Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from County Councillor Hasina 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 04 December 2024 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Chair welcomed Jess Kirton, Communications Officer, who was present to observe, to the meeting.

The Chief Fire Officer introduced Station Manager Steven Barnes, Fire Protection, who would provide Members with a presentation on Building Regulation Consultations in the following agenda item.

The Chief Fire Officer presented a comprehensive report to the Performance Committee. This was the 3rd quarterly report for 2024/25 as detailed in the Community Risk Management Plan 2022-2027.

In quarter 3, two Key Performance Indicators (KPI), 1.2.1 Staff Absence Wholetime (WT), and 2.9 Business Fire Safety Checks, were shown in positive exception and two Key Performance Indicators were shown in negative exception. These were 1.2.3 Staff Absence Greenbook and 3.1 Critical Fire Response – 1^st Fire Engine Attendance.

Members examined each indicator in turn focusing on those KPIs in exception as follows:

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

1.1  Overall Staff Engagement

Members received an update on how staff were engaged during the period.

From October to December 2024, 33 station visits were carried out by Principal Officers and Area Managers as part of the service-wide engagement programme. In addition, three online engagement events were held with on-call units across the county.

Forty-eight wellbeing interactions were undertaken ranging from workshops with crews to wellbeing support dog interactions.

The views of staff were sought by surveys in relation to a cleaning contract and to obtain feedback about the Service’s Celebration of our People event. Furthermore, a staff focus group was held which focussed on evaluation. A pulse survey to measure levels of staff engagement began in December with a January closing date.

The Service engaged with staff over several topics that related to the Service’s fleet and equipment, which included firefighting gloves and washing equipment for decontaminating fire helmets. Staff engagement over improvement works at Blackpool Fire Station continued and was undertaken in relation to office moves at Service Headquarters. The Service’s employee voice groups were consulted over a range of topics that included an upcoming positive action campaign.

As previously reported: A comprehensive staff survey was undertaken periodically to gain insight from all staff on a range of topics which included leadership, training and development, health and wellbeing, and equality, diversity, and inclusion. The feedback was used to shape future activity and bring about improvements and new ideas. The survey included a staff engagement index which was a measure of overall staff engagement based on levels of pride, advocacy, attachment, inspiration, and motivation. The current staff engagement score index was 74% (2023).

The engagement index was calculated based on five questions that measured pride, advocacy, attachment, inspiration, and motivation; factors that were understood to be important features shared by staff who were engaged with the organisation.

For each respondent, an engagement score was calculated as the average score across the five questions, where strongly disagree was equivalent to 0, disagree  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26/24

The Chair welcomed Station Manager, Protection Transformation, Steven Barnes, to provide the Committee with a presentation which gave an overview of the Service’s actions pertaining to Building Regulation Consultations.

Following Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service’s (LFRS) 2021/22 His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) inspection, an ‘Area for Improvement’ was highlighted regarding completion of Building Regulation (BR) Consultations within the statutory timeline of 15 working days. The reported stated “The Service should make sure it allocates enough resources to respond effectively and in time to statutory building control consultations”. The Service had a responsibility to ensure that the fire safety measures put in place within the buildings were suitable and sufficient.

Initially, a review of internal process took place to identify how the Service could improve current working practices to increase performance and ensure delivery of statutory duties. The 3 areas of fire safety in Lancashire were Eastern/Pennine, Northern/Western, and Southern/Central. The review identified that BR consultations were received locally via Area Based offices from Local Authority Building Control Bodies and Approved Inspectors. This could be by way of email or ‘in person’ deliveries. Plans were then stored on local drives and manually input on an excel spreadsheet. With the volume of consultations varying from area to area, the impacts and ability to respond could be greatly impacted. In addition, the number of inspectors qualified to undertake BR consultations was limited in certain areas. This area-based view limited the ability for the department leadership team to manage BR holistically across the County.

The graph in the presentation showed the total number of Buildings Regulations received and the number completed within the set date.

To support the Service’s commitment to BR Consultation timelines, KPI 2.10 Building Regulation Consultations (BRC) was introduced.

Investment initially took place in training to ensure staff had the required competencies to undertake BR consultations. To further improve performance, a single mailbox was established and shared with all Local Authorities and Approved Inspectors, monitored by a dedicated BR team. This team then input the initial consultation, and an action was allocated to an appropriately qualified inspector. The CFRMIS (Community Fire Risk Management Information System) was the main repository for buildings within Lancashire and a Data Management System was also introduced where all Building Regulation information was stored. This provided the leadership team with a pan-Lancashire view of current activity and distributed the work across all qualified inspectors regardless of area, allowing for an even spread of workloads. The investment in digital systems ensured the Service tracked responses and managed performance consistently. 

The outcomes from the implementation of the new ways of working were that there was a single truth which provided live monitoring including assigned persons, and there was a simple reporting and monitoring process by Fire Safety Managers.

It was noted by Members that the current completion rate was 96.9%.

The priorities for the future direction of the Service were:

·       Resourcing to Risk – focus would be directed on trends and incidents identified,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27/24

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 25 June 2025 in the Main Conference Room, at Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meetings are:         scheduled for 03 September 2025 and

proposed for 03 December 2025

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on 25 June 2025 at 10:00 hours in the Main Conference Room at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meeting dates were noted for 03 September 2025 and 03 December 2025 and agreed for 11 March 2026.