Meeting to be held on 14 December 2022
Contact for further information – Jon Charters, Assistant Chief Fire Officer
Tel: 01772 866801
Executive SummaryAt the final Performance Committee meeting of each financial year, the Measuring Progress report, is accompanied by a comparative performance analysis of other Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) which was formed upon historic ‘Family Groups’.
Over the years, this comparison has enabled Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) to demonstrate to the Committee how the Service is performing against other FRS on a small number of Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
As the fire sector has evolved, the use of Family Groups has slowly diminished as has the value of their use in effectively comparing FRS with FRS. The position has been further weakened by new FRS joining Family Groups that they were not originally intended to be placed within.
At the March 2022 Performance Committee meeting, a proposal was made that the Service undertake work to identify more preferable ways of providing comparative data. Since this time however, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has commenced a project to nationally rework the Family Groups and, using a data led analysis, has developed some early options on how the groups could be re-formed.
The work has been undertaken by a group of subject matter experts from within the sector and aims to inform and improve the groupings of FRS utilising verifiable data.
NFCC will be sharing initial findings and data later this year whilst planning workshops will be delivered during 2023.
Recommendation(s)The Performance Committee is asked to note progression of the national project and endorse that the Service await the delivery of these project outcomes, before determining the future provision of comparative data to Performance Committee.
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During the Performance Committee on 16 March 2022, (resolution 24-20/21 - Review of Family Group Comparative Information), Area Manager Mark Hutton proposed that future Family Group analysis could involve data that looked beyond the Family Group, taken from other national databases that the Service now had access to, and which could offer a broader and more suitable comparison than the current arrangements.
Since that time, NFCC has commissioned work to refresh the Family Groups based upon common data relationships and the early outcomes of this work will be shared with each FRS by Christmas 2022.
The set of new groupings will have verifiable data and should offer a statistical tool for grouping the various Services in a way that can report ESV data (economic and social value).
The project also aims to enable new relationships to be developed by FRS who share certain characteristics, some of which individual FRS may presently be unaware of.
To facilitate use of the new tools and datasets, there are three regional workshops planned for the second quarter of 2023 (July to September).
The Service proposes to pause any internal work on this topic and await the outcomes from the NFCC project before providing final options to Performance Committee later next year.
Since inception in 2000, the previous Family Groups have undergone change, with some FRS having merged and characteristics of various FRS having changed; as such the use of the family groups for ongoing comparison purposes has questionable value. The redeveloped groupings should provide for an improved and refreshed data-led approach and for reliable information to be provided to the Authority.
Developing an individualised approach may see LFRS out of kilter with the other FRS, once NFCC work is published.
The progression of internal work would continue to push additional workload pressures into a team with limited capacity at the present time given ongoing Emergency Cover Review work and the implementation of the final ECR proposals.
None identified
None identified
Data Protection (GDPR) Implications
None identified
Redevelopment of comparative data internally would necessitate a draw upon finite resources within a small team in the Corporate Intelligence function. Acceptance of this proposal negates this impact and builds back internal capacity.
None identified at this stage.
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Reason for inclusion in Part 2 if appropriate: N/A