Agenda item

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 the key performance indicators (KPIs) in isolation. 

 

In addition, Mr Basson advised on progress in relation to: implementation of improved technology, recruitment and deployment of support department posts together with an update on initiatives: AFA call challenge, Water Safety Boards Project and the Road Routing Project.  In particular, NWFC and LFRS had worked together on a trial of a Pre-Alerting system which alerted the nearest appliance the moment a call was received.  Initial reports showed that the appliances involved in the trial had reduced their attendance times. 

 

In response to a question raised by Councillor Smith regarding hoax calls, Mr Basson confirmed that it was presumed every call was genuine and calls were challenged.  The mobilisation system could highlight a telephone number to be challenged but it was never presumed to be a hoax and if in doubt the appliance would be mobilised.

 

In response to a question raised by County Councillor O’Toole regarding what action could be taken where the same alarm was repeatedly activated, Mr Basson confirmed that in addition to the call challenge process there was ongoing work with LFRS who were able to investigate.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained that staff from LFRS protection teams would follow up with the responsible person of the premises and determine whether any legislative action would be required.

 

County Councillor O’Toole expressed concern that there had been a number of NWFC meetings cancelled recently which, Members agreed were needed for scrutiny.  The Chief Fire Officer agreed to take this to the Chairman of the North West Fire Forum and report back to a future meeting.

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the following day was the anniversary of the Winter Hill incident and that some public relations work had been prepared proactively and in response to media enquiries including from BBC Radio Lancashire, MEN, Capital Lancashire and The One Show and a video had been prepared for the media.  The focus was on: i) the steps we had taken since the incident; ii) to reassure the public that we could deal with an incident of that scale in the future; and iii) that the public had a really important role in being vigilant and safety aware.

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised Members that this was the 4th quarterly report for 2018/19 as detailed in the Risk Management Plan 2017-2022.  The report showed there were 1 positive and 4 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:-

 

1.3      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 4 activity 186, previous year quarter 4 activity 237, a decrease of 22%.

 

Total number of Accidental Dwelling Fires – Year to Date, 815.

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer was pleased to report the firstpositive exception report due to Accidental Dwelling Fires (ADF’s) recorded during the month of February being better than the lower control limit.

 

It was noted there were 42 recorded ADF incidents in February 2019; this was the lowest monthly count over the previous 10 years.  In addition, the year had the second lowest monthly count during August at 53 incidents.

 

This contributed to the year-end ADF count to be at an all-time low, with 815 incidents recorded for 2018/19.  This was 129 fewer incidents than the previous year, a reduction of 16% against that recorded 5 years ago and 34% reduction over the last 10 years.

 

It was reported that during 2018/19 the number of delivered Home Fire Safety Checks (HFSC) had been actively increased along with Safe & Well and the Winter Safety campaign.   County Councillor Perks queried how the HFSCs had increased when previous quarter performance had decreased.  In response, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the quantity of visits had been reviewed and an increase to 18,000 visits had been set for 2019/20.  He reassured the Committee that there would be a continual increase in visits undertaken and that the quality would remain consistent. 

 

In response to a further question from County Councillor Perks, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer confirmed that there were a number of strong partner referrals from Police, Social Services, Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Council, Blackburn with Darwen Council and other partners given they were working on a day to day basis with high risk individuals.  He confirmed that upon receipt of a referral, individuals completed a series of questions that had been designed to identify vulnerability in the context of a potential fire.  This risk scoring matrix enabled us to deliver the service to those who needed it the most.  He advised that where home fire safety requests were received and these were a low-risk, a visit was not provided and this detail was not currently being reported.  County Councillor Perks welcomed that this information would be presented in future reports.

 

In addition, there was a significant amount of work which continued to take place around the county which included safety initiatives and collaboration with partner agencies with: Dementia cafes, Age UK events and Live Safe, Age Well presentations delivered to Councils and other large employee organisations.

 

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 4 – 1st pump response 87.97%, previous year quarter 4 was 88.27%

 

This was a negative exception report due to critical fire 1st pump response being below the standard. Overall, quarter 4 pass rate was 87.97%, which was outside of the 90% standard and 2% tolerance.

 

Members noted that February recorded the lowest number of critical fire incidents over the year.  The frequency of failures remained constant over the 3 months, this made it more difficult to maintain a high pass rate when there were fewer numbers of overall incidents.  This contributed to a below standard pass rate when the ‘baseline’ number of failures was taken from a lower pool of incidents.

 

This correlated with the narratives received from the officer in charge (OIC) which indicated that the travel time (extended travel distances to incident of traffic), accounted for 26% of returns, were the main reason for missed attendance times.

 

It was reported that the reduced performance in quarter 4 could not be accounted for by policy decisions or actions which affected call handling or crew reaction times and so were more likely to be accounted for in the phase when appliances were driving to incidents.

 

In terms of actions being taken, Service Delivery Managers (SDM’s) would continue to monitor Wholetime (WT) crew reaction times; instigating local improvements where required and highlighted the importance of ensuring the appliance had been booked in to attendance upon arrival.  In addition, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the Service were also assessing the utilisation of the Service’s Geographical Information System (GIS) to analyse individual attendance standard failures and identify if the failures related to specific Super Output Areas (SOA’s).  If this was confirmed, the Service could consider if there were any actions which could be taken to improve attendance performance or reduce risk by community safety action.

 

In addition, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer reported to Members that there were new actions being implemented which included: the 6 month Pre-Alerting trial mentioned by Mr Basson earlier which commenced on 15 April 2019.  This aimed to reduce the time the crews took to react to the initial mobilisation.  The proposed removal of the ‘Available redirection’ appliance status in North West Fire Control/Mobile Data Terminal’s (NWFC/MDT’s) as this had the effect of showing an appliance was unavailable.  It was hoped that the on-going initiatives to address these issues would continue to improve performance.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer reported that the outcomes of the trial would be presented to a future Planning Committee meeting.

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that there were a number of Fire and Rescue Services (including Cheshire and Merseyside) that had moved from a risk-based approach to a generic response time of 10 minutes.  He advised that the next Measuring Progress report to be presented at this committee in September for quarter 1 2019/20 would contain more rounded information.

 

The Chief Fire Officer added that we were rightly concerned about being outside a 2% tolerance, and confirmed that LFRS had a risk-based response.  He advised that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) had looked at our response standards and we had been directed not to move away from that.  In addition, he advised that from a national perspective, response times had increased over the last 10 years due to a number of factors including: a growing population, more housing, austerity had meant that fire engines had either disappeared or moved from whole time to retained shift systems and there was more traffic on the roads now.  He had met several times recently with the Home Office to try to explain ‘risk and demand’ to ensure they understood the risk-based approach given their experience of the demand-led approach taken by the Police.

 

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 4 – 2^nd pump response 81.15%, previous year quarter 4 was 86.86%

 

This was a negative exception report due to critical fire 2^nd pump response being below the standard.  Overall, the cumulative quarter 4 pass rate was 81.15%, which was outside the 85% standard and 2% tolerance.

 

The month of January was just within the 2% tolerance at 83.16%, along with the month of March which recorded one of the highest pass rates of the year at 84.69%.  However, the month of February recorded a pass rate of 73.13%, the second lowest of the year which led quarter 4 to return an overall pass rate of 81.15%.

 

The findings highlighted in the 1st pump critical fires were mirrored here for the 2^nd pump, with the month of February recording just 67 incidents, whilst the number of failures remained consistent with other months.

 

This correlated with the narratives received from the OIC where analysis of quarter 4 narratives indicated that the ‘Extended travel distances to incident’, which accounted for 50% of returns, was the main reason for missed attendance times.

 

In terms of action being taken the second pump response attendance to critical fire incidents was closely related to those of the first pump (KPI 2.1.1).

 

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 4 was 87.05%, a decrease of 2.12% over the previous quarters 89.17%.  The cumulative availability to the end of quarter 4 was 87.29% against the previous quarter cumulative (April to March 2018) at 88.90%.

 

Annual Standard: Above 95%.

 

This was a negative exception report due to the cumulative RDS availability to the end of quarter 4 being below the standard and outside of the 2% percent tolerance.

 

Quarter 4 recorded a decrease over both quarter 3, although January recorded the highest individual month of availability over the year at 91.17%.  Unfortunately, both February and March returned 2 of the lowest months of the year.

 

Local level monitoring continued with additional analysis at pump level showing that just 6 stations accounted for 43.2% of off the runs hours within quarter 4.

 

The amount of RDS stations that were in exception had dropped from 9 to 11 in this quarter.  Although it should be noted that 2 of the stations had lost staff to the W/T recruits course, which affected their availability through this quarter.  All recently qualified W/T staff were to give dual contract cover on their return which boosted their units with development and cover.  Lack of drivers and OIC’s continued to be an issue on some stations.  The appointment of a new Southern RSO, who had taken up his post, was already having a positive effect on the Southern RDS stations.  Dual contract staff within LFRS had increased again this quarter. It was noted the positives a dual contract member of staff could bring to an RDS station could be immense, benefits included: knowledge of IT systems, operational experience, mentoring and increasing WT understanding of RDS units.

 

In terms of actions being taken to improve performance, 2 RDS initial Breathing Apparatus (BA) courses were scheduled for May and June which would further add an increase to availability numbers over the next quarter.

 

Over the last year, working alongside TOR, the RSO group removed the theory based learning form the On-Call initial course and delivered it to recruits on area prior to the course starting, this essentially allowed an extra 2 days of practical learning for recruits on the course.  In addition, during this quarter the successful recruits attended a pre course learning with their area RSO at the Service Training Centre (STC).  The students were required to attend 4 three-hour sessions culminating in the pre-learning day at STC.  The sessions included: Health and Safety, ladder and pump theory, knots and lines, rank structure as well as attitude and discipline.  The training sessions not only gave the students pre course development, it also brought them together prior to the course starting which in turn enabled them to form bonds and support each other during the course.  It was noted by Training & Operational Review (TOR) the recruits’ attitude and propensity for learning had greatly improved.

 

In addition, this quarter recruitment campaign had received over 120 On-Call applications Service wide. This was a vast improvement on previous year’s campaigns and emphasised the work being carried out by the Retained Support Officer’s (RSO’S).  Over the last year there had been a marked improvement on the public’s awareness of On-Call, this could only assist the Service to attract potential applicants in the future.

 

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 4 was 83.06%.  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 6.093

Quarter 4 results indicated the number of shifts lost through absence per employee being above the Service target for 2 months during quarter 4.

 

During quarter 4 January 2019 – March 2019, absence statistics showed above target for 2 of the 3 months. Whilst shifts lost for uniformed personnel for the month of January remained below target, this increased above target for February and March.  Non-uniformed personnel were considerably above the target over all 3 months.  The main reasons were cases of muscular-skeletal and mental health with 7 cases of long term absence which span over the 3 months.

 

At the end of March the cumulative totals showed that non-uniformed staff absence was above target at 8.9 shifts lost per employee and for Whole-time, staff absence was just above target at 5.25 shifts lost per employee. Overall absence for all staff (except Retained Duty System) was 6.16 shifts lost which was above the Service target of 5 shifts lost for this quarter.

 

Members noted that action taken continued to be early intervention by the Occupational Health Unit (OHU) 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, OHU to organise health checks for individuals on a voluntary basis, 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 provider and The Firefighters Charity.

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that he had received a fire and rescue national report on performance during 2018/19 which included data from 39 Fire and Rescue Services.  Performance against the number of shifts lost due to sickness had been received from 32 Services and he was pleased to report that Lancashire was the best in the country (with an average of 5.19% compared with a national average of 8.51%).  Across the rest of the performance indicators we were performing as either the best or we were in the top 3.  He advised that where possible we took opportunities to get and compare data to benchmark our performance nationally.  From a national perspective we had always performed in the top cohort for shifts lost due to absence.

 

The Chief Fire Officer advised that the Service was doing a lot of work on wellbeing with the aim of being more flexible in treating an individual’s absence rather than following processes that could drive people back to work when they may not be ready.

 

Following Member debate it was agreed that the Head of Human Resources be invited to attend a future meeting to present to Members the initiatives that were taken to support staff to return to work in a timely and sensitive manner and the work the Service was doing to improve staff wellbeing.

 

 

Members then examined each indicator in turn as follows:-

 

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.

 

1.2        Overall Activity

 

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

 

Quarter 4 activity 3,575, previous year quarter 4 activity 3,499, an increase of 2.17%.

 

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 4 we were asked to attend on 349 occasions, of which 218 resulted in the use of tools to gain entry to a property.

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 4, 25%, quarter 4 of previous year 21%. Percentage limited to room of origin in quarter 4, 64%, quarter 4 previous year 64%, limited to floor of origin in quarter 4, 8%, quarter 4 previous year 9% and spread beyond floor 4%, previous year 6%.

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	17	9%	20	10%
Q3	24	11%	15	6%
Q4	15	8%	18	8%

 

Of the 15 accidental dwelling fire incidents that had received a HFSC within the previous 12 months, 4 had ‘Heat and smoke damage only’, 2 resulted in damage ‘limited to item first ignited’ and 7 ‘limited to room or origin and 2 incident had damaged ‘Limited to floor of 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 4	2017/18 Quarter 4
Fatal	0	4
Victim went to hospital visit, injuries appeared Serious	3	1
Victim went to hospital visit, injuries appeared Slight	10	7
TOTAL	13	12

No exception report required.

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer wanted to highlight that although, as stated earlier, there had been the lowest ever level of Accidental Dwelling Fires reported there had sadly been 8 fatalities during the year; an increase from the previous year.  He confirmed that work would be undertaken to analyse this.  County Councillor O’Toole commented that while there could be areas for improvement identified it should be acknowledged there were times where the Service had no control ie: arson.

 

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 4	2017/18 Quarter 4
	93	80

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.

 

Percentage of accidental building fires limited to item first ignited in quarter 4, 15%, quarter 4 of previous year, 20%.  Percentage limited to room of origin in quarter 4, 38%, quarter 4 of previous year, 41%, limited to floor of origin in quarter 4, 18%, quarter 4 from previous year, 14% and spread beyond floor, 30%, previous year 26%.

No exception report required.

 

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 4	2017/18 Quarter 4
1.6.1 Deliberate Fires – Anti-Social Behaviour	333	301
1.6.2 Deliberate Fires – Dwellings	22	29
1.6.3 Deliberate Fires – Non-Dwellings	26	24

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	64%	68%
Q4	65%	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.

 

The crashed car displays were shown at 15 different events during quarter 4.

 

There were a total of 6,607 participants during quarter 4, 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	10613	85%	3938	85%
Q4	17220	85%	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
34484	18617	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	25%	7%	60%
Q4	19%	9%	70%

No exception report required.

 

KPI 2 – Responding to Emergencies

 

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 is 13 minutes.

 

Standard: To be met on 90% of occasions

Quarter 4 results 89.90% achieved against a target of 90%, previous year quarter 4, 82.86%.

No exception report required.

 

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 4 availability 99.45%, previous year quarter 4 - 99.45%

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, 65

Quarter 4 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 2018/2019 - £54.8m

Budget to end of quarter 4 - £54.8m

 

Members noted that the closure of the accounts process during May had yet to be finalised, however it was expected to result in an underspend for the period of £0.4m.

No exception report required.

 

3.2 Overall User Satisfaction

 

Total responses 2105; number satisfied 2084

% satisfied 99.00% against a standard of 97.50

Variance 1.54%

 

There had been 2,105 people surveyed since April 2012.

 

In quarter 4 of 2018/19 – 72 people were surveyed.  72 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 were engaged with the organisation.  These questions mirrored those asked in the Civil Service People Survey.

 

An improvement was shown if the percentage engagement index was 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 4 results indicate percentage pass within standard

Cumulative retained absence (as % of available hours cover) 0.91%

No exception report required.

 

 

ANNUAL REPORT ON ROAD SAFETY INTERVENTION ACTIVITY 2018/19

 

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer reported to Members that through our Integrated Risk Management Plan 2017-2022 (IRMP), prevention and protection services and our structure for delivery were reviewed over the course of the last IRMP to ensure that we were delivering appropriate services in line with our changing operating environment.  As a result we had changed our working practices with a strategic focus on the quality of the services that we continue to deliver.  These services were delivered around 4 key themes: helping people to start safe, live safe, age safe and be safe on our roads with a focus on working collaboratively with other organisations.  To ensure constant improvement in all parts of our prevention priority, the Service had dedicated thematic groups which reviewed current practice and results.

 

Members were provided with an annual overview of road safety intervention activities being delivered by the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service to the communities of Lancashire on a daily basis.

 

RESOLVED: - That the Performance Committee endorsed the quarter 4 measuring progress report and noted the contents including the 1 positive and 4 negative key performance indicator exception reports and the annual Road Safety Intervention Activity.