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Colleagues

Phil, thank you for those kind comments.

My first duty as your new president is a very pleasant one, and that is to present Phil with his Past Presidents Medal and a gift.

Before I make the presentation, though, I do want to say a few words about Phil’s Presidential term.

In his speech last year, as Phil was about to hand Tom his President’s badge, he paused to pay tribute to Tom. In doing so he said,

“I don’t think people quite understand the challenge of being CFOA President until you are close to it”.

As we all now know, though, Phil was about to face many more demands and challenges than even he understood, and so much more than just being CFOA President.

I thought long and hard about how I should handle this aspect of my speech because there is an obvious sensitivity. In the end, I have elected to say almost nothing about that aspect of Phil - because to do anything other than pay tribute to Phil’s achievements as President, and as part of the presidential team over the last three years, would be almost insulting. Phil Toase the President, and Phil Toase the person as we have just seen, is defined by so much more than a battle with a serious illness, though I don’t underestimate for a second how tough that battle has been.

No, the biggest compliment and tribute I can pay Phil is to say that despite other issues, he has undoubtedly and unquestionably achieved as much as any CFOA President and, with all due respect to the distinguished track record of many former presidents, he leaves a professional track record that stacks up with anybody’s and he can be justifiably proud.

He will reflect very positively on many things over the last few years - the time he sat with Tom Carroll and I in front of the select committee being skilfully dissected was a particular highlight I am sure. There are far too many successes to talk about in detail and we are all very familiar with them.

But I do want to draw attention to one issue, because, quite rightly, as we have heard, Phil is particularly proud of the achievement of being part of facilitating a major government policy shift on sprinklers in schools.

If, in his whole career, he achieves nothing else – and I’m sure he will achieve much much more – he will have played a key role in saving our communities millions of pounds, saving enormous heartache and, potentially, saving many lives; because as he so often said, we have only been one step away from a major tragedy in a school fire.

Phil, aside from being inspirational as a person and a friend, you have been a great Board Member and colleague, a wonderful President and a fantastic ambassador and role model for our profession and Association.

I know Phil is a student of the great philosophers - I have been on the receiving end of his Yorkshire translations of many pearls of wisdom - so I know Phil often turns to those great philosophers’ teachings for inspiration. Who better for me to quote and sum up than the oracle Phil himself turned to in his parting email to the Association last week - that well known contemporary of Plato, Vinnie Jones

Ladies and Gentlemen, its been emotional!

I haven’t forgotten Lorraine’s contribution and her fantastic support of Phil but I want to say more about that this evening.

Before I get down to business I would also be very remiss if I did not pay tribute to the other Board members stepping down at this AGM – John Parry and Frank Sheehan – both of whom have worked incredibly hard on our behalf. In turn, I’m delighted to echo Phil and welcome on to the Board, new Directors Nick Collins and Maggie Harte, both of whom have a tremendous amount to offer and I very much look forward to working with them.

Now to business:

As you would anticipate I have spent a fair degree of time thinking about this “presidential address” and what I wanted to say this morning - and thinking about the expectations of members in terms of me setting out our direction and setting out what I intend to do with my presidential year.

I’d rather not consider this as “an address” though – an address sounds too much like me talking at you rather than with you.

I’d prefer, instead, to think of the views I want to share with you as a little straight talk amongst friends, and I’d prefer to follow my instincts of openness and candour with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end. Hopefully my comments here will reinforce or underline much of the discussion at our conference yesterday.

When deciding what to say about the future though, I couldn’t really avoid reflecting just a little on the past, and on where we have come from, and reflecting on CFOA’s journey over the last few years. Because in so many ways CFOA’s journey very much reflects my own professional journey. It’s a hackneyed expression, but whether as an individual or an organisation if you really want to be clear about where you are going, you do need to know where you have come from; otherwise you may just be going round in circles.

I then recalled a “Peanuts” comic strip I saw several years ago which illustrates quite well the theme of the challenge I think we now face, and leads me in to what I want to say

In the comic strip, Charlie Brown and his pal Linus are talking. Linus, the younger and more optimistic of the two says, “I guess it’s wrong to always be worrying about tomorrow. Maybe we should think only about today”.

Good old Charlie Brown, who is usually a pessimistic sort of guy, says, “No, that’s giving up, I’m still hoping yesterday will get better”.

So how good or bad was our yesterday when looked at objectively, because the only way it can look better is for tomorrow to be much worse?

It is only a few short years ago that the fire service was so low down on the government’s agenda that we simply did not register – some might say we had fallen off the agenda completely.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I must confess to being part of that, and as guilty as anyone at the time of thinking almost in a deferential way; we seemed grateful for any morsels thrown from the public policy table towards us. Not only were we told by successive governments of all persuasions to keep our heads down, but they acted in a way that simply assumed we would, and we passively accepted it.

Mike O’Brien the fire minister of the time characterised the relationship between the service and government as one of “benign neglect” and I will use just one example to illustrate the point that this was a fair characterisation.

Around 1999, when the new labour government was really starting to find its feet, the then Home Secretary Jack Straw wanted to reform the institutions of the service. At the time we were part of the Home Office. He wanted a faster decision making framework and he wanted to see faster change, so he dispensed with the old central fire brigades advisory council model and created a set of new strategic task groups or advisory boards, based on themes.

Quite rightly, he saw the equality and diversity and cultural change themed board as his highest priority - as indeed the issue remains today - but he wanted to see real change and progress across the piece. So there was considerable debate and thought given to which of the different players in the fire community should take a lead on which themed board, and in particular, equality.

In the event, he gave the leadership of his number one priority, Equality and Cultural Change, not to CFOA or indeed even to the LGA - no he gave this crucial leadership role to the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union - Andy Gilchrist.

And you know, the saddest thing is that he was probably right to do so. This is no reflection at all on the President or the Board of the day - in fact I was a member of the Board in those days and, whilst we talked in corners, we did nothing; and we were complicit in accepting the notion that it was okay for the Home Secretary to have such little trust and confidence in the professional leaders and managers of the service.

No, the reality is that the FBU and Andy Gilchrist had shown more leadership and greater courage to take tough and unpopular decisions than we had, and the FBU was the only organisation with clear views and ideas and were prepared to speak out. It was clear to all of us.

And it wasn’t even that we’re unable to intellectualise, understand or design what needed to change - on the contrary, we had known for years what needed to change - we published strategic documents like “whither the future” and “the way ahead”; but they had absolutely no impact whatsoever.

Thankfully, that situation changed rapidly in 2002/2003, and, though it would be wonderful for me to be able to stand here and say that it was the influence and leverage of our Association that brought about that change – that statement would be untrue.

Three things catapulted us from that position of obscurity to the profile we now enjoy. The industrial action of the Fire Brigades Union, September 11th and the fundamental reform programme spelt out in the Bain Review.

Now this history is all very interesting but it begs the “so what” question? Why am I suggesting that this background is still relevant to our Association today?

Well I believe it remains relevant for two reasons - firstly, because we have a legacy we are still coming to terms with and affecting how we operate, and secondly because the risk of returning to a position on the periphery of real decision making still exists; and in fact it’s a risk that may even be increasing.

Let me say a little more about these two issues.

The legacy issue - my observation would be that the service spent so long in a state of benign neglect and in the backwaters and shadows of public policy, that senior managers become accustomed to thinking about change and talking about change, but completely unaccustomed and unprepared to lead change.

To stress the point, I spent 16 weeks on my BCC analysing change, but never once really talked about the personal challenge and tough calls to make when leading change.

The consequence, in my view, was that we evolved something of an institutional, inferiority complex both as a service and an Association.

We firmly believed - because we were consistently told - that other services were so much better than we were and I think we became conditioned if not to believe this view, certainly to accept it as legitimate.

In light of this legacy and conditioning, therefore, I think it is perfectly understandable that its taken us a little time to build our confidence and to build relationships and credibility and to see ourselves as equal partners and players in a wider public realm. In truth, I think we’ve done pretty well and as Peter Betts reminded us yesterday – we shouldn’t beat ourselves up too much.

Although I don’t think we are quite there yet, we’re not far off; and I think there is an abundance of evidence that our performance as senior managers and leaders stacks up alongside any area of the public sector - fire deaths are at a 60 year low, our CPA results look pretty good, we have delivered a massive resilience agenda that has been tested and proven many times now - the floods last week being yet another example.

Despite this success though, we can still look or sound a little nervous, or disunited in our collective leadership role, and we can look to others - not least government - that we feel a little overwhelmed by the mass of issues and the agenda we face.

Whilst there is no doubt that we do face an enormous range of issues, we also need to catch ourselves on a little, and acknowledge the reality that we are far from unique in this regard. All public services face a massive agenda of change as we all grapple with the shifting circumstances of the world around us.

It’s the day job of leadership in the public sector.

As an illustration, just last week, at the ACPO conference, the President of ACPO, Ken Jones, called for a fundamental and independent review of the long-term direction of policing and the role of the police service in a changing world. Sound familiar?

In my view, therefore, the challenge we face as an Association, and I guess the overarching theme of my year really is to ensure we take a reality check. I want us to get things in perspective and avoid the temptation to fret or worry about tomorrow and just think about today.

I want us to accept the legitimate expectations of key stakeholders and our communities to recognise and manage the implications of changing our service to respond to a changing world.

I want us to accept our responsibility to be the “professional voice of the service” and I want us to speak up in the confident way of professional leaders. In other words, I want us to make sure that tomorrow is not so bad as to make yesterday look good by comparison - on the contrary I want us to make tomorrow so much better for our Association and the communities we serve.

Why do I think this is so important now, and why have I chosen to make the idea of building confidence my overarching theme? Well this links in to the point I want to make about the risk we face and that is the risk of returning to obscurity and irrelevance.

In the last five years we have moved our Association from a position of knowing what needed to be done, but lacking the will, the power and the influence to make that happen - to a position where our opinion is now not only considered on its merits but acted upon – what a massive shift from the organisation Bain described and others dismissed completely just five years ago. .

The only trouble with having our opinions listened to and acted upon, though, is that we must have clear opinions, and they must be backed up by sound arguments and evidence because we have to live with the consequences of implementation.

We cannot hope to lead our service through change in a wishy washy, nervous or timid way. A professional voice that says “we’re not quite sure where we’re going and we’re a bit daunted by how much we’ve got on” may be a fair and accurate reflection but, it is unlikely to resonate positively with anyone – the people who look up to us or the people who look to us as partners.

It’s been a long time coming but at last we now know who the Country’s first Chief Fire Adviser will be and I would like to use this platform to formally congratulate Ken and to wish him every success in establishing the new unit and shaping his new role.

I know Ken wants to work very closely with CFOA, he has been both a member and a key player for many years. I know Ken wants to look to us to help guide and support him in the advice he needs to give government and I know he intends to continue advising government that further reform and modernisation is necessary.

We shouldn’t fool ourselves or be complacent about this – Ken is a consummate professional shaping a new role as an adviser to government, not an adviser to CFOA. I am certainly not portraying Ken as a threat in any way - quite the reverse. I think there is a most fantastic opportunity here, but if we don’t work with him and his new unit to develop the service, not just for itself but for the good of the community – and if we don’t form strong policies and views about change that recognise the political context – then Ken’s advice to Ministers may well be markedly different to our view and may not sit at all comfortably with some members of our Association. We need to remember next week we will have a new Prime Minister and I don’t think anyone knows what to expect – but - we can be certain of continuing challenge to the leaders of the public services.

I personally have no difficulty with that professional and challenging relationship, and that political reality; in fact, I think it is the way it should be and a very healthy and important part of proper governance of an important public service. But it does mean we should be prepared to rise to a challenge in a way we haven’t before.

I’m not sure what happens to us if we don’t rise to the challenge – one option may be for the centre of excellence to become the catalyst and driver of change instead of CFOA, or for the advisers unit or central policy teams to grow and expand to fill the void; or the influence of other stakeholders, for example the trade unions, re-enter the professional sphere of decision making and policy development - who knows?

What I think is certain is that with the pace of change going on in the world around us we will be unlikely to suffer from benign neglect in future.

I would prefer us, therefore, not to spend too much time assessing these risks or speculating or letting others shape our future – I would prefer instead to recognise the risk and the crossroads I’ve outlined, but take decisive action to ensure we determine our own future.

So what’s my action plan for the next year to try to address these issues?

Firstly, I think we need to get fitter, sharper and faster on our feet to handle the change agenda and I think yesterday’s discussion underlined this reality. Kathryn Foreman is doing a great job leading the MSB debate - the trial yesterday was excellent and I congratulate Charlie and Nick on their performance but I do urge all of you to participate because I don’t see this as an intellectual or academic exercise – on the contrary the debate closes on 18th August, we will need to draw some conclusions of course, but in light of the general feedback yesterday, I am fully expecting to see clear proposals for change by the Autumn, even if those proposals are just about how we handle the capacity issues we talked about at length.

Secondly, I want all of us to commit to get rid of our inferiority complex and our sense of competition with each other and within the Association.

We spent so long being irrelevant and almost “fighting” for influence that we stopped looking at what we do well, and became acclimatised to spending too much time on parochial issues and dwelling on what we don’t do well. Tom Carroll talked about this in his speech two years ago so it really is time to move on.

Getting rid of this complex, though, will also require us to act in a more confident way – but not a threatening way, with government. I’d like us to grow from the relationship we have had so far, as we have moved forward with modernisation, to a greater partnership of equals. But we will never achieve this partnership unless we can act and speak in a more concerted way.

And it’s this notion of maturity that leads in to my last point.

I will work hard with colleagues on the Board over the next year, as we always have, to listen to the views of the membership – but there now has to be a greater level of recognition that the membership elected the Board to act on their behalf and to make decisions, not merely to act as referees trying to find common ground between conflicting points of view trying to broker an agreement on a CFOA position.

If we are to achieve the partnership of equals with government we aspire to - including of course local government - it will inevitably mean us taking a view that needs broad agreement – but not by any means absolute consensus and not on every point of detail.

I hope this last point does not jar with too my people, because it’s meant honestly not critically, and it’s really just a bit of straight talking amongst friends.

So there are my three key goals for the year ahead:

Getting fit for purpose in terms of being clear about our purpose and our capacity to deliver;
Getting into a more mature relationship with government at all levels with a spirit of healthy challenge; and
Getting rid of our inferiority complex.

Delivering these goals will be more than enough to keep even me busy.

I’ve turned again to Peanuts for my inspiration in relation to how I am going to get help to deliver these goals and I have to say during the purpose and structure debate yesterday this cartoon did come to mind again.

Good old Charlie Brown is on a baseball pitchers mound. He’s talking to himself about the tactics of the game, batters, pitchers, counting run outs and so on.

The second panel of the cartoon strips shows a meeting on the mound, with Charlie surrounded by his team – they are all shouting, throw him a fast ball Charlie Brown, throw him a curve and so on.

In the last panel, there is Charlie Brown standing all alone on the mound – knowing that he’s the guy who holds the game in the palm of his hand – it’s his to win or lose and the caption above his head shows him saying to himself “the world is filled with people who are anxious to serve in an advisory capacity”.

Colleagues, I am sure that in the next year I will not be short of advice – please give it freely, it will be genuinely appreciated – I can’t promise I will always act on it, but I can promise I will listen to it, I will always give it proper consideration and I will always give an honest response.

Thank you to Phil for his kind words and best wishes, thank you all very much for allowing me a bit of straight talking this morning, thank you for the privilege of allowing me to serve as the President of our Association and if I can be half the President and half the person our Past President has been, I shall stand here in a years time happy and content.

Thank you and I very much look forward to working with you all to take our Association forward.

 

 

 

 

 

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