Agenda item

Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Ben Norman presented the report.  He advised that the National Framework issued by central government required the Combined Fire Authority (CFA) to create an Integrated Risk Management Plan.  The Framework provided specific guidance on several salient areas such as prevention and protection delivery and response arrangements. Furthermore, it detailed the requirement for Fire Authorities to draft, consult upon and publish their strategic intent in the format of an Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) which must span at least 3 years.

 

It was noted that Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service’s (LFRS) IRMP was last published in April 2017 and covered the period of 5 years, hence it would end in March 2022. Members considered how the new IRMP had been drafted including the introduction of further best practice with regards to a Strategic Assessment of Risk (SAoR) and the proposals for consultation and further approvals by the Fire Authority.    

 

It was also noted that the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) in June 2021 issued an IRMP best practice guidance document in the format of a Fire Standards Board publication. Therefore, the proposed LFRS IRMP document for the period 2022?27 had been developed to be fully compliant with this guidance; which included using the title of Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) as a replacement for IRMP to cascade a strategy that was more engaging and identifiable to the people of Lancashire.

 

The CRMP 2022-2027: -

 

·         Highlighted Lancashire’s risks;

·         Explained how LFRS would manage and reduce fire and rescue related risk in Lancashire;

·         Set out priorities and values;

·         Set out ambitions against each priority and stated how we aimed to deliver these;

·         Illustrated how we will measure and assure performance; and

·         Identified key strategies.

 

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer confirmed that core deliverables would be scrutinised by the Performance Committee and the Planning Committee would receive an Annual Service Report at its next meeting.  This report provided Members with an overview of progress against work detailed in the Annual Service Plan 2020/21.

 

Key changes within the Community Risk Management Plan 2022-2027 were:

 

·         This iteration of the 5-year risk management plan was called the ‘Community Risk Management Plan’ as opposed to the previous ‘Integrated Risk Management Plan’ which brought the Service in line with other Fire and Rescue Service’s (FRS’s) and national terminology;

·         The CRMP aligned to new NFCC best practice guidance within its methodology;

·         The CRMP was also underpinned by a newly developed data driven SAoR utilising data from our Incident Recording System which had helped identify the highest risk activities/incidents;

·         Three of the key Service strategies, Prevention, Protection and Response had been refreshed to align to national change and guidance were also included with key deliverables to be included within the CRMP consultation;

·         The CRMP did not incorporate the Emergency Cover Review.  This would be conducted and consulted upon separately during 2021/22;

·         The CRMP highlighted a potential change to the way in which calls originating from Automatic Fire Alarms in non-sleeping risk premises would be managed in future. Subject to public consultation the Service may align with other North West FRS’ and remove the attendance unless back-up calls were made;

·         The CRMP also cited the growing number of attendances to domestic automatic fire alarms (Telecare) systems and the benefits of closer working with social care commissioners to develop a domestic false alarm policy to minimise the number of false alarms and maximise the provision of fire safety advice for the most vulnerable in our communities.

 

This CRMP provided an opportunity to reaffirm the aim of LFRS ‘to make Lancashire safer’. The document also presented an opportunity to confirm that LFRS would maintain the 2017-22 IRMP defined ‘our priorities’ as:

 

·         Preventing fires and other emergencies from happening;

·         Protecting people and property when they happen;

·         Responding to fires and other emergencies quickly and competently;

·         Valuing our people so they can focus on Making Lancashire safer;

·         Delivering value for money in and how we use our resources.

 

The draft CRMP 2022-2027 provided details of what LFRS intended to do over the forthcoming five-year period.

 

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer introduced Group Manager Jonny Ashton who presented the Strategic Assessment of Risk (SAoR) document.  This new iteration of the SAoR underpinned the CRMP.  It had been developed to be data led which more accurately assessed the risks that were posed within Lancashire. This approach better enabled the Service to target resources effectively against existing and emerging risk throughout the county.

 

The Risk Management Planning processes provided the opportunity to demonstrate how it was intended to fulfil responsibilities in a clear, cohesive way, to both our communities and other interested parties.

 

The National Framework 2018 detailed the essential content that must be captured within the Integrated Risk Management Plan.  It must:

 

·         Reflect up-to-date risk analyses including an assessment of all foreseeable fire and rescue related risks that could affect the area of the Authority;

·         Demonstrate how prevention, protection and response activities will best be used to prevent fires and other incidents and mitigate the impact of identified risks on its communities, through authorities working either individually or collectively, in a way that makes best use of available resources;

·         Outline required service delivery outcomes including the allocation of resources for the mitigation of risks;

·         Set out its management strategy and risk-based programme for enforcing the provisions of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in accordance with the principles of better regulation set out in the Statutory Code of Compliance for Regulators, and the Enforcement Concordat;

·         Cover at least a three-year time span and be reviewed and revised as often as necessary to ensure that the Authority is able to deliver the requirements set out in this Framework;

·         Reflect effective consultation throughout its development and at all review stages with the community, its workforce and representative bodies and partners; and

·         Be easily accessible and publicly available.

 

The draft CRMP for 2022-27 was fully compliant with these requirements and the NFCC National Standards Board best practice. This included a much-changed LFRS Strategic Assessment of Risk, as now considered. This document built on previous versions of the annual risk assessment methodology whereby each of the 32 incident types such as domestic fires, flooding and road traffic collisions had been quantified using a likelihood and consequence score.

 

The likelihood element looked at the frequency of the incident type occurring within Lancashire utilising the incident data for the previous 3 years. The consequence score was determined by an average derived from seven categories, these being: i) loss of life; ii) injury; iii) economic; iv) environmental; v) societal; vi) political; and vii) impact upon staff.  Members considered the executive risk assessment summary as detailed on pages 60-61 of the agenda pack which included the highest risk incident types.  It was noted that high risk incident types were: flooding, wildfire, accidental dwelling fires, commercial property fires, deliberate building fires and industrial fires; high risk incident types were: road traffic collisions, rescues from a collapsed structure/confined space, high rise fires, hazmat incidents, waste disposal site fires, assisting other agencies, road vehicle fires and fires in buildings under construction.

 

Maintaining a clear and current understanding of the risks which affected Lancashire’s communities underpinned everything – driving both the governance and planning arrangements.

 

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer introduced the Head of Media and Communications, Stephanie Collinson who advised that the core focus of the consultation was to seek views from key stakeholders, communities, and individuals on risks in their communities in order that these could be mitigated in line with national expectations.   She confirmed that social media and the website would be used to contact the 100,000+ LFRS’ followers.  Social media encouraged discussion and there would be an online survey from which feedback and debate would be monitored.  In addition, a dedicated contact email would be provided for stakeholders to contact the Service with their comments.

 

The Head of Media and Communications advised that it was known that direct contact with key stakeholders provided a good means of engagement therefore contact would be made with partners, local authorities, blue light agencies, parish and town councils and community groups such as flood action groups.  Businesses would also be engaged and asked to share information through their networks and young people would be engaged through the Prince’s Trust and Fire Cadet programmes.  Unions would also be included.  She confirmed that a database had been compiled which had over 700 contacts.  In addition, members of the public would be engaged through digital means and through partners such as the Lancashire Resilience Forum.  Support was also requested from Members of the Fire Authority to engage with their partners and constituents.

 

County Councillor Shedwick commented that there had been limited numbers of respondents from previous consultations and that it was good to hear that the Service was reaching out as far as possible.  He confirmed he would like to attend focus groups.  He thought the consultation was a good opportunity to inform consultees of the breadth of work the Service was doing, as evidenced for inspections and which included support, beyond the call of duty, to the vaccination programme.

 

In response to a question from County Councillor Singleton, the Head of Media and Communications confirmed that Clerks of town and parish councils would be contacted regarding the consultation, non-responses would be followed up and that Staining Flood Action Group would be contacted.

 

County Councillor Dad felt that consultation was very important particularly with hard-to-reach groups.  In Hyndburn, the locality hub had representatives across statutory, community and voluntary organisations.  Presentations from LFRS to focus groups would be very important and he would be very happy to provide his support.

 

In response to questions from County Councillor Hennessy, the Head of Media and Communications confirmed that the wording of the questions was primarily around how risks were identified and consultees would be able to comment on anything within the plan separately.  She confirmed that messages would be tailored for stakeholders, direct contact would be made with Authority Members and Service personnel would be promoting engagement in their local areas.  She confirmed there would be a mid-point review which would allow the Service to follow up any non-responses.

 

It was noted that consultation outcomes would be collated and fed into the draft documents where necessary and an update would be presented to CFA meetings as detailed in the table below:

 

Monday 12 July 2021	Draft CRMP goes to CFA planning committee for approval to consult
Wednesday 14 July 2021	Consultation starts
Tuesday 21 September 2021	Consultation ends
Monday 15 November 2021	Final draft of CRMP goes to CFA planning committee for approval
Monday 21 February 2022	Final CRMP presented to full CFA for approval
Friday 1 April 2022	CRMP published

 

Production of the CRMP fell within existing budgets. As with the publication of the last IRMP, the move to publishing the CRMP in a fully digital format reduced costs compared to previous printed versions.

 

County Councillor O’Toole commented that the report was a very good report.  He considered that an additional risk to the community was the Combined Fire Authority’s (CFA) responsibilities being taken over by the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), as had happened in other areas across the country.  The former Lancashire PCC, Mr Grunshaw had begun this process a number of years ago and he had met with cross-party opposition from the CFA and its home authorities (Lancashire County Council Blackpool Council and Blackburn with Darwen Council).  County Councillor O’Toole advised that he had contacted the newly appointed Lancashire PCC, Mr Snowden who had given assurance that this was not his intention.  County Councillor Singleton added that at one time Government had considered merging blue light authorities and it was recognised currently that joint training might be possible in the future.

 

The Committee Chairman, County Councillor Mirfin stated that at the heart of risk was the concept of uncertainty.  From a personal interest, he provided an overview of the risk analyses technique used by Donald Rumsfeld (former US Secretary of State for Defense) for the concepts of: i) known knowns (what you know); ii) known unknowns (what you don’t know); iii) unknown unknowns (what you cannot know); and iv) what you don’t like to know. County Councillor Shedwick commented that Members could always raise any thoughts or concerns with senior officers.

 

RESOLVED: - The Planning Committee approved the draft CRMP 2022-2027 and Strategic Assessment of Risk proceed to public consultation from 14 July 2021 for a period of 10 weeks.