Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from County Councillors P Britcliffe, S Clarke and N Hennessy.

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 14 March 2019 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Performance Management Information

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer introduced Ged Basson, Operations Manager from North West Fire Control (NWFC) who gave apologies for Tessa Tracey, Senior Operations Manager, NWFC and then presented Members with an update on NWFC Operational Performance. 

Over the last 18 months the call handling times in Lancashire had reduced from 109 seconds to 100 seconds for most incidents except where information was received from officers ie: gaining entry or missing person calls.  Improvements were due to the close liaison between Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) and NWFC.  Lancashire’s activity levels were expected to be around 25.5% and for 2018/19 these were: Q1: 24.98%; Q2: 24.35%; Q3: 25.95%; Q4: 25.83%. 

Details of comparative cost savings were presented showing 2014/15 – 2018/19 actual annual costs compared with costs if the transition had not taken place which showed a saving for 2018/19 of £1.57m.  It was noted that the cost per call for LFRS (including emergency calls and admin calls) was £9.60 which was considerably less than originally projected given the withdrawal of Merseyside and the increased number of admin calls dealt with was probably not anticipated in the original business case. 

It was noted that NWFC had a Key Performance Target of answering 95% of calls within 10 seconds.  The current achievement was 94.93% with an aim to continuously improve this to 90% of calls answered within 5 seconds; this was not currently being met however, ways of working around automatic call distribution had been reviewed.

In response to a question raised by County Councillor O’Toole regarding the length of time a caller had to wait to be transferred to an emergency service, the Chairman, County Councillor Holgate determined this should be looked at separately as it was not a question for NWFC.

Mr Basson presented a review of the number of calls by hour of the day; the pattern of which it was felt would be reflective of the rest of the country.  NWFC continuously reviewed shift patterns and had quarterly meetings with staff representative bodies regarding staff levels.  To ensure NWFC could meet demand, more staff were on duty during peak periods.

NWFC operated a process of call challenge for all incidents however, for certain calls (automatic fire alarms (AFA), gaining entry and during bonfire night) there were specific scripts that required NWFC to ask if an attendance was required to reduce unnecessary mobilisation of resources which helped reduce the risk of accidents and created financial savings.  This process could however compromise call handling times if at the end of a protracted call challenge, a mobilisation was required.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that this detail was what would be reported to the Performance Committee going forward.  The ability for NWFC to call challenge was hugely beneficial to LFRS in terms of the prevention of general disruption (if staff were undertaking an educational visit or undergoing training) which was why it was important not to look at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4/19

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 19 September 2019 in the Main Conference Room, at Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meetings are:           scheduled for  28 November 2019

                                                proposed for   18 March 2020

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on Thursday 19 September 2019 at 1000 hours in the Main Conference Room at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meeting dates were noted for 28 November 2019 and 18 March 2020 and agreed for 24 June 2020.