Verbal report.
Minutes:
The Chair welcomed Ged Basson, Senior Operations Manager, North West Fire Control (NWFC). Mr Basson, provided the Committee with a presentation detailing the performance of NWFC during quarter 2 (July – September 2022).
Emergency Calls in to NWFC
NWFC received 36,743 in quarter 2 compared to 43,583 for the same quarter of 2021/22. For the year to date, NWFC had received 77,044 emergency calls compared to 86,544 for the same period of the previous year. Emergency calls included 999 calls from members of the public and emergency calls from Lancashire Constabulary and North West Ambulance Service. Mr Basson highlighted that there were peaks in call handling during the spring/summer months and around Bonfire night in November.
Emergency Calls for LFRS
A total of 9,299 emergency calls were received in quarter 2 for LFRS, compared to 10,414 for the same quarter of the previous year. For the year to date, NWFC had received 19,835 emergency calls for LFRS, compared to 20,845 for the same period of the previous year.
Admin Calls in to NWFC
NWFC had received a total of 31,727 admin calls in quarter 2, compared to 29,432 in quarter 2 of the previous year. The number of calls for the year to date was 61,452, compared to 58,506 for the same period of the previous year. Mr Basson explained that the exception in July, which fell outside of the tolerance level, was due to the extreme weather conditions.
Admin calls included crews and officers contacting NWFC for either guidance, or to offer advice such as notification of missing equipment, defective resources, liaising with control regarding exercises or resources availability.
Mr Basson confirmed with Councillor Smith, that all calls received regarding the same incident were all recorded as separate calls and not as one collective call.
Admin Calls for LFRS
Within quarter 2, a total of 7,384 admin calls were received for Lancashire Fire and Rescue (LFRS), compared to 6,116 in quarter 2 of the previous year. For the year to date, NWFC had received 14,405 admin calls for LFRS compared to 12,319 calls for the same period of the previous year.
Calls Challenged Resulting in No Mobilisation
In quarter 2, the percentage of calls challenged and not mobilised to was 44%, compared to 42% for the same quarter of 2021/22. For the year to date 45% had been challenged and had resulted in no mobilisation, compared to 42% of calls for the same period of the previous year.
In April, NWFC implemented a new call challenge process for automated fire alarms on behalf of LFRS, which could have attributed to the positive exception in quarter 2.
Fires: Average Response to Mobilise First Resource
For NWFC, mobilising performance times for fires in quarter 2 was 84 seconds which was under the 90 second target. NWFC had continued to mobilise resources to fires under the 90 second target for the year to date.
All FRS Response Times – Fires
The call handling times for fires continued to be relatively favourable compared to other fire and rescue services (Cumbria, Cheshire, and Manchester). The call handling time remained within the 90 second target.
Special Service Calls – Average Response to Mobilise First Resource
Mobilising performance times for LFRS in quarter 2 for special service calls was 125 seconds which had been maintained from quarter 2 of the previous year. LFRS mobilising times for special service calls for the year to date was 127 seconds compared to 126 seconds for the same period of the previous year. It was noted that several incidents were exempted from the data which included those incidents where there was not an automatic response from NWFC, but when Lancashire FRS had asked that further clarification was sought from a specialist officer, e.g., NILO, prior to mobilisation due to the type of incident, such as suspect packages, and missing persons. Other incidents excluded were, when crews had proceeded to fix a defective smoke alarm several hours after being notified or where incidents had to be queued due to a depletion of FRS resources in a location.
All FRS Response Times – Special Service Calls
The average response times for all FRS Special Service Calls was similar to the other Fire and Rescue Services (Cumbria, Cheshire, and Manchester).
RESOLVED: - That the content of the presentation be noted.