Agenda and minutes

None

None

Last meeting held on 4 October 2013 (for confirmation)

The Committee confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 4 October 2013 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Assistant Chief Fire Officer, David Horton introduced the Chief Fire Officers’ report providing members with an update on fire protection activity. The main points drawn to the attention of Members were:

·  the Fire Protection Department maintains a risk based approach to inspections. The risk based inspection programme is a key part of the overall risk reduction strategy. The principle aim of the Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) is to make Nottinghamshire a safer place by reducing as far as possible the risks and social and economic costs of fires and other dangers, without imposing unnecessary burden. Ensuring compliance with legal regulatory requirements is an important part of achieving this aim; 

·  the enforcement function of the Fire Protection Department ensures that preventative remedial action is taken to protect relevant persons and to ensure compliance with the regulatory system. The purpose of enforcement is to promote and achieve sustained compliance with the law, ensure that the person responsible for premises subject to fire safety regulation takes action to deal immediately with serious risks to the safety of relevant persons and ensure those individuals, businesses and other undertakings that breach fire safety requirements are held to account, which may include bringing alleged offenders before the courts;

·  the Service has a wide range of interventions at its disposal to secure compliance with the law and to ensure a proportionate response to criminal offences;

·  a further function of the Fire Protection Department is to reduce Unwanted Fire Signals (UFS). These are signals transmitted through an Automatic Fire Detection System (AFD) reporting a fire where upon arrival of the fire service it is found that a fire has not occurred. A strategy has been developed for reducing responses to UFS calls. This has resulted in a continued reduction of unwanted fire alarms since its implementation in 2009 with 4028 calls in 2009 compared to 2658 calls during 2012 giving a reduction in unwanted fire alarms of 34%.

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report and to continue to support the activities of the Fire Protection Department

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Andy Pearson, Head of Service Delivery introduced the Chief Fire Officers’ report updating Members on how Service Delivery monitors, manages and reports on risk reduction initiatives and data. The key points brought to members’ attention were:

• the Service re-structure, following the findings of the Fire Cover Review, provided an opportunity for a re-energised intelligence driven, performance managed delivery model. Resources are now deployed and centred on identified risk;

• the drivers are; improved fact based evaluation; clear standards and expectations; scrutiny and support; inclusion of operational preparedness; inclusion of operational response; improved control and management of resources; becoming a true learning organisation; continual improvement and searching beyond the data;

• response is just one of the Services interventions. Preceding the response element are:

• the governance arrangements of the Service include scrutiny and reporting performance. To manage the information, Service Delivery has a robust framework in place, gleaning intelligence from a number of different sources including analysts, partner agencies, incidence log books, Fire Protection, Arson Task Force, local knowledge, national and regional matters, monthly planners and Performance Indicator monitoring. The information is captured and stored in a number of formats.

  Some of the information is for management purposes, some for monitoring and some for measurement;

• the members of the Risk Reduction Teams, the Corporate Performance Team and the Thematic Leads interpret and analyse the data and intelligence. To prevent duplication of effort and to provide the requisite standards, scrutiny and support, there is a performance meeting timeline in place. This includes quarterly joint meetings, Group Manager Reviews and Service Delivery Scrutiny meetings;

• reports are populated and amended at each stage under the headings Action, Plan, Progress and Interventions. All interventions are evaluated to create a library of potential solutions to matters arising. The final report is sent to the Performance Monitoring Committee;

• the challenges still ahead are; to determine what Service Delivery are to measure and why; to determine what the Performance Committee see and why, to determine what data and feedback is available within the Service and how to capture it and report on it;

• the enhanced performance management framework and reporting will assist the Service to identify and react to the changing risk, adapting its interventions and practices as required.

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report and to support the procedures in place to monitor performance and reduce risk.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Assistant Chief Fire Officer David Horton introduced the Chief Fire Officers’ report updating members regarding the Service’s targeting of those most vulnerable to fire in the communities served.

The main points brought to the attention of Members were;

• it is a fundamental aim of Nottingham Fire and Rescue Service’s (NFRS) to target vulnerability by working across individual agency boundaries, collecting data to identify risk and engage with these groups as a risk reduction priority;

• the establishment of the Vulnerable Person’s Policy in 2011 has seen the number of referrals from other agencies rise by 45% in the last two years;

• a streamlining the referral and targeting process has seen involvement with extremely vulnerable individuals increase;

• a standard approach to home safety checks is not always appropriate and NFRS now offers a more tailored and bespoke service for the individuals who need it most;

• local and national statistics show that the most vulnerable to fire are the elderly, individuals with mental health issues and those living in deprived or socially isolated communities;

• Vulnerable Person’s Awareness Training has been delivered to over 5000 frontline workers and carers across Nottinghamshire. This helps other agencies identify those at risk from fire and gives them the tools to make a referral to NFRS in a robust and timely manner;

• gaining data on housing stock has proved to be an extremely beneficial exercise and the Service now knows that 40% of all fires within Nottingham City occur in Nottingham City Homes (NCH) properties. This allows NFRS to work closely with NCH on new initiatives and home improvements as well as targeting their tenants for different safety campaigns;

• NFRS have purchased four stand-alone water misting systems. They are activated by a linked smoke alarm. They can be placed in the homes of those known to be particularly at risk;

• hoarders pose a fire risk not only to themselves but to neighbours and fire crews too. Over the last two years the Service has steadily been receiving increasing amounts of referrals for individuals considered as hoarders. This has instigated the development of the Nottinghamshire Hoarding Steering Group, chaired by NFRS which brings together agencies across the board to work together and support individuals with the issue;

• in addition to targeting vulnerability, a strategy must be established within the Service to target and record the pro-active early intervention work at groups likely to become high risk in the future.

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report and to continue to support the Service’s risk reduction initiatives aimed at vulnerable people.