Agenda item

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented a report on the Service's Annual Service Plan and Strategic Assessment of Risk for 2022/23. 

This year’s Annual Service Plan, as now considered by Members continued to provide LFRS with the platform to highlight the priority activities and projects the Service intended to deliver over the coming year; leading improvements and innovation in the sector with some of the best firefighting equipment and training facilities in the country and a highly skilled and motivated workforce.

The year ahead would build on achievements by staying focused on continuous improvement to make the people of Lancashire safer, particularly the most vulnerable members of our communities. Many priorities were initiatives that would transform the way the Service worked and would bring lasting benefits.

Annual Service Plan

The Annual Service Plan was built around the Service’s four corporate priorities as detailed in the Community Risk Management Plan which were: -

1.    Valuing our people so they can focus on making Lancashire safer;

2.    Preventing fire and other emergencies from happening and Protecting people and property when fires happen;

3.    Responding to fire and other emergencies quickly and competently;

4.    Delivering value for money in how we use our resources.

The Annual Service Plan informed activity that would be led across the Service as well as locally within district plans. Activities that were planned for delivery also informed the staff performance appraisal process so that all staff understood the plans and were involved in helping to deliver key activities.

As in previous years, detailed under each corporate priority was a series of priority activities and projects with a brief description of each item to give further clarity and context. This ensured that all staff and the public were informed of the changes and activities the Service aimed to progress and how these items fitted within our priorities. This provided the opportunity for the Service to ensure that it continued to provide transparency and visibility of plans in a clear concise format. The governance arrangements for delivery of the Annual Service Plan items would continue to be monitored through the Service's Corporate Programme Board and Service Management Team.

As always, the aim was to continually improve and refine the planning process and this year’s Plan aimed to add focus on achievable objectives to be delivered within the year, acknowledging that a proportion of items were continued from the 2020/21 Plan, reflecting the commitment to a number of long-term projects.

Strategic Assessment of Risk

Risk in Lancashire would always remain dynamic: it changed over time, differed by area and demographic, and needed different interventions to reduce the likelihood of the risk occurring or to lessen its consequences. These risks were identified in the Strategic Assessment of Risk which was refreshed annually and was also informed by the Lancashire Resilience Forum Community Risk Register. Through our risk management framework, the Service continually assessed changing risk and prioritised our response framework.  A wider consultation had also taken place, involving Unitary Authorities, District Councils, Lancashire County Council and Lancashire Constabulary, in order to gain a more complete collaborative picture of the perceived risk from the viewpoint of all organisations.

This year’s Assessment was built on previous iterations as the Service sought to continually improve its risk management processes. This year the Service had sought to identify more clearly how it responded to a number of the strategic risks identified, examples being the response to the emerging threat of climate change which would be delivered through a new Climate Change Response Plan. 

The Strategic Assessment of Risk reflected the knowledge and experience of a variety of specialist departments and utilised Incident Recording System data to derive a data driven methodology that highlighted the incident types that posed the greatest risk to the county of Lancashire and the individuals who lived and worked within it.  The Strategic Assessment of Risk drove both Service and district level response to risk and enabled LFRS to tailor prevention, protection and response activities to identified risks.

Following a comment by County Councillor Dad regarding welcome improvements to premises, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer confirmed that the condition of the estate was considered on an ongoing basis and any health and safety matters would be addressed immediately.  He advised that ongoing investment also included staff training and improvements to drill towers.  Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Jon Charters added that the work programme for Hyndburn included consideration of improvements to dormitory arrangements in recognition that the diversity of the workforce was changing.

In response to a question raised by County Councillor Hennessy the Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer confirmed that the property asset management plan (PAMP) set out our medium term ambitions and formed part of submissions to Resources Committee.  In response to a further question raised by County Councillor Mirfin regarding the age of the premises the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the PAMP contained this detail and included the private finance initiative premises procured as part of a joint project across the North West.  The Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer added that the most recent station build was the joint Fire/Ambulance station at Lancaster.

RESOLVED: - That the Planning Committee noted and endorsed the Annual Service Plan and Strategic Assessment of Risk 2022/23 acknowledging the continuation of the data driven approach taken in its production.