Focus on Avon: reinvesting in the future

Professional Development

Focus on Avon: reinvesting in the future

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Kevin Pearson, CFO since 2001, talks to FIRE about the challenge and opportunities for Avon Fire and Rescue Service

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It is possible that CFO Kevin Pearson is the longest serving Chief Officer in the UK Fire and Rescue Service. Taking on the role in 2001, CFO Pearson has been through the past 15 years of

CFO Kevin Pearson

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• 21 fire stations • 9 Community Safety Centres • Employs nearly 900 employees including: • 500 wholetime firefighters • 185 retained duty firefighters • 35 control staff • 100 support staff

change in the Fire and Rescue Service leading Avon and he is now firmly focused on taking it through to 2020 and beyond. Earlier this year, the Chair of the Fire Authority stepped down after 34 years’ service, which must also be something of a record.

The last LGA Fire Peer Review noted: ‘This has been of considerable benefit to the overall leadership, stability and governance of the FRA and AFRS. In addition, there is clear evidence of co-operative working to ensure effective collective leadership across all political parties on the FRA’.

That was back in March 2015 and now with a new Chair and a newly formed authority with many new members, CFO Pearson says this is a “very challenging” time. He is now assisted by his recently appointed temporary Deputy, Lorraine Houghton, who is also a long serving member of staff with 30 years’ service.

“AF&RS needs to make further savings and financial efficiencies up to 2020 following a 21 per cent grant reduction. It is estimated that £5m annual savings will need to be made by the end of the period. We also need to continue to make improvements in the service and re-invest in some areas. Therefore, this will also form part

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visit to the LGA Fire conference back in March provided a great opportunity to visit Bristol. Sitting next to Kevin Pearson, the long serving Chief Fire Officer of Avon Fire and Rescue Service, it seemed like fate: so let’s talk about Avon.

Avon Fire and Rescue Service serves the communities of Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. It covers an area of 134,753 hectares and a population of over one million.

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Avon Fire and Rescue Service covers an area of 134,753 hectares and a population of over one million

September 2016 | www.fire–magazine.com | 23

Professional Development

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area, Avon hosted a “women in leadership” conference in 2006 followed a year later by a conference focused on LGBT, called “LGBT equality, the last taboo”. He is proud of these events despite their being nearly a decade ago.

Unfortunately, the financial cuts have resulted in his equality and diversity focused staff being cut by 80 per cent.

It is still notable when there is a woman in high office in the Fire and Rescue Service. It should not be the case, but sadly it still is. While the Home Secretary bemoaned the lack of diversity in the Service in her recent speech, she did not focus on the women who are already in the service and in particular those leading and creating an environment for others to follow in their wake.

Lorraine Houghton is a case in point. She started her career in Avon County Council (long since abolished) as an admin assistant and after 30 years, mostly spent in Avon Fire and Rescue Service, in October 2015 Lorraine was appointed temporary Deputy Chief Officer. She is not operational. She does not wear a uniform.

It is fascinating to listen to Lorraine talk about her desire to improve her knowledge and ‘upskill’. In her new role she has taken on multiagency gold responsibilities. She notes that on one occasion that the FBU members involved in an exercise said, “we wanted something to criticise you about, but we couldn’t”.

There is real warmth to Lorraine; she comes across as humble and caring but with a steely edge. “I am determined to be influential,” she says as she recounts her late education

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“What keeps me awake at night?

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of the ‘Re-investing for the Future’ programme.”

This is taken from the last Avon Fire Authority meeting where members considered the draft IRMP that will take them through to 2020.

There is nothing unusual about the financial challenge that Avon faces – every other fire and rescue authority in the country is facing difficult decisions about how to do more with less.

In the case of Avon, they will benefit from substantial capital (£8 million) with the sale of their Bristol city centre HQ, but CFO Pearson is keen to make sure that some of that money finds its way back into the service and is not just used to meet efficiency targets. Meanwhile, there are no plans for compulsory redundancies.

On the other side of that equation is recruitment. If the service continually retrenches through retirements and unfilled posts, there is a point at which any service would be untenable or be unable to respond to the risks it faces.

Avon has not recruited wholetime firefighters since 2009. Again, nothing unusual there, many services have been unable to recruit for years.

As part of the new IRMP, Avon will, it is happy to report, be recruiting in 2017 with a view to new firefighters joining the service in 2018.

In former Home Secretary Theresa May’s speech in May this year, she spoke about the lack of diversity of the Fire and Rescue Service.

But while services are unable to recruit due to financial constraints, it is hard to see how it can diversify through new staff coming into the service at the entry ranks.

CFO Pearson talked at length about his commitment to equality and diversity. He sees it as a cultural issue. He talks about when he first became Chief, he heard ‘horror stories’ from female firefighters about their treatment on fire stations. “Women,” he says, “have to work harder to prove themselves.”

Demonstrating his commitment in this

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As part of the new IRMP, Avon will be recruiting in 2017 with a view to new firefighters joining the service in 2018

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It’s this. It’s the decisions that are made in the first 20-30 minutes of any incident that are the most important”

Temporary Deputy Chief Officer Lorraine Houghton is a long serving member of staff with 30 years’ service

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Avon Fire and Rescue Service employs nearly 900 employees including 500 wholetime firefighters, 185 retained duty firefighters, 35 control staff and 100 support staff

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– a degree and masters in her 40s and the challenges of juggling childcare and work, but now her children are in their late teens.

FIRE is seeking nominations for the most influential woman fire in the second year of this award. Lorraine has been a champion of women in the past and was involved in CFOA in this area, but as her job has become all-consuming she says she “fell out of love with CFOA”. She stresses, however, that she remains entirely committed to championing women in the Fire and Rescue Service.

At the conclusion of her interview for this article, Lorraine said it had given her the time and space to reconsider her position and if what she says about her view on leadership – “how to get people to come with you” – is true, then let us hope the love returns.

She is leading the change that will see all the headquarters staff move from central Bristol to Portishead, a smaller town ten miles away.

Managing change is nothing new to Lorraine who was appointed to the Board of Avon in 2002, where she had responsibility for strategic planning; by 2010 the Board had reduced in size and Lorraine’s portfolio expanded to include all the support functions for the service.

The move to Portishead will see Avon FRS co-locate with Avon and Somerset Constabulary in a shared HQ. This is an increasingly common arrangement and in line with the overarching collaboration agenda. This agenda has changed the focus for Avon FRS and they are looking for change when it works well, focusing on

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Professional Development

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“There is clear evidence of co-operative working to ensure effective collective leadership across all political parties on the FRA”

closer working with the police and getting the “balance right between the agencies”.

Lorraine says that Avon FRS has a good dialogue with the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner. The move to a shared HQ with the police is the start of a journey to sharing back office functions and saving money.

If this is also the first step on the way to the recently re-elected PCC, Sue Mountstevens, taking on wider fire functions, as could be possible using new governance powers in the Policing and Crime Bill, there is one fundamental stumbling block: geography.

The PCC for Avon and Somerset straddles Avon FRS and Devon and Somerset FRS. She is already a co-opted member of Avon Fire and Rescue Authority, although this is not reciprocated for the CFO to sit on the Police and Crime Panel. If this imbalance is rectified and mirrored in Devon and Somerset, it may be enough collaboration: for now.

Collaboration is not just limited to sharing headquarters and back office functions; Avon FRS has long been involved in a collaborative PFI joint training centre with Devon and Somerset FRS and Gloucestershire FRS. Severn Park is run by Babcock and is located north of Bristol just off the M5.

“I am proud of our training and development,” says CFO Pearson. He adds that the approaches taken today come out of the learning from Fleur Lombard’s death. Fleur died in service 20 years ago, aged just 21. Fleur was the first woman to die in peacetime service in the UK.

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