Agenda item

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 and response time.  In addition, safety equipment was attached to the safety board to enable the caller to assist in rescuing the person in water.  It was noted that UU was very impressed with the water boards and would be placing them around more lakes and would extend this across Cumbria, Cheshire and Merseyside. 

 

Members were given an overview of the NWFC experiences of the Moorland incidents and how they maintained the Service during the Moorland fires.  NWFC adopted their Spate Conditions way of working and when it became apparent the Moorland grass fires were increasing NWFC proceeded into this well-rehearsed way of working.  In addition, staffing levels were increased and the training/resilience room was opened. It was noted that NWFC did continue to maintain fire cover within the key station areas throughout the period of the Moorland Fires and were extremely proud that throughout the intense period of activity that there were no fatalities in the North West region in relation to the Moorland Fires. 

 

Members noted a comparison of Lancashire statistics during a 2 week period (26 June to 9 July 2018) between activity levels 2018/17 which gave an appreciation of the call volumes that NWFC was managing throughout that time.  In relation to improving performance, NWFC had ongoing projects which included an upgrade to their integrated communications control system, this allowed an enhanced mobile phone location of caller to 5m radius which was due go live on 30 April 2019. Other improvements would be the mobilising rules on the system (CRO’s were required to read before mobilising) this would enhance the way they were presented to separate those that were for information only and those that would affect mobilisations.

 

The Chairman, County Councillor Holgate thanked Mrs Tracey and Mr Basson for their presentation and the Committee asked that Members’ appreciation be extended to all those involved at NWFC.

 

In response to a question raised by Councillor Smith regarding an application for mobile phone location, Mr Basson confirmed that it was the same technology used by NWFC which allowed them to identify the callers’ precise location. 

 

In response to a question raised by Councillor Smith, Mrs Tracey advised that as part of the recruitment process for CRO it was not essential for them to speak additional languages.  However NWFC had a system called ‘Language Line’.  This allowed a CRO to have access to an interpreter via a conference call.  The CRO would then engage in the normal questioning technique. Quite often callers who could speak limited English did know their postcode. 

 

In response to a question raised by County Councillor Clarke regarding call challenge, Mrs Tracey confirmed that the CRO’s would advise the caller to call back if circumstances did change or if there was any doubt NWFC would make the attendance.

 

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer advised Members that this was the 2nd quarterly report for 2018/19 as detailed in the Risk Management Plan 2017-2022.  In addition, the Assistant Chief Fire Officer reported that of the 6 negative Key Performance Indicators’ (KPI) with the exception of 4.2.1 staff absence there were a number of inter related points to be considered for the reasons why they were in negative exception.  The Assistant Chief Fire Officer emphasised that if the Service were reviewing incredibly high activity levels, particularly around grass fires this would have an impact on the KPI’s in relation to deliberate fires and anti-social behaviour fires which in turn would affect the Service’s ability to meet our emergency response standards and if the Service did not meet one KPI it would have an impact on the other 4 KPI’s.

 

The report showed there were 6 negative KPI Exception Reports. An exception report was provided which detailed the reasons for the exception, analysis of the issue and actions being taken to improve performance.

 

Members focussed on the indicators where an exception report was presented and examined each indicator in turn as follows:-

 

1.2       Overall Activity

 

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

 

Quarter 2 activity 4,785, previous year quarter 2 activity 3,962, an increase of 20.77%.

 

Included within this KPI was the incident type ‘Gaining Entry’. This was where LFRS had attended on behalf of the North West Ambulance Service. During quarter 2 we were asked to attend on 314 occasions, of which 163 resulted in the use of tools to gain entry to a property.

 

This was a negative exception report due to a single monthly point of the XmR chart being beyond the upper control limit.

 

Activity during July was the main cause of the exception with 2,150 incidents recorded; the highest single monthly activity since November 2008 (2,267) and greater than that recorded in June 2018 (1,928) which was responsible for quarter 1 being in exception.  Members noted that July recorded an average of 69 incidents per day against the 10 year July average of 46.  The activity levels had now reduced with August and September recording a below average activity count.  Activity peaked on the 2 July at 120 pump attended incidents, which just surpassed the 114 recorded on 27 June and on 4 separate days peaked above 100 daily incidents. It was accidental and not  secondary fires which accounted for the largest increase, raising to 404 during July; the largest single monthly count since 2005.  This was a 38% increase on the 292 recorded in June.   As reported in quarter 1 It was probable that the prolonged warm and dry weather which continued throughout July, contributed to the increase in secondary incidents.  July recorded the lowest monthly rainfall in the North West region in the last 10 years and the highest July temperatures.  These two casual factors would have had an effect on the conditions which increased the likelihood of fire, dry conditions, ignitable materials and the probability of people being in situations that could of led to a fire incident.

 

In terms of actions being taken to improve performance, it would be very difficult to specifically target an intervention which would result in a reduction of the overall activity.  The Assistant Chief Fire Officer reassured Members that the Service Performance beyond quarter 2 had started to realign which should bring this KPI back in within the performance parameters.  The Service would certainly expect to see realignment towards quarter 3 and if not within quarter 4 as the reason for this exception report was the high peak within one particular month.

 

1.6         Deliberate Fires

 

This indicator reported the number of primary and secondary fires where the cause of fire had been recorded as 'Deliberate'.  Secondary fires were the majority of outdoor fires including grassland and refuse fires unless they involved casualties or rescues, property loss or 5 or more appliances attended. They included fires in single derelict buildings.

 

Deliberate Fire Type	2018/19 Quarter 2	2017/18 Quarter 2
1.6.1 Deliberate Fires – Anti-Social Behaviour	686	419
1.6.2 Deliberate Fires – Dwellings	28	35
1.6.3 Deliberate Fires – Non-Dwellings	17	41

 

This was a negative exception report due to a single monthly point of the XmR chart being beyond the upper control limit.  The control limits were calculated based upon a standard deviation calculation of the previous 3 years activity.

 

High activity levels during July were the main cause of the Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) KPI being in exception. This was the highest single monthly activity since April 2013 (521). It was noted that quarter 2 had recorded the exact same number of ASB fires as recorded during quarter 1 (687) Overall, the ASB levels in quarter 2 were 64% greater than that recorded in quarter 2 in 2017/18.  Although each quarter recorded the same number of incidents there was a shift in activity within districts, Rossendale 45% decrease between quarter 1 and 2, however Chorley increasing by 45%, Wyre 24% decrease and Pendle 23% increase.  The largest increases by property type were in: Other outdoors (including land) and Grassland, woodland and crops, which saw increases of 80% (78 incidents in June to 141 in July).  KPI 1.6.2 (Deliberate Fires – Dwellings) and KPI 1.6.3 (Deliberate Fires – Non Dwellings) both recorded a decrease over quarter 1 and over quarter 2 of the previous year.

Members noted that even though the Winter Hill incident accounted for just one incident; it lasted for approximately 42 days.  The subsequent impact on resources was shown in the critical fire response KPI’s.

 

As these fires were caused by intent it was more difficult to target fire safe messages. However, as the increase appeared to coincide with the warm and dry period, a break in the weather could possibly lead to such incidents reducing to normal levels. 

 

The Assistant Chief Officer reassured Members that the Service was confident that this KPI would realign within the appropriate performance parameter for quarter 3.

 

2.1.1   Emergency Response Standards - Critical Fires – 1st Fire Engine Attendance

 

This indicator reported the ‘Time of Call’ (TOC) and ‘Time in Attendance’ (TIA) of the first fire engine arriving at the incident in less than the relevant response standard.

 

The response standards included call handling and fire engine response time for the first fire engine attending a critical fire, these were as follows:-

 

·        Very high risk area = 6 minutes

·        High risk area = 8 minutes

·        Medium risk area = 10 minutes

·        Low risk area = 12 minutes

 

The response standards were determined by the risk map score and subsequent risk grade for the location of the fire.

 

Standard: to be in attendance within response standard target on 90% of occasions.

 

Quarter 2 – 1st pump response 84.00%, previous year quarter 2 was 87.67%

 

This was a negative exception report due to critical fire 1st pump response being below the standard. Overall, quarter 2 pass rate was 84.76%, which was outside of the 90% standard and 2 percent tolerance.

 

After a 12 month period of this KPI being within standard the increase in activity due to warm weather, combined with the resource intensive incident of Winter Hill, caused this KPI to temporary dip below standard during quarters 1 and 2.  The months of August and September were both within the 2% tolerance at 87.83% and 88.56% respectively, unfortunately the month of July was below the standard, with only 75% of critical fire incidents being within standard which led quarter 2 to return an overall pass rate of 84%. The response achieved to non-residential buildings, particularly private garden sheds, garages and permanent agricultural led to a reduction of the pass rate during quarter 2.  Even though the resources engaged during the Winter Hill incident which lasted the whole of July and into the first week of August, did have a negative impact on critical fire response.  It was noted during this period there were 149 critical fire incidents of which just 77.85% were attended within standard.  The response to critical fire incidents in the week immediately following the Winter Hill incident stop message achieved 85.71%. The Officer in Charge was now required to provide a specific narrative from a set list for the failure to respond to an incident within standard. Analysis of quarter 2 narratives implied that the ‘Extended travel distances to incident’ which accounted for 48% of returns was the main reason for missed attendance times.  This aligned with pumps having to cover a wider area due to resources engaged at Winter Hill.

 

The reduction in performance appeared to have been related to the prolonged warm and dry weather period, particularly the Winter Hill incident.  Once the incident had been closed and the Service moved into the autumn season, there had been an improvement in response back in line with that achieved during 2017/18. Heads of Service Delivery were implementing and monitoring performance measures to remedy deficiencies and drive improvement.  Service Delivery Managers (SDM) were also monitoring crew reaction times and instigating local improvements where required. The importance of recording pump response failures had also been impressed upon SDM’s which, in conjunction with mandatory completion and the use of defined failure reasons, would aid recording accuracy and develop understanding of failure reasons.  It was hoped that on-going initiatives to address these issues would continue to improve performance.

 

County Councillor De Molfetta reported as the Service was unable to obtain the performance information from other Fire and Rescue Authorities to compare their activity levels, LFRS should be very satisfied with their performance for this quarter.

 

The Deputy Chief Officer advised Members that if the Service adapted its way of working to the number of raising incidents / activities this would prove to be very positive and the possibility of looking at the Service target parameters for next year was discussed which would be considered again at a future Planning Committee. 

 

2.3       Fire Engine Availability – Wholetime, Day Crewing and Day Crewing Plus

 

This indicator measured the availability of fire engines that were crewed by Wholetime, day crewing and day crewing plus shifts. It was measured as the percentage of time a fire engine was available to respond compared to the total time in the period.

 

Fire engines were designated as unavailable for the following reasons:

 

•      Mechanical	•      Lack of equipment
•      Crew deficient	•      Miscellaneous
•      Engineer working on station	•      Unavailable
•      Appliance change over	•      Welfare
•      Debrief

 

Annual Standard: Above 99.5%

 

Quarter 2 availability 99.30%, previous year quarter 2 - 99.47%

 

This was a negative exception report due to the cumulative RDS availability to the end of quarter 2 being below the 99.5% standard.

 

It was noted that this KPI had been very near the standard for some time, so the effect of the prolong Winter Hill incident had cause WT availability to drop below the 99.5% standard. 

 

Members noted that the decrease in availability had started in June, being most pronounced in July and then increasing during August; then returning to above standard levels in September.  These periods coincided with the Winter Hill incident, which started on the 28 June and the final stop message being sent on 8 August.

 

The reason of ‘Crew welfare’ featured most prominently during July as to why a pump was off the run.  This was followed by ‘Mechanical’, ‘Repairs’ or ‘Damage’.  This was consistent with the geography of the moorland fire and the physical stress placed upon appliances over a prolonged period.  A change in the process of recording the off the run reason by North West Fire Control (NWFC) would mean that instances of switch crewing, where a crew operates a special appliance in place of a pump, could be more easily filtered from the results.  This would improve performance as the pump was technically available for use.

 

As the Winter Hill incident appeared to be related to the decrease in availability it was expected that this KPI would now return to normal levels.  This was corroborated by the improvement in availability for the month of September, which was now within standard.

 

This KPI would continue to be monitored and the newly implemented off the run recording practices by NWFC could be included in the reporting process.

2.4       Fire Engine Availability – Retained Duty System

 

This indicator measured the availability of fire engines that were crewed by the retained duty system. It was measured as the percentage of time a fire engine was available to respond compared to the total time in the period.

 

The percentage of time that RDS crewed engines were available for quarter 2 was 84.88%, previous year quarter 2 was 87.49%, a decrease of 2.85%.

 

The previous quarter (April to June 2018) recorded 88.92%.

Annual Standard: Above 95%.

 

This was a negative exception report due to the cumulative RDS availability to the end of quarter 2 being below the standard and outside of the 2% percent tolerance.

 

Quarter 2 availability decreased by 4.04% over that achieved for quarter 1.  With August recording the lowest RDS availability of the year to date 83.14%. The Winter Hill incident had highlighted in the exception report for KPI 2.3 as to the decrease in availability, which could also be used to explain the decrease in RDS availability during July and with a further drop during August could be attributed to the school holiday period to cover child care and the summer holiday season.

 

Local level monitoring continues with additional analysis at pump level showing that just 6 stations continued to account for the largest proportion of off the run hours, with these stations accounting for 48.8% of the total for the quarter.

 

KPI 2.4.1 measured RDS availability without Wholetime staff imports, so that a clear picture was available to assist monitoring.  Continued analysis from that reported in quarter 1 showed that the number of RDS personnel who were successful in obtaining a Wholetime position had impacted on available RDS hours.  This was due to leaving the RDS service, being able to commit fewer hours due to Wholetime commitment or being unavailable due to development (Wholetime recruit course).  With an ageing workforce, the loss of staff due to retirement also had an impact on the ability to fully crew an appliance and a number of retirements had occurred, along with a number of resignations, although some temporary which had also reduced coverage.  The Retained Duty System Recruitment and Improvement Group was responsible for progressing areas for improvement, continuing to work on a number of ongoing actions which strived to deliver incremental improvements in order to strengthen and support the Retained Duty System.

 

It was expected that the new recruits who started in May 2017 would begin to have a positive impact on RDS crew availability when their respective qualifications of BA and BA Team Leader had been completed and they had gained experience to start acting up to cover the Officer In Charge role. 

 

Similarly, some stations that had suffered from a lack of an available driver were expected to start to show improvements as staff members continued to build driving hours in preparation for their Emergency Fire Appliance Driving course.  It was noted that there were stations where staff on dual contracts made up half of the RDS crew which impacted on RDS availability.  It was noted that the Retained Support Officer (RSO) role would assist in some of these areas, particularly around recruitment and firefighter/officer development, and in conjunction with the various Strengthening and Improving work streams, the Service should see a positive effect on availability over time.  The forthcoming Wholetime recruitment campaign was also being used as an opportunity to promote RDS vacancies. RSO’s were supporting the ‘Have a Go’ days and would collate information from potential applicants.

2.4.1   Fire Engine Availability – Retained Duty System (without Wholetime detachments)

            Subset of KP1 2.4 and provided for information only

 

This indicator measured the availability of fire engines that were crewed by the retained duty system (RDS) when Wholetime detachments were not used to support availability. It was measured by calculating the percentage of time a fire engine was available to respond compared to the total time in the period.

 

Fire engines were designated as unavailable (off-the-run) for the following reasons:

 

•      Manager deficient

•      Crew deficient

•      Not enough BA wearers

•      No driver

 

The percentage of time that RDS crewed engines were available for quarter 2 was 80.04%.  This excluded the WT detachments shown in KPI 2.4.

 

4.2.1 Staff Absence – Excluding Retained Duty System

 

This indicator measured the cumulative number of shifts (days) lost due to sickness for all Wholetime, day crewing plus, day crewing and support staff divided by the total number of staff.

 

Annual Standard: Not more than 5 shifts lost

Cumulative total number of monthly shifts lost 2.982

Quarter 2 results indicated the number of shifts lost through absence per employee being above the Service target for 3 months during quarter 2.

 

During quarter 2 (July 2018 to September 2018), absence statistics showed above target for all 3 months.  Shifts lost showed a monthly increase from July through to September for uniformed personnel, however they still remained under the target for absence.  Non-uniformed personnel were considerably above the target over all 3 months.  The main reasons continued to be cases of mental health and muscular-skeletal.  At the end of September the cumulative totals that non-uniformed staff absence was above target at 4.6 shifts lost per employee, for whole-time staff absence was below target at 2.4 shifts lost per employee.  Overall absence for all staff with the exception of RDS was 2.9 shifts lost which was above the Service target of 2.50 shifts for this quarter.

 

Members noted that action taken continued to be early intervention by the Occupational Health Unit and where appropriate, issues around capability due to health issues were reviewed and addressed; the Service would continue to run leadership conferences to assist future managers to understand policy which included absence management; in addition, new actions had commenced which included support from the Service Fitness Advisors / Personal Trainers Instructors, promotion of health, fitness and wellbeing via the routine bulletin and employees were encouraged to make use of the Employee Assistance Programme.

 

The Chairman, County Councillor Holgate confirmed that the quarter 2 exception performance statistics were the consequences of an extreme situation, particularly during the months of June and July and the Service should be in an improved position in quarter 3.

 

KPI 1 – Preventing and Protecting

 

1.1         Risk Map Score

 

This indicator measured the risk level in each neighbourhood (Super Output Area) determined using fire activity over the previous three fiscal years along with a range of demographic data.

 

The County risk map score was updated annually, before the end of the first quarter. An improvement was shown by a year on year decreasing ‘score’ value.

 

Score for 2015-2018 – 32,114, previous year score 32,398.

No exception report required.

 

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'.

 

Quarter 2  activity 197, previous year quarter 2 activity 208, a decrease of 5%.

 

Total number of Accidental Dwelling Fires – Year to Date, 411

No exception report required.

 

1.3.1   Accidental Dwelling Fires – Extent of Damage

 

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.

 

Extent of fire and heat damage was limited to: Item ignited first, limited to room of origin, limited to floor of origin and spread beyond floor of origin.

 

*The ADF activity count was limited to only those ADF’s which had an extent of damage shown above. An improvement was shown if the total percentage of ‘Item first ignited’ and ‘Room of origin’ was greater than the comparable quarter of the previous year.

 

Percentage of accidental dwelling fires limited to item 1st ignited in quarter 2, 27%, quarter 2 of previous year 23%. Percentage limited to room of origin in quarter 2, 60%, quarter 2 previous year 61%, limited to floor of origin in quarter 2, 8%, quarter 2 previous year 7% and spread beyond floor 5%, previous year 9%.

No exception report required.

 

1.3.2   Accidental Dwelling Fires – Number of Incidents where occupants have received a Home Fire Safety Check

 

This indicator reported the number of primary fires where a dwelling had been affected and the cause of fire had been recorded as ‘Accidental or Not known’ by the extent of the fire and heat damage. The HFSC must be a completed job (i.e. not a refusal) carried out by LFRS personnel or partner agency. The HFSC must have been carried out within 12 months prior of the fire occurring.

 

	2018/19		2017/18
	ADF’s with previous HFSC	% of ADF’s with previous HFSC	ADF’s with previous HFSC	% of ADF’s with previous HFSC
Q1	21	10%	15	6%
Q2	15	8%	20	10%
Q3			15	6%
Q4			18	8%

 

Of the 15 accidental dwelling fire incidents that had received a HFSC within the previous 12 months, 7 had ‘heat and smoke damage only’, 2 resulted in damage ‘limited to item first ignited’ and 6 ‘limited to room or origin.

No exception report required

 

1.4          Accidental Dwelling Fire Casualties

 

This indicator reported the number of fire related fatalities, slight and serious injuries at primary fires where a dwelling had been affected and the cause of fire had been recorded as ‘Accidental or Not known’. A slight injury was defined as; a person attending hospital as an outpatient (not precautionary check). A serious injury was defined as; at least an overnight stay in hospital as an in-patient.

 

Casualty Status	2018/19 Quarter 2	2017/18 Quarter 2
Fatal	1	0
Victim went to hospital visit, injuries appeared Serious	1	1
Victim went to hospital visit, injuries appeared Slight	9	10
TOTAL	11	11

No exception report required.

 

1.5         Accidental Building Fires (Non-Dwellings)

 

This indicator reported number of primary fires where the property type was ‘Building’ and the property sub type did not equal ‘Dwelling’ and the cause of fire had been recorded as ‘Accidental’ or ‘Not known’.

 

Total number of incidents	2018/19 Quarter 2	2017/18 Quarter 2
	92	88

No exception report required.

 

1.5.1   Accidental Building Fires (Non-Dwellings) – Extent of Damage

 

This indicator reported the number of primary fires where the property type was a building and the property sub-type was not a dwelling and the cause of fire had been recorded as ‘Accidental or Not known’ presented as a percentage extent of fire and heat damage.

 

This indicator showed the total number of Accidental Building Fires where damage was limited to room of origin, limited to floor of origin and spread beyond floor of origin.

 *The ABF activity count was limited to only those ABF’s which had an extent of damage shown above.

 

An improvement was shown if the total percentage of ‘Item first ignited’ and ‘Room of origin’ was greater than the comparable quarter of the previous year.

 

Quarter 2 Accidental Building Fires activity, 90: -

 

	2017/18					2017/18
	ADF activity	Item 1st ignited	Room of origin	Floor of origin	Spread beyond floor of origin	Item 1st ignited	Room of origin	Floor of origin	Spread beyond floor of origin
Q1	90	8%	37%	17%	39%	18%	30%	13%	39%
Q2	75	13%	28%	19%	40%	31%	34%	12%	23%
Q3						21%	42%	15%	22%
Q4						20%	41%	14%	26%

No exception report required.

 

1.7       High / Very High Risk Home Fire Safety Checks

 

This indicator reported the percentage of completed Home Fire Safety Checks (HFSC), excluding refusals, carried out where the risk score had been determined to be either high or very high.

 

 

 

	2018/19	2017/18
	% of High and Very High HFSC outcomes	% of High and Very High HFSC outcomes
Q1	66%	68%
Q2	67%	72%
Q3		68%
Q4		71%

No exception report required.

 

1.8       Road Safety Education Evaluation

 

This indicator reported the percentage of participants of the Wasted Lives and RoadSense education packages that showed a positive change to less risky behaviour following the programme; based on comparing the overall responses to an evaluation question before and after the course.

 

During quarter 2 the ‘Safe Drive Stay Alive’ programme had been seen by 981 students. 

 

There was a total of 5,983 participants during quarter 2, with a percentage of positive influence on participants’ behaviour for the current year to date of 85%.

 

	2017/18 (cumulative)		2017/18 (cumulative)
	Total participants	% positive influence on participants’ behaviour	Total participants	% positive influence on participants’ behaviour
Q1	5002	85%	1441	85%
Q2	5893	85%	2259	85%
Q3			3938	85%
Q4			10228	85%

No exception report required.

 

1.9.1   Fire Safety Enforcement – Known Risk

 

This indicator reported on the percentage of premises that have had a Fire Safety Audit as a percentage of the number of all known premises in Lancashire to which The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applied.

 

Number of premises	Number of premises audited to date	% of all premises audited Year end: 2018/19	% of all premises audited Year end: 2017/18
33759	18286	54%	55%

No exception report required.

 

 

1.9.2   Fire Safety Enforcement – Risk Reduction

 

This indicator reported the percentage of Fire Safety Audits carried out within the period resulting in enforcement action. Enforcement action was defined as one or more of the following: notification of deficiencies, action plan, enforcement notice, alterations notice or prohibition notice.

 

Period	Satisfactory audits 2018/19	Requiring formal activity – 2018/19	Requiring informal activity – 2018/19
Q1	24%	4%	70%
Q2	30%	10%	56%
Q3
Q4

No exception report required.

 

KPI 2 – Responding to Emergencies

 

2.1.2   Critical Fire Response – 2^nd Fire Engine Attendance

 

This indicator reported the time taken for the second fire engine to attend a critical fire incident measured from the time between the second fire engine arriving and the time it was sent to the incident. The target is determined by the risk map score and subsequent risk grade for the location of the fire.

 

Standard: to be in attendance within response standard target on 85% of occasions.

 

Quarter 2 – 2^nd pump response 82.48%, previous year quarter 2 was 88.03%

No exception report required.

 

2.2.1   Critical Special Service – 1^st Fire Engine Attendance

 

This indicator measured how long it took the first fire engine to respond to critical non-fire incidents such as road traffic collisions, rescues and hazardous materials incidents.  For those incidents there was a single response standard which measured call handling time and fire engine response time.  The response standard for the first fire engine attending a critical special call ess 13 minutes.

 

Standard: To be met on 90% of occasions

Quarter 2 results 90.78% achieved against a target of 90%, previous year quarter 2, 87.27%.

No exception report required.

 

2.5       Staff Accidents

 

This indicator measured the number of staff accidents.

Total number of staff accidents 2018/19 – Year to Date, 38

Quarter 2 results indicate percentage pass within standard

No exception report required.

 

KPI 3 – Delivering Value for Money

 

3.1       Progress Against Savings Programme

 

Annual budget for 2018/19 - £54.8m

Budget to end of September 2018 as reported to Resources Committee - £27.8m

Spend for the period to date was £28.1m

Overspend for the period £0.3m

Variance 0.55%

No exception report required.

 

3.2 Overall User Satisfaction

 

Total responses 1955; number satisfied 1936

% satisfied 99.03 against a standard of 97.50

Variance 1.57%

 

There had been 1955 people surveyed since April 2012.

 

In quarter 2 of 2018/19 – 95 people were surveyed.  92 responded that they were ‘very satisfied’ or ‘fairly satisfied’ with the service they received.

No exception report required.

 

KPI 4 – Engaging With Our Staff

 

4.1 Overall Staff Engagement

 

This indicator measured overall staff engagement. The engagement index score was derived from the answers given by staff that related to how engaged they felt with the Service.

 

A comprehensive survey was undertaken during April/May 2018 on topics including internal communications, working for LFRS, organisational values, leadership and management, training and development and recognition.  The survey also covered feelings of pride, advocacy, attachment, inspiration and motivation – factors that are understood to be important features shared by staff who are engaged with the organisation.  These questions mirror those asked in the Civil Service People Survey.

 

An improvement is shown if the percentage engagement index is greater than the previous survey.

 

	Period		Change
	2018/19	2016/17* * Period 3, 2016/17
Number of Replies	489	141	247%
Engagement Index	70.13%	64%	6.13%

No exception report required

 

4.2.2   Staff Absence – Retained Duty System

 

This indicator measured the percentage of contracted hours lost due to sickness for all retained duty staff.

 

Annual Standard: Not more than 2.5% lost as % of available hours of cover

Quarter 2 results indicate percentage pass within standard

Cumulative retained absence (as % of available hours cover) 0.86%

No exception report required.

 

RESOLVED:- That the Performance Committee endorsed the quarter 2 measuring progress report and noted the contents including the 6 negative key performance indicator exception reports.