Lancashire Combined Fire Authority

Meeting to be held on 15 September 2025

Member Champion Activity Report

Contact for further information – Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO), Sam Pink.

Tel: 01772 866802

Executive Summary

This paper provides a report on the work of the Member Champions for the period up to 14 September 2025.

Recommendation(s)

The Authority is requested to note and endorse the report and acknowledge the work of the respective Champions.

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 – County Councillor Andy Blake

· Equality, Diversity and Inclusion - Councillor Salim Sidat

· Health and Wellbeing – County Councillor Sohail Asghar

· Road Safety - County Councillor Jordan Fox

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 - County Councillor Andy Blake

Throughout July, staff across Lancashire have been busy promoting World Drowning Prevention Day. 11,393 young people received face-to-face Water Safety Education, and a further 9,135 students across the County received this information virtually. Several local monuments and landmarks were also lit up blue to support the day, which included Blackpool Tower, Rivington Pike and Pigeon Tower, Fleetwood Marine Hall, Lytham Windmill and Chorley Town Hall.

A host of activities have taken place across the County to support the Water Safety Campaign. Staff from Chorley Fire Station engaged with the public at Yarrow Valley Country Park during a period of hot weather, as this was a site of a previous drowning.

Operational and Community Safety staff from Skelmersdale Fire Station continued to support multi-agency work at East Quarry in Appley Bridge, another risk area for drowning. This work included patrolling the area and engaging directly with young people visiting the site.

The Southern Community Safety Teams supported a football tournament organised by Wigan Athletic in memory of Alex Crook, who lost his life at Scotsman’s Flash in Wigan. Although out of County, some of the young people that attended this event had previously visited East Quarry. Between the games, the players received water safety advice, along with input from Alex’s parents, which was incredibly hard hitting.

Accidental dwelling fires, along with deliberate fires, continued to be a high priority across the Fylde Coast. Community Safety staff have worked hard to build relationships with the growing refugee and asylum seeker communities, which has enabled a better understanding of their cultures, and the opportunity to provide fire safety advice around cooking and open fires in the outdoors, particularly during warm weather and around the Sand Dunes, where there are Public Space Protection Orders in place.

The Community Safety Team in Western worked with partners during Dementia Action Week in May, to raise awareness, promote early diagnosis and encourage support for those affected by the condition. The team had safety information stands at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and Trinity Hospice and participated in events organised by the Dementia Action Alliance group.

Nelson Fire Station hosted a joint health event between Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS), Primary Care Network, the NHS and Children and Family Wellbeing Service, to encourage residents to take up the offer of a free health check.

Nelson Fire Station is located within one of the most deprived wards in England, and therefore all agencies who attended had a vested interest in engaging with people from the area. These included Social Prescribers, Breast and Bowel Screening, Oral Health, Minds Matter, Alzheimer’s Society, Age UK, Falls Prevention and Stroke Association. The event had some positive outcomes, with 19 full health checks, 34 Hep C tests, 35 liver screening tests, and 25 blood pressure checks completed. Which led to thirteen home fire safety check referrals being generated through the initiative.

Staff from Lancaster Community Fire Safety (CFS) worked in partnership with HMP Lancaster Farms Prison, a Class C resettlement prison that houses approximately 549 male prisoners aged 18 and over. The Head of Safety at the prison had reached out to the CFS Team Leader (TL) to discuss the possibility of arranging fire safety advice for inmates, due to some prisoners setting fires within their cells. A meeting was arranged to discuss the issues at hand and the CFS TL agreed to deliver fire and road safety awareness sessions to inmates due to be released.

The first Prisoner Pre-Release Fire Safety sessions took place on the morning and afternoon of 31 July 2025 and were attended by 42 inmates. This initiative also presented an opportunity to raise awareness of the Home Fire Safety Check (HFSC) service for prison staff, and the team were invited to attend future staff Wellbeing Days. In addition to this, the Head of Safety agreed to display campaign literature in the Visitors’ Centre and invited the team to have an information stand throughout the year, to talk to families and promote the HFSC service.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion - Councillor Salim Sidat

The Fire and Rescue National Framework sets out the Government’s priorities and objectives for FRAs in England in terms of identifying risk, making provision for prevention and protection activities, and working in partnership with communities.   During the last quarter, LFRS continued to minimise risk by strengthening its engagement with communities and employees through a series of targeted safety campaigns and outreach initiatives.

Wildfire and water safety have remained central themes in our prevention work. A targeted campaign was launched in collaboration with regional Councils of Mosques.  Letters and posters were distributed to mosques and madrassahs, ensuring that safety messages reached thousands of families across the North West. This initiative was timed to coincide with the summer period and was supported by digital engagement through mosque portals and Friday sermons. Broadcasts on Awaaz Radio and Pendle Community Radio helped promote safety messages and new initiatives, including our Cooking Safety Campaign. Fire safety talks were delivered to asylum seekers and refugees, and clothing-related fire risks were identified, particularly among women.

Further wildfire prevention efforts included the installation of 32 banners communicating fire safety messages at high-risk sites, the distribution of 669 letters to residential properties, offering tailored advice and HFSCs, and outreach to 87 businesses with commercial-specific guidance. Rural communities were engaged through ‘In The Know’ emails and communications to farmers, anglers and gamekeepers, as well as parish and town councils, ensuring location-specific messaging was delivered effectively.

The Chief Fire Officer visited EG On The Move’s Blackburn headquarters to thank the organisation for its support in running free digital safety adverts across petrol forecourts. These adverts focused on reducing the risk of wildfire and keeping people safe through water safety messages. Further water safety advice was promulgated to over 45,000 students using digital platforms to mark World Drowning Day.

To help create an inclusive and understanding work environment, some members of staff will undertake additional training to become workplace assessors to support members of staff in the workplace who are neurodiverse. By providing support the organisation aims to improve equality of access, creating a culture of acceptance and recognition of diverse learning and working styles.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue (HMICFRS) assessed LFRS as outstanding in protecting the public but did identify an area of improvement in relation to how the Service undertakes equality impact assessments (EIAs). Further to that feedback work is underway to digitalise and streamline the process.

Health, Wellbeing & Climate Change - County Councillor Sohail Asghar

Climate Change and Environment

As part of the Services compliance with the Separation of Waste (England) Regulations, bins and kitchen food waste caddies have been distributed to all Whole-Time stations and the Leadership and Development Centre (LDC). Provisions have been put in place for On-Call stations, as food waste is not produced as regularly.

Food waste generated at LFRS sites is not new waste. Although concerns have been raised by stations regarding food waste left in internal bins overnight or external bins for up to a week between collections, this practice is not fundamentally different from the current waste management process. The sole distinction is that food waste is currently not separated from other waste. While this legislation does entail an increase in the number of bins, it does not imply an increase in waste generation. Moving forward, this waste will also contribute to our recycling percentage, as it will no longer be disposed of as general waste. Consequently, it will facilitate the achievement of Safety, Health, and Environment (SHE) objectives and actions.

Health and Wellbeing

Following the previous report, the Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Department planned to review the members of the Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) volunteer team, as several of the current teams were unable to provide support due to competing work demands. The SHE Department was also to review the Wellbeing Support Dog (WSD) team, to be able to increase this and provide support across the Service. Courses for both TRiM and WSD will be delivered in Q4 2025/26.

In terms of the Fitness Function, 31 per cent of Grey Book (operational) staff have completed their annual fitness assessment, indicating that the Service was on track to ensure all Grey Book staff completed an annual fitness assessment by the end of this training calendar (2025/26).

Information about the enhanced Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) mobile app has been distributed across the Service. The Wisdom app is more intuitive than the previous app and has a lot more resources, such as 10-minute yoga sessions, guided meditations, interactive mood tracker, and healthy recipes. 

Road Safety - County Councillor Jordan Fox

Over the last two months, two major Road Safety Summer Events have been held, namely Alive to Drive on the Promenade in Blackpool and Alive to Drive in Morecambe.

Originally launched in Chorley 17 years ago as a joint initiative between LFRS and the Institute of Advanced Motorists (Chorley Group), the event has grown significantly over the years. It is now supported by a wide range of partners, including Lancashire County Council (LCC) Northwest Ambulance Service (NWAS), Lancashire Constabulary, National Highways and the Institute of Advanced Motorcyclists.

Additional contributors include Blood Bikes, the Royal British Legion, Wincanton Transport, Specsavers, the two unitary authorities (Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen Councils), TyreSafe, ProTyre and Westgate Tyres, with occasional attendance from Air Ambulance and Car Seat Safety.

While encouraging sign-ups to Institute of Advanced Motorist/ Motorcyclists (IAM) courses remained a core objective, the event has also evolved to offer essential road safety information for all ages and types of road users.

Another highlight of the event is the multi-agency Road Traffic Collision (RTC) demonstration, delivered by LFRS, NWAS and Lancashire Constabulary. This offers the public a behind-the-scenes view of what happens during a road closure.

Representatives from each service provide live commentary, explaining their roles while reinforcing key safety messages around Lancashire’s Fatal 5 i.e. inappropriate speed, driving under the influence, mobile phone use, lack of seatbelt compliance and careless or reckless driving.

This year’s event also included a display of illegal E-bikes and E-scooters to raise awareness of the dangers they pose. The display explained which vehicles are road-legal and outlined the potential consequences of using illegal models. This initiative supported Lancashire Constabulary’s Operation Centurion, which focused on tackling anti-social driving. Alarmingly, illegal E-bikes and E-scooters were involved in six fatalities and 200 injuries on Lancashire roads last year.

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 identified.

Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985

List of background papers

Paper:

Date:

Contact: ACFO Sam Pink

Reason for inclusion in Part 2 if appropriate:  N/A