Agenda item

Report of Chief Fire Officer

Mick Sharman, Assistant Chief Fire Officer presented the Annual Statement of Assurance for 2023/24, and highlighted the following points:

(a)  The Fire and Rescue Service National Framework places a statutory requirement on fire authorities to provide assurance on financial, governance and operational matters, with due regard to the expectations set out in the Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP).

(b)  The production of an Annual Statement of Assurance (ASoA) contributes to the requirement for greater public-sector transparency and accountability and through its publication offers and promotes accessibility to information.

(c)  The ASoA 2023-24 provides a review of how well the Service has performed, in the second year of the CRMP 2022-25, against the stated commitments.

(d)  The ASoA is designed to give the public assurance on performance in key delivery areas, defined as the Service’s six strategic goals. An accessible version will be hosted on the Service’s website, providing access to all.

(e)  Highlights within the ASoA 2023-24 include:

·  attended 10,595 incidents, a decrease of 7% on last year;

·  2,804 fires (a decrease of 30%) and 560 road traffic collisions

·  1,335 incidents which involved rescues and humanitarian assistance from either buildings, vehicles, water, confined spaces, or heights

·  on-call appliance availability was 86.47% (against a target of 85%);

·  delivered 15,765 safe and well interventions, (against a target of 14,000) supporting a total of 16,248 people – more than the Service has ever achieved before;

·  delivery of community safety activities including:

o  Safety Zone events to 1,896 Year 5 and 6 pupils from across the City and County;

o  290 road, fire and water safety initiatives;

o  44 national safety campaigns;

o  130 Firesetter safety interventions with young people;

·  delivered 34 Data Intelligence Community Engagement (DICE) activities targeting the most vulnerable in communities;

·  undertook 11 Community Reassurance and Engagement (CRaE) activities throughout Nottinghamshire;

·  completed 1,180 full fire safety audits and 1,039 business safety checks (short fire safety audits) – within business premises. An increase of 96%;

·  the Service delivered 765 training courses, attended by 3,994 delegates, from a portfolio of 140 different training courses;

·  recruited to 93 roles - 39 wholetime firefighters, 25 on-call firefighters and 29 support staff roles;

·  99.2% of the operational staff successfully passed annual fitness tests;

·  Fire Investigators investigated 87 serious fires across the county.

(f)  The Service responded well when Storm Babet brought exceptional levels of rainfall to Nottinghamshire which resulted in the flooding of some areas of the county. During this period, NFRS attended over 40 flood related incidents, led around 100 people to safety and evacuated over 200 residents from their homes.

(g)  From November 2023, the Service has returned to a wholetime crewing model at Ashfield fire station. This project also saw significant investment in a refurbishment of the station to ensure modern inclusive facilities.

(h)  Improvement building works have been started at nine on-call stations to improve accessibility and provide an inclusive environment for staff and visitors.

(i)  17 new fire appliances have been purchased which are currently being built with ‘clean cabs’, which will help protect our firefighters from contaminants and carcinogens following operational incidents and will come into service during 2024/25.

(j)  During 2023/24, the number of female firefighters within the Service increased from 43 to 55 (across both on-call and wholetime), an increase of 27%. Firefighters from BAME backgrounds increased from 37 to 42 (an increase of 13%).

(k)  Work is continuing to empower and engage with staff networks, as well as adding more. These include: Women’s Network, LGBT+ Network, Ethnic Minority Alliance Network, Disability Matters Network, Veterans Network and Health Minds Network (new).

During the discussion that followed the following comments were made:

(l)  The hard work of the service is appreciated, and it is hoped it is recognised in the His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services Inspection report.

(m)  As extreme weather is becoming more frequent, it is important to ensure that plans and resources are in place to deal with incidents arising from it.

(n)  More needs to be done to advertise the achievements of the Service publicly.

(o)  The increases in diversity are welcomed.

Resolved to approve the Annual Statement of Assurance 2023-24 for publication.