Information

Attendees:

• PFCC Danielle Stone (DS)
• Marianne Kimani (MK)
• Jonny Bugg (JB)
• Vaughan Ashcroft (VA)
• Louise Sheridan (LS)
• Paul Fell (PF)
• Nick Alexander (NA)
• CFO Nikki Watson (NW)
• DCFO Simon Tuhill (ST)
• ACFO Rob Porter (RP)

 DS welcomed everyone to the new style Assurance and Accountability meeting. She hoped that the new meeting style will lead to a much richer dialogue going forwards. Apologies were accepted from ACFO Phil Pells and ACO Paul Bullen. Minutes of the previous meeting were circulated with the meeting papers.

 Areas to be examined and already notified to Chief Fire Officer:

• Home Fire Safety Visits
• Fire Fatalities
• AFA and False Alarms

Home Fire Safety Visits

There has been a 15% reduction in overall HFSV’s and visits to the most vulnerable is down by 11%. NW explained the reduction is due to a vacancy in specialist staff role which has now been filled. (vetting took 18 weeks).  The vacancy was in the specialist team that generally will undertake the highest risk visits.

Action This was resolved during the meeting and the action log has been updated.

HFSV annual target is 5000 visits per year. On track to hit this year. (76.9% by Sept). Also doing Hot strike work – This is where a fire has occurred in a street and residents are more receptive to visits. Not necessarily high risk but willing to take fire prevention information. Lots of prevention work has been carried out on water safety. NFRS also involved in providing advice and guidance in relation to the National Disorder. This also impacted on ability to do HFSV’s in that period. Workshop later this month to ensure HFSV’s as efficient and effective as possible. Will share options in December. NFRS have a good relationship with partnership network. Notified by social services where there is risk such as hoarding etc. However, risk is left with NFRS longer than other agencies.

CEFMIS app on fire engines that can initiate direct referrals to partners. The Commissioner questioned if the 5000 target should be revised. NW confirmed will be looking at that. PF asked if there is any data on how equitably fire stations contribute to HFSV’s. RP confirmed this is monitored and if stations are not delivering will investigate why.

Action –  RP to provide a breakdown of the numbers of HFSV conducted by station/watch.

 Fire fatalities.

Community impact assessment looks at causes with partners. Embedded in partnership and safeguarding. NFRS has 18^th lowest fatalities out of 44 Services.   70% of fatalities have support needs – most likely adult who lives alone over the age of 60. Smoking, alcohol, cooking and MH are high contributory factors. Work closely with adult safeguarding board. Some frustration in cases where a person is known to partners and not referred to Fire – Need more focus on why NFRS haven’t been told.

Action – NW/LB/JJ – all sit on Adults Safeguarding Board so consider how can check referrals.

Action – Add to meeting with Chief Execs to be progressed in the New Year.

False alarms

Compared to other Services Northants have low number of FAs. Fire Control have challenged on 2,700 occasions which meant that an appliance did not attend. 14% increase on last year. Premises where there is multiple or repeat FA’s, will be subject to some form of targeted activity or a visit. If recommendations are not implemented, then NFRS can stop attending. The number of devices installed is increasing year-on-year which corelates with the increasing number of FAs.

The Service does not currently have a granular understanding if commercial or domestic premises. Sarah Crampton is currently looking at the data to produce a Commercial Fires report. This will provide more information when complete. Sleeping risk always visited. (Hospitals, hotels and Care Homes for example are commercial premises but have a sleeping risk whereas a garden centre would not).  Where companies are not maintaining systems Fire Control will challenge.

•  If no risk, an appliance won’t turn out to it.
•  Not all FA’s are commercial premises.
•  Repeated FA’s on domestic premises can highlight vulnerability.

Assurance statement:

The Commissioner stated that this new style of assurance and accountability meeting was to enable all to better understand any issues relating to performance that might exist, for them to be explored and to resolve them where possible to provide an improved service to the public. In relation to HFSV the Commissioner stated that she saw these as being crucial both to community engagement and reducing risk in our communities. The Chief Fire Officer was able to provide a full understanding of the reasons why the service had seen a reduction in these from last year but also recognised that the annual target of achieving 5000 HFSV was likely to be reached. She was supportive of looking to see if more were achievable through the CRMP and My Future Service work. The Commissioner was interested in why it might be the case that the productivity of different stations and crews might vary in delivery of these visits and asked for some further details and breakdown to be provided for this.

Concerning fire fatalities, the Commissioner was informed that while there had been 5 in the last 12 months there was no trend in these and the County still had one of the lowest rates of fatalities through fire in the Country, which she welcomed. The Commissioner offered a discussion with the OPFCC early intervention team about how they might be able to be a part of the support network for the prevention team in fire.

The Commissioner was informed that NFRS has had a policy on false alarm attendance for about 15 years and it is estimated as a result of this the attendance rate has dropped by approximately 50%. The Commissioner was assured that in the areas she has expressed some performance concerns that service had some recognition of the reasons for the issues that she had raised and that they were all recognised and were being actively discussed with a view to improvement.

The Commissioner stressed that she wanted the service to have a better and more thorough understanding of the split between false alarms at commercial or domestic premises and asked to be sent that information once it was available.

In September 2024 HMICFRS published the latest inspection report relating to Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service. The Commissioner requests a report that outlines the key findings of the inspection and report. The report needs to outline and comment upon the AFI and Causes of Concern, describe whether the Chief Fire Officer accepts the recommendations and should explain the processes in place to address and deliver against those. The Commissioner also requests that the paper outline any anticipated risks identified with the findings or delivery against them.

The report provided was helpful and the Commissioner was pleased to see that three areas were rated as good. EDI remains a strong focus, with additional training scheduled for next year. Impact assessments are being completed for change programmes and other areas of the business. Trying to develop some staff networks to better understand demographic of staff. Want to reflect the community we serve so trying to look at ways the Service can increase diversity. Also considering direct entry (station manager level) and focus on next year’s cohorts to increase the diversity of the intake. Also making sure managers challenge inappropriate behaviour and upskilling them, to give them the confidence to do that.

The aim is to be outstanding in all areas and are visiting Services who are outstanding to help with this. The AFIs in the people pillar are tracked via The People and Culture Board. On Efficiency and Effectiveness – The chief officer team are looking at the governance structure to make sure all actions have delivery dates. Both the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner offered to support the work of the Positive Action Team. The Chief Fire Officer recognised that there was still further work to do in attracting diverse people to apply for roles in the service. She was grateful for the support provided from the positive action team but wanted to see their support more sharply focused on some groups rather than the current approach which is far more holistic.  NW has authorised new recruitment material that is suitable for the diverse community. (Not just Pride and family events). Need to go and meet people in their community. Part of this approach will be more emphasis on the prevention side of the role. Not just fighting fires as there are fewer fires and more prevention work now.

Legacy issues

Final delivery of CEFMIS is still uncertain. Should have been in September. Need to develop the systems that are implemented to get the most from them. Agreement that there needs to be greater involvement at the start of a project by Fire personnel, so that system changes are fit for purpose. DDaT can deliver the technical element of new programmes but require subject matter experts to feed into it. This has been a struggle in past. This will require a fulltime resource to do this. There was a discussion on staff completing information about ethnicity.  Lots of this internal data is left blank so HR are working to get this information. New recruits are routinely asked whereas this wasn’t the case previously. Can still select the prefer not to say option.

On Discipline – The Senior Leadership team now share organisational learning with the workforce. The People and Culture Board will be signing off the recommendations discussed to ensure that AFIs raised by HMICFRS are addressed. On negative feedback mentioned about the senior team NW has asked HMICFRS for examples so that she can address. She has spoken to staff and is confident that things have improved.

Assurance statement:

The Commissioner felt that given the context of previous inspection reports, that overall, the report taken as a whole was positive and showed a service that was moving forwards. She also acknowledged and thanked the CFO team for the three areas that had been identified and good or promising practice. 

The Commissioner welcomed that aspiration of the Chief Fire Officer to improve service across the board, not just where HMICFRS stated that they felt improvement was necessary.

The Commissioner observed that she was clear that there needed to be demonstrable improvement in the Cause of Concern at the point HMICFRS undertake the revisit in relation to this matter in The New Year.

The Commissioner asked and was assured that the CFO had the right leaders in place to drive the required cultural changes that were required by the service to continue to improve.

 Increase in RTC update.

Killed and Seriously Injured is decreasing in young people. The Service is doing a huge amount of preventative work – 4,835 students have received education via programmes such as My Pink Trainers. Older drivers 60+ is on an upward trend for killed and serious injured. The Service is working with the Local Authority and Highways on this however there is no high-level board to monitor or push through change. The Safer Roads Alliances have suggested that one is needed. Only by working together can there be a positive impact.     There have been 30 fatalities on the roads so far this year. Worryingly there has been an 80% increase nationally in road suicide. Northamptonshire has had four so far this year. Suicide prevention needs focus.  The biggest recorded deaths in young men are related to suicide. There was a discussion about speed cameras. PF advised if there is going to be any further investment in speed detection it will be in mobile speed vans and not static speed cameras.

No further business was discussed