1.  Meeting and Decision Making Structure
2.  Executive Team
3.  Corporate Management Board (CMB)
4.  Directorate Meetings
Appendix 1

1.  Meeting and Decision Making Structure

The management meeting and decision making structure within the service has been designed to support the Fire And Rescue Authority’s (FRA) overall governance requirements, in respect of the exercise of statutory duties and powers.  It also takes account of the Authority’s ‘Scheme of Delegation’ which has delegated certain powers to the Chief Fire Officer and other senior officers.

It is expected that meetings will be conducted in a business like manner that fully supports effective discussion and decision making.  To assist with this a meeting protocol is attached for guidance at Appendix 1.  Where formal papers are appropriate, then these are to be compiled in accordance with the standard reporting template FS 1.

The main meetings take place at three levels as follows:

N.B.    Other regular meetings involving senior managers are also outside of the main decision making structure e.g. ‘Capital Management Group.

2.  Executive Team

Executive Team meetings are held weekly (Mondays) with special meetings arranged as necessary.

Terms of Reference

• Provide the overall accountability for the management of the service, giving overall strategic leadership and direction.
• Deal with corporate level matters requiring urgent consideration and decision as required.
• Act as an initial sounding board for Executive Team members to put forward outline proposals for future policy ideas/suggestions.

Executive Team Meeting Administration

Agendas will be finalised on the actual day of the meeting.  Following each meeting, a record of items discussed, decisions and actions taken will be produced in the form of an ‘action log’.  Where appropriate, formal papers will be submitted by Directors and distributed amongst Executive Team members prior to the meeting.

3.  Corporate Management Board (CMB)

CMB meetings take place bi-weekly (Wednesdays) with special meetings arranged as necessary.

Terms of Reference

The overall terms of reference for CMB are enshrined within an overall framework that ensures that it:

• Determines the overall policies that are necessary for the service to achieve its objectives;
• Puts in place the appropriate organisational aspects to support this;
• Oversees the corporate planning and implementation aspects;
• Monitors and measures progress against objectives; and,
• Undertakes an overall organisational audit and review role.

In more detail, the CMB terms of reference are:

• Contribute towards the strategic leadership and development of the service - assessing the need for future policy development arising from an analysis of external influences e.g. political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, environmental and legal perspectives, which are likely to have a medium to longer term impact upon the work of the FRA and correspondingly the FRS.
• Agree content of forward agenda for FRA & Committees and where appropriate approve FRA papers and reports prior to circulation.
• Agree priorities for future service policy development.
• Approve new/revised corporate level policies for implementation.
• Consider the internal implications of any decisions/actions agreed by the Regional Management Board (RMB) and associated business streams.
• Periodically review and update as necessary all corporate level plans, including the annual budget and medium term financial projections for subsequent FRA approval/ endorsement.
• Review performance (quarterly) against Key Delivery Objectives (KDO’s), Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI) and overall progress with the Internal Management Action Plan (IMAP) objectives.  This to take place prior to reporting to the FRA.
• Monitor expenditure (quarterly) and where necessary, take appropriate action with regard to exception reports arising from the current year’s revenue and capital spending plans.
• Review corporate level risk exposures (quarterly) and update the Authority’s Corporate Risk Register and ‘Statement on Internal Control’, identify any emerging issues and take appropriate action.
• Receive reports from external and internal auditors and take action as required.

CMB Administration

The CMB agenda will be prioritised to enable consideration to be given to matters requiring urgent consideration and/or decision.  Periodic agenda items e.g. quarterly performance reviews will be added to the agenda as necessary.

The deadline for the submission of agenda items and completed papers to Corporate Administration will be 0900 hours on the Monday prior to the next meeting.  All agenda papers are circulated in hard copy format to CMB members by 1300 hours Tuesday.  Late submissions are automatically carried forward to the next meeting unless a late submission can be justified by the report sponsor.  In this case it will be the responsibility of the individual report author to circulate hard copies to meeting delegates.  The above timetable aims to provide CMB members with sufficient time for pre-reading preparation prior to the meeting date.

In support of improved governance and accountability, each item submitted, will be allocated a unique reference number by Corporate Administration.  Where items are considered to be of a potentially sensitive or a confidential nature they should be identified as such by the originator at the time of submission.

Following each meeting, a record of items discussed, decisions and actions taken will be produced in the form of an ‘action log’.  This will be reconciled with the relevant unique reference numbers for each item to provide a robust audit trail for future reference purposes.

A copy of the action log, minus any sensitive or confidential items, will then be made available on the service intranet.

4.  Directorate Meetings

The frequency of meetings and attendees is to be determined by the relevant Director according to the particular directorate’s requirements.  Wherever possible, consideration should be given towards cross directorate involvement at the functional level, plus where necessary, the attendance of senior staff from within SYJS.

Terms of Reference for Directorate Meetings

Each Directorate operates with specific terms of reference according to its respective grouping of functional responsibilities.  The generic terms of reference for each directorate management team meeting should include the following:

• Deal with any CMB actions / decisions that fall within the directorate’s functional responsibilities.
• Oversee the development of any new corporate level policies within the relevant directorate’s range of functions prior to final submission to CMB.
• Agree the content of the directorate plan (Derived from the IMAP).
• Monitor and review progress with the directorate plan and associated expenditure plans.
• Undertake the preparatory work in relation to the draft budget submission and corporate plan revisions.
• Monitor and review expenditure against agreed budgets.
• Monitor and review progress towards any corporate level performance targets / objectives that are delegated to the directorate.
• Monitor and review progress towards any directorate level performance targets / objectives.
• Review and update the directorate risk register.
• Contribute towards the development of corporate strategy and the identification of future service development objectives.

Appendix 1

Directorate Meeting Administration

This will be the responsibility of the directorate concerned.

Meeting Protocols

The Decision Making Process

The Sponsor:

• Highlights the decision(s) required.
• Presents proposals, highlighting the consequences and associated issues/ implications.
• Outlines any funding implications.

The Chair:

• Facilitates discussion.

The Sponsor:

• Summarises the discussion.
• States decision proposed.
•  States action that will be taken, support required and timescales for implementation/ completion.

The Chair:

Ensures the Sponsor’s proposals are agreed before closing the agenda item.

Team/Board Contract

We will:

• Meet the deadlines for forwarding agenda items to administrative support staff
• Come to the meetings having taken the opportunity to prepare in advance
• Actively listen to one another
•  Intervene when we sense the team is not listening to us or another member of the team
• Be courageous – say what we are feeling and make constructive challenges where appropriate
• Build on comments from one another in discussions finalising one area of debate before voicing other considerations
• Agree key principles we want to see applied in a given area of work and then leave individual sponsors to progress
• Be very clear about what decisions we have taken – the consequences of these and the agreed actions to be progressed (using the above process)
• Take collective responsibility for decisions we have taken as a team (raising any concerns we have within the meetings)
• Personally clear papers ensuring that they meet quality standards and follow the corporate report writing protocol

• Review how we have performed as a team at the end of the meeting