Agenda and draft minutes

County Councillor S Asghar (apologies)

County Councillor M Clifford (apologies)

County Councillor L Parker

County Councillor J Tetlow (apologies)

Councillor S Sidat (apologies)

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

None received.

The minutes were proposed by County Councillor A Riggott and seconded by Councillor B Langford.

Resolved: - That the Minutes of the last meeting held on 8 July 2026 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) presented a comprehensive report which provided a clear measure of the Service’s progress against the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) as detailed in the Community Risk Management Plan 2022-2027.

1.1       Overall Staff Engagement

Members received an update on staff engagement during the period. From April to June 2026, 12 station visits were carried out by principal officers and area managers as part of the service-wide engagement programme. 29 wellbeing interactions were undertaken ranging from workshops with crews to wellbeing support dog engagements and two engagement visits by the Human Resources team. An extended leadership workshop was held with middle and senior managers, and five Watch Managers' Forum events took place to keep wholetime and functional watch managers informed of what was happening in service delivery and gave them the opportunity to share feedback and be involved in changes. Two Staff Forum events were held for all staff to hear directly from the Chief Fire Officer about current work and future plans and also provided the opportunity for staff to raise issues and share ideas to help shape the direction of our Service.

The Service engaged with staff over topics related to facilities, fleet, and equipment including breathing apparatus, personal protective equipment, training facilities and heavyweight drones. Our Firefighting Tactics Group had been evaluating various lengths of 38mm diameter hose, a lightweight firefighting hose, to identify any that could provide a greater amount of water with the agility of a lighter-weight hose.

It was noted that the Service had an engagement index which was calculated based on five questions measuring pride, advocacy, attachment, inspiration and motivation. In 2025, the response rate was 44% and the engagement index was 69% which was a drop from the two previous survey years (2023 = 74%, 2020 = 79%). The survey results highlighted areas of success as well as areas for development and the feedback was considered by the Service and used to inform current and future planning, as well as being provided to staff to demonstrate that views had been listened to in terms of action taken as a result.

1.2.1 Staff Absence Wholetime

It was noted that absence was calculated using the quarterly number of shifts (days) lost due to sickness for all wholetime staff divided by the total average headcount strength. This followed the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) reporting methodology.

·         Annual Standard: Not more than eight shifts lost

·         Annual shifts lost ÷ 4 quarters = 2

·         Quarter 1 actual shifts lost: 2.58 (During the same quarter the previous year, 1.98 shifts were lost, an increase of 0.60 shifts lost per wholetime employee compared to the same quarter last year)

This was a negative exception report due to the number of shifts lost through absence per employee being above the Service target.

This section of the report refers to sickness absence rates for the period 1 April 2026 to 30 June 2026.

1,515 wholetime absence shifts were lost in the quarter = 2.58 against a target of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12-26/27

The GM provided members with information related to False Alarms over a 10-year timeframe and information on risk reduction measures taken by the Service.

LFRS Automatic Fire Alarm and Unwanted Fire Signal Journey

Prior to 2022, over a 5-year period, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) sent fire engines 32,685 times to premises after receiving an automatic signal from an automatic fire alarm.

It was noted that Automatic Fire Alarms (AFAs) provided an effective means of giving early warning of a potential fire within a premises and were especially effective and useful when the premises was unoccupied. However, these systems were not fool proof and the vast majority (99.13%) of actuations from these systems required no action by the fire service.

Automatic fire detection could be actuated by many common airborne materials, such as dust, insects, steam, aerosol products or by faults with the system. When an actuation of a fire alarm was automatically sent to the fire service (usually via an Alarm Receiving Centre), and the fire service mobilised their resources to the premises when they were not needed, this was deemed to be an unwanted fire signal (UwFS) which cost businesses time and money and diverted firefighters from genuine emergencies and other duties.

LFRS Phased Approach to AFA Policy Changes

In April 2022, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) changed how it responded to automatic fire alarms in non-sleeping risk premises, during the day between 8am and 7pm, seven days a week.

Since May 2023, LFRS no longer responded to automatic fire alarm activations, unless the Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) confirmed that the premises provided sleeping accommodation.

LFRS continued to respond to confirmed fires and would always respond to automatic fire alarm calls 24 hours a day if:

·         A backup call was received through 999 reporting a fire or signs of fire (such as a smell of burning).

·         There had been a successful application to LFRS for a fire alarm exemption which had been granted.

Higher Risk Premises AFA Exceptions

These were noted as those which fell under the following categories: sleeping risk, single private domestic dwelling, sheltered accommodation, other residential premises such as hostel, hotel, student accommodation, care or nursing homes, registered Upper Tier Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) sites, nuclear sites covered by the Radiation Emergency Preparedness and Public Information (REPPIR) Regulations, high rise, hospitals, prison or young offenders' institutions, police station and military barracks, infant, primary and secondary education premises, Grade 1 and Grade 2 (star) heritage premises.

AFA Policy Change Progress

LFRS delivered a significant reduction in commercial premises AFAs which had generated:

·         Improved fire engine availability

·         Reduced the road risk proceeding to incidents under blue lights

·         Contributed to reducing carbon emissions 

·         Improved operational effectiveness and ensured crews could focus on higher risk interventions and safety critical training

·         Promoted improved fire safety arrangements for businesses

·         Implemented a call challenge policy at NWFC to triage risk more effectively

·         Joint prevention and protection interventions in response to unwanted fire signals.

Ongoing AFA Work:

There would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13-26/27

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on Wednesday 9 December 2026 in the Main Conference Room, at Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meetings are:          scheduled for Wednesday 3 March 2027

                                                proposed for Wednesday 7 July 2027

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on Wednesday 9 December 2026 at 10:00 hours in the Main Conference Room at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meeting dates were noted for Wednesday 3 March 2027 and Wednesday 7 July 2027.

Glossary of acronyms

ABF                Accidental Building Fire

ACFO             Assistant Chief Fire Officer

ADF                Accidental Dwelling Fire

AFA                Automatic Fire Alarms

ARC               Alarm Receiving Centre

ASB                Anti-Social Behaviour

BFSC             Business Fire Safety Checks

BLCB             Blue Light Collaboration Board

BRC               Building Regulation Consultation

COMAH         Control of Major Accident Hazards

CQC               Care Quality Commission

DCP               Day Crewing Plus

FDC                Flexible Day Crewing

FSO                Fire Safety Order

FTE                 Full-time equivalents

GDPR            General Data Protection Regulation

HFSC             Home Fire Safety Check

HMO               House of Multiple Occupancy

HR                  Human Resources

HSE                Health and Safety Executive                    

IMD                 Indices of Multiple Deprivation

KPI                  Key Performance Indicator

LanCon         Lancashire Constabulary

LCL                 Lower Control Limit

LFRS              Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service

NFCC             National Fire Chiefs Council

NWAS            Northwest Ambulance Service

NWFC                        Northwest Fire Control

OC                  On-Call

OHU               Occupational Health Unit

Q                     Quarter 1 etc.

RAG               Red-Amber-Green

REPPIR         Radiation Emergency Preparedness and Public Information Regulations

RIDDOR        Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations

RTC                Road Traffic Collision

SEND             Special Educational Needs Disabilities

SOA                Super Output Area

TIA                  Time in Attendance

TOC                Time of Call

TRiM               Trauma Risk Management

UCL                Upper Control Limit

UwFS             Unwanted Fire Signal

WT                  Whole time

XmR               Value [X] over a moving [m] range [R]

YTD                Year to Date