Agenda item

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented a detailed report to the Committee which included an overview of the annual performance.  This was the 4th quarterly report for 2020/21 as detailed in the Risk Management Plan 2017-2022, and the end of the Performance year.

 

The members were informed by the Deputy Chief Fire Officer, that a discussion had taken place with the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Performance Committee concerning proposed amendments to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). It was noted that a report regarding these proposals would be submitted to a future Performance Committee meeting and then, onto the CFA.

 

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 32,448, previous year score 31,816.

 

1.2       Overall Activity

 

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

 

Quarter 4 activity 3,725 previous year quarter 4 activity 3,849 a decrease of 3.22% 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 52% were false alarms.

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer updated Members regarding the overall incident number. He advised that an increase in incidents did not necessarily mean a drop in performance. For example, where the Service supported the ambulance service to gain entry, it was a positive activity to undertake.  

 

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 4 activity was 214, the previous year quarter 4 activity was 196, which represented an increaseof 9.18% over the same quarter. Overall performance for the year was 869 compared with 811 the previous year.

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that there had been a slight increase in Accidental Dwelling Fire incident numbers in the last quarter which could be due to the pandemic and people spending more time in their homes. Home fire safety checks and community safety activity had resulted in a plateau of the 3-year mean average number of incidents.

 

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

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised this indicator set out the damage which had occurred from Accidental Dwelling Fire incidents. He was pleased to report that whilst incident numbers remained fairly static the level of damage sustained was reducing due to proactive work including community safety and smoke alarm ownership.

 

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 the total, with an indicator to illustrate the direction against the same quarter of the previous year.

 

The latest quarter recorded a combined ‘low’ and ‘medium’ severity of 92.5% which was an increase of 0.7% against the 91.8% recorded in the same quarter of the previous year.

 

Severity (Direction against the same quarter of previous year)		Previous Rolling 4 Quarters				Quarter 4
		Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3
High	ò	8.2%	7.1%	3.5%	3.9%	7.5%
Medium	ò	51.0%	52.4%	43.9%	47.8%	54.7%
Low	Ç	40.8%	40.4%	52.5%	48.3%	37.9%

 

 

 

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 to the fire occurring.

 

Over the latest quarter, Accidental Dwelling Fires with a previous HFSC decreased 7% against the total number of ADF’s over the same quarter of the previous year.

 

	2020/21		2019/20
	ADF’s with previous HFSC	% of ADF’s with previous HFSC	ADF’s with previous HFSC	% of ADF’s with previous HFSC
Q1	26	12%	23	11%
Q2	21	11%	26	13%
Q3	32	14%	31	15%
Q4*	14	7%	27	14%

 

*Quarter 4.  The impact of COVID19 working guidelines during the previous 12 months has led to a reduction in the number of Home Fire Safety Checks (HFSC’s) delivered – KPI 1.7 page 17.  This has led to a decrease in the percentage of ADF’s with a recorded HFSC within the previous rolling 12-month period.

 

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.

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer reported that sadly, there was 1 dwelling fire fatality in the quarter and 2 overall for the year. Three casualties were recorded as serious and 9 slight.  The same quarter of the previous year recorded 2 fatalities, 4 serious and 9 slight.

 

Casualty Status	2020/21 Quarter 4	2019/20 Quarter 4
Fatal	1	2
Victim went to hospital visit, injuries appeared Serious	3	4
Victim went to hospital visit, injuries appeared Slight	9	9
TOTAL	13	15

 

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’.

 

Quarterly activity decreased 20.55% over the same quarter of the previous year.

 

Total number of incidents	2020/21 Quarter 4	2019/20 Quarter 4
	58	73

 

 

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

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that whilst the level of damage from accidental dwelling fires was reducing; in commercial buildings it was increasing. On investigation there had been a significant increase in fires in private sheds and outbuildings which could be quickly lost to fire prior to the arrival of the Fire and Rescue Service. These types of building fires often resulted in them being recorded as high severity due to the loss of a building. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained that he would bring a report to future meetings of the Committee which omitted shed and garage fires to provide a better performance indicator.  

 

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.

 

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 building fires 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 the total, with an indicator to illustrate the direction against the same quarter of the previous year.

 

The latest quarter recorded a combined ‘low’ and ‘medium’ severity of 63.6%.  This was a decrease of 20.0% against a combined severity of 83.6% in the same quarter of the previous year.

 

Severity (Direction against the same quarter of previous year)		Previous Rolling 4 Quarters				Quarter 4
		Quarter 4	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3
High	Ç	16.4%	43.4%	39.7%	23.8%	36.4%
Medium	ò	64.4%	47.8%	43.8%	65.0%	54.5%
Low	ò	19.2%	8.8%	16.4%	11.3%	9.1%

 

1.6 Deliberate Fires

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer reported that through the proactive work undertaken by the Service, there had been significant reduction for the performance year down to 1,441 deliberate fires compared to the previous year of 1,679 which was a reduction of approximately 14%. Factors attributing to the reduction included proactive work that had been carried out by the Service around anti-social behaviour, youth engagement with cadet programmes, engaging with younger groups and delivering the message in terms of not starting anti-social fires. The weather also had an impact regarding the number of people outside and the potential for wildfires. It was most likely that lockdown restrictions also contributed to the downward trend.

 

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	2020/21 Quarter 4	2019/20 Quarter 4
1.6.1 Deliberate Fires – Anti-Social Behaviour	231	259
1.6.2 Deliberate Fires – Dwellings	21	30
1.6.3 Deliberate Fires – Non-Dwellings	14	29

 

1.7      Home Fire Safety Checks

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained that during the Home Fire Safety Visits, the crew would look at the potential for slips, trips and falls, signs of dementia and smoking and would signpost to other organisations if needed. The service endeavoured to carry out 18,000 to 20,000 physical visits per annum to homes with 11,903 delivered last year which was a reduction as a result of the pandemic. However, it was pleasing to see that the percentage of visits the Service delivered which resulted in high-risk outcomes had increased, demonstrating that the Service was targeting those most at risk. 

 

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 high.

 

An improvement was shown if: i) the total number of HFSC’s completed was greater than the comparable quarter of the previous year; and ii) the percentage of high HFSC outcomes was greater than the comparable quarter of the previous year.

 

The number of completed HFSC’s had decreased 30% over the same quarter as the previous year; due to the challenges presented by the Covid 19 pandemic. However, through a modified HFSC engagement with the most vulnerable had resulted in a 13% increase of those with a high-risk outcome.

 

	2020/21	2019/20
	% of High HFSC outcomes	% of High HFSC outcomes
Q1	71%	65%
Q2	72%	61%
Q3	69%	60%
Q4	74	61%

 

To help illustrate the importance of the Home Fire Safety Check service; properties that had refused a HFSC, but subsequently, suffered an Accidental Dwelling Fire were monitored.  During this quarter 5 properties recorded an ADF after refusing a HFSC during the previous rolling 12-month period.

 

1.8      Road Safety Education Evaluation

 

This indicator reported the percentage of participants of the Wasted Lives and Road Sense 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.

 

Total participants were a combination of those engaged with at Wasted Lives and Road Sense events.

 

	2020/21 (cumulative)		2019/20 (cumulative)
	Total participants	% positive influence on participants’ behaviour	Total participants	% positive influence on participants’ behaviour¹
Q1	The covid-19 pandemic led to the closure of educational facilities which meant it was not possible to deliver road safety activities in the normal way.		4,354	85%
Q2			8,158	85%²
Q3			16,417	85%²
Q4			21,516	85%²

¹ From a sample. ² Estimate.

 

It was noted that the pandemic had led to the closure of educational facilities and the Service had been unable to deliver road safety activities in the conventional way.  However, to ensure road safety messages continued to be available, the service had undertaken Wasted Lives sessions via an online video service.  During quarter 4 there had been 6 Wasted Lives sessions, involving 59 attendees; along with 79 Road Sense sessions to 163 schools, with 5,832 pupils in attendance. The Service also continued to engage with people via social media platforms (which included 5 short road safety videos on the ‘Biker down’ page, reaching over 28,000 people. There had been 574 engagements on Twitter and a further 17,093 people on Facebook. 

 

1.9       Fire Safety Enforcement

 

This indicator reported the number of Fire Safety Enforcement inspections carried out within the period resulting in supporting businesses to improve and become compliant with fire safety regulations or to take formal action of enforcement and prosecution of those that failed to comply.

 

Formal activity was defined as one or more of the following: enforcement notice or an action plan, alterations notice or prohibition notice.

 

An improvement was shown if the percentage of adults ‘requiring formal activity’ was greater than the comparable quarter of the previous year. This helped inform that the correct businesses were being identified.

 

*The ‘number of inspections’ count included business safety advice and advice to other enforcement authorities not captured within the formal/informal or satisfactory counts.

 

	2020/21					2019/20
	*No. of Inspections	Requiring		Satisfactory Audit	% requiring Formal Activity	% requiring Formal Activity
		Formal Activity	Informal Activity
Q1	18	5	7	4	28%	9%
Q2	48	7	29	9	15%	9%
Q3	83	12	59	4	14%	10%
Q4	117	19	73	21	16%	13%

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the Service continued to inspect based on risk. The percentages shown which required formal activity were higher than the previous year; this demonstrated the successful targeting of buildings most at risk. 

 

KPI 2 – Responding to fire and other emergencies quickly and competently

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that in the main, the Service was reaching very stretching response standards they had set i.e.: setting a 90%, 6?minute attendance standard to very high-risk areas was probably amongst the quickest response arrangements across the country with many other Services having response standards of 10 – 15 minutes. It was noted that those times included the call handling time. 

 

Ged Basson, North West Fire Control, would provide the meeting with a presentation of Call Handling statistics following the Deputy Chief Fire Officer’s overview of the report.

 

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 increased 0.21% of total first fire engine attendances over the same quarter of the previous year.

 

Year to Date	2020/21 Quarter 4	Previous year to Date	2019/20 Quarter 4
88.95%	89.38%	88.51%	89.17%

 

 

2.1.2   Emergency Response Standards - Critical Fires – 2nd 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 of call. The target is determined by the risk map score and subsequent risk grade for the location of the fire.

 

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

 

·         Very high-risk area = 9 minutes

·         High risk area = 11 minutes

·         Medium risk area = 13 minutes

·         Low risk area = 15 minutes

 

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

 

Quarter 4 – 2nd pump response increased 1.76% of total second pump attendances over the same quarter of the previous year.

 

Year to Date	2020/21 Quarter 4	Previous year to Date	2019/20 Quarter 4
86.75%	87.89%	86.54%	86.13%

 

2.2.1   Emergency Response Standards - Critical Special Service – 1st 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 was 13 minutes.

 

Standard: to be in attendance within response standard target on 90% of occasions. It was noted that the service had achieved this standard. Given the geography of the county, which included rural areas and motorway networks, there had been an exceptional level of performance.

 

The latest quarter 1st pump response increased 3.58% over the same quarter of the previous year.

 

Year to Date	2020/21 Quarter 4	Previous year to Date	2019/20 Quarter 4
89.21%	91.40%	88.92%	87.82%

 

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

 

Staff sickness was also highlighted as a reason for fire engines being unavailable.

 

Standard: 99.5%

 

Year to date availability of 99.32% was a decrease of 0.20% over the same period of the previous year. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer emphasised that it was exceptional to have almost 100% availability.

 

Year to Date	2020/21 Quarter 4	Previous year to Date	2019/20 Quarter 4
99.32%	99.40%	99.52%	99.55%

 

2.4      Fire Engine Availability – On-Call Duty System

 

This indicator measured the availability of fire engines that were crewed by the on-call 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.

 

Fire engines were designated as unavailable (off the run) for the following reasons which include the percentage of off the run hours that each reason contributed to the total.   Members noted that fire engines can be off the run for more than one reason; hence the percentages were interpreted individually (rather than as a proportion of the total):

 

·         Manager deficient                      64%

·         Crew deficient                            65%

·         Not enough BA wearers           57%

·         No driver                                      39%

 

Standard: above 95%

 

Year to date availability 90.37%, a 2.88% increase against the previous year to date total availability of 87.49%.

 

Year to Date	2020/21 Quarter 4	Previous year to Date	2019/20 Quarter 4
90.37%	90.09%	87.49%	90.20%

 

For the benefit of new members on the Committee, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that on-call workers had other day jobs in the community and had to live within 5 minutes of the fire station. On-Call fire stations were situated in lower-risk areas across the county. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer made reference to the high levels of availability of on-call fire engines.

 

2.4.1   Fire Engine Availability – On-Call 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 on-call duty system (OC) 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                         

 

Standard: As a subset of KPI 2.4 there was no standard attributable to this KPI.

 

The percentage of time that OC crewed engines were available for quarter 4 was 88.35%. This excluded the wholetime detachments shown in KPI 2.4.

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained that resources from the wholetime duty system were moved to subsidise the on-call fire station when needed. A report would be brought forward to a future Performance Committee for members to consider prior to it being presented to the Fire Authority, which would propose using alternative software to determine how to keep stations available based on risk and demand, as opposed to arbitrary arrangements which sometimes did not always improve service-wide cover.

 

2.5      Staff Accidents

 

This indicator measured the number of staff accidents.

The number of staff accidents during the latest quarter decreased by 45.45% against the same quarter of the previous year.

 

Year to Date	2020/21 Quarter 4	Previous year to Date	2019/20 Quarter 4
56	6	73	11

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that there had been a 23% reduction in the number of accidents from this year compared to last year which was testimony to the positive health and safety culture and how staff were encouraged to report near-misses.

 

KPI 3 – Delivering, value for money in how we use our resources

 

3.1      Progress against Savings Programme

 

The annual budget for 2020/21 was set at £57.3m and the spend for the year was currently £56.9m, giving an underspend of £0.4m. However, the closure of the accounts process in May and June (including year-end accounting adjustments in respect of items such as provisions and transfers and capital accounting) had yet to be finalised. Following completion of the year end process, this was expected to remain in a similar position and would be reported to a future meeting of the Resources Committee.

 

3.2      Overall User Satisfaction

 

There had been 2,674 people surveyed since April 2012 and the number satisfied with the service was 2,645; % satisfied was 98.92% against a standard of 97.50%; a variance of 1.40%.

 

During the latest quarter, 122 people were surveyed and 120 responded that they were ‘very satisfied’ or ‘fairly satisfied’ with the service they received.

 

KPI 4 – Valuing, our people so that they can focus on making Lancashire safer

 

4.2.1 Staff Absence – Excluding on-Call 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 7.372

 

This was a negative exception report due to the number of shifts lost through absence per employee being above the Service target for each month during quarter 4.

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented Members with the analysis, that:

 

During quarter 4, January 2021 – March 2021, absence statistics showed above target for all three months for both Whole-time personnel and Non-uniformed personnel.  There were 7 cases of long-term absence which spanned over the total of the 3 months and there were 22 other cases of long-term absence which were also recorded within the 3 months; reasons for these absences were set out in the report.  It was noted that during the quarter 10 employees had returned to duty.

 

At the end of March 2021, the cumulative totals showed that non-uniformed staff absence was above target at 8.58 shifts lost per employee, for whole-time uniformed staff absence was also above target at 6.99 shifts lost per employee.

 

Overall absence for all staff (except On Call staff) was 7.37 shifts lost which was above the Service target of 5.00 shifts lost for the year.

 

The cumulative figures in the period included employees absent due to coronavirus and those required to self-isolate as a result of coronavirus since 1st September 2020.

 

Members also considered the actions undertaken to improve performance which included that the Service aimed to continue with:

 

·         Early intervention by Occupational Health Unit (OHU) doctor / nurse / physiotherapist;

·         Human Resources supported managers in following the Absence Management Policy, ensuring the appropriate management of individual long-term cases, signposting to support, addressing review periods / triggers in a timely manner;

·         Signposting to the Employee Assistance Programme, Health Assured who offer support to deal with practical and emotional challenges may face and confidential support services;

·         Delivering leadership development events to those in a leadership role focusing on strengthening resilience, employee engagement, health, and wellbeing.

·         Signposting and encouraging employees to make use of other forms of support including the Firefighters Charity and other forms of support for those who have challenges with their mental health;

·         Undertaking Stress Risk Assessments ensuring the causation of stress are identified and the measures and controls to mitigate stress are implemented;

·         Provision of fitness advice via the Fitness Advisor and Personal Training Instructors (PTIs);

·         Provision of dietary advice through Occupational Health;

·         Provision of physiotherapy and muscular health advice and guidance;

·         Promotion of health, fitness and wellbeing via the routine bulletin and the Engine House;

·         Building resilience programme on the Health and Wellbeing pages on the Engine House;

·         Health and Wellbeing talks;

·         Health and Wellbeing campaign;

·         TRiM (Trauma Risk Management) assessments;

·         Ageing Workforce Task and Finish Group.

 

4.2.2   Staff Absence – On-Call Duty System

 

This indicator measured the percentage of contracted hours lost due to sickness for all on-call contracted staff.

 

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

 

Cumulative on-call absence (as % of available hours cover) at the end of the quarter, 1.01%.

 

The Chairman noted that overall user satisfaction was high and it was pleasing to see how the Service had performed. He congratulated the Service on how they had performed under difficult circumstances this year.

 

In response to a question from Councillor Woollam regarding the criteria used for home fire safety check visits, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that there was an online platform where people could enter their details which aimed to identify the most vulnerable who would receive a visit.  Lower risk households received bespoke fire safety advice by email.  In addition, the Service worked with over 250 partners who made referrals.  Individuals who were the most vulnerable and at risk were prioritised i.e: referrals from LCC adult social care and others including dementia groups.  Members could also signpost vulnerable people to specialist services using the details on the website.  The Deputy Director for Operational Response added that the Service used partnership referrals and data received to proactively promote fire safety awareness.  Near miss incidents (where the Service had attended a fire alarm that did not result in a fire) were followed up.  It was noted that home fires were recognised in the community as a significant event which presented an opportunity for the Service to engage with local community members to raise fire safety awareness.

 

As a Wyre Councillor, Councillor Kay recalled a recent event where a travelling community had set a fire to burn waste; in response to her request to tidy the site before leaving.  At the time of the fire she liaised with Wyre Council, Lancashire Constabulary and the Service to ensure the fire did not cause disruption to the local community.  She queried whether there could be an identified liaison person to provide advice to the travelling community regarding fire safety.  In response, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that local community fire safety teams did undertake preventative work with district council housing colleagues and community safety partnerships and the Service Delivery Manager for Fleetwood would be asked to contact Councillor Kay to provide advice and support.

 

In response to a question from Councillor Smith regarding Road Safety Education being delivered back in school settings, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the intention was to return to face-to-face events and demonstrations from September, although throughout the pandemic the Service had made use of digital technology to continue delivering prevention advice.

 

In response to a further question from Councillor Smith concerning whether the recent increase in notifications from the NHS Covid-19 application had caused problems with staff having to isolate, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer stated that this had impacted on the Service 2 weeks previously where there had been 60-70 staff isolating/sick with covid-19, but numbers were now starting to decline. Services and activities had been maintained through high standards of health and safety. The Service had worked closely with the FBU and staff were following national covid-19 secure hands, face and space and fresh air guidelines.  In addition, due to the control measures in place, the Director of Public Health for Lancashire was allowing the Service to move away from the 10-day isolation period for staff identified as a close contact because of activity whilst on duty and, subject to a negative PCR test, staff could attend work providing lateral flow tests were undertaken for the following 10 days.

 

In response to a question from Councillor Kay regarding road safety education for youths speeding in the Wyre district, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the Service delivered a number of road safety education packages which included ‘Wasted Lives’ which was aimed at young drivers. A presentation on this would be provided for the next Performance Committee. The Deputy Director for Operational Response advised that Safety Advisors and the Road Safety Partnership could provide something bespoke to a specific group to try and reduce that risk as required and this could be discussed outside the meeting. 

 

The Chairman thanked members and officer for their questions and responses.

 

 

 

NWFC – Call Handling Times

 

Ged Basson, Senior Operations Manager, North West Fire Control (NWFC), provided the Committee with a presentation regarding call handling times at NWFC. NWFC operated the call handling function for Lancashire and other fire services in the North West. Within Lancashire, in the last 12 months, there had been 24,000 admin (approximately 2,000 per month) calls relating to issues such as engines off the run, defective equipment, exercise and training, and advice on mobilisations. Admin calls had experienced a downward trend for the last 3 years.

 

Emergency calls were calls from the public, firefighters, the police, ambulance service and automatic fire alarm companies. There were 32,000 calls in the last twelve months showing a decrease which was positive as it demonstrated that prevention work had been effective. Not all incidents were attended as this could depend on the content of the call when challenged. It was noted that 41% of calls were not mobilised over the last 12 months. This had a positive impact in terms of fuel and appliance availability.

 

Three years of data showed a significant increase in performance and especially over the last 12 months with call handling times. Last year, the average call handling time to property fires was 78 seconds compared to 94 seconds the previous year.

 

Special Service Calls were not fire related and the 90 second target had not been met. However, performance had significantly improved over the last two years.

 

Councillor David Smith questioned the reason for the difference in call handling policies and times in other areas of the North West. The Senior Operations Manager, NWFC explained that the areas of the North West had varying landscapes and a call from a city would vary from a call in a rural area. On some occasions, in the rural areas, it could be difficult to establish the location of a caller and they were exploring obtaining software which pinpointed the location of the person using the GPS on their mobile phone. Currently, callers were asked to use the ‘What 3 Words’ app to find their location.

 

In response to a question from the Chairman, the Senior Operations Manager, NWFC advised that he currently attended the Performance Committee twice per year but could attend more frequently if required.

 

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that some of the KPIs needed a refresh. The KPI 90 second standard was discussed when NWFC was first developed, 9 years ago. He acknowledged the outstanding work of the call handlers and stated that the technology at NWFC was among the best in the country. Acquiring new technology would allow a caller to be pinpointed to within metres of their location. He offered Members a visit to NWFC which was welcomed.

 

 

RESOLVED: - That the Committee endorsed the Measuring Progress report for Quarter 4 (including noting the contents of the 1 negative exception report).