Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from: County Councillor David O’Toole.

Members are asked to consider any pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the agenda.

None received.

That the Minutes of the last meeting held on 20 March 2017 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Annual Progress Report for 2016/17 provided an overview of Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service’s (LFRS) achievements of the previous year, alongside our progress against the areas of work detailed in the Annual Service Plan 2016.

This year’s Annual Progress Report was presented by the Deputy Chief Fire Officer to Members by way of a short film which highlighted important developments and celebrated major achievements LFRS had delivered over the last 12 months.  Performance statistics were not included with the report as these were available in detail via the quarterly Measuring Progress reports on the LFRS website.

To be published alongside the film was a supporting document which had also been produced to highlight the progress of all the priority activities listed within 2016 Annual Service Plan.

In order to encourage wide engagement, it was intended for the film to be shown to all members of staff and be available to the public on the LFRS website, via YouTube and Vimeo channels.  It was noted that it had been produced with in-house expertise and at minimal cost. 

RESOLVED: - That the Planning Committee endorsed the production of the Annual Progress Report 2016/17 and authorised distribution to staff and public.

The Combined Fire Authority (CFA) had a Public Consultation Strategy which provided a framework through which it could seek public opinion on major change issues.

Each year the Planning Committee reviewed the Public Consultation Strategy as now considered by Members to assure continued compliance with guidance or legislation and to incorporate learning from any public consultation exercises undertaken.

The review in 2016 amended the Strategy to make clearer links between the equality impact assessment process and consultation.  During the year there had been no changes to legislation which impacted on the Strategy.  It was noted that at its meeting held in January 2017, the Planning Committee endorsed the consultation process which surrounded the draft Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) 2012?17 as being adequate in scale and scope.

The review of the Public Consultation Strategy for 2017 found that the existing strategy continued to reflect industry good practice and guidance and was compliant with legal duties. 

RESOLVED: - That the Committee noted and endorsed the Public Consultation Strategy.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented a report on the requirement to carry out and consult on an Emergency Cover Review (ECR), to ensure appropriate future provision of our resources and crewing arrangements.

The review was scheduled to take place in 2016, however it was moved to facilitate consolidation of the impacts, through the implementation period of the 2013 review.

The 2017 review sought to deliver high standards of operational response, ensuring that resources were such that when an emergency happened a response was quick with the right fire appliances, specialist vehicles and crewing arrangements to deal with the incident effectively and safety.

The review had concluded and supported a no change proposal in terms of our fire appliances, specials appliances and associated crewing arrangements.

Area Manager, Ben Norman then went through the detail of the report:

Scope

In determining the scope of the 2017 ECR, the following was agreed at the CFA Planning Committee on March 20^th 2017:

A)   Validating the deliverables / outcomes / actual performance from within the previous ECR as we operate within a business as usual period beyond the implementation.

B)   Developing a subsequent Baseline Model for 2017 inclusive of the above.

C)   Determining the theoretical potential impact of a series of changes to the number, location, response capabilities and crewing of fire appliances across the county.

More specifically but not exclusively:

i.      Realising a wider Emergency First Responding capability.

ii.    Determining a revised response to Automatic Fire Alarms.

iii.   Developing a Pre-Alerting policy.

iv.   Responding to emergent risk.

v.     Acknowledging a strategic commitment in strengthening and improving LFRS Retained Duty Systems (RDS).

In order to validate the current response arrangements and to test predictive impacts LFRS commissioned the services of Process Evolution an external specialist organisation. This enabled the use of predictive modelling software in determining and subsequently validating the potential impact of any changes to the number, location and crewing of fire appliances across the county.

Validating the 2013 ECR and Developing the Baseline Model for 2017

As a measure of the 2013 ECR and the predictive element of the proposals derived through theoretical modelling, Process Evolution undertook a validation exercise, guided by a terms of reference, measured against the proposals implemented during the three year cycle 2014-17.

The ‘actual’ performance, which was obtained through drawing upon a two year pre implementation and up to a three year post implementation data set, representative of the period and creating a baseline position, indicated:

1. A marginal increase in overall response times.
2. Overall activity levels lower than predicted.
3. Some improvement in RDS response times.
4. An increase in the number of Critical Incidents (specifically Critical Special Services).

Acknowledging the operating environment, and the requirement to realise efficiency savings during the life-cycle of the 2013 ECR, the impact across the organisation in terms of performance had been comparable and in some cases better than predicted.

Summary of Findings

The critical fire risk score had decreased by 4% within Lancashire between the 2013-14 and 2016-17 periods.

There were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6/17

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer advised Members at the last Performance Committee Meeting in March 2017 Members gave approval for a review to take place of the Authority’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which measured Mobilising (KPI 2 Responding to Emergencies).

It was noted that the recommendations were aimed at providing a more simplified approach, specifically measuring the ‘Service on its end-to-end performance, how quickly the Service mobilised fire engines to incidents set against its Emergency Response Standards.

Analysis of performance would continue to identity any failures to meet response standards and work would continue with NWFC to improve performance.

In addition, it was recommended:

1.    There would be an invitation to North West Fire Control to attend Quarter 2 and Quarter 4 Performance Committee meetings to discuss ‘all matters’ NWFC (performance system advancement/improvement etc).  It was considered that this would ensure the visibility of NWFC was maintained and would give added assurance to Members that NWFC would be included in future Performance Committee meetings, recognising that call handling was a significant important component in enabling LFRS to meet its Emergency Response Standards.

2.    Service performance of other Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) would be reported to Performance Committee, based on the release of the Home Office publication of ‘FRS Emergency Response Times to Incident Types’.  This would provide Members with a device to benchmark the performance of LFRS not only in comparison to other family group FRSs but all FRSs.

Members discussed the proposed key changes to the KPI’s 2 (Responding to Emergencies) in detail.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer advised that with the move to Integrated Risk Management Plans the responsibility was for the CFA to set its own standards.  Standards within Lancashire were as good, if not better than others.  If there was a move back to national standards we would need to be careful standards did not deteriorate.

In response to a question raised by CC Martin regarding comparison with similar Fire Authorities the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that annually a report was presented to the Performance Committee that set out performance within a family group of Fire Authorities with similar geographical spread, budget and population such as Kent and Essex.

RESOLVED: - That the Planning Committee approved the changes to the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and endorsed their inclusion within the Service’s KPI Measuring Progress Report.

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 27 November 2017 in the Main Conference Room, at Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meetings are proposed for: 19 March 2018 and 16 July 2018.

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on Monday 27 November 2017 at 1000 hours in the main Conference Room at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meeting dates were noted for 19 March 2018 and 16 July 2018.