This was quoted several time at our last recall conference and since. I agree. We are where we are. But how did we get here?

I am proud of the way in which FBU members in the region acted and fought in our pay campaign. Many will know I disagreed with some of the decisions during the campaign such as accepting Burchill, and as it turned out this was for the better.

There is little point at this time in pointing the finger at who let us down, who we think could have acted differently or better, and who should make statements on their actions as some have called for.

At some point we need a full and frank debate on the campaign but I believe we must first look at the immediate problems facing us.

I have attached an extract from the Governments 1999 white paper on modernisation. I know many of the ideas will be included in the white paper on the fire service. It seems strange to talk within it of partnerships and the need for joint ideas on modernisation yet this week we have seen CFO’s stating that there is no need for any negotiations now they have a free hand to do as they wish. Some more enlightened understand that this is not the best way to achieve changes which would be workable or in the publics interest.

If any brigade believes we are not ready to fight to protect the service they are completely wrong. Yes we will work for changes which help the public but we will not accept change for change sake nor will we be dictated to.

The dictatorial attitude of New Labour seems to be filtering down to all those who believe they hold some ‘power’.

Only today we hear of more reports that our pension scheme could be changed along with other public sector workers. This in the same weekend GP’s got up to a 50% increase for modernisation. So what is it exactly we will get for ‘modernisation’?

Changes to shifts, the break up of watches which are seen as a strength, a move away from the promised family friendly policies, new undertakings and roles, increased work loads and fewer firefighters and control staff. Oh yes, and we may get a further rise if we not only jump through the hoops but help set them up!

I have no problems at all with modernisation. In fact I like many members have my own ideas on what we should modernise. Why is the pension to be changed to make us work longer to get it but common law partners are not included?

Why is it we are told we should work the same hours per week as the rest of Europe to help increase family life and stability yet we still work longer hours than any other EU country?

There are many changes we face and I could list them all but we know the major ones. The thing members have to realise is that when the vote was taken in Glasgow it was these changes which were part of the package.

I and many of you may not like it but that is the reality. Take a look back through the site and read what I posted on here many months ago.

In September last year I posed the question on whether £25,000 was fair. I personally think every firefighter and control operator is worth more. But that won’t be the case for some time. That’s democracy. That’s the position voted for by the majority of this region and the country. I know many thought it was the best we could get at present and I accept that position even if I differ in my own view. Now we have to look forward and decide what is and what is not acceptable but more importantly what we will and will not fight to protect.

A summer of unrest followed by a winter of discontent may well be on the cards. Arrogance seems to abound at the moment from many quarters and I know many feel that we have been taken for granted.

All our work and fighting though has not been wasted. In our fire stations and control rooms we know that we were solid on the campaign lines. Its wasn’t those supporting you who gave up our fight for fair pay they simply felt there was no more to be achieved just now. The fight hasn’t ended. In fact we will face many more battles coming our way very soon.

During the campaign this region came up with many of the ideas booklets leaflets and posters used. One of these simply said: Out together Stick together Back together.

This we achieved.

We must now look forward. I personally believe we should have an annual conference this year. We are told it is the parliament of our union. It is where we can raise concerns and debate our campaign as well as other business outstanding. To cancel it is I believe wrong though this is a matter for members to decide on branches.

If any branch wishes to have an open and honest debate on the campaign then I am more than happy to attend. It would also be an opportunity to discuss what we really face in the future.

Branch meetings need to discuss now what ideas we would like to see in a modern fire service. I urge every member to attend and have their say. That’s how we need to move forward. Together.

It may be the case that ‘we are where we are’ but we, the members of the FBU, should ensure that together we direct the union and the fire service in the direction WE want it to go.

If we achieve this then we can honestly say ‘we are where we want to be’. Surely that’s a better place to be in than saying; ‘we are where we are’

Dean Mills

Modernising Government

71 Page white paper broken down to 8 pages of extracts with highlights

This paper was introduced in March 1999 by Jack Cunningham Minister for the cabinet office. (The enforcer)

Introduction by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Jack Cunningham

Modernising Government is an important statement for the Government. It is a programme of reform for the future. And it is a series of new measures which the Government will implement now.

This Government values public servants, and public services and we will continue to do so.
But in doing so, we will make sure that government services are better that they reflect real lives and deliver what people really want. Better provision of better services available from government at all levels is central to the approach of Modernising Government in schools, in hospitals, in doctors' surgeries, in police stations, in benefit offices, in Jobcentres, in local councils. To improve the way we provide services, we need all parts of government to work together better. We need joined-up government. We need integrated government. And we need to make sure that government services are brought forward using the best and most modern techniques, to match the best of the private sector including one-stop shops, single contacts which link in to a range of government Departments and especially electronic information-age services.

These are key new initiatives. It is important that we act upon them now and we will. But modernising government is a long-term programme. Modernising Government is a key step forward in that programme, and a road-map for its future. It sets out a challenge for all of us in government: a challenge to modernise government, to create better government to make life better for people.

Executive summary Extracts

Modernising government is central to the Government's programme of renewal and reform.

In line with the Government's overall programme of modernisation, Modernising Government is modernisation for a purpose to make life better for people and businesses.

Modernising Government is a long-term programme of improvement.

But the Government is putting forward a new package of reforms now:

• A commitment to ensure that public services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week where there is a demand, for example by the end of 2000 everyone being able to phone NHS Direct at any time for healthcare advice.

• Ensuring that policy making is more joined up and strategic.

• Making sure that public service users, not providers, are the focus, by matching services more closely to people's lives.

• Delivering public services that are high quality and efficient.

• Quality public services: we will deliver efficient, high quality public services and will not tolerate mediocrity.

• Public service: we will value public service, not denigrate it. We will:

- modernise the civil service, revise performance management arrangements, tackle under-representation of women, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities and build the capability for innovation.

- establish a public sector employment forum to bring together and develop key players across the public sector.

1. Vision

We must unleash the potential within the public service to drive our modernising agenda right across government. There is great enthusiasm and determination within the public service to tackle the problems which face society, to do the job better.

The Government is putting these principles into practice by aiming to:

provide public services of the highest quality, matching the best anywhere in the world in their ability to innovate, share good ideas, control costs and above all to deliver what they are supposed to.

People are exercising choice and demanding higher quality.

Some parts of the public service are as efficient, dynamic and effective as anything in the private sector. But other parts are not.

Inertia: although the public can express its dissatisfaction with its public service through the ballot box, this can be a blunt instrument, removing whole local or central governments intermittently and often not addressing the underlying reasons why things are wrong. The risk is that particular parts of the public sector can therefore be left to fail for too long.

Denigration: public servants are hard-working and dedicated and many are as innovative and entrepreneurial as anyone outside government. But they have been wrongly denigrated and demoralised for too long. There has been a presumption that the private sector is always best, and insufficient attention has been given to rewarding success in the public service and to equipping it with the skills required to develop and deliver strategic policies and services in modern and effective ways.

Local government is responsible for a quarter of public expenditure on services, including education, social services, police, housing and public transport. We have worked very closely with the Local Government Association and other bodies in preparing this White Paper. Local government must be an equal partner in our drive to modernise government. We want to encourage initiatives to establish partnerships in delivering services, by all parts of government in ways that fit local circumstances; and to establish common targets, financial frameworks, IT links, management controls and accountability mechanisms that support such arrangements. We will continue to involve other groups too, including business and the voluntary sector.

There is no such thing as a 'typical' citizen. People's needs and concerns differ: between women and men for example, between the young and the old; and between those of different social, cultural and educational backgrounds and people with disabilities. Some of these concerns have not been given sufficient recognition in the past. We must understand the needs of all people and respond to them. This, too, is a crucial part of modernising government.

We are centring our programme on five key commitments:

• Policy making: we will be forward looking in developing policies to deliver results that matter, not simply reacting to short-term pressures.

• Responsive public services: we will deliver public services to meet the needs of citizens, not the convenience of service providers.

• Quality public services: we will deliver efficient, high quality public services and will not tolerate mediocrity.

• Information age government: we will use new technology to meet the needs of citizens and business, and not trail behind technological developments

• Public service: we will value public service, not denigrate it.

2 Policy Making

learning from experience. Government should regard policy making as a continuous, learning process, not as a series of one-off initiatives. We will improve our use of evidence and research so that we understand better the problems we are trying to address. We must make more use of pilot schemes to encourage innovations and test whether they work. We will ensure that all policies and programmes are clearly specified and evaluated, and the lessons of success and failure are communicated and acted upon. Feedback from those who implement and deliver policies and services is essential too. We need to apply the disciplines of project management to the policy process.

3 Responsive Public Services

Research with the People's Panel shows that more people agree than disagree that our public service providers are friendly, hard-working and keen to help. But, although the number of people who are satisfied is increasing, many services still fall short of expectations. Two out of five people think services have got no better in the last five years, and over one in three thinks they have become worse.

Services that reflect business needs:

Many of the problems identified through the Integrated-Service Teams apply equally to businesses especially small businesses when they have to deal with government. The Government will establish a new Small Business Service, designed to provide the kind of practical help that smaller businesses need. The Department of Trade and Industry will consult small businesses, their representative organisations and other interested parties to make sure that the new body provides high quality services and support to small firms. The new service will have over £100 million of new money over the next three years for this purpose. Its role will be to:

• act as a strong voice for small business at the heart of government.

• improve the quality and coherence of delivery of government support programmes for small businesses and ensure that they address their needs.

4. Quality public services:

Too often in the past, the tendency in the public service has been to stick with the traditional. The world is changing too fast for that to be an effective approach. The best public bodies have shown an ability to innovate and improve. We need to encourage others to follow the example of the best, and to make a step change in the general standards of public services.

The Government is committed to achieving continuous improvement in central government policy making and service delivery. To achieve this we have devised five principles: challenge, compare, consult, compete and collaborate. We will use these to build on our Best Value approach to local government and complement the existing scrutiny of central government carried out by the National Audit Office and by Parliament. We will offer these approaches as models for the devolved administrations to consider in developing their own approaches to continuous improvement.

“We will value public service, not denigrate it”

The Government is committed to public services and public servants. But, as we have said elsewhere in this White Paper, that does not mean an unchanging public service, a public service at any price. We have set out in chapter 4 how we will reward success, but not tolerate mediocrity. This means the public service must operate in a competitive and challenging environment. Public services and public servants must strive to be the best, and must make the best better still.

Public service has for too long been neglected, undervalued and denigrated. It has suffered from a perception that the private sector was always best and the public sector was always inefficient. The Government rejects these prejudices. But their legacy remains.

The public service must be the agent of the changes identified throughout this White Paper. To do this it must have a culture of improvement, innovation and collaborative purpose. We will invest in public servants so that they have the skills and the opportunity to perform to the standards required. And we will remove unnecessary bureaucracy which prevents public servants from experimenting, innovating and delivering a better product.

The public service must be the agent of the changes identified throughout this White Paper. To do this it must have a culture of improvement, innovation and collaborative purpose. We will invest in public servants so that they have the skills and the opportunity to perform to the standards required. And we will remove unnecessary bureaucracy which prevents public servants from experimenting, innovating and delivering a better product.

Those who have experience of implementing policies have much to contribute to policy making. This is both motivating for staff and valuable in formulating deliverable policies. We want staff at all levels to contribute to evaluating policies and services, and to put forward ideas about how they might be improved. Ministers have not been surprised to find during workshops and other discussions that front-line staff have many innovative ideas. But, through bureaucracy and an attachment to existing practices for their own sake, we have too often stifled initiative and have discouraged staff from putting ideas forward.

Pay is important to public servants just as it is to other people in society. Public servants must be rewarded fairly for the contribution they make. We must make sure that our approach to pay encourages more of the best people to join and stay.

Recruiting and retaining staff. Public sector employers must be allowed to recruit, retain and motivate staff with the right skills to do the job. Many parts of the public sector have no difficulty attracting and keeping staff, but there are some areas which do, such as the teaching and nursing professions. The Government is tackling these, both in the pay awards we made earlier this year and through pay reform. We are revising pay scales and introducing new grades advanced skills teachers and nurse consultants so that more skilled people can stay in the front line. There may be other areas where we need to pay more to recruit and retain the right staff. These must be carefully identified and clearly targeted.

Making best use of non-pay incentives. Non-pay incentives are often just as important in staff recruitment and motivation as pay. Such incentives may take many forms: better training and development opportunities, good career prospects, opportunities for career breaks, improved working environment, flexible working, family-friendly working practices, recognition in the form of national awards and honours or local workplace schemes. We need to ensure that these are used effectively to attract and reward staff.

We will continue to work closely with the public sector trade unions to achieve our shared goals of committed, fair, efficient and effective public services.

(If this last statement holds true then it hold true for our employers too. One cannot have a shared goal if only one side decides where the goal is to be set up)

Dean Mills
Regional Secretary

Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you have any queries or want any more information please contact me on:

Mob: 07956 502585

Regional Office: 01494 513034

email:deanmills@hotmail.com