Chief Fire and Rescue Officer

Written submission from the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFRA 04)

The Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) is the professional voice of the UK Fire and Rescue Service, whose members include senior fire officers from Area Managers to Chief Fire Officers. We support our members to fulfil their leadership role in protecting local communities and making life safer through improved service delivery.

CFOA welcomes the appointment of a new Chief Fire and Rescue Advisor (CFRA) which we believe to be a crucial role to support national resilience and to advise the government on strategic matters relating to the Fire & Rescue Service. In particular we welcome the appointment of Peter Holland, as a knowledgeable and very capable advocate who will bring a wide range of experience to the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The move towards a prevention and protection oriented delivery model means Fire & Rescue Services remit extends greatly beyond simply responding to fire and emergencies; to prevention, health, education and crime reduction alongside community sustainability and environmental protection. It is vitally important that the CFRA is in a position to promote the wider contribution FRSs can and do make to key government priorities and to ensure that other government departments are aware of the capability and capacity we have to make a positive difference and add value.

We are pleased to see that the CFRA’s role has been occupied by an individual with sector expertise in strategic fire and rescue service management and strategic level command experience. We are equally pleased to see that the power of warrant has been retained, as we believe this brings a professional dimension to the position that can provide assurances to government when necessary. However, we have a number of continuing concerns about the way that this very important role has been restructured.

The decision to reduce the role to three days a week is in our opinion unwise, as we believe that such a complex role requires a full time commitment. Given that the CFRA may be called on to give operational or strategic advice to ministers or civil servants at any time, it seems unlikely that three days a week will be sufficient. There have in the recent past been occasions where civil servants from within DCLG have attended and sought to provide operational advice at key meetings, when it is our view that the meeting would have benefited from the attendance of a sector competent and experienced senior fire officer.

Equally, Fire & Rescue Services operate on a 24/7 basis and the wider service benefits from the professional relationship between the CFRA and Chief Fire Officers; this relationship would be significantly diluted if the CFRA’s position is in effect, part time.

The support offered to the CFRA’s role also seems less than adequate to fully meet the requirement of such an important and key position. A recent letter from Peter Holland asking for secondees to the Chief Fire and Rescue Advisors Unit noted that the amount available – £60,000 – was unlikely to fully cover the costs of a suitably experienced senior officer. Given that Fire and Rescue Services are facing significant budget cuts, it is unlikely they are going to be keen to offer up their best candidates for less than full cost recovery.

Those supporting the Chief Fire and Rescue Advisor Unit are expected to undertake a wide range of roles including; managing and directing within the confines of the CLG Emergency Room, producing briefings for COBR and disseminating up to date information from government, CFRA and others as appropriate. Clearly this requires a person with the necessary knowledge, skills and expertise and at a sufficiently senior level to be able to work effectively in a complex and dynamic environment. We believe it is incumbent on government to provide proper support for these roles.

We note that the post of CFRA now reports to the Director of Fire, Resilience and Emergencies rather than directly to the Minister. While we have received reassurances that this will not prevent the post holder from giving independent advice to the Minister, we reiterate our view that this post should be a channel of independent, professional advice fully free from any potential civil service influence, and we remain concerned that the current structure could potentially lead to professional conflicts.

We welcome the appointment of a CFRA who will represent the Fire & Rescue Service at COBR as the officer responsible for the National Coordination and Advisory Framework (NCAF), supported by the National Strategic Advisory Team (NSAT). However, given the limited time the CFRA has available we remain uneasy about their ability to undertake this role fully.

The degradation of this vital national advisory role is happening at a time when the greatly increased workloads of Fire Service Senior Officers is beginning to impact on their individual ability to undertake NSAT duties. We are reliant upon the good will of fire authorities to release their senior officers to undertake these roles, which may require as many as three Chief Fire Officers at any one time to be away from their services for an extended period.

We believe that there should always be complementary representation of the Fire & Rescue Services through CFOA at COBR. We do not believe it is appropriate or helpful for civil servants without operational experience to deputise for the CFRA in these instances.

CFOA remains committed to working closely with government and the Chief Fire and Rescue Advisor to ensure national resilience, provide professional, independent operational advice and support to fire and rescue services at a time of significant financial pressure. However, we would argue strongly that such activity must be properly resourced and funded by government to ensure that the critical role of the CFRA and his team is not compromised.

April 2013