Agenda item

Other Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Ben Norman presented the report.  It was noted that the collaborative efforts of Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) personnel remained focussed upon the ongoing efforts to reduce the impact of the Covid19 pandemic. As previously reported the secondment of emergency planning expertise from LFRS into the Lancashire Resilience Forum had ceased. The ongoing response and recovery interactions were being delivered by core staff within the Response and Emergency Planning team and other key functions such as Fire Safety Enforcement working in close collaboration with Local Authority teams. 

One notable exception was the vast presence of LFRS colleagues operating in the five mass vaccination centres (Lancaster, Preston, Blackpool, Blackburn, and Burnley). Since the opening of the first vaccination sites in Lancashire over the Christmas 2020 period volunteer staff members had been at each site every day. The dedication and passion demonstrated by the collective team of over 300 volunteers was hugely profound; with over 410,000 vaccinations supported by LFRS personnel and some 45,000 vaccines had been injected by those who volunteered to partake in this role.

It was noted that the Chief Fire Officer welcomed the Fire Minister, Lord Greenhalgh to the county on Friday 25 June 2021 as it gave LFRS the opportunity to show him how the Service had contributed to making Lancashire safer during the coronavirus pandemic.  At the Preston vaccination site, Lord Greenhalgh met volunteers who had helped deliver and administer vaccinations across Lancashire since December 2020.  Lord Greenhalgh heard from the volunteers about the reasons why they had volunteered and how they had helped keep patients safe and warm when they have been arriving at vaccination clinics.

Lord Greenhalgh said:

“Firefighters and fire staff across the country have worked incredibly hard to support the response to coronavirus and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service is an exceptional example.

“The team in Lancashire have led the way, becoming the first fire service in the country to assist the NHS with the distribution of the vaccine and also to fully train their staff as vaccinators.

“By doing so, they have shown that those in fire services are ready, willing and able to go above and beyond to keep the British public safe, once again demonstrating they truly are the very best of us.

“It was an honour to meet with the team in Lancashire and I am immensely proud of their efforts and all the work they doing to keep us safe.”

In addition to the Covid19 deliverables the Blue Light Collaboration Board commissioned a summary review of the innovative project work delivered prior to the pandemic. This review was carried out by Shared Service Architecture consultants who were recognised by both the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) and National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) as sector leads.  Their phase 1 benefits realisation report concluded that cashable and non-cashable savings of over £1.246 million were identified. The report author went on to describe that “we can confidently report that cashable, non-cashable and demonstrable improvements in partnership working have been evidenced in this ‘Benefits Realisation’ report. Overall, we conclude that the direction of travel of the initial 32 projects, which subsequently have been expanded to 35+ collaborative projects is positive, providing a solid foundation to build the partnership going forward.”

In June 2021, the LFRS Sponsor for the Blue Light Collaboration workstream, the Director of Strategy and Planning met with both the Deputy Chief Constable, Lancashire Constabulary and Lancashire Emergency Response lead for North West Ambulance Service (NWAS).  Through these meetings it was agreed that the Memorandum of Understanding would be redrafted to include NWAS as a named partner.  It was also agreed that the 3 blue light services would request that their respective Programme Managers draft a refreshed work plan for consideration by the sponsors and a meeting be set for September 2021 for the work to formally re-start. This would include the Lancashire Constabulary led recruitment of a Blue Light Collaboration Project Administrator. 

RESOLVED: - That the report be noted and endorsed.