The Under-Noted Branches Were Represented:

Paper nm09/01

/ Fire Officers’ Association
NATIONAL MEETING NOTES
17th April 2008 – 10:30 hours, Fire Service College, Moreton-in-Marsh

1. Attendance

The under-noted branches were represented: -

Cheshire / London / Strathclyde
Derbyshire / Highlands & Islands / West Midlands
Devon & Somerset / Northamptonshire / Wiltshire
East Sussex / Nottinghamshire / West Yorkshire
Lancashire / South Wales / Surrey
Leicestershire / South Yorkshire

2.Welcome and domestic arrangements

The President welcomed delegates to the meeting, provided information on domestic arrangements and outlined the days programme. He then introduced the Chief Executive, Graham Setterfield, who wished to make a statement that would help to set the scene for the meeting.

3.Statement by Chief Executive

He commenced by stating that, on 2nd September 1963 he reported to Kent Fire Brigade Training School to began a career that spanned some 31 years. It had been a fairly standard but interesting career, but he indicated that he would not bore the meeting with tales of incidents. However, he thought the audience might be amused to note an early memory of attending a course at the Fire Service College in 1966, when it was a very different place, when he qualified as a Despatch Rider. He then referred to very recent CLG Guidance on how to conduct multiple vehicle convoys, commenting that the wheel is still round.

He continued by saying that his career led him down a slightly different path when, putting on a white shirt in 1975, he frequently found himself as a young officer frustrated by a more senior officers’ continual unwillingness (or inability) to recognise or value the contribution people like himself were eager to make. He suggested that this might still be the case.

It was at this stage that he began his involvement with the National Association of Fire Officers (NAFO), eventually becoming a member of its National Executive. It was coincidental that my premature retirement from the fire service occurred at the same time that the membership of NAFO voted to withdraw from its amalgamation with the AEEU.

Following a High Court hearing and legal bills in excess of £15,000, the nine members of the Executive met to consider what to do. Graham advised that this Executive was led by Mike Davies and expressed pleasure over Mike’s attendance at the National Meeting.

He continued by saying that the decision made that day led to the formation of FOA and Mike became our first President and he had been asked to take on the task of getting the show on the road. That was nearly 14 years ago and we have made tremendous progress, obtaining our Certificate of Independence in 1995, helping many members through some difficult times, and most recently finally being part of the introduction of the MMNB.

Graham observed that it had been 14 years since Middle Managers had an independent voice in the determination of their conditions. This position has been restored it would not have happened without the FOA and the support of its members.

He ended by saying that time moves on but the demands don’t reduce and he had believed that the Association now needs new energies to drive it toward new goals. He had, therefore, decided to retire on September 2nd, 2008; the 45th anniversary of the day he joined the fire service, thinking he was going to ride on a red lorry and squirt water for a living!

4.Response to Chief Executive’s Statement

The President responded to Graham’s announcement by saying that we would not be here without Graham who had worked extremely hard to establish the FOA as a credible body within the fire and rescue service. After 31 years in the service, he had been instrumental in forming the FOA and, as new union; it was very much an uphill struggle to convince the service, employers and government that the FOA should be taken seriously.

After almost 14 years, the FOA is firmly established and membership of the MMNB cements our position.

He stated that we have Graham to thank for this and proposed a vote of thanks and proposed that in recognition of his contribution to the FOA he be granted honorary membership of the Association.

Both proposals were endorsed by the meeting and carried unanimously.

5.President’s Address

The President told the meeting that the last year has been the most significant of the Associations life in that, after nearly 14 years, we have achieved recognition at NJC level with the creation of the MMNB and confirmation of membership.

This success is however tempered by our failure to gain more than one seat – by a very small margin of less than 20 had we challenged the result to make sure that uncounted members were included.

As an aside, he advised that the FOA was told that Popularis would have to contact people who do not pay by Check-off. Since this would apply to all members he asked for a show of hands to indicate how many of those present had been contacted by Popularis. No hands were raised.

He went on to say that, regardless of the number of seats, our success so far gives us a position to build upon. He indicated that MMNB matters would be covered later in the meeting but commented that he did not believe that the MMNB can provide the solution to all our problems as it can only deal with Grey Book matters.

He remarked that the revised Grey Book leaves much to local determination and therefore has a much reduced impact on the day to day working conditions and environment in fire and rescue services, adding that there are also many sources of frustration and pressure that arise at local level which cannot be addressed by the MMNB.

Each service’s interpretation national expectations is, he suggested, probably the main cause of concern in that we constantly see things being done to make it appear that a service is performing well and doing what it thinks will get a ‘tick in the box’ from government or auditors.

Areas such as IRMP or IPDS are good examples of systems that might be delivered fairly consistently in line with standardised good practice had there been more involvement of staff (particularly middle managers) to highlight flaws and other areas for improvement.

We continue to see CFOs saying that everything is working well whilst at the same time introducing local variations or completely departing from the national system – ADCs and IPDS being cases in point.

He believed that the Association is becoming more effective in highlighting service failings and influencing central corrective action. We are listened to by Ministers and government departments and will work to strengthen our national links and relationships with governments to make them aware of what is really happening in the service and persuade them provide guidance on good practice and to lobby for auditors to check that it is being applied.

He continued by summarising what he sees as the way ahead for the FOA: -

• Develop relationships to maintain and increase influence FRS matters that affect members
• Maximise our ability to deliver improvements through MMNB arrangement, and
• Build on current membership levels

He iterated that to deliver against these aims, we need continued support from members and, whilst recognising that people are busy in their day jobs, we need members and officials to engage with the Association to make sure that we continue to focus on members needs.

In closing he asked delegates to do what they can to contribute to the Association and encourage others to do so too. He then thanked everyone for showing commitment by attending this meeting and hoped that they would enjoy the day.

6. Chief Executive’s report

The Chief Executive opened by commenting that his report might be entitled “The State of the Union” - in the generic sense of course. He continued by reporting that the State of the Union is “Good” but it had been through some testing and trying times

Since his last report we had seen a change of President and Vice Presidents, and some Executive Board members. He was happy to say that we had come through it as a stronger and better managed organisation.

He commented that the Executive Board brings together a tremendous amount of middle management experience and expertise. Similarly, the new Management Board had proven, through their day to day management role, that the Association is in very capable hands. In acknowledging their contribution it would be remiss of me not to single out the particular contribution of the President, Glyn Morgan. If the European Working Time Directive were to govern the time Glyn contributes to the FOA it would have gone into meltdown long ago. He offered personal thanks for the President’s help and support.

On the MMNB, Graham said that it had taken 14 years but we got there. He was disappointed that we did not get the number of members we sought and, in his opinion, this proves that apathy is still there or that many managers cannot manage without consent. However, we must not give up. He told delegates that the FOA’s opinion that today’s middle managers have to be encouraged and given the confidence to bring a new approach when they achieve Principal management status, is being taken seriously in influential places. When this starts to happen and there is some positive leadership, the service will see change.

He referred to the MMNB and urged delegates not to expect the Grey Book to resolve your problems. Local determination is the flavour of the time and national conditions will only cover central issues of pay and conditions.

He went on to mention Communities and Local Government and commented that there had been many staff changes, suggesting that it is time to build new relationships and continue to hold regular meetings with the Minister and Officials as these are the power brokers in the fire and rescue service. This also applies to the devolved administrations.

He referred to the proposed Centre of Excellence, commenting that he had no crystal ball but expected it to be established. He also stated that the Association is exploring its relationship with the IFE and looking at ways to support them with the development of meaningful exams that help to address concerns over the practical application of IPDS.

It was suggested that the Practitioners’ Forum is not delivering against expectations and expressed concern that CFOA seems to have been unable to co-ordinate its effective operation. He continued by commenting that, with regard to CFOA, we expected 2007 - 2008 to be a difficult year given the absence of a relationship with their President. In Graham’s opinion, this has been a most uneventful year for CFOA. He suggested that failure to deliver could see CFOA recede into a small subscription based organisation

On a more positive note, he reported that we are trying to build a new relationship with the incoming Presidential team and regular meetings have been diaried, we shall have to wait and see how this relationship develops.

For the FOA, we will need to encourage more member involvement in our affairs and we intend to re-launch our Practitioners’ Register to provide greater opportunity for members to contribute to FRS development.

We will also be exploring new approaches to communication with members such as electronic voting.

7. Financial report

The Chief Executive advised the meeting that the Association’s financial year ends on 31st December each year and because of the length of time taken by our accountants to prepare final accounts, a set of audited accounts for 2007 was not yet available.

He sought the meeting’s agreement to receive an unaudited set of accounts rather than present those for 2006 as the most recent approved set. This request met with full approval and Graham explained that 2007 saw a reduction of some £2,300 in the Association’s reserves because of investment in recruitment and marketing ahead of the MMNB head count. Otherwise, spending had been in line with expectations and he forecast that the Association’s reserves would be reinstated to around £20,000.

By way of quality assurance, he advised the meeting that Worcester University interviewed the FOA as part of Government sponsored research into small trade unions and the researcher had expressed surprise over the stability of the FOA’s finances in comparison with the majority of other smaller unions who seemed to struggle to balance their books.

The President thanked Graham for his reports and thanked him for his effectiveness in managing the Association’s accounts adding that the receipt of independent verification was a sound testament to this.

8.Rule Changes [Paper N(08)05] - Appendix A

Vice President, Tony Lawson, introduced an Executive Board proposal to amend Rule 16 to alter the method of selecting the Association’s Chief Executive. It was proposed to move the post being filled by election to being filled by appointment. The Management Board together with two members of the Executive Board would be delegated responsibility for the recruitment and selection process

He explained that the proposal would make the Chief Executive accountable to elected officials and provide clear distinction between policy-making roles by making Chief Executive responsible for delivering policy and managing the business side of the Association.

Adoption of the proposal would safeguard against the selection of a Chief Executive who could not be removed from office if the person were performing poorly or acting against the interests of members or other elected officials. Other organisations had suffered as a result of being placed in such situations and the Executive Board commended the proposal on the basis that personal performance and disciplinary systems are available to deal with employed staff.

Broad support for the principle was expressed by delegates. It was asked whether there might be a difficulty if an open-ended contract of employment is offered as it might then be difficult to remove a person from the office. In response it was suggested that any decision to use fixed-term contracts would be a matter for the appointment panel. However, full employment rights would be automatically available to any member of staff after 12 months and performance monitoring would still be main method for ensuring effective performance.

The West Midlands branch moved to accept the proposal and this was seconded by the South Yorkshire branch. The motion was carried unanimously

Action pointRule 16 to be amended to show that the position of Chief Executive will, in the future be filled by appointment.

9.Election of Trustees

The Chief Executive reported that there were vacancies for the role of Trustee for the Association. He made comment that the FOA’s first president, Mike Davies, had been instrumental in setting up the FOA and it was pleasing that Mike had been able to attend the meeting. He also took pleasure in announcing Mike’s willingness to be nominated for the position of Trustee.

He went on to report that Paul Oughton, a former Executive Board member and acting Vice President made a large contribution to the FOA’s growth in London and had been of great assistance in furthering our national aims. Paul, who remains an active FOA member since his promotion to ACO had indicated his willingness to accept a similar nomination.

Jim Mann had also accepted a nomination to act as a Trustee, Jim had been a member of both NAFO and FOA extending back many years, during which he held office in Strathclyde and assisted with national affairs on many occasions. He retains an interest in the FOA and IFE since his retirement from the service in 2007 and would be pleased to accept a Trustee position.

The Chief Executive explained that the Trustee’s role relates to the overall governance and they are required to ensure that the Association’s affairs and accounts are managed effectively. The Trustees will meet at least once per year and they will receive copies of managerial meeting minutes as well as the annual accounts,

10.Emergency Motion

The Chief Executive informed the meeting that following the last minute notification of the non-attendance of several delegates to the National Meeting, he and the President had, that morning, called a meeting of the Executive Board to express concerns over the relatively small proportion of Branches that would be represented. Whilst conscious that the meeting would still be empowered to agree policies and rule changes, they believed that discussion might be limited where delegates are not fully representative of the national spread.

The Executive Board agreed that making policy decisions without wider representation is not ideal and proposed that the National Meeting be asked to suspend Rule 30.