Lancashire Combined Fire Authority
Meeting to be held on 18 September 2023
Member Champion Activity Report
Contact for further information:
ACFO Jon Charters – Tel No: 01772 866801
Executive Summary
This paper provides a report on the work of the Member Champions for the period up to 31 August 2023.
Recommendation
The Authority is requested to note and endorse the report and acknowledge the work of the respective Champions. |
The concept of Member Champions was introduced in December 2007 with a review of the roles in 2017.
The Authority appoints its Member Champions at its Annual Meeting in June, and the current Member Champions are:
· Community Safety – Councillor Jean Rigby
· Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – Councillor Zamir Khan
· Health and Wellbeing – County Councillor Andrea Kay (up to 30 August 2023)
· Road Safety – County Councillor Ron Woollam
Reports relating to the activity of the Member Champions are provided on a regular basis to the Authority. During this period, all have undertaken their respective role in accordance with the defined terms of reference. Their activity to date is as follows:
Community Safety – Councillor Jean Rigby
In July, Lancashire was busy promoting World Drowning Prevention Day which was on 25 July. Highlights included 6,933 young people receiving face to face Water Safety Education and a further 14,598 students across the county received education via virtual delivery. Further initiatives to support the day included the lighting of monuments blue including Blackpool Tower, Rivington Pike & Pigeon Tower, Ormskirk Clock Tower, and Preston Town Hall.
Further Water Safety delivery included information to boat owners as part of Boat Safety Week at White Bear, Adlington, Top Lock, Botany Bay and Lock and Quay, Scarisbrick and Rufford Marinas, Burscough Wharf in Burscough, the Boat House in Appley Bridge and Ring-o-Bells, Burscough. Social media messages were sent out through the campaign time on all platforms.
Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) attended an event named RotaKids Conference on Friday 16 June 2023. Here young persons from primary schools across Lancashire and Cumbria attended the annual RotaKids Conference. RotaKids was set up to help build children’s self-esteem and community service ethics by introducing rotary concepts of service, understanding and citizenship. The young persons also had an introduction to project, team, and leadership skills. Over 120 children participated in the day which consisted of taking part in small group activities including, Water Safety (LFRS), seed sowing, first aid, sign language, and much more.
LFRS has been working in partnership with the Primary Care Networks in Pennine NHS. Burnley Fire Station was used to host a Living Well Think Health Day on 1 July 2023. The focus was to collaborate and build on our existing partnership working with a view to reaching out to the most vulnerable people in the area as Burnley has one of the highest markers for health inequalities and deprivation links to several wards in the town. Over 30 stakeholders representing agencies attended the event to showcase their work and roles specifics, including: Age UK / IHSS Ltd / Community and District Nurses / Doctors / Burnley Council / Burnley Football Club in the Community/ Up and Active / Carers Link / Quit Squad / LAL – Lancashire Adult Learning / Falls Team / Social Prescribing teams.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion – County Councillor Zamir Khan MBE
Further to a wholetime recruits apprenticeship course planned for January 2024, the Service has been actively engaged in delivering positive action. To increase the engagement and the understanding of employment opportunities with LFRS amongst minority groups we have seconded two community safety officers, who understand the role of a firefighter and who already have well established links with different communities in Lancashire. This active engagement has reaped positive results with an increased diversity of applications including 12% from women, 11% from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) and 9% from members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The Service is keen to ensure that members of staff understand the purpose of positive action and the value of having a diverse workforce and the Assistant Director HR, Head of Corporate Communications, and Head of Service Delivery hosted a live discussion with staff in relation to positive action and wholetime recruitment. The rest of the recruitment process will now progress, all applicants are measured against the same criteria and only the highest performing candidates are appointed.
In terms of existing members of staff, we continue to deliver our Code of Ethics development sessions. One of the key principles within the Code of Ethics is equality, diversity and inclusion, to date 407 employees have attended. We have also launched a confidential reporting “Safe Call” line; this allows members of staff to raise issues of concern independently and anonymously, our associated reporting policies have also been updated and supplemented by simple guidance.
Further to changes in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, we have now commenced Standard DBS checks of all operational members of staff and community safety advisors. We already undertake enhanced DBS checks where members of staff undertake “regulated activity”.
Health, Wellbeing & Climate Change – County Councillor Andrea Kay
Health and Wellbeing
In August we introduced the idea of Walk and Talk Groups, taking lunchtime walks from between 15 minutes and one hour, to encourage staff to take time away from their desks during lunch and actively promote healthy wellbeing conversations.
Initially launched around the Service Headquarters area, the levels of walk have been split into categories; ‘Rainbow’ (1 mile), ‘Sunshine’ (up to 2 miles), ‘Blue Sky’ (up to 3 miles) and ‘Thunderstorm’ (up to 10 miles). The plan is to encourage local Walk and Talk Groups across the Service to organise their own ‘Rainbow’, ‘Sunshine’ or ‘Blue Sky’ walks – with ‘Thunderstorm’ walks due to be organised centrally across the County so all staff, family and friends can get involved. This not only improves physical activity levels but boosts mental health and encourages social networking between different areas of the Service.
To further enhance our peer support network the first Peer Support Ambassador workshop was held in early September. Further workshops are planned and once these are complete feedback will be provided via the Health, Safety and Environment Advisory Group and it is hoped we can facilitate Peer Support Ambassador workshops twice a year, to increase peer support coverage across the Service.
Climate Change and Environment
In July we promoted ‘Plastic Free July’ and following the messages to reduce single use plastic, in August, we introduced reusable coffee cups to the SHQ Conference Room and Lightfoot House. These are placed with the coffee machines along with a poster developed with the help of our Corporate Communications Department.
We hope we can shift people’s perception that their single use coffee cup can and will be recycled. Generally, this is not the case – even when the cups say they are recyclable, it is not usual for them to end up a recycling process. We aim to change behaviour that will see people opting for a reusable cup by either bringing their own, or using one provided at point of use then returning it washed and ready for the next person to use.
These reusable cups will not be issued to each individual as we do not believe this helps to achieve the aim. We have however offered to provide them to our Environmental Champions to help us spread the important reuse message and to encourage people to simply ‘Waste Less’.
Our Environmental Champions have also now all been issued with a badge they can wear on their uniform or lanyard to help identify them as a Champion and potentially prompt others to ask for their help and advice.
Road Safety – County Councillor Ron Woollam
Road Sense is a Year 6 Road Safety Education Package delivered by LFRS and offered to all primary schools in Lancashire. This academic year around 17,200 pupils have received the package, our greatest delivery to date. Feedback from teachers remains very positive, please see example below:
“The session really engaged the children and gave them plenty to discuss and think about”.
A recent inclusion of a short post questionnaire for the pupils is showing very positive results. To date 93% of children who completed the questions answered them all correctly. This is a very positive figure, as it proves the key messages and information being taught in the session are being retained by the pupils. This will allow evaluation of the effectiveness of the delivery from the pupil’s perspective and will feed into a wider piece of work Prevention Support are doing into the evaluation of our prevention activities.
Biker Down continues to grow with 14 sessions running since April. This has amounted to 260 bikers completing a session and gaining lifesaving skills. The introduction of a pre and post questionnaire is showing very positive feedback about the session. One of the questions the attendees are asked is around their confidence to safely remove a motorcyclist helmet following a road traffic collision. The scale they use is 1-5 (1 not confident – 5 very confident). Prior to the session the average rating is 2.3 but feedback has confirmed that this increases to 4.7 following the session. We also ask for free text feedback, please see an example below from a recent course:
“Having been a first aid instructor for 8 years I still learnt new skills especially the removal of a helmet”.
Due to ‘Safe Drive Stay Alive’ delivery currently being on hold, LFRS has been actively engaging with groups of apprentices. Young drivers (17–25-year-old) are involved in around 25% of Road Traffic Collisions (RTC) in Lancashire. This month we have taken the crashed car (a car from a fatal RTC) and delivered Wasted Lives – our pre and new driver education package to apprentices at both BAE and Springfields. Due to the majority of apprentices being school leavers they very much fall into this ‘at risk’ group. The feedback has been very favourable and proved the delivery is very worthwhile:
“Presentation was well delivered and very much age appropriate, we had good feedback from all of our apprentices”
LFRS delivered an “Alive to Drive” campaign on Blackpool Promenade Headlands at the beginning of August. Crews carried out an RTC demonstration which attracted a huge crowd. The event made it onto both BBC and ITV channels. As well as allowing the Service to highlight what happens at an RTC, other elements of road safety such as the importance of car seats (using the measuring pole) and seatbelts, plus the use of ‘appropriate speed’, were also covered. The event attracted thousands of visitors throughout the day. It was organised by LFRS but supported by Lancashire Constabulary, National Highways, North West Ambulance Service, Blood Bikes, IAM (formerly the Institute of Advanced Motoring and South Lancashire Advanced Motorcyclists (SLAM).
LFRS was invited to the annual Cleveleys Car Show to provide an RTC demonstration and delivery of the Wasted Lives Crashed trailer. This was a multi-agency event with the Police and LFRS. LFRS delivered an RTC demonstration with commentary on a PA system and attended with the Wasted Lives vehicle. The Police also attended and gave information during the demonstration, discussing the consequences of dangerous driving and possible convictions. The event had an approximate footfall of 20,000 - 40,000 attendees.
Financial Implications
Activities are within budget.
Business Risk Implications
Whilst no formal obligation is placed on the Authority to have Champions, effective utilisation of such roles offers a number of benefits.
Environmental Impact
The Member Champion role provides leadership on environmental issues and assists in engaging Authority members in strategic objectives relating to protecting the environment.
Equality and Diversity Implications
The Member Champion role provides leadership on equality and diversity issues and assists in engaging Authority members in strategic objectives relating to equality and diversity.
Human Resource Implications
Some Member and Officer time commitments.
Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985
List of background papers
Paper:
Date:
Contact: ACFO, Jon Charters
Reason for inclusion in Part 2 if appropriate: N/A