Agenda item

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented a report on the Service's Annual Service Plan and Strategic Assessment of Risk for 2023/24.

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 (SaoR) which was refreshed annually and was also informed by the Lancashire Resilience Forum Community Risk Register. Through its risk management framework, the Service continually assessed changing risk and prioritised its response framework. 

The Strategic Assessment of Risk reflected the knowledge and experience of a variety of specialist departments and utilised Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) Incident Recording System (IRS) 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. 

This year’s document built on previous iterations as LFRS sought to continually improve its risk management processes.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer drew Members attention to the final paragraph of the introduction (page 43 of the agenda pack) particularly that “the environment in which we operate is constantly changing and new risks to our communities will always emerge”.  He advised that significant changes had been made to the ‘About Lancashire’ section, which had been refreshed to ensure the Service was using the most up-to-date data sources available and most notably the section now used 2021 census data.  The report also detailed risks relating to: Deprivation (and the correlation to fire risk); the wide range of Infrastructure risk within Lancashire in terms of operational response (including to: reservoirs, dams, wind turbines, ports and rail networks); the Built Environment (from the newer forms of construction materials and the ongoing work following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 supporting future buildings to be as safe as they could be); Technology (including electric vehicles and bulk/battery energy storage systems); and Wildfire Incidents (and the impact of climate change.  This in turn informed the Climate Change Operational Response Plan that detailed how LFRS would respond to increased flooding and wildfires).  Pages 53 – 55 of the agenda pack presented data analysis that fed into the risk methodology used and how the Service resourced to risk.  A heat map on page 56 of the agenda pack showed centres of high incident activity alongside fire station locations which reassured Members that resources were aligned to risk.  From page 58 onwards the report detailed the risk assessment methodology used and the risk associated against the 32 incident types which had resulted in some movement in the ranking of the highest risk incident types. 

In response to a question from County Councillor S Rigby concerning his county council division of St Annes, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the heat map showed high level activity across Lancashire and the Strategic Assessment of Risk drove robust Service, district and local station level response to risk thereby enabling LFRS to tailor prevention, protection and response activities to the identified risks.  This process had been commended by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services. 

County Councillor Rigby also queried why there was an increase in special service incidents (as detailed under the historical data section of the report on page 53 of the agenda pack).  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer  advised that special service calls related to non-fire related incidents where the Service offered support, for example to blue light colleagues (ie: gaining entry into properties and missing persons’ searches), in addition to incidents such as road traffic collisions.  In response to a further question regarding whether this was reflected in the spending profile the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that investment (for example in drone technology) had been made which supported the broader response of keeping the communities in Lancashire safer.  He advised that the Service was considering a recharge policy to recover costs when specialist assets such as our drones and dogs were used outside of Lancashire and/or with other Blue Light partners.

With reference to County Councillor Rigby’s query, County Councillor Shedwick confirmed he would welcome the Deputy Chief Fire Officer’s proposal for a presentation at a future Strategy Group on how the Service used data to assess risk.

Councillor Williams queried the level of incidents attended that included lithium?ion batteries.  In response, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that there had been a national increase in response to fire from power sources in road vehicles and solar panels and these could be difficult to extinguish.  Power generated by renewable energy sources was being stored in lithium?ion battery solutions (including large battery energy storage systems, one of which is located in Preston; typically housed in a bank of what looked like shipping containers).  Modern solar panels were increasingly linked to a domestic battery storage systems which created additional hazards for firefighters attending these types of incidents.  Details regarding the number of incidents attended was available and could form part of the presentation to the Strategy Group.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer added that there was national recognition that emerging technology was a risk.  The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) had a working group which looked to link with industry and suppliers of technology to understand what was being produced and consider how to alter operational response arrangements to respond appropriately to those risks.  More locally, Area Manager John Rossen was the lead for the north west’s emerging technology group on behalf of the NFCC and work was ongoing with other North West Fire and Rescue Services to analyse data and identify emerging local risks.

In response to a question raised by County Councillor Hennessy regarding the highest risks, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the table on page 61 of the agenda pack showed all incident categories which ranked the highest risk in red, down to the lowest risk for each of the risk areas based on the risk assessment methodology.  Property fires both domestic and commercial were at the top of the risk table, followed closely by climate change challenges and road traffic collisions.  The risk calculation was complicated and could change.  It depended on the number of incidents as well as the outcome of those incidents ie: wildfires and flooding did not occur regularly but did have a massive impact on communities and the environment.  In response to a further question the Deputy Chief Fire Officer confirmed that communication campaigns were linked to these risks.  National prevention campaigns were led by NFCC and local campaigns were based on local intelligence and delivered in line with local plans.

Councillor Jackson advised that the ‘new urban design approach’ referred to on page 48 of the report had been in operation in Blackpool for several years.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer confirmed that the wording in the report would be amended before publication.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer then referred to the Annual Service Plan.

Annual Service Plan

The Annual Service Plan continued to provide Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (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 Annual Service Plan was built around the Service’s 5 corporate priorities as detailed in the Community Risk Management Plan.  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 as now considered by Members, these were: -

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

• Create an organisational culture where diversity is encouraged and valued;
• Introduce peer support ambassadors;
• Explore the future of Service headquarters;
• Upgrade fire station facilities;
• Improve learning and development systems; and,
• Deliver firefighter pension changes.

2.    Preventing fire and other emergencies from happening;

• Invest in digital improvements to our home fire safety check service;
• Improve evaluation of fire prevention activity; and
• Strengthen operational risk information.

3.    Protecting people and property when fires happen;

• Expand our business fire safety check service;
• Strengthen our fire safety inspection programme to meet evolving standards;
• Introduce a revised automatic fire alarm attendance policy; and
• Transform fire protection and business safety.

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

• Implement our emergency cover review which includes:
  • Review emergency cover in Preston;
  • Introduce more resilient and flexible crewing arrangements;
  • Optimise emergency cover through dynamic cover software;
  • Strengthen our response to climate change emergencies;
  • Strengthen firefighting and rescue capabilities in high-rise and commercial buildings; and
  • Broaden on-call firefighting capabilities to strengthen operational response.
• Invest in our training centre;
• Build 4 new drill towers;
• Invest in our fleet; and
• Implement operational learning in response to national events.

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

• Review productivity and efficiency;
• Replace performance and analysis software;
• Collaborate with other public services; and
• Install CCTV on fire engines and other service vehicles.

Activities that were planned to be delivered also informed the staff performance appraisal process, so all staff understood plans and were involved in helping to deliver key activities.

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 2022/23 Plan, reflecting the commitment to a number of long-term projects.

With reference to the scored incident categories on page 61 of the agenda pack, County Councillor O’Toole was proud that the risks were transparent.  He was pleased that the Plan included the need to redevelop Preston Fire Station and to explore the potential relocation of headquarters which had been discussed by the Authority for many years.  He suggested that a previously constituted Task and Finish Working Group be re-established to support both of these building projects.  This was supported by County Councillor Shedwick who commented on the need for a review of Service requirements across Preston given the level of change.  In response the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the redevelopment of Preston Fire Station would be reviewed which would include options to rebuild in situ or at an alternate site in Preston whereby consideration would be given to the impact on nearby stations.  He confirmed that options would come back to Members for consideration.  In addition, the review of capital projects would look at potential improvements at the Service training centre and the potential relocation of service HQ to the training centre.  These 3 key areas all impacted on the capital programme which Members would be reviewing at the next Authority meeting.

In response to a comment from County Councillor Hennessy the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that wording in the introduction to the Annual Service Plan (page 28 section 2) regarding the introduction of more resilient and flexible crewing arrangements could be amended to be clear this would be through engagement with staff and trade unions. 

County Councillor Singleton thanked officers for the detailed report and for outlining a very challenging service plan.  He commented that the plan would be impacted from any strike action and welcomed the plans for Preston station, supporting the establishment of a task and finish working group proposed by the Authority Chairman.

Resolved: That the Planning Committee noted and endorsed the Annual Service Plan and Strategic Assessment of Risk for publication.