Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from County Councillor Hasina Khan and Councillor Jean Rigby. County Councillor Nikki Hennessy and County Councillor John Singleton were in attendance as substitutes.

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 15 September 2021 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman congratulated the Service on being awarded Emergency Service of the Year at the Excellence in Fire and Emergency Awards 2021.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented a detailed report to the Performance Committee. This was the 2^nd quarterly report for 2021/22 as detailed in the Integrated Risk Management Plan 2017-2022.

The Members were informed by the Deputy Chief Fire Officer, that a report on the review of the KPI suite would be presented to them in the meeting. 

This quarter, 2 KPIs were shown in red which indicated that they were in negative exception. These were 2.4 Fire Engine Availability – On Call Duty System; and 4.2.1 Staff Absence – Excluding On-Call Duty System.

Members examined each indicator in turn as follows:

KPI 1 – Preventing, fires and other emergencies from happening and Protecting people and property when fires happen

1.1       Risk Map

This indicator measured the fire risk in each Super Output Area. Risk was determined using fire activity over the previous 3 fiscal years along with a range of demographic data, such as population and deprivation.

The standard was to reduce the risk in Lancashire – an annual reduction in the County risk map score.

The current score was 31,862 and the previous year’s score was 32,448 meaning that the fire risk continued to reduce.

1.2       Overall Activity

This indicator measured the number of incidents that the Service attended with one or more pumping appliances.

Quarter 2 activity 4,968 previous year quarter 2 activity 4,582 an increase of 8.42% over the same quarter of the previous year.

Incidents attended consisted of a myriad of different types. The report presented a chart which represented the count and percentage that each activity had contributed to the overall quarter’s activity; most notably was that 50% were false alarms.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer stated that the changes to the Automatic Fire Alarm (AFA) attendance policy which would result in activity improvement in this area.

1.3      Accidental Dwelling Fires

This indicator reported the number of primary fires where a dwelling had been affected and the cause of the fire had been recorded as 'Accidental' or 'Not known'.

It was noted that quarter 2 activity was 195, the previous year quarter 2 activity was 198, which represented a decrease of 1.52% over the same quarter of the previous year.

1.3.1   Accidental Dwelling Fires – Extent of Damage (Fire Severity)

This indicator reported the number of primary fires where a dwelling had been affected and the cause of the fire had been recorded as ‘Accidental or Not known’ presented as a percentage extent of fire and heat damage.

The extent of fire and heat damage was recorded at the time the ‘stop’ message was sent and included all damage types. The report charted a rolling quarterly severity of accidental dwelling fire over the previous two years with each quarter broken down into high, medium, and low severity. Each quarter included the percentage (out of 100%) that each severity type represented of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15-20/21

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented a report to Members detailing the proposed update to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The proposal was to reorder the KPIs to prioritise ‘Valuing Our People’ to reflect the Service’s STRIVE values. Several KPIs had been added or amended to provide information in a way which was clearer to understand and to enable measurement against targets.

The existing arrangements of KPIs were:-

1  Preventing fires and other emergencies from happening. Protecting people and property when fires happen.

2  Responding to fire and other emergencies quickly and competently.

3  Delivering value for money in how we use our resources.

4  Valuing our people so that they can focus on making Lancashire safer.

The new proposals for the arrangements of KPIs were:-

 1 Valuing our people so that they can focus on making Lancashire safer.

 2 Preventing fires and other emergencies from happening. Protecting   people and property when fires happen.

 3 Responding to fire and other emergencies quickly.

4 Delivering value for money in how we use our resources.

It was proposed to remove 1.3.2 (Accidental Dwelling Fire (ADF) – number of incidents where occupants have a received a Home Fire Safety Check (HFSC)). This indicator was difficult to understand and explain. Success was implied if the percentage of households that experienced a fire after having had a HFSC increased (as this is alleged to be indicative of correct targeting) but, arguably, it’s also indicative of the Service not being able to fully mitigate risk.

Five new KPI headings had been added to under the new KPI 1 (Valuingour people so that they can focus on making Lancashire safer), to enable the Service to better measure progress and identify areas for improvement. The KPI for staff accidents had been relocated to this KPI from ‘Responding to Incidents’, as the section reflected LFRS’ commitment to staff.

The existing KPIs were:-

4.2.1    Staff Absence (Excluding On-Call).

4.2.2    Staff Absence (On-Call).

The proposed KPIs were:-

1.1            Overall Staff engagement (Performance measure of how engaged our staff are).

1.2.1      Staff Absence Wholetime (WT) (Specific measure of WT absence).

1.2.2     Staff Absence On Call.

1.2.3      Staff Absence Greenbook (Specific measure of Greenbook absence).

1.3.1      Workforce Diversity (as a %) (Performance measure of how representative our staff are of our communities.

1.3.2      Workforce Diversity Recruited (as a %) (Performance measure of our success in recruiting a diverse workforce).

1.4         Staff Accidents (Now included within KPI 1).

Two new KPI headings had been added to the new KPI 2 (Preventing fires and other emergencies from happening and Protecting people and property when fires happen), to provide a clearer representation of the data and activity levels. Percentages could be misleading when dealing with relatively small numbers, therefore, the KPIs would move to publishing numbers as opposed to percentages where appropriate. This would provide a more representative account of the data.

The proposed new KPIs were:-

2.6         Deliberate Fires Total: Specific performance measure of deliberate fires.

2.10      Building Regulation Consultations (BRC) (number and completed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16-20/21

Ged Basson, Senior Operations Manager, North West Fire Control (NWFC), provided the Committee with a report detailing the performance of NWFC during quarter 2 (July – September 2021-2022).

Within quarter 2, a total of 6116 admin calls were received for Lancashire Fire and Rescue (LFRS). This was a 2.8% reduction compared to quarter 2 of the previous year (6296 calls), and 1.5% reduction compared to quarter 1 of this year (6203). In total, of 29,432 admin calls were received by NWFC in quarter 2, of which, LFRS represented 20.7% of those calls. Members were advised that a total of 12,319 admin calls were received for LFRS for the year which showed a downward trend. Admin calls included crews and officers contacting NWFC for either guidance, or to offer advice such as notification of missing equipment, defective resources, liaising with control regarding exercises or resources availability. 

A total of 10,414 emergency calls were received in quarter 2 for LFRS, which was a 21.6% increase compared to quarter 2 of the previous year (8,164 calls), and 0% difference compared to quarter 1 of the current year (10,431). In total, NWFC received 43,583 emergency calls for quarter 2, of which, LFRS represented 23.9% of these calls. It was noted that 20,845 emergency calls were received for LFRS for the year, displaying a downward trend.

It was noted that 42% of calls were not mobilised in quarter 2, following call challenging. Lancashire was currently unaligned to other NWFC partners and therefore would mobilise resources to Automatic Fire Alarms (AFAs) on a more frequent basis. For NWFC, mobilising performance times for fires in quarter 2, was 79 seconds which compared to 78 seconds for the previous quarter. LFRS mobilising times for fires in quarter 2 continued to be under the 90 second target. An upward trend for mobilising times was indicated, however it was due to a spike of 85 seconds in June.

Mobilising performance times for all NWFC in quarter 2 for special service calls was 124 seconds compared to 125 seconds for the previous quarter. LFRS mobilising times for special service calls in quarter 2 were slightly above the average due to relatively low mobilising times in April and May, with the spike in June. It was explained that several incidents were excluded from the data where there was not an automatic response from NWFC but when Lancashire had asked that further clarification was sought from a specialist officer, e.g. NILO, prior to mobilisation due to the type of incident, such as suspect packages, and missing persons. Other incidents excluded were, when crews had proceeded to fix a defective smoke alarm several hours after being notified or where incidents had to be queued due to a depletion of FRS resources in a location. The NWFC board of directors had asked that NWFC not report a target of 90 seconds for special service calls, but to investigate improving the average mobilising times for special service calls, due to the complexity of the call challenge  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17-20/21

Ged Basson, Senior Operations Manager, North West Fire Control (NWFC), provided the Committee with a presentation regarding 999eye.

999eye Emergency Streaming enabled a 999 caller with a smartphone to stream live footage, direct from their phone's camera, into North West Fire Control Room, providing vital live footage that allows operators to make more informed decisions on mobilising the right resources. It provides GPS locations to the control room, and recorded footage.

Ged Basson explained that 999eye was originally developed by firefighters in the West Midlands and sold to Capita. It was a web-based product and NWFC could request that callers send them images when they were experiencing a fire so NWFC could risk assess whether the predetermined attendance set by the Service was adequate.

The software would operate by sending a message to the caller’s mobile phone, the caller would then click on the link and the call operator could then see through the phone’s camera. This gave the operator situational awareness of the incident although there were some incidents where this would not be used i.e., where someone was seriously injured. Where callers had difficulty speaking, they could communicate by text messaging and live chat. The software could also be used to help locate callers by using the mobile phone’s operating system. This would improve call handling times, and therefore, response times.

A trial of the 999eye software was currently taking place with Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service. Once NWFC received the results, they could demonstrate the software’s benefits and introduce it to all the Fire and Rescue Services.

In response to a question from Councillor Smith in relation to NWFC using ‘What 3 Words’, Ged Basson advised that ‘What 3 Words’ was a web-based package where a link could be sent to callers, or they could give the 3 words if they have that information, which they use to help locate them. Hopefully, the 999eye software would be available next year, however, ‘What 3 Words’ was an additional tool.

County Councillor Singleton questioned whether the signal to the mobile phone would determine the time it would take to receive the text message from the call handler. Ged Basson responded that the text message would be sent instantaneously, depending on the caller’s network it would work as fast as the caller could accept the text message, they would click on the link which took them to webpage to accept the information and they could then start the video. He added that the software should be a lot quicker when using the mainframe system in the control room. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained to Members that the 999eye technology would be used whilst fire engines were already on route to an incident and could help pinpoint the exact location. The software could also give the call handler situational awareness to help them make an informed decision about resources needed. Ged Basson assured Members that a 3-step approach was taken to mobilising fire engines; stage 1 was identifying the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18-20/21

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 16 March 2022 in Washington Hall, Service Training Centre, Euxton.

Further meetings are:    scheduled for 29 June 2022 and 14 September 2022.

                                           proposed for 14 December 2022.

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on 16 March 2022 at 10:00 hours in Washington Hall, Service Training Centre, Euxton.

Further meeting dates were noted for 29 June 2022 and 19 September 2022 and agreed for 14 December 2022.