Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Jane Hugo and County Councillor Munsif Dad.

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 the 7 February 2022 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented the report.  The Annual Service Report (ASR) was produced annually by the Service as part of its accountability to measure progress against the items set out as deliverables as part of the Annual Service Plan which were derived from the Community Risk Management Plan.

It was noted that during the previous year the Service adapted to delivering services alongside supporting the ongoing response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Lancashire; proud to continue playing a central role, working as one team with partner agencies in the Lancashire Resilience Forum.  After helping to establish vaccination centres in the previous year, in 2021-22 the Service continued to support local NHS services to deliver the vaccination programme. This included helping to deliver booster jabs to protect people against the Omicron variant during Christmas and New Year. Over the course of the pandemic, the Service helped to deliver approximately 500,000 vaccinations, with around 125,000 vaccines administered by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) staff. Continued support would be provided to Lancashire’s recovery from the pandemic for as long as was needed.  This vital work was carried out alongside an increase in regular activity compared to the first year of the pandemic. Last year the Service attended almost 19,000 emergency incidents (an increase of around 10%) and conducted over 17,600 home fire safety checks (an increase of over 30%).

Despite challenging circumstances, both frontline and support staff maintained the highest standards while responding to emergencies and delivering services that keep communities in Lancashire safe. In 2021-22 several important areas of work were progressed that would ensure the Service was in a strong position to respond to changing risks in Lancashire, in particular climate change emergencies and extensive reform to business fire safety. Numerous significant and complex emergencies were also responded to throughout the year which had been conducted with exceptional skill and professionalism.

The Annual Service Report as now considered by Members, reviewed progress through the 2021 – 2022 reporting year and highlighted a number of key deliverables against the priority areas of: people, prevention, protection, response and value for money related work streams:

Our year in numbers

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the report included a summary table of the Service’s performance:

Preventing fires and other emergencies from happening and protecting people and property when they do

Review of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4/22

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented the report. 

In line with the Business Continuity Policy (BCP), Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service was required to test Business Continuity Plans annually. The Service test was usually scheduled towards the end of the year once all the plans have been updated and reviewed. The 2022/2023 test was being planned in detail and programmed to be held in November 2022 to coincide with a Lancashire-wide, multi-agency exercise in Blackpool. Meanwhile, an exercise to test station BCPs was also being developed and would be executed before the end of the year.

In order to provide co-ordination for ongoing operations review and continuous development of business continuity, the Service created and filled the role of Business Continuity and Emergency Planning Officer in April 2022.  Therefore, the Service would be looking to develop and implement a Business Continuity Management System that aligned both to the Business Continuity Institute’s Good Practice Guidelines as well as to the Business Continuity ISO 22301 standard.

In addition, the Service would debrief the BCP activation for covid-19 thoroughly in conjunction with Lancashire Resilience Forum (LRF) partners; which would be a significant undertaking.  It was expected that a number of areas of good practice would be identified and there would be opportunities for improvements to be made within the Service business continuity plans. These would be identified via the internal debrief process, combined with the multi-agency debrief capability through the LRF.

County Councillor Hennessy queried whether there would be any Member involvement in the test due to be held in November.  In response the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that in any major incident there was a role for Member engagement and he would keep Members updated.

County Councillor O’Toole acknowledged the forward thinking shown by the LRF partners to deliver what was achieved during the pandemic. 

In addition, given the business risk implications (as detailed on page 30 of the agenda pack) County Councillor O’Toole queried whether the Service held senior multi-agency business contingency planning meetings.  In response, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that LRF meetings were held at executive level bi-annually with several sub?group meetings taking place.  It was the responsibility of the LRF under the Civil Contingency Act 2004 to ensure preparedness.  He advised that during a pandemic the response was led by the Police with relevant partners which included a joint regional liaison officer who was a member of the armed forces. 

RESOLVED: - That the Committee

i)     accepted the arrangements for Business Continuity Policy exercises in 2022/23; and

ii)    supported strengthening resilience through the development and implementation of a Business Continuity Management System.

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 21 November 2022 in the Main Conference Room, at Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meetings are:          scheduled for 6 February 2023

                                                proposed for 17 July 2023

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on 21 November 2022 at 1000 hours in the main Conference Room at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meeting dates were noted for 6 February 2023 and agreed for 17 July 2023.

The Committee is asked to consider whether, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, they consider that the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, indicated under the heading to the item.

RESOLVED: - That the press and members of the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, indicated under the heading to the item.

An Emergency Cover Review (ECR) was conducted by the Authority periodically and involved a strategic review of fire and rescue service emergency response across the county.  It considered the fire engines, fire stations and associated staffing arrangements which collectively represented the front-line response, making recommendations for change, as appropriate.

In line with the requirements of the Fire and Rescue Service National Framework, a comprehensive consultation exercise needed to be conducted on any proposed changes affecting the delivery of services to communities.

Options for change were considered and it was

RESOLVED: - That

i)       a full 12-week consultation be launched during week commencing 18 July 2022 on the ECR option which would maintain all 39 fire stations and 58 fire engines across the county and have minimal impact on frontline prevention, protection and response arrangements;

ii)      the impact of the ECR would be reduced by phasing out a number of Day Crewing Plus stations in line with the retirement profile;

iii)    a separate letter be written to Chief Executives of the 14 local authorities encouraging a response to the consultation;

iv)    the outcome of the consultation to be reported to the next meeting of the Planning Committee in November 2022.