for this meeting.

Any Members wishing to raise urgent items are asked, wherever possible to notify the Chairman before the start of the meeting.  In so doing they must state the special circumstances which they consider justify the matter being considered urgently

The Chairman reminded Fire Authority Members that there was a Members Seminar being held on the 18 September and encouraged them all to attend if they were able to. 

Members were reminded that the East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service Awards ceremony would be taking place on the 29 September and he hoped that Members had responded and were able to support this important event.

The Chairman informed those present that the Chief Fire Officer would be receiving her King’s Fire Service Medal at Windsor Castle on 3 October.

There were none.

There were none.

To approve the non-confidential Minutes of the last meeting held on 15 June 2023

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 15 June 2023 be approved and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman will call the item numbers of the remaining items on the open agenda.  Each item which is called by any Member shall be reserved for debate.  The Chairman will then ask the Fire Authority to adopt without debate the recommendations and resolutions contained in the relevant reports for these items which have not been called.

Members reserved the following items for debate:

227      Revenue & Capital Budget 2023/24 and Capital Programme 2023/24 to 2027/28 Monitoring at Month 4

228      2024/25 to 2028/29 Strategic Service Planning and Medium Term Financial Plan

230      2022/23 Annual Performance Outcome Report

RESOLVED – The Fire Authority agreed that all other reports on this Agenda be approved in full.

Report of the Assistant Director Resources/Treasurer

The Fire Authority received the report of the Assistant Director Resources/Treasurer (ADR/T) presenting the findings of the Month 4 monitoring undertaken on the Revenue and Capital Budget 2023/24 and Capital Programme 2023/24 to 2027/28.  A net revenue overspend of £193,000 had been identified due to a number of pressures as listed in the report.  The Safer Communities directorate was forecasting an overspend of £1.093m and the Service was maintaining a significant focus on the plan to reduce this pressure to ensure it did not impact the 2024/25 revenue budget.  Further work was required to review the forecast, and management action was required in reviewing the staffing and overtime forecasts.  There was significant long-term absence amongst operational staff which was also having an impact.  The Senior Leadership Team had considered a report detailing the pressures and overspends and setting out those which were one-offs and those which were ongoing.  The Authority had benefitted from the rise in interest rates which was resulting in a significant increase in investment income through its Treasury Management activity, which was expected to generate additional income of £0.5m.

The ADR/T, following a review of the capital plans for 2023/24, reported slippage on the delivery of projects to the value of £2,387,000 this particularly related to Estates projects.  There had been significant increases in project costs over the last six months, the forecast costs of the Preston Circus project had risen from £3.5m to approximately £4.5m in that period.  The enabling works at the station were being done and the Estates team were working with the operational crews to work out how best to undertake the works.  The development of the second floor had been paused to focus on the operationally essential areas of the Station.  With regards to the wider capital programme, SLT had commissioned an affordability review as part of budget setting for 2024/25. 

Members were grateful for the report and the update and that it was reassuring, however acknowledged there would be bigger financial challenges to come.  Members asked whether the costs of the Royal Albion Fire were known, there was no figure yet, but most of the costs would be pay, including on-call staff and officer recall, this would start to come through from payroll figures soon.

Members queried why there were IT underspends and what the impact to the Service might be.  The ADR/T reminded the meeting that the IT Strategy included a significant investment programme of projects, set out at appendix 7, some of the underspends were because of contract negotiations, timing of the investment programme, new software not yet being switched on and some projects taking longer than anticipated to deliver.  In terms of project delivery more broadly IT is a key element, but plans change and require reviewing.  one example is the pagers/Alerters project where there are now partnership implications that need to be considered as we are part of the Joint Fire Control.  The Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) explained that although the implementation of the CRM software  ...  view the full minutes text for item 164.

Report of the Assistant Director Resources/Treasurer

The Fire Authority considered the report of the Assistant Director Resources/Treasurer (ADR/T) which provided an update on the Authority’s financial planning position in advance of the start of the Service Planning and Budget Setting process for 2024/25 onwards.  Whilst the main purpose of the report was to set the financial context for the service planning process, the fundamental aim of the process was to determine how best to deliver the Authority’s Purpose and Commitments, the Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) and the targets and priorities that underpin them, within the context of the current estimate of available financial resources for the period 2024/25 to 2028/29. 

The ADR/T reminded the Fire Authority that when it set its budget in February 2023 it used significant reserves to balance the budget for 2023/24 on the condition that permanent savings would be found to balance the budget for 2024/25.  This report would normally set out a full review of the Authority’s existing five-year Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP), but due to continued levels of uncertainty regarding both the future of local government funding and inflationary pressures on costs (pay and non-pay) it set out instead an assessment of the 2024/25 revenue budget only.  A full review of the MTFP would be presented to the Authority in February 2024.

The Government’s Finance Policy Statement had set out the principles it would adopt for the 2024/25 settlement but could only be regarded as indicative at this stage.  The fire sector would make a strong submission to the settlement process, but the timetable was unclear and it was unlikely that the outcome would be known until later in the autumn and the provisional statement was not anticipated until late December.  As next year would be the end of the current three-year comprehensive spending review period and a Parliamentary General Election was anticipated, the Service expects to receive a further one-year settlement which did not aid planning for the medium term. 

Nationally the fire sector remain reliant on significant one-off funding for investment in protection services and payment of employer’s pension contributions, and locally forecasting of future Council Tax and Business Rates remained limited, making planning for the 2024/25 budget and beyond extremely difficult.  Although inflation had fallen, it was not expected to return to the Bank of England’s 2% target until April-June 2025.  The Grey book pay award was settled at 12% over two years (2022/23 and 2023/24), 3% higher than the provision in the MTFP and the Green book pay settlement for 2023/24 had not yet been agreed and there was still a risk of industrial action.  There is a significant risk that pay settlements for 2024/25 would be materially above the inflation provided for in the MTFP.

This uncertainty has resulted in several assumptions that underpin the current MTFP being updated where possible, highlighting emerging pressures and potential risks.  The ADR/T explained that the potential funding gap had now risen from £0.721m to £2.145m in 2024/25, depending on the level of inflation provided for.  This  ...  view the full minutes text for item 165.

Report of the Assistant Director Resources/Treasurer

The Fire Authority considered the report of the Assistant Director Resources/Treasurer (ADR/T) setting out to Members updates to the Financial Regulations section of the East Sussex Fire Authority Constitution.  The regulation updates had considered legislative changes, post titles and provided greater transparency and clarity on approval values, approval limits system and reporting requirements to support greater financial devolution across the Authority.

RESOLVED – The Fire Authority agreed to:

       i.         approve the updated to the Authority’s Financial Regulations including the delegated financial management scheme as at Appendix 2 to the report; and

     ii.         approve the approach to implementation as set out at section 4 of the report.

Report of the Assistant Director Planning & Improvement

The Fire Authority considered the report of the Assistant Director Planning & Improvement (ADP&I) which provided details of East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service’s performance for the period April 2022 – March 2023.  The year end results demonstrated an improvement of performance across a number of areas with twelve indicators showing an improvement against the previous year and nine showing a decline.  Members wanted to record their thanks to officers for their work to improve the report presentation.

The ADP&I explained that the report aimed to provide a single view of information allowing Members, auditors and the public to hold the Service’s senior managers and staff to account in terms of the provision and performance.  The report highlighted an increase in performance against the previous year, particularly against the Service’s five priority areas.  The report showed the lowest ever number of accidental dwelling fires of which 50% did not require any firefighting, a slight reduction in the levels of sickness, the Service’s target of undertaking 10,000 home safety visits (HSV) each year had been exceeded and attendance at false alarms had reduced.  The Service’s agreed Attendance Standards had been achieved and were improved on previous years. 

Members were pleased to see the increase in HSV’s, these were very popular amongst the public and provided great reassurance and engagement.  There was a request for clarity on indicator 10 regarding injuries from primary fires.  The ADP&I explained that although the number of injuries had more than doubled, this related to very small numbers and those injuries were less severe largely relating to smoke and fumes, last year there had been fewer, but they had been more serious injuries including burns.  It was established that in the new performance reports, there would be additional narrative and context provided in the narrative.

Members noted that although the number of high-rise inspections was increasing, it was not reflected well in terms of the national picture.  The ACFO explained that there was an ongoing national discussion on how to define this, the Service were undertaking 2000 inspections per year, up from 500 and most enforcement was from crews undertaking fire safety checks – an approach that was being adopted nationally.  It was important to note that the number of enforcement prosecutions had risen from 3-4 per year in previous years to 17 prosecutions this year.  The CFO added that the numbers of High-rise in the Service area was higher than many other Fire Authorities, namely the 5^th highest number of high-rise and the 2^nd highest number of mid-rise buildings.  Officers had met with the Home Office and the NFCC to re-emphasise the position that the Service was in and that the current methodology for Protection Grant allocation was considered unfair and did not reflect numbers and therefore the related risk.  The Service had lobbied directly for a change to the funding formula as the cost of Protection would only increase.  Members were informed that it was highly likely that the Service would have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 167.

Report of the Democratic Services Manager

The Fire Authority received the report of the Democratic Services Manager informing them of a proposed change to the date and venue of the February 2024 meeting of the Fire Authority. 

RESOLVED – The Fire Authority noted that the date of the February meeting of the Fire Authority would now be Thursday, 8 February 2024 at Brighton Town Hall, Bartholomew Square, Brighton.