Agenda item

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented the report. The Annual Service Report was produced annually by the Service as part of its accountability to measure progress against the items set out as deliverables as part of the Annual Service Plan. These actions were derived from the medium-term strategic goals highlighted in the Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP).

 

The Annual Service Report highlighted a number of key deliverables against the priority areas of: i) people, ii) prevention, iii) protection, iv) response and v) value for money related work streams:

 

i) Valuing our people so they can focus on making Lancashire safer

 

·         Launched the Lift and Climb mentoring programme. This gave everyone within the service the opportunity to maximise their potential by pairing with a colleague for professional or personal development and parallel, or reverse mentoring.

·         Embed the Core Code of Ethics alongside the services STRIVE values. These provided guidance on the professional behaviours expected of staff to ensure the workplace was one where everyone felt valued, included, and able to reach their full potential.

·         Introduced peer support ambassadors who volunteered to raise awareness of mental health problems and challenge mental health stigma in the workplace.

·         Upgrade fire station facilities.

·         Improved learning and development systems.

·         Explored the future of Service Headquarters.

·         Delivering firefighter pension changes.

·         A celebration of our people through award ceremonies, Chief Fire Officer personal commendations and from individual and organisational recognition at national level.

 

ii) Preventing fires and other emergencies from happening

 

·         Joined with partners to introduce a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) for parts of Chorley, Darwen and Bolton to prevent wildfires on the moors.

·         Invested in digital improvements to the service’s home fire safety check (HFSC) service.

·         Improved evaluation of fire prevention activity.

·         Strengthened operation risk information by improving the Provision of Operational Risk Information System (PORIS) which ensured crews were given quick and easy access to relevant information relating to operational incidents.

·         Had a positive influence on children and young adults through the services collaboration with The Prince’s Trust. Throughout the year, the Service conducted 25 comprehensive 12-week programmes, which directly impacted 277 young individuals aged 16-25 across nine Lancashire locations.

 

In November 2023, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service was delighted to be honoured at the Asian Fire Service Association awards. Nominated in four different categories, the service won two awards.

 

Community Safety Advisor, Faz Patel, won the award for Partnership of the Year for the services Safety during Hajj campaign. This initiative aimed to ensure that Lancashire’s residents could travel to, and around Saudi Arabia, in the safest ways possible and in doing so, enjoy the most fulfilled and rewarding pilgrimage. Station Manager Trevor Jenkins won the Health and Inequalities category for the services initiative together with public health of delivering NHS checks in East Lancashire.

 

The Services Race and Religion Employee Voice Group and Positive Action Team were both highly commended in the Champion of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion and Positive Action categories respectively.

 

In response to questions from County Councillor O’Toole in relation to enforcing PSPOs, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer confirmed that the service was working with partner agencies to identify individuals and carry out prevention activities where possible. Area Manager Ashton added that there had been a lot of community engagement, signage displayed, and volunteer fire watches used.

 

In response to questions from County Councillor Hennessy in relation to raising awareness on the work of the Service in the media, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the Service’s Corporate Communications Team promoted work through campaigns, publications and social media posts. There had been multiple TV appearances by staff and, additionally, the Service had a wild fire theme wrapped appliance.

 

County Councillor Singleton remarked that he was pleased to see Prince’s Trust information included within the report and asked if the service could include details of how many individuals had gained employment or gone on to further education following completion of the Prince’s Trust programme. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that he would find out the details requested. The Chair referenced working with young people from the Prince’s Trust Programme in her job and how the course had positively impacted their lives.

 

County Councillor Shedwick commended the work of Faz Patel for again, promoting safety during Hajj.

 

iii) Protecting people and property when fires happen

 

·         Exceeded the Services target for business fire safety checks (BFSCs). In 2023-24, the Service delivered over 3,307 BFSCs in commercial premises across Lancashire, above the target of 2,500 for the year.

·         Transformed fire protection and business safety.

·         Strengthen the Service’s fire safety inspection programme to meet evolving standards.

·         Introduced a new automatic fire alarm attendance policy.

 

iv) Responding to fires and other emergencies quickly and competently

 

·         New appliances strengthened operational response capabilities. The Service had invested £800,000 in two large incident command units and one smaller command support unit which joined the fleet in 2023-24.

·         Implemented an emergency cover review (ECR).

·         Reviewing emergency cover in Preston.

·         Introduced more resilient and flexible crewing arrangements.

·         Optimised emergency cover through dynamic cover software.

·         Strengthen the Services response to climate change emergencies.

·         Strengthen firefighting and rescue capabilities in high-rise and commercial buildings.

·         Broaden on-call firefighting capabilities to strengthen operational response.

·         Invest in the Services Training Centre.

·         Build four new drill towers.

·         Implement operational learning in response to national events.

·         Introduced an underwater drone, a remotely operated vehicle, for search and rescue operations. LFRS became the first service in the UK to introduce this.

 

The report included a summary of the Service’s performance in relation to responding:

 

Overall activity

·         17,395 incidents attended

·         653 road traffic collisions attended (up from 621)

·         152 missing person searches (up from 94)

·         4,678 fires attended (down from 5,632)

·         1,077 gaining entry to property incidents in support of North West Ambulance Service (up from 914)

 

Average attendance time

·         Overall - 8 minutes 6 seconds

·         Critical fire response – first fire engine attendance – 7 mins 30 seconds

·         Critical special service response – first fire engine attendance – 8 minutes 30 seconds

Fire engine availability: – 88.66%

 

In response to a request from County Councillor O’Toole in relation to statistics for comparison from previous years for the number of incidents attended, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that this could be added but increases should not always be viewed negatively as this would include increased assistance to partner agencies and improved the safety of our communities such as gaining entry. Council Councillor Hennessy added that it may be useful for the type of incidents attended to be broken down into percentages and compared against the previous year. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that changes to the statistics in the report would be requested with Corporate Communications.

 

In response to questions from County Councillor Singleton in relation to including details of sentences and court results, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that a summary of the number of prosecutions could be included. County Councillor Hennessy added that it was important to note that there may be a court delay in some cases which could distort the figures if from a previous year. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that a summary of the work around the Incident Intelligence Officer (IIO) cases could be added to the report, rather than specific numbers of cases.

 

v) Delivering value for money in how we use our resources

 

·         Delivering training and development differently.

·         Review productivity and efficiency.

·         Replace performance and analysis software.

·         Collaborate with other public services.

·         Install CCTV on fire engines and other service vehicles.

 

In response to a question from the Chair in relation to CCTV having a positive impact on Firefighter Safety, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that all new Fire Engines had CCTV fitted as standard. A pilot of body worn cameras was ongoing with Union support, this allowed evidence to be captured for future use. This pilot had not been rolled out to front line crews yet.

 

The Chair stated that the service was in a good position and had received national recognition.

 

The Chair asked if Members could attend the Star Awards. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained that the Chair, Vice Chair and Leader of the majority group were invited to attend. County Councillor Hennessy asked that the invitation be extended to all Members. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that it would be dependent on the venue but he could explore that option.

 

Resolved: That the Planning Committee noted and endorsed the Annual Service Report.