Agenda item

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented a report on the requirement to review emergency response arrangements periodically to ensure that provision remained effective and consummate with our dynamic risk profile.  This process was a robust assessment of historic data and emergent risk and was delivered in the format of an Emergency Cover Review (ECR).

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer introduced AM Norman to explain the process in more detail.

The Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) for 2017–22 had recently been approved by the Combined Fire Authority and within this plan were a series of organisational commitments associated with Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service’s (LFRS) capabilities including the emergency response provision.

LFRS strived to deliver high standards of operational response and in doing so it prepared and planned for emergencies so that when an emergency happened and there was a need to respond, it was done quickly, with the right fire appliances, the right specialist vehicles and the right crewing arrangements to deal with the incident effectively and safely.

The community of Lancashire changed dynamically through commercial and residential growth and retraction, new road and other infrastructure provision and these along with many other factors may create a differing emergency response requirement from LFRS. To ensure that response arrangements remained appropriate and effective the Combined Fire Authority periodically commissioned an Emergency Cover Review in order to validate current provision and to identify any appropriate proposals for change in response provision.  

The last ECR undertaken in 2013 had seen quite significant change in the removal of 2 fire appliances; the splitting of the Urban Search and Rescue function and vehicles between Bamber Bridge and Chorley and a number of shift pattern changes.

It was recommended that LFRS undertook an ECR process in 2017 and that within the methodology there would be a focus on the following 3 key elements:

ii)    Demand (Performance Data, Risk in Lancashire & Response Targets);

iii)   Process (Pre-Determined Attendance’s, Time Engaged, Appliance Availability & Special Appliances);

iiii)Resources (Location, Configuration, Crewing Status & Mobilising Criteria.)

In order to validate the current response arrangements and to test predictive impacts LFRS planned to utilise the services of an external specialist organisation. This would enable the use of predictive modelling software in determining and subsequently validating the potential impact of any changes to the number, location and crewing of fire appliances across the county. This would also offer an opportunity to review the impacts of the previous 2013-17 ECR. 

It was recommended that the scope of the ECR included:

a)    Validating the deliverables / outcomes / actual performance from within the previous ECR as we operate within a business as usual period beyond the implementation.

b)    Developing a subsequent Baseline Model for 2017 inclusive of the above.

c)    Determining the theoretical potential impact of a series of changes to the number, location, response capabilities and crewing of fire appliances across the county. More specifically but not exclusively:

ii)    Realising a wider Emergency First Responding capability;

iii)   Determining a revised response to Automatic Fire Alarms;

iiii)Developing a Pre-Alerting policy;

iiv)  Responding to emergent risk;

iv)   Acknowledging a strategic commitment in Strengthening and Improving RDS.

A review of the organisation’s Strategic Assessment of Risk for Lancashire would be completed within the life cycle of determining ECR proposals.

It was proposed that the ECR be scheduled in a phased approach to enable the conclusion of the work stream during 2017 against the following key timeframes:

·        April 2017 - Review of the data and evidence generated through our historic emergency response evidence;

·        May / June 2017 – Evaluate potential impacts of any proposed changes using predictive software;

·        June / July 2017 - Create documentation and reports that define recommendations and present to CFA meetings;

·        July – October 2017 – A period of consultation and review of feedback leading to possible changes to the reports and recommendations;

·        November/ December 2017 - Final approval of the ECR sought from the Combined Fire Authority.

The timeframes offered aligned to the planned Authority meetings which would offer the required scrutiny and approval. Should the ECR conclude with changes to the response provision for LFRS these would be scheduled for implementation in 2018/19 or later.

In response to a question from CC De Molfetta on whether there was a need to incur the costs of an external specialist organisation the Deputy Chief Fire Officer confirmed that they provided software analysis which was part of the process to provide some assurance of the current position and which would provide evidence of demand for any formal inspection. 

In response to Member concerns at the previous low responses received from consultations and the need to consider who was being consulted the Deputy Chief Fire Officer confirmed that the current Consultation Strategy provided the ability to determine shorter and more specific consultation to target responses.

RESOLVED: - That the Planning Committee noted and endorsed the report.