Agenda and minutes

As Councillor Campbell was delayed, Councillor Grocock who was substituting for her, was appointed temporary Chair.

Councillor Campbell sent apologies for lateness, during her absence, Councillor Grocock substituted.

None.

Of the meeting held on 6 October 2017 (for confirmation)

The minutes of the meeting held on 6 October 2017 were confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair presiding.

The Chair of the meeting was of the opinion that this item, although not included on the agenda, should be considered as a matter of urgency in accordance with Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, in view of the special circumstances that it is a significant on-going incident of which members need to be informed.

Wayne Bowcock, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, informed the Committee that a fire was reported at Nottingham Train Station at 6.30am this morning. The station was evacuated and closed and at the time of this report, there have not been any citizen or firefighter casualties.

Initially the fire started in the ladies toilets of the new building which links the train station with the tram stop and car park. Although initial firefighting was aggressive and fast, the fire rapidly spread to the Edwardian wooden concourse between platforms. At this time, the Art Nouveau section of the building has only been subject to smoke damage.

All trains have been suspended and East Midlands Trains are operating diversions and coach services. Tram services are not operating near to the station due to an unrelated incident elsewhere in the City.

At the height of the fire, 12 appliances were in attendance. The initial fire has been extinguished but firefighters are stripping back cladding and investigating ducts with thermal imaging equipment to ensure that the fire is fully extinguished and will not re-emerge elsewhere in the building.

Once the fire is confirmed fully extinguished, the smoke in the ticket hall will be removed by pressure ventilation and a full structural and electrical assessment, including the train lines and facilities, will be required and satisfied before the station can be reopened.

On responding to the fire, the National Co-Ordination Framework was implemented which includes informing the Home Office .

As a nationally reported incident, neighbouring Fire and Rescue Services were quick to offer support and there has been excellent partnership working between the Fire Service, Police, City Council and Highways to co-ordinate a response to the fire and the resulting disruption. A Tactical Co-ordination Meeting is to be held at 11am this morning at Fire HQ. Normally it would be held at a fire station close to the incident but due to the impact on access, it is easier for partners to travel to HQ.

Members will receive a further report to the next meeting.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

In the absence of Area Manager Dan Quinn (who was involved in co-ordinating the response to the Nottingham Train Station fire), Wayne Bowcock, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, presented the report which updates members on the activity and performance of the Service Delivery Directorate between 1 June 2017 and 30 September 2017.

The report provides full details but the following points were highlighted and responses given to member’s questions:

(i)  there were 3 fire fatalities in this period;

(ii)  the Service attended 2862 incidents, which is 89 more than the same period the year before;

(iii)  retained duty availability averaged 78% but some stations achieved more than  90% with Worksop availability at 95.65%;

(iv)  there were 11 more road fatalities so the focus on road safety promotion and awareness has increased and a specific road safety campaign is operating from November to February; a period when RTC statistics tend to increase. This will include the use of media, social media and visits to schools;

(v)  the Service was involved in and hosted a range of seasonal and on-going safety and engagement events (listed in the report) and generally received a very good response. The Christmas meal for particularly vulnerable and isolated older people was held at Loxley House with support from the London Road NFRS crews and members of the Prince’s Trust. Participants thoroughly enjoyed themselves and it provided a valuable connection to ensuring that all received a home safety check whereas they may otherwise have been difficult to identify;

(vi)  with regard to the retained duty system availability data in Appendix A to the report showing that ‘no driver was available’, a percentage of crew were required to be drivers, but the Service has since moved away from this system. Crew members can volunteer to drive and are trained when training places become available. Although there is dependence and limitations on availability of potential drivers at a local level, this system is being reconsidered but it is recognised that not everyone wants the added responsibility of driving a LGV vehicle on blue lights.

Members of the Committee commended the often creative range of engagement safety promotion undertaken by the Service.

Councillor Campbell requested that her thanks were recorded to everyone who helped at the older persons Christmas meal.

RESOLVED to note the report.

At this point in the meeting Councillor Eunice Campbell resumed the Chair and Councillor Grocock remained in attendance as an observer.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Wayne Bowcock, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, presented the report which updates members on how incident data is used to target specific vulnerable sections of the community and potentially dangerous behaviours with prevention education and activity.

The newly developed Incident Report System Query Tool (IRSQT) was devised by NFR Officers to identify incident patterns and trends. This information, which can be detailed to geographical areas, causes, and types of incident, then feeds into the Incident Reduction Plan (IRP) to enable appropriate targeting of prevention activity to be undertaken, even aimed at individual profiles of the population, by local crews.

Members welcomed the IRSQT as a valuable asset to incident prevention.

RESOLVED to note the report.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Wayne Bowcock, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, presented the report which updates members on the current collaborative prevention work being undertaken at the New Cross and Broomhill projects, following a request from Councillor Jason Zadrozny of Ashfield District Council.

The New Cross project was set up in 2014 by Ashfield District Council as a multi-agency collaborative prevention team to work with troubled families and complex persons in response to their multifaceted social problems which demanded a high resource input from a range of agencies.

The project has been regularly independently reviewed and reports that for every £1 spent, a saving of £12 is collectively realised across the combined partner agencies. This could result in the predicted saving of public money totalling of £3.4 million by 2019. Specifically for NFRS, a contribution of almost £1 will provide savings to the Service of £1, resulting in a cost neutral contribution, although the broader social benefits are significant.

Since its establishment and success of the pilot model, a second site has been established at Broomhill to tackle the same issues.

NFRS continues to meet its commitment of funding to the value of £40,000 per annum (agreed for 3 years), at New Cross and a NFRS District Prevention Officer has been seconded to the Broomhill Project for a period of three years, to be reviewed every 12 months. 

The resource and financial contribution from other partners is detailed within the report.

Members are presented with three potential options in the report and requested to determine which should be selected with regard to the future engagement and funding by the Service in the New Cross and Broomhill projects.

It is noted that with regard to option one, to maintain the current support, £40,000 is earmarked as a reserve and accounted for the current budget.

Councillors commented as follows:

(a)  with consideration to the economy of scale, it would be better to continue this work, and so option 2, ‘continue with the year 3 financial support and withdraw the secondee’ which gives the broader benefit, is preferred with a further report in 12 months’ time;

(b)  further information is required as to the fire incident reduction achievement following NFRS’s involvement;

(c)  consideration should be given to the broader positive social impact of the project and not just in relation to NFRS;

(d)  these projects are not an appropriate use of funding, do not achieve the savings claimed and actually result in a cost. £40,000 may be ring fenced but it could be better spent elsewhere to promote and improve fire safety. There is no evidence that the projects have saved lives; they appear to focus on enabling people to be happy in their home, which is not fire safety related. It is increasingly likely that the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) will withdraw funding to the projects in the next financial year and this will result in the collapse of the projects;

(e)  with this new information, members need to better understand the current situation before committing funding;

(f)  other options need to be presented to identify how effective and sustainable fire prevention work can be supported;

(g)  it’s important to ensure that all areas of the county can benefit from this funding and not just population pockets within the Ashfield District Council area;

(h)  further information is requested prior to any decision as the Service needs to be robust in how every penny is spent to ensure the best outcomes;

(i)  confirmation from the CCG needs to be sought regarding their commitment to future funding before a decision is made for NFRS’s commitment to funding. If the CCG are intending to withdraw, then option three, ‘to withdraw from the project at the end of the current financial year’, should be selected. If the CCG agreed to commit to a further year’s funding, then it is reasonable for NFRS to commit a further one year funding but the position needs to be reviewed in a year’s time;

(j)  this has been an excellent example of partnership working and consideration should be given to the achievements of the projects so far;

(k)  assurance should be sought regarding the benefits to the wider Nottinghamshire community of these projects.

RESOLVED

(1)  for the Deputy Chief Fire Officer to confirm the position of the CCG with regard to its future funding of the New Cross and Broomhill Projects;

(2)  once the CCG funding position is clarified, to delegate authority to the Chair, in consultation with the Lead Opposition Member, to determine which of the options presented within the report, or if amended, recommended by the Chief Fire Officer, should be acted upon;

(3)  for the Committee to receive an update report to the next meeting.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Wayne Bowcock, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, presented the report which updates members on the existing Primary Authority agreement between Boots UK and NFRS, and the potential expansion of the scheme to include two further organisations.

To date the Primary Authority Scheme has been working to the mutual benefit of Boots UK and NFRS. Whilst NFRS currently operates on a cost recovery basis by recharging Boots UK for the time and resources spent dealing with the organisation, Boots UK have the benefit of a single point of contact and a consistent approach to the fire safety advice and enforcement relating to all of its stores.

The arrangements to the Primary Authority Scheme were amended in October 2017 to enable easier access for small businesses to the scheme.

A further two large organisations within Nottingham /Nottinghamshire have approached NFRS to enquire as to be possibilities of becoming their primary authority. The implications of engaging with the additional large organisations are being considered.

It is noted that potential partnership working with Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is being considered with regard to providing a ‘one-stop shop’ to advise small businesses on fire with fire safety advice regarding risk assessments.  This approach is supported by the Local Enterprise Partnership D2N2.

Councillors’ questions were responded to as follows:

(a)  whilst there are no financial implications currently, if any do occur with regard to the expansion of the Services’ operation of the Primary Authority Scheme, a report will be brought to the Committee. However it is intended that any additional work can be managed within existing resources on a cost recovery basis;

(b)  the scheme was initially established to provide a co-ordinated approach to fire safety for businesses, ensuring that they are required to comply with only one interpretation of fire legislation. It was not intended that the scheme would be profit-making as advising and enforcing fire safety legislation is considered a statutory duty for fire rescue services. However some Fire Services do operate slightly different cost recovery schemes;

(c)  the service provided through the Primary Authority Scheme is a statutory duty, so it is reasonable that the Service should operate on a not for profit basis;

(d)  if the position regarding statutory duty changes, then there may be profit-making potential but this would need to be through an arm’s length organisation.

Some members of the Committee suggested that, when dealing with large organisations, consideration of a small profit margin should be considered.

RESOLVED to note the report.