Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from County Councillors L Beavers and M Tomlinson and Councillor Z Khan.

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.

RESOLVED: - That the Minutes of the last meeting held on the 13 September 2018 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman, County Councillor Holgate welcomed Tessa Tracey, Senior Operations Manager and Ged Basson, Operations Manager, North West Fire Control (NWFC) who had been invited to present Members with an overview on how NWFC were improving their performance on call handling and how they managed the Moorland incidents during the summer months.

Mrs Tracey gave an update to Members on the total average breakdown of emergency calls that NWFC handled each year for each Fire and Rescue Service which included small fires, house and building fires, road traffic collisions with people trapped in vehicles, flooding both in buildings, local areas and environmental risks such as chemical and fuel spillages.  In addition, NWFC looked after a diverse range of risk premises throughout the North West.  To reassure Members with their issues regarding the time of call to time of mobilising, Mrs Tracey advised that NWFC had a target of 90 seconds and over the last two quarters the figures had remained quite static.

In relation to improving performance and working with Control Room Operators (CRO), NWFC was looking at the following:

·        Automatic call distribution (ACD) system which distributed the calls between staff and presented the call to the CRO who had been available in the ACD for the longest time and if a CRO did not answer the call within 5 seconds it would ring around the room. In addition, NWFC was monitoring activity levels, ensuring CRO’s were fully available and exploring staffing efficiencies.

·        Time of call to time of mobilisation where each CRO had to complete 2 call handling self-assessments each month to make sure that they were applying the correct processes to their call handling.

·        Specific incidents that take longer, rescues of persons in height and water and Road Traffic Incidents NWFC was going to work with the FRS’s to investigate better ways of working.

·        Bespoke call handling assessments for specific Fire and Rescue Services which would include Lancashire. This would include identifying the calls which were taking longer to handle and NWFC would work with Lancashire to address the issues.

In addition, NWFC was delivering a training strategy to all their staff in relation to emergency call management.  This would make sure that all staff were following the staged (1 to 3) approached to emergency call handling system and the benefits of call challenge which reduced the number attendances to incidents were discussed.  NWFC had also employed an Information Data Manager.  The role was to provide quality statistics to enhance the reporting and identify specific target area’s for improvement. 

Ged Basson, Operations Manager gave Members an overview on the water safety board project partnership working between United Utilities (UU), Fire and Rescue Services and NWFC to assist with call handling times in relation to rescue of persons in water.  He explained that UU had paid for water safety boards in 3 lakes across Lancashire to reduce fatalities and injuries which would immediately identify the location of the caller which would improve performance and ensure a quicker call handling  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9/18

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 14 March 2019 in the Main Conference Room, at Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meetings are: scheduled for 27 June 2019, 19 September 2019 and 28 November 2019.

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on 14 March 2019 at 1000 hours in the Main Conference Room at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meeting dates were noted for 27 June 2019, 19 September 2019 and 28 November 2019.