States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service: Strategic Review

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A decision made 29 March 2017:

Ministerial Decision Reference: MD-HA-2017-0024
Decision Summary Title: Invitation to the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser for Wales to undertake a strategic review of the States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service.
Decision Summary Title :	SJFRS review 2017		Date of Decision Summary:	29 March 2017
Decision Summary Author:	Deputy Chief Fire Officer		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt? (State clauses from Code of Practice booklet)	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title :	Ministerial Briefing Note Independent Review of SJFRS 2015 03 28		Date of Written Report:	28 March 2017
Written Report Author:	Deputy Chief Fire Officer		Written Report : Public or Exempt? (State clauses from Code of Practice booklet)	Public
Subject: Independent Strategic Review of the States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service
Decision(s): The Assistant Minister decided to invite the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser to the Welsh Assembly Government to undertake a strategic review of the States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service.
Reason(s) for Decision: To provide assurance to the Assistant Minister that the Service’s Integrated Risk Management Plan 2017-2020 (JFR2020) is sound, to examine opportunities for improvement and risks to delivery and to consider key strategic challenges facing the Service in the coming years.
Resource Implications: Review costs will be between £7,000 and £8,000, funding for which has been identified from within the Service’s 2017 revenue budget.
Action required: The Deputy Chief Fire Officer to procure the review and report on the adviser’s findings.
Signature:		Position: Connétable Deidre Mezbourian Assistant Minister for Home Affairs
Date Signed		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service: Strategic Review

Ministerial Briefing Note

To: Connétable D. Mezbourian – Assistant Minister for Home Affairs

cc: Deputy K. Moore – Minister for Home Affairs

T. Walker – Chief Officer, Community and Constitutional Affairs

CFO M. James

From: DCFO P. Brown

Date: 28th March 2017

Re: Service Review 2017

1. Purpose

1.1 This briefing note, in support of a Ministerial Decision, provides detail on the reason for the review, its aims and outputs.

2. Background

2.1 Historically, the States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service (SJFRS) was inspected, at the invitation of the Committees of the day, by Her Majesty’s Fire Service Inspectorate (HMFSI). Inspections were undertaken at key points in the evolution of the Service, for example on the appointment of a new Chief Fire Officer or at the launch of a new strategic plan and so occurred every four to six years.

2.2 In 2007, Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) replaced HMFSI with a new office of the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser (CFRA) for England. Offices were also established in the devolved administrations. The role is one of adviser to the Home Secretary and Cabinet on fire, rescue and resilience matters and so the inspection function fell away, to be replaced by a ‘Peer Review’ system, undertaken between services and supported by the Chief Fire Officers’ Association (CFOA) and the UK’s Local Government Association (LGA). The peer review model was a very difficult one to be applied to small, ‘national’ services such as Jersey’s and so the decision was taken not to pursue this method.

2.3 In 2008, soon after the appointment of the current Chief Fire Officer, agreement was reached with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Adviser’s Unit (SFRAU) for them to undertake a review and report on their findings. SFRAU required SJFRS to conduct a comprehensive and evidence based self-assessment, based upon key lines of enquiry set by SFRAU. The outcomes of this review were the basis of the strategies employed by the Service in the following five years.

2.4 As part of planned reforms to English and Welsh Fire and Rescue Services, HMG intends to reinstate a formal inspection regime and clearly it will be desirable to be part of this framework in future. The body responsible will be very busy in the next two to five years conducting reviews in the 50 services in England and Wales and so is unlikely to be available as an assurance mechanism for the Minister regarding SJFRS in the near future.

3. Current situation and solution

3.1 The Chief Internal Auditor has, understandably, requested that SJFRS consider how some form of audit might be achieved in the shorter term given that nine years have passed since the last formal review. The development and pursuit of the Service’s Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) 2017-2020, titled ‘JFR2020’, also represents an opportunity to seek external assurance on our ambitions, plans and progress.

3.2 The Welsh Assembly Government’s (WAG) Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser has agreed to undertake a strategic review of the key issues being tackled by SJFRS at the moment. With the Minister’s consent and at her invitation, CFRA (Wales) will review documentation and visit the Service in the coming weeks to consider, report and make recommendations on the following:

Is the IRMP clear in its intent and do further opportunities for collaboration, efficiency, effectiveness, economy or reform exist that should be considered?
What progress is being made against delivery of the IRMP and what are the key risks to delivery?
A strategic review of the current fire safety framework, the risks and difficulties of the current model and options and risks for a different model.
Current and future estates and facilities issues with regard to operational performance and efficiency.

3.3 The review would be undertaken by a team of three, including CFRA (Wales) who is the former Chief Fire Officer and Director of Community Safety and Protection for Cornwall, a senior officer from Gloucestershire FRS who is seconded to CRFA (Wales) and the WAG’s ‘Crown Inspector’, a specialist in fire safety engineering and enforcement.

3.4 The Minister is aware that all SJRS senior officers are very busy planning and delivering the JFR2020 plan which aims to reform a range of service activities to deliver savings. It is against this backdrop that the intention is to ensure the review is both ‘light touch’ and ‘low key’.

3.5 The costs of this review are expected to be in the region of £7,000 to £8,000 which has been provided for from the revenue budget.

4. Recommendations

4.1 The Assistant Minister is recommended to decide to invite CFRA (Wales) to undertake a strategic review as outlined at 3.2.