Lancashire Combined Fire Authority

Meeting to be held on Monday 15 December 2025

Community Risk Management Plan Pre-Consultation

Contact for further information – Steve Healey, Deputy Chief Fire Officer

Tel: 01772 866801

Executive Summary

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service's Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) is a five-year plan for how we will make Lancashire safer. We have started work on our next CRMP, which will set out the direction of the Service from 2027 to 2032, based on the greatest risks to the people and communities of Lancashire.

The environment we operate in is constantly changing and new risks to our communities frequently emerge. It is our job to make sure we are equipped to deal with these changing risks by adapting our services and skills to prevent, protect and respond effectively.

To help shape the CRMP and options for how we deliver services in the future, we want to engage and consult with a wide range of stakeholders in two phases. This report details plans for phase one of consultation.

Recommendation(s)

The Authority is asked to endorse the first phase of consultation to take place in early 2026. The Service will use the feedback to draft the CRMP 2027-32 and to develop options for how our services may be delivered in the future, before consulting again in more detail in phase two during summer / autumn 2026.

Information

The government’s Fire and Rescue National Framework for England requires each fire and rescue service to produce a high-level Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP), which explains how they will use their resources to respond to and reduce the risks they have identified in their local area.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service’s (LFRS) CRMP 2022-27 can be viewed on the Service’s website. It is the Service’s most important plan and sets out how we will achieve our aim of making Lancashire safer.

The environment we operate in is constantly changing and new risks to our communities frequently emerge. It is our job to make sure we are equipped to deal with these changing risks by adapting our services and skills to prevent, protect and respond effectively. This is the purpose of our CRMP.

Work has begun on the next CRMP, which will set out the direction of the Service for the period 2027-32, based on the greatest risks to the people and communities of Lancashire. It will be supported by six core strategies:

· Response Strategy

· Prevention Strategy

· Protection Strategy

· People Strategy

· Digital Strategy

· Finance Strategy

As part of our planning process, we identify and assess all foreseeable fire and rescue-related risks across Lancashire and use this information to plan how to control these risks, respond to emergencies and deliver our fire prevention and protection services in the most efficient and effective way. To achieve this, it is vital that that we understand the needs of Lancashire’s communities as part of the planning process.

For this reason, we consult with a wide range of stakeholders including residents, businesses, service users, elected members, partner agencies, community groups, employees, and representative bodies. The Service is taking a two-phased approach to consultation.

Phase one

From week commencing 5 January to 15 March 2026, we will explain the challenges and drivers for change and invite views on our proposed direction of travel. Phase one will allow us to listen and learn about community and workforce priorities, before drafting our CRMP and developing options for how our services may be delivered in the future. There will then be a second phase of consultation in more detail.

Context

Our priorities and values

Our aim is to make Lancashire safer and our priorities are:

· Valuing our people so they can focus on making Lancashire safer

· Preventing fires and other emergencies from happening

· Protecting people and properties when fires happen

· Responding to fires and other emergencies quickly and competently

· Delivering value for money in how we use our resources

Our STRIVE values set out how we treat each other and how we serve the public:

· Service – Making Lancashire safer is the most important thing we do.

· Trust – We trust the people we work with.

· Respect – We respect each other.

· Integrity – We do what we say we will do.

· Valued – We actively listen to others.

· Empowered – We contribute to decisions and improvements.

Our performance

In 2025, LFRS set the national benchmark for excellence, achieving the best inspection outcome by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services. The Service was awarded six ‘outstanding’ and five ‘good’ ratings across the 11 inspection areas.

Our budget

Our budget in 2025-26 was £77.5 million. This is made up from several funding sources:

· Council tax – 54%

· Business rates – 28%

· Government grants – 18%

Our budget has not matched rising costs and new demands in recent years - real-term funding has dropped by £10 million since 2016.

We are proud of the value for money we provide – we are one of the biggest fire and rescue services in the country, yet our council tax is below the national average. Lancashire residents pay £89.73 per year for our services (on a band D property) and fire and rescue accounts for just 4% of the overall council tax bill.

However, we have a shortfall in our funding – at least £5 million over the next five years - and must make savings to maintain our services and make vital investment in our service.

How we operate

We have 1,160 employees:

· Wholetime firefighters work full-time with LFRS.

· On-call firefighters often have another job outside LFRS and respond to emergencies in their communities from home or work when needed.

· Service support staff are specialist employees who provide technical expertise in a range of functions.

There are 39 fire stations across the county plus Service headquarters which is located in Fulwood and our Leadership and Development Centre in Chorley.

Our fleet has 58 fire engines:

· 26 crewed by wholetime firefighters

· 32 crewed by on-call firefighters

We also have numerous specialist vehicles and equipment ranging from aerial ladder platforms to rescue boats.

Although we have 58 fire engines in total, they are not all available all of the time and availability fluctuates. Through the daytime, particularly during the working week, the number reduces as some of our on-call fire engines are unavailable due to challenges of recruiting and retaining enough on-call firefighters, particularly in our rural areas. This is a national challenge.

Our county is highly diverse in terms of both deprivation and affluence, containing some of the highest and lowest risk areas in the country. LFRS provides a high level of service for a comparatively modest budget and does so more efficiently on a cost per-person basis than many other services. This efficiency is achieved despite facing greater diversity and disparity in population needs than most comparable services.

Our services

Prevention: Making safety interventions in the homes of those most at risk of fire and supporting people to adopt safe practices.

We constantly endeavour to prevent fires and other emergencies from happening. Prevention is always preferable to response and is by far the most effective way to make Lancashire safer. Our approach recognises life’s different stages and we focus on helping people start safe, live safe, age safe, and be safe on our roads and around water. We identify those who are most vulnerable in our communities, and design and target our prevention activities to support people to adopt safe practices and reduce their risk. Our main service is the home fire safety check service, where we make practical interventions in the homes of those most at risk of having a fire.

Protection: Supporting businesses and landlords to keep their buildings safe and taking action if they do not.

We aim to reduce the number of fires that occur in commercial premises and the impact on life, property, and business disruption when fires do occur. We support businesses, employers, and landlords to meet their legal duties and keep people safe in their buildings with a county-wide inspection programme. We take a risk-based approach to inspecting businesses: fire safety inspectors focus their activity on complex, high-risk premises and operational crews check lower risk premises such as schools, shops and offices through our business fire safety check service.

Response: Responding to fires and a wide range of other types of emergencies quickly and competently.

We strive to deliver the highest standards of operational response by continuously planning, preparing, and training for emergencies. Risks in communities are changing and the types of emergencies we attend are increasingly varied. We respond to everything from fires and road traffic collisions to flooding and building collapses. We also support other emergency services by responding to missing person searches and gaining entry for medical emergencies to support North West Ambulance Service. We constantly review and adapt our approach to ensure we have the right appliances, equipment, skills, and technology to respond to any incident quickly and competently.

Service support: Supporting the delivery of frontline prevention, protection and response services.

Support services are essential and incorporate a wide range of vital functions, from human resources to fleet and engineering, that support the delivery of prevention, protection and response services. Support services ensure that operations run smoothly behind the scenes and our frontline staff our equipped to deliver services.

Risk and demand in Lancashire

Community risk

The locations, numbers and types of fire stations, vehicles, equipment and skills with which we operate are matched to community risks and incident levels across the county. Our prevention and protection services are also targeted at reducing incidents in the areas of highest risk.

Risks are identified annually in our Strategic Assessment of Risk and our Community Risk Management Plan sets out how we respond to them. Community risks are constantly changing and new risks frequently emerge. Wildfires, illegal waste site incidents, and e-charging fires are all examples of emergencies that have become higher risks in recent years.

The top five risks in Lancashire at present are:

· Commercial property fires

· Wildfires

· Deliberate building fires

· Flooding

· Accidental house fires

The full list can be viewed in the Strategic Assessment of Risk on the Service’s website.

Demand

Demand also changes over time: the number of incidents we respond to has fluctuated over the last 15 years.

What has changed is the type of incidents we respond to:

· Fires have dropped from representing 40% to only 28% of all incidents.

· False alarms are broadly the same, representing 43% now compared to 48% in 2010-11.

· Special service incidents have increased from 11% of all incidents to 29%.

Primary fires are generally serious fires involving property or any fires involving casualties, rescues, or any fire attended by five or more fire engines.

Secondary fires are generally small outdoor fires, not involving people or property.

Special service incidents are made up of many different activities such as such road traffic collisions, flooding, and assisting other agencies (eg gaining entry to properties on behalf of the police and ambulance service during medical emergencies).

Shaping our service for the future

The ways we operate evolve as risks to public safety change. It is our job to make sure we are equipped to deal with changing risk and demand by adapting our services and skills to prevent, protect and respond effectively. At the same time, we must address operational and financial challenges so that we can continue to deliver high standards of services across Lancashire in the most efficient way.

Key challenges and drivers for change

· Changing risk: risks change over time, differ by area and demographic, and need different interventions to reduce the likelihood of happening or to lessen the consequences.

· Changing demand: the number and types of fires we attend has gone down and the types of emergencies we respond to has changed, with incidents such as assisting other agencies on the rise, and the challenges of dealing with climate change in respect of flooding and wildfire increasing.

· Fire engine availability: the number of fire engines available fluctuates during each day and the lowest availability is often when demand is highest, particularly in rural areas where on-call firefighter availability is reduced due to recruitment and retention challenges. We want to balance this to a sustainable model that provides more resources when demand is highest.

· Lancashire’s population: the makeup of communities is changing and more vulnerable people require tailored prevention support.

· Budget pressures: income has not kept pace with rising costs and future funding is uncertain, requiring efficiency savings to ensure financial sustainability.

· LFRS buildings: many fire stations are outdated and not fit for modern operational needs, maintenance costs are increasing and vital investment is needed.

· Technology and innovation: there are opportunities to modernise the types of vehicles we use and how we get the right skilled people and equipment to incidents as quickly and safely as possible.

· Future investment: as a high performing fire and rescue service, we need to continually invest in our people, systems, and assets to deliver the best possible services.

Potential areas for change

Any future changes aim to address our challenges and capitalise on opportunities for the purpose of meeting Lancashire’s needs now and in the future:

· Re-locating or merging stations and vehicles to better match risk and demand.

· Changing staffing (duty) systems to deploy resources more flexibly based on risk and demand.

· Reviewing the response model for attending emergencies.

· Reviewing the way prevention, protection and support services are delivered.

· Rationalising our estate and reinvesting in training facilities and more efficient buildings.

Consultation plan

Purpose

To understand community needs and expectations of LFRS to shape our CRMP and options for how we deliver services in future. We also want to strengthen trust and confidence between the community and the Service.

In phase one we will share information about our services, financial position, challenges and opportunities and ask for views on:

· The services we deliver and what is most important to people.

· The issues and risks we could face in the future, such as the impact of extreme weather, new technology, and how the area we serve grows and changes.

· What people think we should prioritise for investment.

· How we use and organise our resources in relation to risk and demand including people, systems and assets.

Implementation

An independent researcher with specialist skills will support the consultation to ensure effective activity with no perceived conflict of interest.

Consultation will be centred around an online survey which will be actively promoted to stakeholders through targeted communication methods. The online survey will be supported by community engagement activity by community fire safety staff to encourage participation in the consultation. We will also engage with our staff and representative bodies.

A dedicated email inbox will also be made available for further information, questions and complaints.

All the feedback will be analysed independently. We will use the feedback to draft our CRMP 2027-32 and develop options for how we deliver our services in the future before consulting again in more detail in phase two during summer / autumn 2026.

Timeline

· W/c 5 January2026: Phase one consultation starts.

· W/c 2 February 2026: Mid-point consultation review and implementation of any required adjustments to the consultation plan.

· W/c 9 March 2025: Closure review to determine if sufficient response has been obtained or whether additional activity is required.

· 15 March 2025: Phase one consultation ends.

· January to June 2026: Draft CRMP 2027-32, review core strategies, conduct Service Review and develop options for how services are delivered in the future.

· 13 July 2026 Planning Committee: Draft CRMP and Service Review documents approval to consult.

· July - October 2026: CRMP and Service Review phase two consultation.

· 16 November 2026 Planning Committee: Final draft CRMP and Service Review proposals for consideration and recommending to full Combined Fire Authority.

· 14 December 2026 full CFA: Final CRMP and Service Review proposals for approval.

· 1 April 2027: CRMP 2027-32 and core strategies published.

· 1 April 2027 - 31 March 2032: Service Review implementation.

Business risk

The Service is required to produce a Community Risk Management Plan and has designed an approach that involves listening to the people we serve to ensure the plan will be effective and efficient but also meets required standards within the sector:

· The national Fire Standard for Community Risk Management Planning states that fire and rescue services must ensure transparency in the community risk management planning process through either implementing and/or supporting ongoing engagement and formal consultation processes, ensuring these are accessible and publicly available.

· His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services assesses the extent to which fire and rescue services have a comprehensive understanding of the diverse needs of its communities and that prevention activity meets community expectations.

Failure to deliver plans and services that understand community needs and expectations risks loss of public confidence in the Service, reduced value for money for local taxpayers, and poor performance.

Sustainability or Environmental Impact

None.

Equality and Diversity Implications

The Equality Act 201028 states that public bodies must have “due regard” to a variety of equalities objectives (Equality Act 2010, Section 149) and consequently, equality analysis must be carried out to demonstrate that decision-makers are fully aware of the impact that changes may have on stakeholders.

The CRMP and Service Review and associated consultation will be produced and delivered in accordance with accessibility guidelines and subject to full Equality Impact Assessments.

Data Protection (GDPR)

Will the proposal(s) involve the processing of personal data?  Y/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

None.

Financial implications

The cost of undertaking phase one consultation using an independent researcher is £6,600 financed from existing budget.

Legal implications

All Fire and Rescue Authorities are required to produce a Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) under the government’s Fire and Rescue National Framework for England.

The approach to consultation is based on the Gunning Principles, a set of rules used to determine whether a consultation is lawful:

1. Must happen before the decision is made.

2. Must give sufficient context and information.

3. Should provide enough time for people to think things over.

4. Should demonstrate real deliberation and thought over the results.

Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985

List of background papers

Paper: Community Risk Management Plan and Service Review

Date: 17 November 2025

Contact: Steve Healey, Deputy Chief Fire Officer