Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Nigel Turner - unwell

None.

Minutes of the meeting held on 15 March 2024, for confirmation

The minutes of the meeting held on 15 March 2024 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Andy Macey, Area Manager for Response and Tom Archer, Area Manager for Prevention, Protection and Investigation, presented the report providing a summary of the performance of Service Delivery in 2023-24, and an update on performance from 01 April to 31 August 2024, highlighting the following:

Response

(a)  in 2023-24, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) attended a total of 10,595 incidents. This constituted a 6.6% decrease on 2022-23, driven by a 30.3% reduction in fires after the extreme weather conditions experienced in the summer of 2022-23 did not re-occur. 2023-24 saw a 3.9% increase in special service calls and a 7.9% increase in false alarms. Fires followed a typical pattern of peaking in the spring, remaining relatively high in the summer, and then falling during the autumn and winter. Special service calls peaked in October and January due to the Service’s response to Storm Babet and Storm Hen;

(b)  whilst Broxtowe and Rushcliffe experienced slight increases in incident numbers from 2022-23 to 2023-24, all other Districts saw reductions. The most significant reductions being in Mansfield (-20%) and Newark & Sherwood (-17.4%);

(c)  between 01 April and 31 August 2024, NFRS attended 4,621 incidents. This represents a 1.5% increase on incidents attended during the same period in 2023-24 and suggests that the Service will attend in the region of 10,750 incidents this year;

(d)  Whilst P1 and P2 incidents remained relatively consistent throughout 2023-24, a higher number of P3 incidents were attended in the spring and summer months. These are incidents which pose a potential hazard to human life, the environment, society, property or heritage or incidents which pose a confirmed low hazard to human life;

(e)  whilst there was a slight improvement on 2022-23, the average attendance time in 2023-24 was outside of the 8 minute target at 8 minutes and 14 seconds. Several factors including appliances being mobilised outside of their typical ‘turn-out area’ during periods of flooding, and software issues relating to the introduction of new appliance mobile data terminals (MDTs) contributed to this under-performance. During the first five months of 2024-25 the average attendance time has improved to 8 minutes and 1 seconds, representing a 12 second improvement on 2023-24.;

(f)  On-Call station availability for 2023-24 averaged 86.4%. This was above the target of 85% and placed NFRS in the top three fire and rescue services, nationally. However, this was slightly below the 87.1% achieved in 2022-23. The Service sets a minimum station standard for On-Call availability at 70%, and Southwell was the only section to not achieve this. Ten sections achieved above the average 85% availability target with the highest levels at Hucknall, Warsop and Stapleford;

(g)  in April 2024, the Service introduced a new Dual Employment Policy which aims to ensure that those that fulfil both a wholetime and on-call role with the Service comply with The Working Time Regulations 1998 and have sufficient periods of rest. An anticipated consequence of this is that there will be an impact on On-Call availability, and as of October 2024, the On-Call Support Team is fully established and the mobilisation of its members to support at stations that would otherwise be unavailable will help to mitigate;

(h)  On-Call availability will also be improved by a continued focus on recruitment. 13 new On-Call trainees began training in September 2024 and a further 11 are scheduled to commence in January 2025;

(i)  in 2023-24, Retford Day Shift Crewing reported significantly worsening availability compared to the previous year, but there has been some improvement between 01 April and 31 August 2024;

(j)  The Service’s target of at least 98% wholetime appliance availability has been achieved by every appliance in 2023-4 and this has continued in 2024-25 with appliances collectively being available 99.3% of the time;

(k)  as part of the ‘Functional Collaboration Agreement’, between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Services and the ongoing monitoring of Joint Fire Control (JFC), three key performance measures are monitored. For the percentage of 999 calls answered within seven seconds, the performance in 2023-24 was below target at 94.2% but this has improved to the target figure in Quarter 1 of 2024-25. The average call-handling times for P1 and P2 incidents averaged below target at 81 seconds and has fallen again to 80% in Quarter 1 of 2024-25. In 2023-24 mobilisation system availability was below target at 97.3%, however, Quarter 1 of 2024-25 has seen a significant improvement at an above target 99.5%.

Prevention

(l)  The Service completed 15,765 Safe & Well Visits (SWVs) in 2023-24 which was 12% above the Community and Risk Management Plan (CRMP) target of 14,000. Overall in Quarter 1 of 2024-25, the Service has delivered 3552 SWVs; this level of performance will ensure the CRMP target of 15,000 visits is met at the end of Quarter 4;

(m)Data Intelligence and Community Engagement (DICE) events resulted in 1349 SWVs in 2023-24. These specific community events focus on specific areas within Nottinghamshire’s communities based on a data led approach. Due to a restructure of the Prevention department, there have been no DICE events so far in 2024-25, however these are being planned for later in the year to address any outstanding visits as a result of increased partner referrals;

(n)  of the SWVs delivered in 2023-24, 53% were to those over the age of 65 and 44% were to those who identified as having a disability. Advanced age and disability are key characteristics on the Service’s CHARLIE profile that identifies individuals who are at a higher risk of fire in their home;

(o)  In 2023-24 and into Quarter 1 of 2024-25, NFRS has seen a significant increase in referrals from partners including all local councils and the ambulance service as a result of the increased delivery of CHARLIE training to these partners, departmental engagement at community safety partnerships safeguarding boards and the online tool Safelincs, an online tool where members of the community can undertake their own home fire safety audit, with access to an onward referral for a safe and well visit where appropriate;

(p)  in 2023-24, 100% of qualifying incidents had a Serious Event Review Group held with a subsequent and appropriate Community Reassurance and Engagement organised and delivered in conjunction with response crews;

(q)  during 2023-24, 552 fire safety, 29 road safety and 47 water safety activities were arranged and completed by members of the Prevention team with support from Response crews. The Prevention team delivered two Safety Zone events in 2023-24, one at Ashfield Fire Station attended by 449 pupils and another two-week event at Holme Pierrepont attended by 1406 pupils from schools across both the City and County;

(r)  the Service continues to support and educate individuals who deliberately start fires. The Firesetter scheme uses specially trained NFRS staff to work with individuals on a tailored programme of support. During 2023/24, 130 individuals were referred to the scheme with post intervention evaluations showing that 80% of carers felt that the individuals’ risk of setting fires had reduced;

(s)  NFRS has recently restructured the Prevention department, in order to more effectively utilise its resources to engage with vulnerable members of the community, interact with young people and deliver a significantly enhanced community engagement provision;

(t)  the Prevention safeguarding officer has completed the delivery of safeguarding training to all wholetime watches. In 2023-24, 85% of referrals made by the Service were accepted as Section 42 enquiries by the relevant Local Authority. In 2023-24, 100% of child safeguarding referrals (Section 47) were accepted by the relevant Local Authority. In Quarter 1 of 2024-25, 100% of both Section 42 and Section 47 referrals were accepted by the relevant Local Authority. The target has remained the same at 60%;

(u)  the Prevention team have worked with partners in the delivery of the Safer Streets project, including wrapping a fire engine with safety messages and training fire crews in the delivery of advice and support around safe spaces. Selected appliances travel on designated routes to improve the safety of women and girls during the nighttime economy;

(v)  fire investigations are delivered, managed and coordinated as part of the Prevention team, working closely with the Police Crime Scene Investigation Team. In 2023/24, 99% of Tier 2 fire investigations were undertaken by NFRS personnel against a 90% target. After more serious incidents where a fire investigation report was required for His Majesty’s Coroner, 100% of these detailed reports were delivered within the timescales required by the Coroner’s office.

Protection

(w)  during 2023-24 the Service completed 1,180 Fire Safety Audits (FSAs) from a target of 1,500. Of these FSAs, 472 required informal action with a further 44 formal Enforcement Notices being issued. The number of FSAs completed is less than the target following the introduction of the Building Safety Act. The Protection team have allocated resources to support the workstream and additionally, Fire Safety Inspectors have been undertaking necessary qualifications to upskill them in line with the NFCC competency framework, which removes capacity from the team. In Quarter 1 of 2024-25, 277 FSAs have been completed in line with the inspection methodology contained in the Risk Based Inspection Programme;

(x)  Fire Safety Inspectors continue to shadow inspections undertaken by supervisory managers as part of the Business Safety Check (BSC) development process. These shadowed inspections provide scrutiny and assurance of this work prior to supervisory managers being allowed to inspect premises alone as part of their warranted status;

(y)  During 2023-24 the Service completed 1,039 BSCs from a target of 1,000. In Quarter 1 2024/45, the Service completed 306 BSCs;

(z)  as well as completing FSAs and BSCs in 2023-24, the Service has also completed 175 post fire inspections, 308 follow-ups to complaints, 47 Enforcement Notices, 21 Prohibition Notices, 641 building regulation consultations with local authority building control or approved inspectors, 310 licencing consultations and 437 other consultations with agencies including Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission;

(aa)  during 2023/24, the Service responded to 4,411 False Alarms (an 11% increase on the 3,906 attended in 2022/23). The CRMP sets a target of a 3% reduction in Unwanted Fire Signals (UwFS). In 2023-24 the Service has responded to 3,740 UwFS incidents which constituted a 4% increase on 2022-23. Further work will be undertaken as part of the 2025/28 CRMP to identify and work with premises to reduce the number of UwFS attended. The trend for an increasing number of attendances to UwFS is a national one, and not confined to NFRS. The Service will continue to work with responsible persons to reduce these incidents and utilise national best practice in their reduction where available;

(bb)  the CRMP set a target of a 3% reduction of Unwanted Lift Rescues for 2023-24. During the year the Service responded to 181 lift rescues (a 2% increase on 2022-23);

(cc)  in Quarter 1 of 2024/25, the JAIT has inspected six high risk buildings. The team has had vacancies in key posts which have now been filled and performance levels are increasing. Performance levels will be reported to Members in subsequent reports;

(dd)  the Building Safety Act received Royal Assent during 2023-24. The Building Safety Act has seen the creation of a new Building Safety Regulator (BSR), with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) being appointed to lead on the regulation of new and existing buildings, which fall within scope;

(ee)  The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 became law on 23 January 2023. The regulations place a number of statutory duties on Responsible Persons and NFRS, particularly in buildings over 18 metres in height. The Fire Protection department continues to communicate with all building owners within scope of the new regulations to raise their understanding and awareness of this new legislation.

The following points were raised during the discussions which followed:

(ff)  The drop in the number of incidents from 2022-23 to 2023-24 is due to the extreme weather in the summer of 2022 which caused a number of wild fires in the region;

(gg)  the primary cause for the delay of calls answered during 2023-24 was the period of Storm Henk when the  number of calls made greatly increased, which affected the statistics for the whole year. A review of Staffing Control is being made which may mitigate this in future. For major national incidents, BT can divert calls to other authorities;

(hh)  a breadth of responses is being made relating to false alarms. The response has been rationalised by only sending one appliance, and formal action can be taken against repeat offenders;

(ii)  stronger links could be established with Registered Landlords to make referrals into the Service;

(jj)  despite the number of FSAs being below target, when they go to prosecution the service has a 100% success rate, and NFRS is 3 times more productive than the national average.

Committee members commended the service for its achievements and requested an invite to a future Safety Zone event.

Resolved to note the contents of the report.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Damien West, Assistant Chief Officer, presented the report providing an update on recent audits of Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service’s national resilience assets, highlighting the following:

(a)  Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) has hosted national resilience assets since 2002, when the New Dimensions project was introduced following the terror attacks in the USA on 11 September 2001;

(b)  the National Resilience Assurance Team (NRAT) undertook an audit of the Marauding Terrorism Attack capability in NFRS in December 2023, and reported 26 instances of Good practice and one instance of Outstanding practice;

(c)  NFRS carried out a self-assessment on the National Interagency Liaison Officer (NILO) capability in August 2023. This was led by the Service’s Lead NILO and ratified by the National NILO group. The assessment reported 19 areas of substantial assurance, 4 areas of adequate assurance, and 2 areas of limited assurance. The report shows that NFRS scored ‘limited assurance’ on the organisation’s future training delivery programme including regional NILO training, and the capability to work across borders, which has seen guidance produced on working across borders, and regional training and exercises becoming more consistent;

(d)  NRAT undertook an audit of NFRS’s flood rescue capability in February 2024. The report showed that NFRS scored ‘good’ across the broader categories of preparedness, mobilisation and response, but scored ‘requires improvement’ for the repatriation of the national resilience assets back into Nottinghamshire and recommended a policy to cover current practices. This policy is now in place, along with additional equipment purchased and training carried out across all flood rescue responders;

(e)  NRAT undertook an audit of the High Volume Pump capability in NFRS in November 2023. The report shows that NFRS scored ‘requires improvement’ in 12 instances. The main reason for this, was due to a change in the self-assessment process which initially led to insufficient evidence being submitted. NFRS submitted further evidence which completed 11 of the 12 action plans moving the scores to ‘good’ in those areas;

(f)  NRAT carried out an assessment of the Service’s Enhanced Logistical Support (ELS) capability. However, as the asset was removed from NFRS in April 2024, following a change in the national model for this capability, this assessment was not finalised. The NFRS ELS capability has been widely commended over the years. The asset has been mobilised to many major incidents across the country over the years and has been recognised for its professional work;

(g)  recent communications from the Home Office have outlined that future grant for providing National Resilience assets have been reduced by approximately 66% across all assets. With current financial pressures, the reduction in grants will need to be considered in conjunction with wider budgeting should the Service wish to deliver these capabilities in line with current ways of working. The Chief Fire Officer and Treasurer will be writing to local MPs outlining these concerns.

Resolved to

(1)  note the contents of the report;

(2)  endorse the approach of the Service with regards to its national resilience capabilities and addressing improvement in highlighted areas

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Andy Macey, Area Manager for Response, presented the report providing an update on the impact of re-instating a 24-hour Wholetime provision at Ashfield fire station, highlighting the following:

(a)  to understand the impact of re-instating 24-hour Wholetime crewing at Ashfield fire station, data contained within the report compares performance in the nine months post-implementation with the same time period prior to the change taking place;

(b)  the re-instatement of 24-hour Wholetime crewing at Ashfield fire station required 30 moves across the Wholetime establishment. Proactive engagement with staff, representative bodies, and internal and external stakeholders enabled these changes to be implemented with minimal disruption;

(c)  during the reporting period post-implementation, 469 incidents occurred within the Ashfield district. For comparison, during the reporting period pre-implementation, 433 incidents were attended;

(d)  a key consideration in the decision to re-instate 24-hour Wholetime crewing at Ashfield fire station was the predicted impact it would have on attendance times in the area. During the post implementation reporting period, attendance times in the Ashfield district averaged 7 minutes and 24 seconds. This is well below the Community Risk Management Plan commitment of 8 minutes;

(e)  the impact of re-instating 24- hour Wholetime crewing at Ashfield fire station has therefore contributed to an improvement to the average attendance time of 1 minute and 12 seconds over the reporting periods. This exceeds the expectations of the modelling conducted as part of the 2021 Fire Cover Review which predicted a 48 second improvement;

(f)  facilitating the re-instatement of 24-hour Wholetime crewing at Ashfield fire station has meant a reduction in establishment numbers at other stations. However, this has not resulted in a reduction in Wholetime appliance availability;

(g)  the re-instatement of 24-hour Wholetime crewing at Ashfield fire station has also had a positive impact on the number of times an appliance from Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service has been called to cross the border into Ashfield district;

(h)  the creation of an additional two Wholetime watches at Ashfield fire station has greatly increased productivity of deliverable services within Ashfield district. Safe and well visit completion has increased 93% between the post and pre-implementation reporting periods, and business safety check completion has increased by over 250%;

(i)  a further benefit has been an increase in the number of groups that are included within Ashfield district under the Community Befriending Scheme. Selston Youth Initiative, Models For Heros, Teversal Ladies Football Club, Ashfield LGBT+ Drop-in, and Academy Transformation Trust Education College are all being supported this year;

(j)  being mobilised to incidents is a key retention factor cited by On-Call employees. Since the re-instatement of 24-hour Wholetime crewing, Ashfield fire station has lost two On-Call firefighters. However, during exit interviews it was confirmed that the reason for this was not due to reduced mobilisations but other factors. In addition, one new trainee who will be based at Ashfield is currently undertaking an initial On-Call course, with a further one due to begin in January 2025;

(k)  the reduction in On-Call mobilisations in and around Ashfield district as a result of reinstating 24-hour Wholetime crewing at Ashfield fire station has contributed to cost saving for NFRS. Hucknall On-Call section has experienced an 18% reduction in mobilisations over the reporting periods, contributing to a net £65k underspend currently forecasted for the On-Call pay and will assist in alleviating the cost pressures arising from the re-banding on On-Call pay in the 2025-26 budget;

(l)  despite the significant change that has been made at Ashfield fire station, responses from those employees who are based there to the recent staff satisfaction survey show some marked improvements to responses given in 2022;

(m)the Service continues to monitor the impacts of the changes, as well as the impacts on the wider ridership. This performance is measured and monitored internally through the Service Delivery Evaluation and Assurance Group. A further report of performance will be provided after a 12-month period of evaluation. It is proposed that this is reported to full Fire Authority and therefore, formally close the evaluation process.

Committee Members expressed their gratitude for the implementation of the changes and the positive impact they have made in Ashfield.

Resolved to

(1)  note the contents of the report;

(2)  support the reporting of 12-month evaluation of changes to Full Authority and close the evaluation process.

Report of the Chief Fire Officer

Tom Archer, Area Manager, presented the report provide an update on the work of the embedded Occupational Therapist within the Community Safety and Engagement Team, highlighting the following:

(a)  NFRS has utilised an Occupational Therapist (OT) within the Prevention department since September 2020 in order to provide a wider range of services to the most vulnerable members of Nottinghamshire’s communities. The OT role was originally a secondment into the department from the NHS with temporary funding. While the role remains seconded, the funding for it has been added to the permanent establishment from 1 September 2024 as part of the Futures 25 workstream restructuring the Prevention Department into the Community Safety and Engagement Team. NFRS remains the only fire and rescue service in England to employ an OT;

(b)  the OT offers home visits to occupiers where it is clear they would benefit from specialist intervention; this is usually to those who score highly on the CHARLIE matrix following partner referral or those who have had repeated incidents. The core role of the OT visit is to undertake a holistic, functional assessment of the individual’s ability to carry out daily tasks. Typically, NFRS focuses on cooking, smoking, use of electrical equipment, the ability to respond to and raise an alarm and to evacuate to and/or stay in a place of safety.

(c)  smoking is a significantly high-risk activity, especially in those for whom other tasks are becoming increasingly difficult. Where appropriate, the OT will complete cognitive screening for memory impairment, signpost to specialist NHS teams, provide equipment and minor adaptations. The OT can purchase bespoke, specialist equipment) to be truly responsive to the individual’s needs and reduce wastage when standard equipment is inappropriate or will not be used;

(d)  in order to prevent duplication of work and ensure NFRS’s limited resources are targeted at those most in need, if another professional and/or service is already involved in an individual’s care, the NFRS OT will ensure they are being referred to that Service’s OTs and then provide ‘long-arm’ advice, supervision and support;

(e)  since March 2024, the OT has discharged 34 patients, each of whom has a personalised care plan, with goals relating to reducing fire risk. The average success rate for meeting the goals set by the OT is 84%, giving some of the most vulnerable members of Nottinghamshire’s community a tangible and measurable improvement in their quality of life. Moving forwards data will provide a robust body of evidence which can be scrutinised to improve the efficiency, referral criteria and type of interventions offered

(f)  the OT triages all safe and well visit (SWV) questionnaires where a response crew or specialist home safety operative (SHSO) record concerns about an occupier’s mental health or wellbeing. If appropriate and necessary, these concerns are raised with the GP or the relevant mental health teams. Presently, an average of 11 cases a week are triaged in this way;

(g)  since the introduction of the OT role into Prevention, a weekly ‘drop-in’ case clinic has been provided for all Prevention team members where cases can be discussed confidentially to ensure the right support is given to individuals with complex needs.

Committee Members requested that the print article from OT Magazine co-authored by the OT be circulated.

Resolved to note the contents of the report.