Information

FIRE PROBLEM SOLVING MEETING

Welcome and introductions.

 

Attendees:

PFCC Danielle Stone (DS)

Marianne Kimani (MK)

Jonny Bugg (JB)

Louise Sheridan (LS)

Paul Fell (PF)

Nick Alexander (NA)

CFO Nikki Watson (NW)

ACFO Phil Pells (RP)

AM Lisa Jackson (LJ)

AM Neil Sadler (NS)

 

Minutes and decisions of previous meeting

 

• DS welcomed everyone to the problem-solving meeting.
• Apologies from Vaughan Ashcroft and Paul Bullen

 

CRMP

• LJ provided an overview of the work that has been undertaken to date.
• Nationally, CRMP’s are quite different.
• Have taken opportunity to link new 5-year CRMP to the Commissioners new Safe and Sound plan.
• The CRMP when finalised will be published with clear deliverables.
• Have now completed consultation with staff.
• There are five priorities/commitment statements with additional layers underneath.
• The Commissioner suggested that Prevention and Protection should be more prominent – not just Response
• Under Prevention would also like some mention of leadership skills. NFRS have key skills that can be of benefit to the wider community – Not just search and rescue.
• Development on flood plains etc – fire should be a strategic partner. Prevent/mitigate the flood risk in the first place. Recognise expertise, help shape what is going on.
• Timeline for engagement is tight. Start in April for 6 weeks
• Feedback from 2022 highlighted that people didn’t feel like they were given enough opportunity to comment.

• Have left period to do review feedback and adapt is necessary
• Only had 183 responses last time.
• Using big conversation approach – with the same provider to seek wider consultation and better results overall.

Action – JB to share themes from big conversation with LJ.

 

• Consultation on standards of response. Currently not risk base (10 minutes) for all incidents as an average, which can be distorted by incident outliers
• Response times are not standardised nationally – Different fire services ‘start the clock at different points’
• NFRS include call handling in response time, not just from when appliance dispatched. The CFO made the point that the time ought to start from the point that the service answers the call. This was agreed by the Commissioner.
• Dynamic cover tool will help with where to put resources
• Training with control staff to ensure ask the right questions
• Vision 5 – will narrow down where incidents are much quicker
• Right care right person discussion. Fire often asked by EMAS to help with forced entry and corresponding.
• GoodSAM discussion – PF confirmed that Northants Police have invested in GoodSAM and asked if they had linked in with Fire.
• PP confirmed that NFRS don’t have access to GoodSAM but that it would be useful. (London and Herts use it)

Action – Paul Fell to link in Phil Pells re GoodSAM

 

• Discussion on proposed SORs.
• Should more come out of other emergencies into other calls for service.
• If no life risk, no fire should we have a response time – just get there when we can, if have resource. Currently saying 20 minutes
• CFO prefers a time to avoid staff creating unnecessary risk by utilising blue lights where not required, she wants to stress that there is a difference between emergency and non-emergency attendance.
• Educate public on sort of things should be calling for. Think twice
• Sub divide other calls for service.
• Basic animal rescue for example is not a blue light response but an owner going into the water to rescue might create a life risk.
• There was a discussion about whether just four categories were too few.
• Option to review incidents capture in ‘Other emergencies’ – some would become threat to life incidents with others moving into ‘Other calls for service’ with a much longer response time.

Action – LJ to review ‘Other emergencies’ category to ‘Threat to life risk’

 

• There was a discussion about charging for services – for example when a caller says they are locked out and there is a fire risk because the oven is on when in fact it wasn’t, and the caller only says that so that Fire attend.
• Opportunity to make the high cost of dispatching an appliance visible.

 

Action – Topic of charging for misuse of Fire Service resource to be added to a future problem-solving board and feed in nationally.

 

• Discussion on AFA’s (automated false alarms) vast majority domestic or residential
• No evidence that problems is with commercial premises.
• In summary, July is anticipated go live for next CRMP
• Standard operating response everything hangs on that. Lot of work has started on other things but cannot compete anything until have agreed SORs

 

 

Assurance Statement:

 

The Commissioner welcomed the fact that there was progress on the CRMP but noted that there was not room for slippage as so much of the Your Future Service work and consequently effective delivery of the Safe and Sound Plan relied on it.

She supported the segmentation of differing response times for emergencies and non-emergencies and looked forward to seeing further information on this. She supported seeking wider community consultation on the development of the new emerging CRMP.

She made clear her view that she wished to have further discussions in relation to incidents where it might not be appropriate for the Fire Service to attend and whether charges should be made for where this is the case.

She also mad every clear her view that she saw and expected that the Fire Service should expand it’s prevention approach beyond fire prevention into other areas of community safety.

 

 

Flooding

 

• Flooding is not a statutory responsibility for Fire.

Action – PP to send NFCC position statement to DS relating to flooding and statutory responsibilities.

 

• Would need services to be funded differently as training and PPE is very expensive.
• Significant demand impact in relation to flooding in the past few years
• Already in a good position in terms of compliance for PPE provision, particularly when compared with other fire and rescue services
• Assured through national compliance
• HMICFRS would pick up noncompliance via any major incident attended
• There are strong links between fire and policing and via LRF with other partners.
• Northants as a county has good flood mapping

Action – PP to take NW/DS/JB around county to look at identified flood risk areas

 

• There was a discussion about recent multiple flooding events at Billing Aquadrome
• The local authority have taken the lead on Billing aquadrome given the number of incidents
• Regular and recent change of ownership also causes issues with the site.
• There was a discussion about climate change.

• Climate change impact report highlights a number of internal areas of improvement.
• NFRS has two water rescue stations (Wellingborough and Mereway) which maintain a higher skill level.
• Looking at uplifting Corby to have a wider capability to respond.
• One of the key issues is people ignoring road closure signs and driving through flood water.
• Upskilling to create more capacity to respond to flood related incidents is expensive.
• Sharing of PPE is not appropriate – Must to be appropriately trained and fitted for correct PPE and there are really clear national guidelines on this
• Can divide teams to create more cover in spate conditions.
• Have 24 firefighters trained at Mereway to Mod. 3 and 24 staff at Wellingborough.
• Access to water is Mod. 2 – looking to uplift some other stations with this level of training so can deploy much quicker than could deploy a boat crew
• Some officers trained to MOD. 5 – In a significant flood issue they would be positioned in control room to coordinate response.
• There was a discussion on preparedness.
• PP confirmed are working with RNLI, police, county water forum and the county council, mapping what properties/businesses likely to be at risk
• There is also site-specific risk information for areas on appliances which include thing like access points to deploy boats etc

Action – Opportunity to review flood wardens are they in the right place given current flood risk mapping. To be done by Chief Fire Officer.

 

• PP and AT exploring new technologies
• DS lead for Fire – could raise flooding as a statutory response. (part of emergency climate risk)
• DS attends Northampton Forward board – train station flooded and closed for 4 days. NFRS as experts have a role to play in future mitigation.
• NW – flooding and wildfires are quite unique but when these events happen, all neighbouring services are experiencing it, so it is more difficult to pull in additional resources to support. (When it is raining, it is raining everywhere).
• Public awareness opportunities – only call when at risk. Communication about how to contact wardens. Education re house flooding. Isolate and call a plumber

Action – Highlight public awareness opportunities at next parish council meeting by inviting NW or PP to give an update.

 

• JB asked if there is anything the Office can add to the LRF
• For example, when there was the threat of riots last year Danielle and Marianne were able to leverage their community contacts to help calm the situation. If there was an equivalent opportunity in a flood/spate condition would their support be useful? Wanted?
• PP advised that he will need to raise with Ash Tuckley who is the Chair.
• Action – PP to raise now rather than wait for another major incident – What can DS/MK do politically to solve a problem given lessons from threatened riots. Call in when needed rather than a regular place at the table.

 

 

Assurance Statement:

The Commissioner recognised the challenges that increased flood incidents posed to NFRS but stated that she thought they had responded well to those incidents over the past year and recognised this. She welcomed and was pleased with the plans for additional training for staff and that appropriate provision was made for PPE.

She requested that the service review and report back as to the current state in relation to flood wardens and whether there was any additionality required for this scheme.

She was pleased that there appeared to be a positive and improving relationship in relation to LRF provision in the County.