Agenda item

The Chief Executive to present a report which outlines proposals for the future governance of North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Services. The report includes a proposal from the Police & Crime Commissioner’s (PCC) Local Business Case (LBC) see Annex A and an alternative proposal provided by North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority – see Annex B.

The Leader has invited both the PCC and the Chair of the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority to speak on their proposals. The Vice Chair of the Police and Crime Panel will also be in attendance to provide comment.

Resolved:   That the Executive;

                                     I.        Gave consideration to, and offered comment upon, the PCC’s LBC at Annex A and the North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority response and alternative proposal at Annex B;

                                   II.        Gave consideration  to the feedback from CSMC shown at paragraph 48;

                                  III.        Agree that the representation model would be their preferred option for the future governance of North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Services;

                                 IV.        Instruct the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader, to submit a formal response on behalf of the Council.

Reason:     To facilitate the effective consideration of the Police & Crime Commissioner’s LBC

The Chief Executive presented a report which outlined proposals for the future governance of the North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Services. The report included a proposal from the Police & Crime Commissioner’s (PCC) Local Business case (LBC) and an alternative from North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service.

The Leader invited both the PCC and the Chair of the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority to speak on their proposals.

Julia Mulliagan, North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, spoke to outline her proposed governance model. She stated that this would improve support to the public and offered genuine benefits for the people of York. She outlined the work of York Pathways and need for a joined up approach to supporting vulnerable residents. She went on to stress the importance of putting frontline services first and explained how this proposal would see money put back into frontline spending. Finally she discussed the public consultation and the robustness of the chosen methodology.

Councillor Backhouse, Chair of the Fire Authority spoke to express concern over moving to a governance model. He stated that there was an understanding of the need to ‘balance the books’ and for collaboration between emergency services, but that it was felt the representation model could achieve this without the drastic move to governance, from which there was no return. He reasoned that this was not a failing service and therefore there was no need to accelerate consultation and rush to transfer governance. Finally he suggested that the figures put forward in the report were not fully accurate, as both models allowed for sharing of back room services so the savings should not be as different as was claimed by the PCC.

Councillor Ashley Mason spoke, as Vice-Chair of the North Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel. He expressed concern around the workload for Members of the panel who were already providing overview and scrutiny of the PCC and key appointments. This would become unmanageable if the work of the Fire Authority was included. He stated that the Police and Crime Panel were in favour of the representation model, as this left more room moving forward than moving straight into a governance model.

The Chief Executive reminded Members that this item had been presented to the Customer and Corporate Services Scrutiny Management Committee, who had recommended the representation model. She also stated that there was no easy way to reverse the governance model if this was chosen and then proved unsuccessful.

In response to Member questions the Chief Executive and PCC clarified that this was a formal consultation process and CYC was a consultee. Once all responses had been received then the business case would be adjusted to address feedback, before a report was submitted to the Home Secretary for approval. If CYC or North Yorkshire County Council formally objected to this report it would go to Independent Review.

In response to further questions the PCC stated that:

·        This was not a staged process. The legislation was clear that if a representation model was taken forward, and then proved unsuccessful, the whole consultation process would have to start again in order to move on to a governance model.

·        She disagreed with the Chair of the Fire Authority that this was a high performing service, as she believed that it was not resilient.

·        There was no suggestion that the NY Police Service was a perfect service, however in terms of the 101 control room 60 new staff had been recruited which would make it far more robust moving forward.

·        In response to comments on ‘mission creep’ this proposal had been in her manifesto which she was voted in on.

After considering both proposals from the PCC’s LBC and the North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority as well as considering the feedback from CSMC, it was:

 Resolved:  That the Executive;

                                     I.        Agree that the representation model would be their preferred option for the future governance of North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Services;

                                   II.        Instruct the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader, to submit a formal response on behalf of the Council.

Reason:     To facilitate the effective consideration of the Police & Crime Commissioner’s LBC.