Agenda and minutes

None received.

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.

RESOLVED: - That the Minutes of the last meeting held on 18 March 2019 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Norman advised that the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service’s HMICFRS inspection report was published publicly in December 2018 where the Service was graded against the three core pillars of the inspection programme; efficiency, effectiveness and people. 

LFRS was graded as ‘good’ overall for each of the three core pillars and ‘good’ against ten of the eleven sub-diagnostics, which formed each of the three core pillars.

LFRS was the only Service in the first tranche to receive an ‘outstanding’ grading for how we promote our culture and values.

The report highlighted our areas of best practice and no formal areas for improvement were received. The report did however guide the consideration of the following three areas:

•     The Service should ensure that it had allocated sufficient resources to a prioritised and risk-based inspection programme;

•     The Service should assure itself that it was making the most of collaboration opportunities and that they provided value for money;

•     The Service should put in place an open and fair process to identify, develop and support high potential staff and aspiring leaders.

The Service continued to evaluate these areas and was working towards the initial action plan for delivering and measuring improvements against them. To ensure the delivery of these improvements, they were reported to the Corporate Programme Board for monitoring and scrutiny.

The internal HMICFRS project had been formally closed and a governance structure was in place which reported to the Senior Management Team.

LFRS was currently required to undertake quarterly data set returns for the HMICFRS. This involved providing the HMICFRS data teams with an array of data, ranging from overtime costings to fire engine availability. This would be an on-going requirement to assist the HMICFRS in determining our efficiency and effectiveness as a Service. It also provided a platform for making national comparisons.

The reports for the tranche two inspections were published on 20 June 2019. Findings were similar to those identified in tranche one inspections, notably improvements required around protection and the people pillar. No Fire and Rescue Service achieved an ‘outstanding’ grade against any of the three core pillars, however three Fire and Rescue Service’s achieved an ‘outstanding’ grading for one or more sub-diagnostics:

•     Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service- Preventing fires and other risks & Responding to national risks;

•     West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service- Responding to fires and other emergencies;

•     Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service- Promoting the right values and culture.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue remained the only Service in both tranches to be graded as at least ‘good’ against every sub-diagnostic and to receive an ‘outstanding’ grade in one.

The findings from tranche two were being reviewed against our own action plan and LFRS would seek to learn from those Services that had been identified as best practice. LFRS would continue to embed the HMICFRS into the Service and horizon scan emerging themes from within the sector.

LFRS continued to build on our professional relationship with our HMICFRS Service Liaison  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4/19

Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Norman advised that the Blue Light Collaboration programme had now had a full time resource attached to it for 6 months. Within these 6 months, out of the original 32 ideas, 17 of them had been closed after initial scoping from both organisations. They had been closed on the basis that there were no tangible benefits for either organisation or the people of Lancashire. Some had been placed on hold with a future review date; where it was not the right time for the two organisations to invest time and resource to the specific work stream. There were however, 15 opportunities still being looked into and advanced within this programme which included 5 main projects:

1.    Missing persons and real time demand management;

2.    Public Order training site;

3.    Occupational health services;

4.    Fire crime scene investigation accreditation;

5.    Neighbourhood level collaborative activity.

And 10 were categorised as ‘business as usual’:

1.    Integrated youth volunteer partnership; 

2.    Fuel business continuity planning;

3.    Vehicle maintenance for LFRS flexi duty officer cars;

4.    Command unit incorporating JESIP principles;

5.    Duty officer communication;

6.    Shared data, risk and analytical reporting;

7.    Joint communications activity;

8.    Shared asset management;

9.    First aid provision; 

10. Second event drone.

The leadership for the collaboration had changed since the last Executive Collaboration Board as Superintendent Karen Edwards has now moved role and Superintendent Damien Darcy had taken over at Lancashire Constabulary HQ.  As well as this, Group Manager Phil Jones had taken over from ACFO Ben Norman as Programme Manager for LFRS.

The Blue Light Collaboration Programme Board meetings co- chaired by Group Manager Phil Jones, LFRS and Superintendent Damian Darcy, Lancashire Constabulary continued to deliver project management related control to the Programme. The first meeting under the new Chair’s was held on 10 May 2019, where updates were provided from work-stream leads.  These meetings continued to take place on a quarterly basis.

Scrutiny of the Collaboration Board was in the form of a Quarterly Executive Collaboration Board, chaired by ACFO Norman and DCC Gamblin.  Also in attendance were the collaboration leads GM Jones and Supt Darcy.

The early Blue Light Collaboration Programme Board work had been further shaped and defined into 3 key project management related documents according to status; these were Project Initiation Documents, Health Reports and Scoping Closure Reports.  A change from the previous paper was the removal of the Highlight report and replacement with a Health Report.  This was a joint decision, which would make updates easier, less demanding on resources and easier to track progress.

LFRS Site Sharing Collaborations

Currently the partner with the largest scale of site sharing collaborations and subsequent revenue cost related benefits was North West Ambulance Service (NWAS). Operational crews shared the station facilities at N11 Lancaster, C50 Preston and E76 Darwen fire stations. In addition to the above formal lease arrangements, there were licence arrangements at both N13 Bolton-Le-Sands and P94 Nelson fire stations whereby NWAS crews could make use of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5/19

Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Norman presented the report.  The Annual Service Report (ASR) was a key part of the Service’s corporate planning process which enabled the documentation of deliverables in the previous 12 month period.

In addition to highlighting the key projects that had been delivered against the 2018/19 Annual Service Plan, it also presented the opportunity to reflect on some of the unplanned major achievements the Service had delivered over the last 12 months. The most notable example would be the response and resolution to the Winter Hill incident during June and July 2018. Building on the successful delivery of the 2017/18 ASR these reflections would once again be captured in the format of a short video that would be presented to the next Combined Fire Authority meeting in addition to internal and external cascade via website links, social media and staff briefings.

Annual Service Plan Progress Report

Members considered the detailed a range of projects, action plans and priority items for completion during the year as set out in the report:-

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Preventing fires and other emergencies from happening, protecting people and property when they happen and responding quickly and competently

Evaluate tools to strengthen our response

·        Pre-alerting

The pre-alerting project was rolled out as a pilot from early 2019 at four fire stations; Preston, Penwortham, Bamber Bridge and Fulwood. This allowed the Service to measure the impact on performance levels across different shift systems of early mobilisation messages.

·        Dynamic cover tool

The dynamic cover tool had been viewed by our staff and some business benefits had been noted. However, the costs currently outweighed the benefits therefore it hadn’t been procured. The Service was exploring the possibility of collaborating with our bordering fire and rescue services and North West Fire Control in order to consider if this approach was more feasible.

Strengthen our operational assurance

·        Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS)

Following the inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services we received an ‘outstanding’ in promoting the right values and culture and ‘good’ in all other categories. LFRS was currently the only Service in the country to be graded as at least ‘good’ against every category whilst also receiving an ‘outstanding’ grade in one.

·        National Operational Guidance

The Service had decided against replacing current operational procedures and was instead writing what are known as Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), bringing them, and training, in line with National Operational Guidance while also retaining local information.

·        Assurance monitoring system app

The Service had been working towards delivering an assurance monitoring app that collated information and intelligence from numerous sources. Crews were currently operating on a ‘debrief’ function of the app but further work was planned to provide benefits such as the identification of early trends and issues regarding policy, equipment or training. This work was expected to be completed later this summer.

·        Integrate water towers into our fleet

The Fleet and Engineering Department had worked alongside operational members of staff to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6/19

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 25 November 2019 in the Main Conference Room, at Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meetings are:           scheduled for 16 March 2020

                                                proposed for 13 July 2020

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on Monday, 25 November 2019 at 1000 hours in the main Conference Room at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

A further meeting date was noted for 16 March 2020 and agreed for 13 July 2020.