Appendix 1
Annual Report
Road Safety Intervention Activity 2022-2023
Introduction
Through our Prevention Strategy 2022-2027, Prevention services and our structure for delivery was reviewed. This was done to ensure that we are delivering appropriately in line with our changing operating environment. We continue with a strategic focus on the quality of the services that we deliver around key themes: helping people to start safe, live safe; age safe, be safe on our roads and be safe in and around water, with a focus on working collaboratively with other organisations. As we move into the next financial year, the priorities of the thematic groups align to the Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) 2022 – 2027 and Strategic Assessment of Risk.
Road Safe Thematic Group
During 2022 - 2023 the Thematic Road Safety Group continued to meet every quarter, with an option of both in person and virtual meets. We have membership from all areas of the county and a mix of Community Safety and Operational Staff. CFA Member and Road Safety Champion Cllr Ron Woollam has close links with the group and is in regular communication with the Prevention Support Officer for Road Safety.
A yearly plan aligned to the terms of reference has been developed alongside a priority work programme which supports the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership ‘Towards Zero’ strategy as described below. One of the ambitions of the group is to improve communication between strategic and practitioner levels and also to send clear messages out to areas with key road safety priorities. We want to deliver focused activities in areas identified as having issues and evaluate effectiveness.
Some of the working practices adopted during the Coronavirus Pandemic have now been adopted as business as usual and offer a greater choice of delivery methods for the community we serve, improving our reach and efficacy. Our offer of virtual delivery remains part of our plan and continues to be selected by schools as a delivery method across the county.
Lancashire Road Safety Partnership (LRSP)
Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) continue to be a pro-active member of LRSP and have representatives at both Strategic and Operational group level. The partners are working closely with each other and delivering the partnership strategy – ‘Towards Zero’ Lancashire: Road Safety Strategy for Lancashire 2016 – 2026’, in an attempt to reduce those killed or seriously injured on our roads.
LFRS lead on the Children and Young People workstream which brings partners together to look at what is currently delivered, what works well and where the gaps are so that we can pool our resources to work effectively and without duplication.
The LRSP continue to work through the action plan following the review of the partnership completed in 2022.
LFRS Road Safety Thematic Group Priorities 2022-2023
1. Road Sense – Evaluate the new package & deliver to all primary schools in Lancashire
2. Develop a suite of assembly sessions, update the existing workshop session, and promote delivery of Wasted Lives for year 11/10
3. Support Safe Drive Stay Alive events
4. Grow delivery of Biker Down courses, expanding to new locations
1. Road Sense
Road Sense is the name given to the road safety education programme delivered to Year 6 pupils. It is a mixed session starting with a 20-minute fire safety recap then a 40-minute road safety input. This gives an opportunity to draw on a previous session the pupils will have received in Year 2 and explores the consequences of hoax calls and deliberate fires.
The package focuses on five key road safety themes which were selected to reflect Lancashire’s issues with young people:-
· In Car Safety;
· Pedestrian Safety;
· Cycle Safety;
· Be Safe Be Seen;
· Bus Safety.
Our package has been adopted by Staywise, which is an online resource website for Fire and Rescue Services across the country.
The inclusion of a ‘Road Sense Fact Sheet,’ using the CFA Road Safety Champion budget has been a very welcome addition to the session with teachers commenting on the usefulness of information for pupils to take home for further discussion with their families. Evaluation of the package has provided us with positive feedback from schools with 76% of teachers selecting they ‘strongly agreed’ the session would have a positive impact on the student’s road user behaviour. The remaining 24% ‘agreed’ with this. We have not received any negative feedback at all. Utilising the QR code allows the teachers to give more honest feedback and improves the efficiency of the process.
Here is an example of feedback received from teachers following a Road Sense delivery:
“Great mix of humour and serious information. Allowed children to ask questions which were answered effectively. Use of videos helped to reinforce the information shared. Hard -hitting videos but age appropriate.”
“Good points made. Verbal and visual stimulus which kept the children engaged and informed. Handout is useful to recap the given messages.”
This academic year, LFRS has embedded an Education Tracker. This allows the monitoring of all delivery in schools, from the initial contact stage through to the submission of paperwork following the session taking place. To date the delivery figures are looking higher than ever before. During this reporting period 15,603 Year 6 pupils received this input.
2. ‘Wasted Lives’ Young Driver Road Safety Education Programme
LFRS is now the only delivery partner for Wasted Lives following changes at Lancashire County Council. The programme is aimed at young and pre-drivers and aims to influence behaviour and change attitudes either as a driver or a passenger, thereby reducing risk to this specific group and to other road users.
By actively engaging with this age group (15 – 25 year olds) Wasted Lives aims to maximise the opportunities for people to evaluate and reflect on their own attitudes and behaviour behind the wheel and as a passenger. Extensive evaluation has demonstrated how the package promotes real and lasting changes in how each participant behaves in a car. Since the introduction of Wasted Lives in 2010, LFRS has delivered road safety education to over 120,000 young people throughout Lancashire, Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen. For the period 2022–2023 LFRS has delivered the programme to 2,806 young people, using Microsoft Teams and face-to-face delivery.
We will continue to focus our delivery of Wasted Lives to years 10 and 11 students as pre-drivers and those employed as apprentices. Throughout the last 12 months, due to recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic, we have seen a reduction in the number of schools contacting us for a session. We have developed a suite of assembly sessions which can be adapted in length to fit in with schools timetables. The pandemic has given us the opportunity to develop different ways of working and we are now offering a MS Teams version of Wasted Lives and accompanying resource pack. Schools now have 3 delivery options and by being more flexible in what we can deliver and how, we will be able to reach more young people. As part of the district planning process 2022/23 each of the areas utilised ‘heat’ maps to identify areas of risk and allow targeted delivery of Wasted Lives.
The Wasted Lives package also has the option of being complemented by a ‘crashed car,’ which is a vehicle from a real incident where, tragically, there has been a fatality. Alternatively, the car can be used as a standalone resource at a community event. We now have a new vehicle where the circumstances of the collision were solely speed related. We hope this will resonate with more of the community we serve as there was no alcohol or drugs involved in the crash.
3. Safe Drive Stay Alive
Safe Drive Stay Alive is a road safety initiative where the audiences hear real life stories from the emergency services and families who have all been affected by road traffic collisions in an auditorium setting. This delivery is aimed at college aged students.
The speakers come forward to share their emotional experiences in a bid to reduce the number of young people killed or seriously injured on Lancashire's roads. Throughout the session the young people hear from a Fire Fighter, Police Officer, Paramedic and a bereaved family member.
Safe Drive Stay Alive is emotional and encourages reflection. The sessions aim to encourage students to improve their attitudes towards risk taking behaviour on the roads.
Considerable work has been carried out nationally to compare a number of packages aimed at this age group and LFRS has been involved, alongside LRSP members, in evaluating the best fit for Lancashire. Whilst this has been ongoing, LFRS have facilitated a video version on behalf of the partnership however have found that colleges prefer face to face delivery and also have challenges in fitting sessions into their timetable.
4. Biker Down
Biker Down is a course that is aimed at motorcyclists and pillions of all ages and experience. The free 3-hour course offers members of the public a chance to learn practical skills which can be put into practice anywhere at any time. The three modules covered are:
· Incident Management
· First Aid
· The Science of Being Seen
The initiative started in Kent and LFRS has signed a memorandum of understanding with Kent Fire and Rescue Service to allow us to use the logo and delivery material.
LFRS has worked with LRSP to ensure the delivery is complementary to Bike Safe, which is a Police Led initiative. Anyone who attends Biker Down is encouraged to book onto Bike Safe which is seen as the next step in training as it involves a ride out with an Advanced Police Motorcyclist. Biker Down is seen as the start of a motorcyclists ‘learning journey.’ During this reporting period there has been a 5% increase in motorcycle casualties, totalling 145. Lancashire’s statistics showed you were 72 times more likely to die on a motorcycle than in a car on our roads, higher than the national average.
There have been 346 attendees in the last 12 months and the appetite for the courses has grown significantly over recent months with the Facebook page reaching over 900 likes and the reach of posts sometimes exceeding 1500 people. All attendees take part in a practical element of the course which includes helmet removal and CPR. These are really important skills which may be needed should they be faced with a road traffic collision involving a motorcyclist. Feedback from attendees mirrors how important this part of the course is and how valuable they felt it was. Below are a few examples:
“A really useful session. A great deal learnt. Hopefully I'll not need to put into practice but I feel confident that I could now.”
“Wonderful course. Great presentation. I will be recommending. Thank you very much.”
With support from Cllr Ron Woollam, a portion of the CFA Road Safety Champion budget was utilised to provide all attendees with a First Aid kit that complements the skills they are taught and a bike puc (stand) which incorporates the safety message ‘Dress for the slide, not the ride.’
The delivery model is flexible so courses can be hosted for individual motorcycle clubs or advertised using an online booking platform for members of the public to book on independently. The Biker Down team aim to run 12 courses per year but are currently far exceeding that aspiration due to such a high demand for courses.
Summary
This 12-month period has presented challenges for the delivery of Road Safety Education and our ability to engage with the communities of Lancashire, many schools are in a ‘recovery’ period resulting in very tight constraints on their timetables. We have continued to adapt our offerings and, with increased use of technology and innovative ideas by members of the Road Safety Thematic Group, this has meant that we have delivered our education packages to over 18,500 people.
We continue to be an active member of the LRSP and, building on the review, look forward to continuing to be involved in a collaborative approach. This will have an emphasis on the strengths that our brand as a Fire and Rescue Service can bring to the partnership as we work to deliver our collective ambition of a safer road system.
Focusing on our priorities for 2022/23, we have achieved some notable progression and successful outcomes, from getting back into primary schools’ post-pandemic to engage with pupils and deliver our improved Road Sense package to re-launching Wasted Lives and Biker Down. Our action plan for the forthcoming year builds on this.
Over the next 12 months we will be focussing on further evaluation of all our Road Safety initiatives, campaigns and educational packages. This evaluation will look at 4 distinct areas; Is our targeting correct and appropriate, are we delivering according to end user expectations, are we influencing a positive behaviour change and are we delivering value for money (i.e. for every £1 spent on prevention what does that save in terms of prevention of an incident).