Lancashire Combined Fire Authority
Meeting to be held on 22 April 2024
Member Champion Activity Report
Contact for further information – DCFO Steve Healey
Tel: 01772 866801
Executive SummaryThis paper provides a report on the work of the Member Champions for the period up to 21 April 2024.
Recommendation(s)The Authority is requested to note and endorse the report and acknowledge the work of the respective Champions.
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Information
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 John Singleton JP
· 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
Staff across the service have been engaging with communities to promote fire and road safety during Ramadan and participated once again in the award-winning initiative ‘I’m not a Muslim but I will fast (for one day)’ by One Voice Blackburn. Colleagues also took part in the collective fast on 19 March and joined members of the community in an Iftar meal at the Charters Restaurant in Preston Royal Hospital to break the fast.
Community safety and operational staff from Pennine area attended a community Iftar event at Burnley Football Club to honour the breaking of the fast. This was an opportunity for people of all faiths, and none, to come together and enjoy an evening of dialogue, networking, and learning.
The Central team engaged with Mosques and Madrassas (night schools) in the area and delivered talks that focused on cooking hazards, including loose clothing and hot oil cooking in mass during this time of celebration. They also focused on distractions during this period due to the times of eating and the fact that people may become lethargic with the lack of food.
Western community safety team were invited to the Central Blackpool Mosque where they delivered presentations about keeping safe during Ramadan including a Childsafe / Road Sense talk to 180 children who attended the Mosque in the evening. Further aims of the visit were to continue building relationships with the community and offer support.
Prevention Support and Community Safety staff from Eastern area delivered fire safety and 999Reunite awareness training to Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPT) in Clitheroe and Hyndburn. The training covered recognising vulnerability factors and how this links to increased fire risk in the home. Police staff were also shown how to programme the 999ReUnite devices and a trial is in place where they can issue one if a person goes missing from home and follow this up with a referral for a home fire safety check through the partner portal on the Lancashire Fire and Rescue (LFRS) website.
Northern area completed a successful Operation Chesney in the rural community of Over Kellet. This initiative is designed to offer direction for Community Fire Safety (CFS) / Operational staff in reducing fire risk through intelligence led targeting. The Community Fire Risk Management Information System (CFRMIS) is interrogated to identify areas with low levels of prevention activity, and this is used in conjunction with demographic risk profiling and local knowledge. The aim of the operation is to reduce injuries and fatalities arising from Accidental Dwelling Fires (ADF) in rural communities by increasing the uptake of the home fire safety check service and promoting fire safety with partners and community groups.
Fire Cadets from Burnley and Fleetwood attended the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) launch of the Fire Cadet Voice Forum at the Fire Service College. They were joined by cadets from 7 other services from across the country and took part in several workshops and teambuilding exercises, sharing experiences of their journey so far and how units operate in their area. The aim of the forum is to give the young people the opportunity to voice their ideas on future development of the Fire Cadet programme and how this can be consistent across all units.
Southern area Community Safety staff and Fire Protection have collaborated with three sheltered housing schemes which are responsible for a high level of incident activity in the Derby ward in Ormskirk. The team worked with the scheme managers to address the high number of Automatic Fire Alarms (AFA) and delivered several fire safety talks to residents followed by Home Fire Safety Checks (HFSC) in individual flats.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion – County Councillor Zamir Khan MBE
Over the last quarter, representatives from the Service have been actively engaging with employees and communities in various ways.
During March, the Women and Families Employee Voice Group hosted at Service Training Centre an International Women’s Day event to showcase the family friendly and diverse opportunities LFRS has to offer, over 70 members of the public attended and were given talks on roles within LFRS, the maternity/ paternity policy, the recruitment process and met representatives from all our employee voice groups. This was followed by a live Road Traffic Collision (RTC) and fire extinguisher demonstration, attendees were then invited to take part in a ‘have a go’ exercise to test their current fitness against what is required by the Service. An evaluation has taken place and feedback was overwhelmingly positive and a podcast has also been produced which included interviews with female firefighters talking about their experiences of being a firefighter.
Representatives from the LGBT+ Employee Voice Group have been attending various community, and engagement events including support colleagues from Nelson Fire Station at an Industry Day at Nelson and Colne college and the On Call Support officer in recruitment initiatives across the Service.
The newly established disability group is working on the development of a reasonable adjustment guide for members of staff.
The Neurodiversity Employee Voice Group has developed and internal communications bulletin for Neurodiversity Celebration Week, which included brief stories from six serving members of staff, highlighting their own experiences and raising awareness for colleagues across LFRS.
During Ramadan colleagues from across the Service fasted for a day and joined members of the Race and Religion Group at the Iftar event at Burnley Football Club, to break the fast with colleagues from different organisations. This is a great opportunity to promote understanding about different cultures and an opportunity to develop relationships with a wider network of people and with different organisations.
Health, Wellbeing & Climate Change – County Councillor John Singleton JP
Climate Change and Environment
The Environment and Sustainability Promotional Calendar for 2024/25 has been launched and communicated to LFRS Environmental Champions. It has also been uploaded to the Engine House to show the quarterly environmental promotions the Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Department will be facilitating. Environmental Champions are encouraged to promote the calendar events locally.
Uniform Repair kits have been distributed to all stations over the last month. The message to support the issue of these repair kits is that minor repairs to duty rig (such as sewing a button on a shirt etc.) is a more sustainable approach than replacing. This promotes the wider message of reducing unnecessary waste.
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Two members of the SHE Team visited the Renew Hub in Manchester to learn more about the work that is done there to reduce unnecessary waste. The Hub is set up and run by LFRS’s waste contractor, Suez, where items that can be used again are put in the Renew container, rather than one of the recycling containers. All items from the Renew container are taken to the Renew Hub. The items are cleaned up, mended if necessary, or upcycled before being sent on to one of the three Renew shops. In this way, hundreds of tonnes of pre-loved items which would have otherwise gone to waste are made available at affordable prices. Money raised via Renew goes back to the local community through the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity and the R4GM Community Fund, meaning this project not only helps support a more sustainable future for our planet, but also for the local community. A great example from Manchester of what can be achieved and one we are exploring to see if we can introduce a similar system.
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Health and Wellbeing
The Wellness Events Calendar for 2024/25 has been launched to include events and promotions covering lifestyle, mental health and physical health. The SHE Department will co-ordinate the events in the calendar with the support of members of our peer support network. The first event is in April and will consist of a ‘roadshow’ style event where we will be sharing details of all wellbeing support resources available to our staff during visits to each area.
To support the Wellness Events Calendar, we have arranged with the Fire Fighters Charity to facilitate 15 wellbeing workshops throughout April 2024 – March 2025. These workshops include subjects such as Improving Communications, Developing Resilience, Nutrition and Healthy Eating, Understanding Back Pain and Promoting Relaxation.
Over the next six months we are planning to increase the number of Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) Practitioners and Wellbeing Support Dog (WSD) Handlers to bolster our peer support network as we have seen retirements/transfers etc. meaning our numbers have declined whilst requests for Trauma Support interventions and WSD visits are still being received. During this process we will be considering geographical location for Expressions of Interest to ensure we have appropriate coverage for all areas of the Service.
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. 11,100 pupils have received the package, so we are on track to deliver to all schools by end of the summer term. Feedback from teachers remains very positive, please see example below:
“Lots of useful information given to children that really needed the information. Children were engaged fully throughout. Many thanks”.
The QR code which allows the children to feedback following the delivery of a Road Sense session continues to be completed. All the responses in the free text box have been positive and nearly 100% of respondents answer all the questions correctly. An example below:
“Never walk out on to a road without looking and always wear a helmet when you are riding a bike”.
Biker Down course dates have just been released for April and social media engagement is planned to highlight important safety messages as we move towards the start of the biking season. In March, another large course took place at Bowker Motorrad for South Lancs Advanced Motorcyclists which had 34 attendees. Additionally, a course for Morecambe Bay Estuaries Advanced Motorcyclists was delivered from Morecambe Fire Station which saw 18 attendees. Feedback from both groups was very favourable, something the BD Team are very proud of given the knowledge the riders already have.
“Very professional and good solid information”.
Recently the Biker Down Team have started to visit Fire Cadet Units to deliver a bespoke session to these groups. They have received a slightly shorter version of the course, making sure all 3 modules were relevant to their age group. Some of the older cadets are already riding scooters and mopeds but many regularly use a bicycle to travel around so the information around the ‘Science of Being Seen’ was very relevant.
Wasted Lives the pre and new driver education package is seeing an increase in bookings in the last quarter with some new high schools accepting our offer of the package for the 1st time in many years. In February, a session was delivered from Burnley Fire Station for Child and Youth Justice service for a group of young people who have been involved in vehicle related crime. This forms part of the work we are doing around the Serious Violence Duty. The session utilised the ‘crashed car’ and fortunately a member of the crew who had attended the incident was on duty and was able to share first-hand the impact of this collision. This made a noticeable impact on the group, all of which were not currently in education. Following completion of the session they were able to complete an AQA qualification.
Business risk
Whilst no formal obligation is placed on the Authority to have Champions, effective utilisation of such roles offers a number of benefits.
Sustainability or 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.
Data Protection (GDPR)
Will the proposal(s) involve the processing of personal data? N
If the answer is yes, please contact a member of the Democratic Services Team to assist with the appropriate exemption clause for confidential consideration under part 2 of the agenda.
HR implications
Some Member and Officer time commitments.
Financial implications
Activities are within budget.
Legal implications
None arising from this report.
Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985
List of background papers
Paper:
Date:
Contact: DCFO Steve Healey
Reason for inclusion in Part 2 if appropriate: N/A