Agenda item

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented a report on the Service's Annual Service Plan and Strategic Assessment of Risk for 2024/25.

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;
• Deliver tailored learning and development opportunities;
• Encourage and listen to employee voice;
• Invest in training and technology to improve health and safety;
• Service headquarters and training centre masterplan; and
• Upgrade fire station facilities.

2.     Preventing fire and other emergencies from happening;

• Invest in improvements to our home fire safety check service; and
• Deliver targeted fire prevention activity.

3.     Protecting people and property when fires happen;

• Strengthen our fire safety inspection programme to meet evolving standards; and
• Transform fire protection and business safety.

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

• Implement our emergency cover review which includes:
  • Introduce more resilient crewing arrangements;
  • Review emergency cover in Preston;
  • 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;
• Drill tower replacement programme; and
• Invest in our fleet and operational equipment.

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

• Create a new rota management team;
• Review productivity and efficiency;
• Drive efficiencies through digitisation;
• Introduce Microsoft Power BI dashboards; and
• Collaborate with other public services.

In response to a comment from Councillor Hugo regarding counselling services offered by LFRS for staff, and a query in relation to EDI, as to whether there was a system available for staff to report bullying and mental health, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer stated that culture and values within Fire and Rescue Services was a priority for the HMI, and as recommended in the national culture and values report, the Service had introduced an anonymous reporting line. The Service had introduced ‘Safe Call’ which enabled staff to call and anonymously report a complaint, however, it was difficult to further investigate some complaints without contact details, but multiple complaints or patterns could be recognised and acted upon. The Assistant Chief Fire Officer advised that the Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) process had been reviewed to ensure it was fit for purpose and the Service made sure that all processes offered, continually evolved in relation to mental health. The Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) provided staff with counselling and support for a variety of issues which could also be used in conjunction with the Occupational Health Unit and an individual’s medical practitioner.

Councillor Hugo queried whether managers were proactive and would encourage or guide staff towards support services if they became aware of any personal problems or issues with mental health. The Assistant Chief Fire Officer confirmed that, in those circumstances, a manager would have exploratory conversations with staff and actively direct them towards accessing support. Additionally, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer informed that managers were trained, through the Leadership and Development Programme, to effectively handle such scenarios.

In response to a query from County Councillor Hennessy in relation to including employee support services in the Annual Service Plan, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer and Assistant Chief Fire Officer explained that existing services and procedures were not included in the ASP as the report provided information regarding forward planning for the Service which identified requirements for continual progress.

County Councillor Shedwick expressed confidence in the Service and that the Watch Managers and Station Managers knew their crews well. The Assistant Chief Fire Officer advised that the last item on the agenda would mention good practice in policies and procedures, and the early identification of personal employee issues.

In response to a question from Councillor Hugo, the Assistant Chief Fire Officer explained that in the event that an employee was suspended, they would receive written correspondence which would direct them to access support services, the EAP, and where appropriate they would be referred to Occupational Health.

Councillor Hugo enquired about the Service’s response to climate mitigation. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that, through an annual planning day involving the Service Management Team, the Service identified environmental priorities alongside the work of the Safety, Health and Envionment Department which would review a 25-year plan around the Carbon Reduction Management Plan. This plan would be presented to Members through a future committee.

Following a request from County Councillor Hennessy for further information regarding HFSCs and aligning with national principles and products, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained that the NFCC had a variety of products that included Staywise, which was an education prevention programme aimed at children of school age, and a dashboard which filtered HFSC needs through a series of questions which the Service could refer to. LFRS would continue to develop ways of improving HFSC referrals and visits through future work.

In response to a request from County Councillor Hennessy for an example of evaluating ways to develop the Service to take account of emerging trends, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer referenced the Strategic Assessment of Risk and the Evaluation Framework that the Service had developed. Through the Evaluation Framework, patterns could be identified with prevention work put in place which would then be evaluated for effectiveness.

County Councillor Hennessy requested further information regarding the development of a new recruitment and workforce planning tool to which the Deputy Chief Fire officer responded that work would take place with ORH Ltd (developers of the Dynamic Cover Tool), to explore the data from the Service to create a workforce planning tool for on-call. The tool could then provide an analysis for each station of the officer in charge skill, drivers, availability etc, and intelligently evaluate the best resourcing / future planning arrangement. Members noted that an update would be provided to a future committee.

Resolved: That the Planning Committee noted and endorsed the Annual Service Plan for publication.