Agenda and minutes

Councillor Ken Rigby

None

Last meeting held on 28 March 2014 (for confirmation)

The Committee confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 28 March 2014 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Wayne Bowcock, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer provided the meeting with an update on progress with regard to various issues:

·  during 2013, the then Deputy Chief Fire Officer put in place a process of reviewing all incidents resulting in a fire fatality or serious injury. This led to the creation of a Serious Fire Incident Review Panel chaired by the Deputy Chief Fire

·  Officer and includes representatives from all of the key departments within the Service. The aims and objectives of the Panel are;

• to establish whether there are lessons to be learned from the circumstances of the case about the way in which local professionals and agencies work together to safeguard vulnerable adults and children;

• to review the effectiveness of procedures; to inform and improve local inter-agency practice;

• to improve practice by acting on learning and developing good practice; to bring together analysis;

• to ensure that recommendations for future action are decided upon along with a time frame and ownership of specific actions;

·  following the inaugural meeting of the Panel, the Arson Reduction and Investigation Team carried out a review of the fire fatalities in 2012, in which they looked at the personal profiles of the victims and identified the primary factors involved in each case;

·  the conclusions of the review highlighted common factors across each case and identified primary factors such as poor mobility, mental health issues , alcohol consumption and smoking;

·  the Service intends to profile future individuals involved in incidents which are either near misses or rescues, to determine if they match the common factors. This will enable the Panel to direct those responsible for risk reduction activity to concentrate on individuals who have the same or similar profiles to support and provide interventions to reduce the risk of death or serious injury;

·  the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) Road Safety Week took place 9-13 June. Risk Reduction Teams and operational personnel were involved in a series of activities across the County and City, including road safety presentations at schools and awareness sessions for young construction workers. Early indications are that the events and engagement were well received. It is intended to build upon the activities and to achieve a reduction in incidents by working in a co-ordinated and collaborative effort with partners;

·  NFRS has established an internal working group to support and develop activity to reduce road deaths in a consistent and coordinated way;

·  the Partnerships and Engagement Team has been formed from the former Community Safety Team and the Partnerships and Engagement Officer from Corporate Services. The Team has an outward facing service delivery culture, focusing on the needs of service delivery to ensure that the Risk Reduction Teams and operational crews have the capacity to focus on appropriate areas. A review will take place of the partnership and engagement roles within Service Delivery to establish any necessary re-alignment of objectives or focus. The process for the re-allocation of the Partnership and Engagement Team has begun with full consultation taking place with all stakeholders;

Several issues were raised and points made in the discussion which followed:

·  members agreed the importance of sharing information with and obtaining information from, other agencies to help in identifying vulnerable people. It was noted that fire and rescue services no longer have a statutory requirement to be part of the Health and Wellbeing Boards  whose function is to collaborate to understand their local community’s needs, agree priorities and encourage commissioners to work in a more joined up way. Councillor Brian Grocock agreed to speak to the Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board to request that a representative of NFRS be invited to join the local Board;

·  the vital role which GP’s have in helping to identify vulnerable adults cannot be over-emphasised in view of the fact that they make home visits to a lot of vulnerable elderly. More has to be done to encourage GP’s to share information which may be of use to the Service;

·  members agreed that it is not a good idea to set targets in terms of fire fatalities. Whilst the Service is doing all it can to keep fatalities to a minimum it will never be possible to cover every eventuality;

·  Councillor John Wilmott highlighted to the meeting the loneliness campaign being headed up by Esther Rantzen which has identified 46,000 people in Nottinghamshire living alone, many of whom are in contact with family, friends and neighbours less than once a week. The number of vulnerable elderly will continue to increase over time as life expectancy increases. Councillor Wilmott suggested that a meeting be arranged attended by representatives of the emergency services, Age UK, GP’s, local Councils and social landlords with a view to finding more ways of working together to protect the vulnerable;

·  members agreed that measures for improving road safety awareness should not only be targeted at motorists but at cyclists and pedestrians as well. They must be encouraged to behave responsibly. The increased use of head phones by both pedestrians and cyclists was resulting in an increase in incidents. It was agreed that there should be more enforcement of the law in respect of cyclists failing to obey road signs and riding on the pavements. Members accepted however that dwindling resources meant road safety was becoming a lower priority with some agencies;

RESOLVED

(1)  to note the report;

(2)  to support the work being undertaken and to receive further update reports as required.