Agenda Item 2
ROYAL BERKSHIRE FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE’S
MEETING OF THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS STEERING
GROUP (ISSG)
Held on Wednesday 20th January 2010
Strategic Command Centre, Headquarters, Royal Berkshire Fire and
Rescue, 103 Dee Road, Tilehurst, Reading, Berkshire, RG30 4FS
Those present: Paul Southern, Assistant Chief Fire Officer (Chairman)
Lee Arslett, Communications Officer
Jon Ball, Information Systems Manager
Conor Byrne, Senior Accountant (deputizing for Andrew Vallance)
Alan Newcombe, Information Systems Officer
David Wallace, Director of Human Resources
In attendance: Elizabeth Snelson (Minute Secretary)
01.01.10 Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from Gene Ashe, Area Manager (Prevention & Protection),
Olaf Baars, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Bryan Morgan, Area Manager (Support
Services) and Andrew Vallance, Head of Financial Services.
The ACFO is to raise the issue of a deputy attending from Service Delivery when the
nominated representative to the Group was unable to attend ISSG.
02.01.10 Minutes of the Meeting held on 7th September 2009
The Minutes of the meeting held on 7th September were agreed as a correct record.
03.01.10 Matters arising from the Minutes of the last Meeting
- 07.01.09 (24/03/09, 03.01.09 (24/06/09) 03.02.09 (07/09/09) Ability to Record
Annual Leave where Staff have dual contracts
The Group was advised, ref dual contracts, that there is flexibility to enter leave
owed onto Firewatch, which Service Delivery and Human Resources are aware
of.
- 09:01:09 (24/03/09), 03.01.09 (24/06/09), 03.02.09 (07/09/09) Any Other
Urgent Business - High Level Technical Support Team
The High Level Technician Support Team work was not complete due to other
work taking priority. At present there was no out of hours support or weekend
cover for some systems. A review on the role of staff to provide out of hours and
weekend cover would be brought to the next meeting in the form of a report.
- 05.01.09 (24/06/09) Website and Document Management Steering Group -
verbal report
Alan Newcombe advised that terms of reference for the Web Steering Group are
in need to production and formal adoption. The group have not met recently.
- 24/06/09, 03.02.09 (07/09/09) ORIS
The ORIS issue was not raised at the Vehicle and Comms Group meeting as
this had been cancelled. The ACFO is to speak to the DCFO regarding the
Vehicle and Comms Group meeting and how to move the issue forward on
access to ORIS by officers.
Agenda Item 2
- 07.02.09 (07/09/09) Draft IT and Communications Strategy
The issue of existing contracts was raised as some of these had been rolling for
many years. There was a need to have a review to consider re-tendering if
required, which would include maintenance and development.
04.01.10 IT and Communications Progress Report October, November and
December 2009
Jon Ball provided a summary, and updated the Group on the report presented which
had been sent out prior to the meeting. The salient points being:
- FireLink - Local Site Trunking (LST). Jon Ball advised that the RBFRS site
had been cut off from the network. Newbury Fire Station could only
communicate within the Newbury area. The shutdown was due to a TVP
incident, the systems had been upgraded but they still had shutdown.
DHR - As this was a contractor issue they should deliver what is in their contract
and there was 18-24 months still to go until cut over to RCC. Lee Arslett advised
this contract was signed by CLG.
It was agreed that Bryan Morgan would take a progress report on Firelink and
the problems associated with additional resources needed to a Fire Authority
meeting. Bryan Morgan
- The RCC Workshop did not take place on 19th January 2010. The date of the
next RCC workshop is 26th February 2010 and discussions will take place with
Jon Ball, Becci Jefferies, Bryan and Morgan plus Andy Mancey to discuss the
way forward for staffing structures to support RCC.
- NLPG. This was referred to the IBIS Steering Group which Gene Ashe chaired.
Jon Ball to meet with Gene Ashe outside of this meeting to progress the issues.
Jon Ball
- Sage. Paper orders were now being phased out and all staff would be trained
on using Sage by the end of the year.
- Video Conferencing. The pilot progress was currently with Learning and
Development (L&D) on how to roll out and integrate with the NVQ process.
Each Directorate needs to be made aware of and trained on video conferencing.
The ISSG noted the report.
05.01.10 Bentley Jennison Audit
Jon Ball presented the Bentley Jennison Audit report to ISSG for comment and
prioritisation. ISSG is asked to comment on, assign and prioritise the 18
recommendations included in the audit. A general discussion took place and it was
agreed a meeting would be arranged between the Jon Ball, Alan Newcombe, Lee
Arslett and the ACFO to discuss the Bentley Jennison audit document.
06.01.10 IT and Comms Security Policy
Jon Ball presented the updated IT and Comms Security Policy and asked ISSG to
comment and endorse the changes to the IT and Comms Security Policy.
07.01.10 IBIS and Firewatch
Jon Ball informed the group of possible opportunities for development between
Infographics and Wisdom Services to integrate IBIS and Firewatch. The next
meeting with Infographics would take place on 25th March 2010. The ACFO asked
that RBFRS be careful on the technical specification, the initial and ongoing costs
Agenda Item 2
including what development rights RBFRS have, this information would be brought
back to the next meeting. Jon Ball
08.01.10 Telecoms Handset Strategy
Lee Arslett raised the issue as there was a situation of multi devices at point of
contact e.g. phone, mobile and blackberry. There were historic costs; the cost was
more when using a phone to call a mobile. With Vodaphone calls between mobiles
will be free - removal of 75 phones and replace with mobiles. Agreement would need
to e reached with department Heads as to who would be eligible, for example, Fire
Safety Inspectors, Fire Safety Officers.
ACFO. The benefits would be less hardware used and suggested taking this forward
with ways of looking at potential working. A general discussion took place and it was
agreed that the Telecoms Handset Strategy would be placed on the Support Services
Directorate Policy Group Agenda for the next meeting to lay the foundations down to
discuss the way forward with this issue. Elizabeth Snelson
09.01.10 ISO 27001
The group discussed the areas covered by the standard. As the issue was being
discussed at CMT it was agreed to await direction from this group.
10.01.10 Website & Document Management Steering Group (WDMSG) –
verbal update
Alan Newcombe gave an update and advised that Nicole Target would like to set up
a separate group to deal with web development to monitor the redesign of the
website. The ACFO asked for the minutes of the WDMSG to be circulated to
members of ISSG. Alan Newcombe will inform Nicole.
11.01.10 Any Other Urgent Business
a. Youth Intervention Scheme in IS27001. (refer to e-mail from Alan
Newcombe dated 20th January 2010).
The certification work needs to be undertaken
E-mailing encryptor server needed for confidential emails – this would
allow the user to send encrypted e-mails, which only the Youth Team can see.
Occupational Health (OH) referrals could also be used using the
encryptor, for example medical referrals to OH.
b. Laptop Policy. There was a need for more remote access to be
available as problems had arisen with more staff having to work from home
due to the inclement weather. More flexibility was needed regarding remote
working and access should be determined by staff’s line managers.
c. Airwave. Lee Arslett advised the signed Airwave Terms and
Conditions had been received from CMO and the contract can now be
used by the brigade.
12.01.10 Date of next meeting
The date of the next ISSG meeting is on Wednesday 5 th May 2010 at 09:30 hours in
the SCC.
The meeting closed at 17:15 hours