Agenda item

To receive a presentation from the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service. 

67.1           The Chair introduced Steve Maginn, Local Risk Manager from the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, and indicated that he would be giving a presentation about the impact of fire prevention and protection.

67.2           Members were advised that, when Stewart Edgar had been appointed as the Chief Fire Officer and Operations Director in 2014, he had a clear remit in terms of making efficiency savings and a new service delivery model had been introduced as a result.  At the time there had been 33 pumping appliances across 22 stations with a budget of £18.25M and it had been necessary to reduce that by £3.4M.  This had resulted in an unparalleled strategic review of all aspects of service delivery and support with the main outcomes being the reduction in demand on response and the creation of capacity to implement a greater prevention strategy.  Prevention and protection was now at the heart of all of the work carried out by the Fire and Rescue Service.  The catalyst for change was a piece of work carried out by Severn Park Fire and Rescue Service in the south-west which had looked at a range of 100 fires and highlighted seven ‘at risk’ groups within communities.  Once these groups had been established, links had been made with the Police, health services and other agencies to identify where those people were located.  Historically the Fire Service had undertaken a lot of home safety visits and, given that people felt comfortable with allowing Fire Officers into their homes, this had evolved from offering basic fundamental fire safety advice to ‘Safe and Well’ checks and had helped to identify vulnerable people.  It was now possible to map where the most vulnerable groups were located and to plan resources and develop the prevention strategy accordingly. 

67.3           As part of the Safe and Well visits, a pilot scheme had been run with Public Health England regarding winter-related illnesses.  The scheme had involved five stations over a three month period during winter 2015/16 and 6,304 visits had been conducted during that time.  It had been targeted at the over 65’s and had focused on four main contributors to winter-related illness including the prevention of falls; the prevention of cold homes; the prevention of social isolation; and ensuring that people received flu immunisation.  The project had included tackling the underlying causes of fire, fire fatalities and injuries whilst also improving the health and wellbeing of vulnerable adults.  Through the scheme, the Fire and Rescue Service had been able to signpost the most vulnerable people in the community and look at safeguarding.  It was hoped that the success of the scheme could be repeated this year with the addition of eye sight checks; this was one of the biggest issues with people aged over 65 and could cause problems in an emergency e.g. being able to get out of a property quickly.

67.4           With regard to telecare, the remote monitoring of an individual’s condition or lifestyle, Members were informed that, under the previous system operated by Gloucestershire County Council, assessments could only be carried out if a family member could respond on that person’s behalf.  There was now an opportunity for the Fire Service to act as a responder and this had opened up the scheme to more people.  Fire Officers were also involved with cardiac care on behalf of the ambulance service and acted as the First Person on Scene (FPOS) where access could not be gained; this had previously been carried out by the Police on behalf the ambulance service.  Members were advised that the telecare pilot, run from mid-June to mid-September 2016 in the North Cotswolds, had enabled 28 people to return home or remain in their own homes where the alternative would have either been a short or long term placement in a care home.  If calculated for the full year, the savings across the pilot areas would have been £482,956 and, if applied across the county’s six districts, would result in savings of £2.92M per year.

67.5           Members were advised that the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service had worked closely with Prior’s Park Neighbourhood Project on a successful scheme during the course of 2016 which had yielded a lot of results in terms of vulnerability in that area.  The new Police Inspector, Cheryl Godwin, was keen to launch the Aston Project - a scheme aiming to work with young people aged 9-17 by identifying their interests and engaging them in constructive activity which they built credits towards a reward activity through timebanking - within Tewkesbury Borough and Prior’s Park would be the pilot area.  The new Watch Manager in charge of the Fire Station in Tewkesbury, Michele Hick, was very driven in terms of prevention and youth involvement and one of her tasks was to develop a cadet force for the Tewkesbury area which would be run by the Fire Service; there had been great success with this scheme in Cinderford.

67.6           One of the biggest successes in terms of driving down response was the reduction in the number of false alarms caused by automatic fire detection apparatus in commercial properties; this had reduced by 82% since 2011 which was the biggest reduction in the whole country.  This had created a massive capacity and generated huge financial savings.  It was clear that the main challenges for the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service over the next three years would be finding a further £2.2M savings from the budget, thus making it the first £13M Fire and Rescue Service in the country; the intended reforms which had been set out by Teresa May whilst in her role as Home Secretary; and a potential bid from the Police and Crime Commissioner and the associated impacts on governance.  Reducing the budget further would be a significant challenge and, whilst staff had been protected up until this point, it may now be necessary to consider new delivery models.

67.7           A Member was very impressed with the idea of a cadet force within Tewkesbury as he felt that this could offer discipline and guidance to young people.  It could also help to prevent anti-social behaviour and he referred to several incidents of arson in Brockworth by way of example.  He questioned how this would be paid for, given the need to make further budget cuts, and was advised that the Fire and Rescue Service could not afford to fund the project; however, it could offer support in terms of management, facilities and training.  The Fire and Rescue Service relied heavily on volunteers and it was hoped that, with the guidance of the new Watch Manager at Tewkesbury who was leading the project, there would be at least five new recruits who would be ready to get involved in that type of activity with further support from parents.  A lot of Fire Services were now running apprenticeships which bridged the gap between the cadet force and becoming a firefighter.  There was a definite link with a reduction in anti-social behaviour and if a successful cadet force could be developed within Tewkesbury, it could be rolled out to Gloucester, which included the Brockworth area the Member had referred to.

67.8           In response to a query regarding Winchcome Fire Station and whether it was aligned to any other stations, Members were advised that this was a retained station as opposed to a voluntary station – there were no voluntary stations within Gloucestershire. It was intended to provide a managerial support group for North Cotswold, which would include retained firefighters, in order to link stations together as some Officers had a lot of experience which others could learn from.  He pointed out that there was a particularly good relationship with the whole-time station at Uckington where there were four full-time Watch Managers so there were already links in place for retained stations such as Winchcombe.  Another Member questioned whether any difficulty had been experienced obtaining information about vulnerable members of the community.  He was informed that this was generally not a problem; third sector agencies could be reluctant to share information but this had not proven to be obstructive.  Firefighters liked to know the outcomes and results of interventions but this was not always possible due to confidentiality.  As such, consideration was being given to using reference numbers for jobs so they could be quoted without disclosing any sensitive information. 

67.9           A Member sought an explanation as to how the 82% reduction in the number of false alarms caused by automatic fire detection apparatus in commercial properties had been achieved.  Members were advised that consideration had been given to the profile of such cases, the percentage that had turned out to be real fires and whether anything could have been done to prevent them in procedural terms.  It had been concluded that it was the responsibility of the business to ensure that alarms were investigated and that the Fire and Rescue Service was only called out to deal with real fires.  It had been found that companies often enlisted call centres as a third party to deal with the alarms and they had tended to automatically put these through to the Fire and Rescue Service for investigation.  The stance had therefore been changed and letters had been sent to thousands of organisations to outline their responsibility; there would be a full response to genuine fires but any false alarms would be challenged.  The percentage reduction was an indication of just how big the problem had been and how simple it was to overcome.  A Member indicated that business premises in America were charged for false alarms and she was advised that there was a ‘three strikes and out’ system in place here.  As a lot of the false alarms were due to misplaced equipment or changes to processes it was considered to be more beneficial to give businesses the benefit of the doubt initially and work with them to address the problems; however, they were aware that they would be fined if the problem persisted. 

67.10         The Chair thanked the Local Risk Manager for his informative presentation and indicated that the additional confidential information which had been provided in respect of the outcomes of the interventions to reduce the risk of harm to vulnerable groups from winter-related illnesses, along with a case study setting out how one particular member of the community had been assisted by the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, would be circulated to Members following the meeting. 

RESOLVED          That the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service presentation be NOTED.