Appendix 2

London Fire Brigade Fire Commissioner

London c.£200,000

Candidate Information Pack

Contents

Message from the , Sadiq Khan ...... 3 About the London Fire Brigade……………………..………………………………………………….4 Our Achievements & Priorities………………………………………………………………………… 5 The London Fire Commissioner………………………………………………………………………..8 Job Description ...... 9 Person specification ...... 11 How to Apply ...... 13

The brave men and women who put themselves in harm’s way to protect others, use their expertise and experience to manage operations, advise the public and prevent fires from occuring are the pride of our city.

They need a wise, progressive and compassionate leader to direct their work and ensure they have what they need to deliver for Londoners.

The outgoing Commissioner, Dany Cotton, has provided exactly that, and has been an inspiration both to her team and to me personally. Her 32-year career shows the best of what our fire service can be – allowing a talented female leader to rise up through the operational ranks to head the busiest fire service in the country.

Many challenges remain for the London Fire Brigade. That is why we continue to work to improve the culture of the organisation to make it more welcoming to people from all walks of life, so the Brigade can reflect the community it serves.

The Brigade has been deeply affected by the tragic events at Grenfell Tower in June 2017. While ensuring our firefighters and other affected staff have the support they need to deal with the personal effects of the fire, we are also working to learn lessons from that night and the underlying issues.

We now look to the next Commissioner to take on the challenges of the future, while embodying the principles of openness, progress and inclusion. The rewards will be huge, both for the next Commissioner themselves and for London, and I hope you will consider carefully this opportunity to serve.

Sadiq Khan Mayor of London

About the London Fire Brigade

We are London's fire and rescue service - one of the largest firefighting and rescue organisations in the world. We are here to make London a safer city. Our mission and vision

London Fire Brigade is here to help make London the safest global city. Our vision is to be a world class fire and rescue service for London, Londoners and visitors. A number of factors are important to us and they influence how the Brigade will meet the challenges of making London a safer place to live, work and visit.

How does that work in practice?

London Fire Brigade’s main role as a fire and rescue service is to make London the safest global city. This means working to make sure London has the lowest number of fires, and fewer injuries and deaths caused by fire. The Brigade can do this by influencing safety in the ‘built environment’ – buildings, roads, transport systems and so on – and through education and regulation.

London Fire Brigade is a trusted partner, helping to create a safer, healthier London by working with local communities to promote healthier lifestyles. The Brigade raises awareness of safety and wellbeing considerations in a whole range of activities, from water safety and road safety, through to caring for the most vulnerable residents & educating and informing tomorrow’s young Londoners.

London Fire Brigade will maximise what it can do by working with individuals and businesses to help them identify what they can do for themselves to ensure their own safety and the safety of others. And the Brigade will continue to provide services to meet the needs of all communities.

In addition to the aims of reducing the risk of fire and the risk from fire, the London Fire Brigade will also deliver a wide range of services, information and advice together with emergency partners to contribute to:

 The lowest numbers of deaths and injuries from road traffic collisions.  The highest survival rates in cardiac arrests in the world.  The lowest levels of crime and disorder.

Did you know? We protect and serve 8.6 millions Londoners

Our Key Achievements & Priorities

The London Fire Brigade can only be as good as its people and over 80% of our staff are proud to be part of LFB. The public think we are delivering a good service and 87% feel positive about us. These are some of the findings from our most recent staff survey and YouGov polling. When asked if they had heard of us, 93% of the public said that they have.

These results demonstrate our high profile as a fire and rescue service, and the Grenfell Tower fire has subjected us to even greater public interest and scrutiny. This has often been challenging. Grenfell continues to influence our immediate and longer term priorities, including how we campaign for improved fire safety and how we support our staff. We have taken actions to address questions of public safety raised by Grenfell. This is part of our wider work to influence the fire safety landscape for the foreseeable future in a way that has not been possible previously. We have taken every opportunity to advise building owners and local authorities to act properly in relation to unsafe cladding and on fire safety in general. As a result of the Hackitt Review, which we also responded to, we are advocating a once in a lifetime opportunity to improve building regulations. We have reinvigorated our campaign for sprinklers to be fitted and retrofitted in purpose-built blocks of flats and in all buildings housing vulnerable residents.

Other actions include the creation and work of the High Rise Task Force carrying out fire safety checks on over 1,000 buildings; fire safety engagement activities working with the London Council Fire Safety Group; operational response changes to Pre Determined Attendance; the procurement of new equipment such as Fire Escape Hoods and Drones, and the review of the Brigade’s policies and associated training materials, relevant to high rise firefighting and our control room function. All of this work builds on our reputation for successfully campaigning and engaging audiences, with a notable result achieved from our work over the last year to make it easier for people to protect themselves from potentially lethal faulty electrical appliances. In 2018, the government announced plans for a new public database of faulty white goods, a key demand of our Total Recalls campaign. Our work continues to ensure manufacturers act in relation to faulty products and produce them to the safety standards required in the first instance. We see these actions and all of the hard work our staff have done as significant achievements in the last 12 months. And in addition to our Integrated Risk Management Plan, this work will remain a priority throughout the coming year in preparation for Phase 2 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

In the coming year, we will continue our drive for improvement through a number of other major service changes. We believe a strong and successful culture is influenced by how our staff understand and engage with our objectives; how they are trained and developed to be their best at work; how they are treated and how they feel, and what opportunities exist for them

to achieve and to progress. We have a number of initiatives underway to embrace these key factors to success. Key to this is ensuring we have a workforce that is representative of the city we serve at all levels. We place huge emphasis on ensuring there is opportunity for all of our staff as well as ensuring those we choose to employ reflect the diversity of London.

Working with the Fire Brigades Union, we are implementing agreements for the majority of our workforce to move from a role to rank based structure, removing barriers that have blocked career progression, improving productivity by reducing standby movements and creating on-station officer led training.

We are also at a key stage in our review of the development and maintenance of professional skills. In the coming year significant changes will be introduced in two phases, firstly focused on fire station based requirements and then in relation to Control and other specialist staff. These changes will align with our commitment to develop a fresh approach to leadership and this will be linked with the findings of our staff survey, focus on improving the culture of our organisation and influence other plans such as talent management and succession planning. Prevention as a cornerstone of our service remains a priority. We regularly review fatal and accidental dwelling fires and we have clearly identified common characteristics between many of the people who die in such fires. We can do more to reduce these preventable fires, by identifying those people and making changes within their homes. To achieve this our partnership working with local authorities, care providers and others is crucial. Our Fire Cadets programme is expanding from 4 pilot boroughs (2013) to every borough by 2020. It’s been successful, including over £1.1m investment from the Mayor (February 2019) to set up 15 new cadet units. We remain ever vigilant and prepared to respond to terrorism. The actions of the Brigade during not one but four terrorist incidents in one year remind us why we must keep the Capital’s resilience and our preparedness to response to new and emerging threats a priority. Last year, we moved to a new and unique governance structure. The London Fire Commissioner is the fire and rescue authority for London. The Mayor sets our budget, approves our IRMP (The London Safety Plan) and can direct us to act. There is a Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience and over the last year we have been held to account by the ’s Fire, Resilience and Emergency Planning Committee. The Mayor has set additional funding for the Brigade of £9.8m over four years to 2023, reducing our budget gap over that period from £24.4m to £14.6m. This is a significant reduction, but it remains the case we must plan how to manage this shortfall. We will also monitor the impact of government changes to pension contributions and consider the impact of national pay agreements both our budget, but also on our workforce. This year we will embark on further collaboration plans and activities under a new strategic intent agreement that has been signed between the leaders of the Metropolitan Police Service, London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade.

The London Fire Commissioner

The London Fire Commissioner is a corporation sole and the fire and rescue authority for London. It is a functional body of the Authority.

The London Fire Commissioner comes under the Mayor of London, who is responsible for all of the organisations in the GLA Group, with strategic powers over the capital’s policing and fire services, transport network, housing, environment and other areas. The Mayor sets the London Fire Commissioner’s budget, jointly develops and approves the London Safety Planand can direct the LFC to act.

The Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience supports the Mayor in this role. She oversees the work of the London Fire Commissioner on a day-to-day basis, engages with stakeholders on behalf of the Mayor, and is responsible for approving key decisions. This post is the office-holder of the London Fire Commissioner and Chief Officer of the Brigade.

This Governance arrangement replaces the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.

What does London Fire Commissioner do?

The London Fire Commissioner is responsible for providing London’s fire and rescue service, ensuring that it is effective and efficient.

All formal decisions about London Fire Brigade are approved by London Fire Commissioner. The Mayor of London or the Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience must approve major decisions, including expenditure, as well as agreeing the overall strategic priorities for the Brigade.

Alongside the Commissioner, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor represent the London Fire Brigade publicly and are answerable to the London Assembly and other stakeholders for its performance.

How are decisions made?

The formal process for decisions is:

1. Reports for decision are taken to a Commissioner’s Board 2. The Commissioner’s Board will discuss and agree recommendations 3. Where the Mayor or Deputy Mayor must approve a decision, it will then be discussed at a meeting of the Deputy Mayor’s Fire and Resilience Board, and subsequently at the ’s Corporate Investment Board. 4. The London Fire Commissioner will then take final decisions based on recommendations from the Commissioner’s Board, and the agreement of the Mayor or the Deputy Mayor where required. 5. Once the formal decision is made by the London Fire Commissioner, the decision and the reports supporting it will be published on our decisions page.

LONDON FIRE COMMISSIONER

Role Profile

Position of job in organisation structure

Commissioner

Director of Corporate Deputy Commissioner Deputy Commissioner Services Operations Safety and Assurance

Main purpose of the job To ensure that the London Fire Commissioner as a corporation sole fulfils their functions as fire and rescue authority for Greater London in accordance with the requirements of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 and all other relevant legislation

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

Statutory To ensure that the corporation sole fulfils all legal and other responsibilities. To ensure that the corporation sole has in place appropriate arrangements for good governance, statutory compliance, financial oversight, legal assurance, risk management, audit review, fraud prevention, and asset protection and management.

Leadership

 To be Chief Officer of the brigade  To be a champion of diversity and equality of opportunity for staff and service delivery.  To lead the process of setting business strategy and priorities for agreement by the Mayor.  To provide strategic leadership of the London Fire Brigade and their plans, activities and resources to ensure the highest standards of governance  To ensure that Mayoral policies and priorities are converted into strategy and action through effective relations with the Mayoralty and to be accountable to the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience and their teams for the LFC’s overall performance  To provide motivational leadership to management and staff of the LFC to secure commitment to the delivery of the LFC’s vision, aims and objectives.

 To lead the process of setting business strategy and priorities for agreement by the Mayor.  To provide leadership and support to national bodies and other Fire and Rescue Services in developing policy.

Resources and Performance

 To ensure that the LFC and LFB have the required numbers of trained staff with the skills, organisation, command structures, infrastructure, equipment and plans to fulfil its duties as the Fire and Rescue Authority for London.  To develop an organisational culture of continuous improvement in both service quality and value for money.  To ensure that the LFC maintains its position at the forefront of the sustainable development agenda.

External Relations

 To develop and sustain relations with key stakeholders, including the GLA, the Home Office, , Trade Unions, and the LGA in order to promote the interests of the LFC in particular and the UK Fire Service in general.  To develop strategic partnerships with other service providers such as MOPAC and LAS.  To ensure that there are effective systems of engagement and communication with the stakeholders that the LFC serves.

KEY EXTERNAL RELATIONSHIPS  Greater London Authority  Relevant Government Departments  Borough Chief Executives  Her Majesty’s Inspectorate  National and Regional Director of Health and Safety  External Auditor  Voluntary Sector and community leaders  LGA and LG Employers  London Councils  Chief Executives of GLA Functional Bodies  Chief officers of London emergency services  Heads of transport and public utilities  Recognised Trade Union bodies

LONDON FIRE COMMISSIONER

Person Specification

Operational Responsibilities*

 As Chief Officer of the Brigade, to resolve, and to lead and support firefighters and others in the resolution of, operational incidents.

Essential knowledge, skills, experience and competencies

Knowledge:  A very high level of professional and managerial competence in controlling and directing a complex organisation  An in-depth understanding of the political, economic and environmental context in which the Authority operates  A detailed knowledge of the broad business and political environment both national and across London  A clear understanding of the risk concept and how it can be applied within a proactive safety culture Successful experience:  Evidence of well developed knowledge and sophisticated appreciation of the strategic issues and challenges facing both the public and private sectors in delivering FRS and resilience programmes within the context of communities, fire service and government  Proven leadership in an organisation of equivalent size and complexity  Proven track record of success in leading the delivery of complex projects/programmes  Proven experience in delivery of major change programmes  Experience of strategic management and implementation of performance reviews  Proven ability to deliver cultural change through improvements in equality and diversity in a major organisation Skills:  Possession of high levels of stamina, resilience, enthusiasm, commitment and energy  Highly effective role model  Highly developed PR and media management skills  Highly developed negotiation skills  Highly developed interpersonal skills – contacts are made at the highest level with a particular emphasis on external relations and those that require very considerable communication, advocacy and persuasion skills  Highly developed change management skills

Operational Skills and Experience:*

 High level of knowledge of the command of major incidents  Highly successful experience of managing a full range of major operational incidents

Competencies:  Providing leadership and vision – high profile visible leadership involving facing tough challenges in improving performance, getting results and dealing with employee relations issues.  High level of political sensitivity.  Judgement and initiative in dealing with problems and handling situations where there are no clear guidelines or precedents.  Commercial awareness – a concern for achieving value for money and a focus on delivering the results that will enhance overall performance of the Authority.  Influence and impact – the ability to persuade, influence and convince others (inside and outside the Authority) in order to gain their acceptance or win their support.  Analytical thinking – the ability to understand problems/situations by analysing them logically, identifying the issues, thinking through the options and coming up with optimum solutions from an existing knowledge base.

* This is applicable if the successful candidate is an operational officer undertaking the full operational responsibilities of the role.