Agenda item

The Head of Service Development presented the report which provided an update on the collaborative work that had been progressed by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

As reported at the previous Planning Committee, the quarterly Blue Light Collaboration meetings had largely been placed on hold due to the ongoing support being provided by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) and partners, to Lancashire Resilience Forum (LRF) in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whilst the tri-partite agreement (National Fire Chiefs Council, Employers and Fire Brigades Union) had ceased mid-January, LFRS employees had continued the outstanding work in support of the wider Covid response.

As reported previously, this had initially commenced with preparations for, or delivery of, the following:

·         Face fitting for masks to be used by frontline NHS and clinical care staff working with C-19 patients;

·         Mass casualty transportation (movement of bodies in support of Coroner functions);

·         Vulnerable person contacts and visits (delivery of essential items);

·         Delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other medical supplies to NHS and care facilities;

·         Lead agency for collating all PPE requirements through the Joint Intelligence and Planning Group.

The support provided by LFRS to the LRF strategy and multi-agency response had been reviewed on a regular basis and at that time there were no ongoing activities with regards to any of the tri-partite agreement related topics.

More recently however, LFRS had become the first Fire and Rescue Service in the country to step up support to the national vaccination programme.  LFRS staff had risen to the challenge admirably and by joining the Service’s ‘volunteer list’, had made themselves available to provide logistical support to the delivery of vaccinations initially through 21 Primary Care Network establishments and subsequently through the Mass Vaccination sites at Blackburn, Blackpool and Lancaster.

At the time of the report, this commitment had seen 163 operational and support staff support the delivery of over 65,200 vaccinations whilst also delivering crucial home fire safety advice to some of Lancashire’s most vulnerable individuals.  The Head of Service Development advised that these figures had subsequently risen to almost 290 staff supporting nearer to 85,000 vaccinations.

From mid-January the Service’s offer had increased further, and following provision of the appropriate training and guidance, LFRS had the first firefighters in the country actively administering Covid-19 vaccines at Mass Vaccination Centres at Blackpool and Blackburn with over 400 delivered in the first week alone.  An increasing number of staff had subsequently been trained as vaccinators with LFRS staff having delivered around 5,000 vaccinations to date.

Members shared their positive experiences of the support provided by LFRS staff at vaccination establishments and centres.  County Councillor O’Toole commented on the good publicity generated by the recent television news report which had featured a Firefighter from LFRS delivering vaccinations at one of the centres.  County Councillor Hennessy, who confirmed that she had also volunteered at a local vaccination centre, expressed pride in the Service and asked that the wholehearted thanks of the Members be passed to all staff and officers involved with the vaccination effort.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer thanked Members for sharing their insights and expressed his pride in the level of volunteering within the Service and the innovation shown by LFRS to have been the first FRS in the country both to have had FRS staff working at vaccination centres and to have had Firefighters delivering vaccinations.

In terms of the Service’s continuing support to the LRF, an Emergency Planning Watch Manager and Station Manager had been embedded; their role being to lead the coordination of LFRS involvement across the various areas of work.

Within Service, the provision of Lateral Flow Testing (LFT) had been established into a number of fire stations, Service Headquarters and Service Training Centre, moving towards a planned Service wide roll out within the short term.  This had proved invaluable in identifying asymptomatic members of staff, reducing risk of transmission within the workplace and supporting front line fire engine availability, whilst also providing much needed reassurance to members of staff and those they support within the home environment.  To date, LFRS staff had taken up the offer of over 1889 LFT’s across the Service (figures quoted as at 26/1/21).  The Head of Service Development advised that the rapid rate of rollout of LFT’s across all 42 sites had meant the figure had subsequently increased to almost 3,500 tests having been conducted.

All activity had been collated within the collaboration log which provided an overview of outcomes delivered and benefits realised, and would form a definitive evidence base for any future HMICFRS inspections.

The intention remained that the formal Blue Light Collaboration meetings would be restarted when capacity across the blue light partners permitted, meantime cross-organisational dialogue and collaborative working remained ongoing across many areas of work.

County Councillor Hennessy thanked all staff and officers involved for their fabulous work.

RESOLVED: - that the Planning Committee noted the contents of the report.