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 4 (January – March 2024).
Calls for LFRS equated to 25% of the total calls for all 4 services (LFRS, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, and Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service).
Emergency Calls in to NWFC
NWFC received 27,937 in quarter 4 compared to 26,849 for the same quarter of 2022/23. For the year to date, NWFC had received 127,789 emergency calls compared to 135,452 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.
There had been a low number of calls in February, which had resulted in a positive exception, as explained in LFRS’s Performance Management Report.
Emergency Calls for LFRS
A total of 5,783 emergency calls were received in quarter 4 for LFRS, compared to 6,036 for the same quarter of the previous year. For the year to date, NWFC had received 29,759 emergency calls for LFRS, compared to 33,446 for the same period of the previous year.
Admin Calls in to NWFC
NWFC had received a total of 25,383 admin calls in quarter 4, compared to 25,917 in quarter 4 of the previous year. The number of calls for the year to date was 113,328, compared to 115,299 for the same period of the previous year.
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 NWFC regarding exercises or resources availability.
Admin Calls for LFRS
Within quarter 4, a total of 5,637 admin calls were received for Lancashire Fire and Rescue (LFRS), compared to 5,873 in quarter 4 of the previous year. For the year to date, NWFC had received 26,272 admin calls for LFRS compared to 26,385 calls for the same period of the previous year.
It was noted that interactions during extended incidents, such as SupaSkips in December, resulted in spikes in activity on the graph between LFRS and NWFC.
Calls Challenged Resulting in No Mobilisation
In quarter 4, the percentage of calls challenged and not mobilised to was 48%, compared to 42% for the same quarter of 2022/23.
These were any calls where Control Room Operators asked additional questions provided by Fire and Rescue Services in order to determine if a response was required. Examples of these incident types were automatic fire alarms, animal rescues, and NWAS gaining entry.
NWFC continued to support Fire & Rescue Services with call challenge questions, which determined whether there were resources mobilised to incidents such as automatic fire alarms. In supporting these initiatives, 48% of calls challenged were not required to be mobilised to, and therefore these resources were available for other emergencies/duties.
Fires: Average Response to Mobilise First Resource
For NWFC, mobilising performance times for fires in quarter 4 was 84 seconds which was under the 90 second target. This compared to 79 for the same quarter in 2022/2023.NWFC had continued to mobilise resources to fires under the 90 second target for the last 3 years.
All FRSs – Fires: Average Response to Mobilise First Resource
The call handling times for fires continued to be relatively favourable compared to other fire and rescue services (Cumbria, Cheshire, and Manchester). During quarter 4, the average time to mobilise the first response to fire related incidents remained within the 90 second target against a national average mobilising time of 126 seconds.
Special Service Calls – Average Response to Mobilise First Resource
Mobilising performance times for LFRS in quarter 4 for special service calls was 116 seconds compared to 119 seconds for quarter 4 of the previous year. LFRS mobilising times for special service calls for the year to date was 118 seconds, compared to 122 seconds for the same period of the previous year.
Action plans were constantly refined, and LFRS worked closely with NWFC to ensure call operators were trained on the types of questions to ask which improved response times.
NWFC worked to improve the time for special service calls as there had been an increase in the number of call prompts that needed to be asked by call operators following guidance from the National Fire Chief’s Council (NFCC). This had increased call handling time by a few seconds but had ensured that the right information was given to firefighters and callers.
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).
Mr Basson informed Members that a great deal of work had taken place over the previous 12 months and an update would be brought to a future meeting. He extended an invitation to Members for a visit to NWFC and it was confirmed that a future visit would be arranged through Democratic Services.
In response to a question raised by County Councillor Hennessy in relation to whether Mr Basson had any areas of concern at NWFC, Mr Basson explained that he would like to continue having increased engagement with all 4 fire and rescue services. Governance arrangements at NWFC had been strengthened recently with the Steering Committee sitting, consisting of 4 Chiefs and advisors which set the Strategy for the organisation. The creation of the Operations Management Committee, which the Assistant Chief Fire Officer led, and comprised the Principal Officers (POs) from the 4 FRSs, oversaw operational performance and ensured work on areas such as the Fire Control Fire Standards was achieved. Furthermore, areas of ongoing focus included staff sickness and retention, which was a national focus for control room managers. The mobilising systems would come to the end of life in March 2025, however, Members were assured that NWFC had received investment from FRS budgets.
The Assistant Chief Fire Officer emphasised that there were 2 large projects taking place at NWFC. The first project was the replacement of the mobilising systems for which a Board had been established which was Chaired by the ACFO at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service and included himself, the ACFO at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, the ACFO at Cumbria, Sarah Wilson (Senior Operations Manager), and Ged Basson. The Operations Management Committee was Chaired by himself along with the POs and directed work arising under the Annual Delivery Plan for NWFC, and the People, Development and Assurance Programme (PDAP) which addressed matters such as staffing and retention issues.
In response to a comment from County Councillor Hurn, Mr Basson advised that NWFC received approximately 30,000 calls per quarter, 127,000 calls per year, and 250,000 admin calls per year, which averaged around 1,000 calls per day. The number of appliances dispatched was dependent on the incident type and size. The mobilising system would identify the nearest available resources to the location of an incident.
It was agreed that Ged Basson would attend the next meeting of the Performance Committee to present the findings of the Annual Report from the Annual Delivery Plan, and People and Development related information.
The Chair thanked Mr Basson for his interesting and informative presentation.