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After the resignations of both the fire authority chair and the interim chief, West Midlands Fire Service will now have to contend with government inspectors, whose letter published late last week showed their deep concerns about the tumult ahead of today’s fire authority meeting.
West Midlands Fire Authority met, as scheduled today. Vice Chair Catherine Miks chaired the meeting saying that this was not the situation she expected to find herself in. She said she was fully committed to “supporting the excellent people of West Midlands Fire Service.”
The meeting agenda included items – not to be heard in public – about the interim CEO and to ratify his suspension but Oliver Lee then resigned ahead of the meeting. Cllr Miks confirmed in a statement after the conclusion of today’s meeting that the authority was asked to consider whether to accept Lee’s resignation and it did.
Writing on LinkedIn after the meeting, Lee revealed that he had withdrawn his resignation. He said, “I felt over the weekend that the situation might have changed in the face of the Chair’s resignation. So, for 1900 people, I made my first ever u-turn, and withdrew my resignation. To help.”
In a parting shot on social media, he said that the Chair had “vastly overclaimed” his military record, that his predecessor had “falsified his qualifications” and the Monitoring Officer “monitors only himself and fails to be truthful.”
And in his final post to staff at WMFS he added, “I am truly grateful for all your help in driving this vital change in WMFS; hard though it is to do, I would not change it for the world.”
On Friday 11 October, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFS) published a letter that HMI Andy Cooke had sent to the now former Chair and former CEO on 4 October expressing his deep concern for the situation in the West Midlands.
“I am concerned that the current situation will affect public confidence in the service and the FRA, impact the workforce of WMFS, and has the potential to jeopardise a safety critical service for the residents of the West Midlands.”
This came the day after Lee first went public with his frustration with the leadership of the authority.
Inspectors were due to start their inspection of WMFS on 28 October as part of a regular cycle of visits but Cooke says that he was considering broadening the work (beyond a service inspection) and was consulting the Home Secretary about her commissioning HMICFRS to carry out an inspection into the governance of the service as well.
Cllr Catherine Miks confirmed that an immediate, independent investigation into the events during the short-lived leadership of chief executive Oliver Lee will now take place, with any urgent findings to be brought to the authority within a month.
Cllr Miks said, “the service is committed to a fair and transparent inspection process.” This would hopefully reassure staff, public and stakeholders.”
Read more about Oliver Lee’s tenure at West Midlands Fire Service in his interview with Emergency Services Times seven weeks into the job.
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