Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors P Downing, T Khan and D McVicar.

Members are requested to disclose the existence and nature of any disclosable pecuniary interest and any other interests as required by the Fire Authority’s Code of Conduct.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no communications.

*To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 15 June 2017

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 15 June 2017 be confirmed and signed as a true record, subject to ‘clean-up’ being amended to ‘clear-up’ in the second line of the sixth paragraph on page 4.

*To consider a report

The Group received the performance report for the first quarter of 2017/18 and an update on the progress and status of the Service Delivery projects.

SOC G Jeffery reported on the Co-Responding project, which was RAG rated as Green as was part of a national trial. The project remained live and involved crews from Biggleswade and Leighton Buzzard Fire Stations. Of the 91 calls received to date, the Service had attended 66. On 38 of these occasions, the Service had assisted the Ambulance Service in providing medical treatment and on 6 occasions assisted in achieving the return of spontaneous circulation.

ACFO I Evans advised that it was likely that the co-responding trial would cease from 18 September 2017 pending the outcome of national negotiations between the NJC and the Fire Brigades Union.

SOC C Ball provided an update on the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP). This was RAG rated as Amber as there continued to be ongoing delays at national level. Members were reassured that, locally, all the required actions had been completed to date. Work on the Programme Definition document with Essex Fire and Rescue Service had been deferred as a result of the national slippages that had occurred.

SOC C Ball reported that the Replacement Mobilising System was now reporting as Green and the data mobilising functionality had gone live and was in the process of being rolled out across the fleet. The Service had been able to confirm with the Home Office that all of the resilience benefits it had specified had been completed with the exception of “automatic fail over”. It was hoped to formally close down the project in the performance report at the Group’s next meeting.

In response to a question, SOC C Ball advised that “automatic fail over” referred to the resilience arrangements that automatically switched the mobilising system to Essex, and vice versa, in the event of a failure. This currently was completed manually as the supplier of the mobilising system had been unable to provide this functionality at the time. The Sussex system which was going live imminently would include “automatic fail over” and the Service would be able to have an upgrade to include this functionality once it was satisfied that it had been properly tested.

SOC G Jeffrey updated the Group on progress against the Retained Duty System Improvement Project. This project remained RAG rated as Green and a significant amount of progress had been made. A recommendation from the Working Group had resulted in the Service’s Corporate Management Team agreeing to allow the recruitment of applicants who could respond to an RDS station within 6 minutes (rather than 5 minutes) as this would increase the potential applicant pool by 25% on average.

An RDS standby scheme had also recently been introduced which should improve appliance availability by the flexible deployment of RDS firefighters to provide cover at other RDS stations.

ACFO I Evans added that the improvements to RDS recruitment processes could result in up to 20  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17-18/SD/18

*To consider a report

ACFO I Evans reported that all the actions in the report had been completed.

RESOLVED:

That progress made against current action plans be acknowledged.

*To consider a report

SOC G Jeffery presented the results of customer satisfaction surveys conducted from 1 April 2017-30 June 2017. During this period, the Service received a 100% satisfaction rate from survey respondents. Eleven compliments and no complaints had been received during the reporting period.

Surveys relating to safe and well visits were now collected at the end of the visit to improve the quality of the information received.

Members noted the variety of topics discussed during safe and well visits and the number of respondents who stated that the visit improved their knowledge about the maintenance of smoke/deaf alarms.

In response to a question, SOC G Jeffery advised that the Service used ‘Exeter’ data to identify vulnerable individuals and aimed to visit the top 1000 individuals for a safe and well visit within one year.

RESOLVED:

That the continuing high levels of customer satisfaction be acknowledged.

*To receive a verbal update

SOC G Jeffery provided an update on the re-inspection of high rise residential tower blocks in Bedfordshire following the fire at Grenfell Tower. A significant amount of work had been undertaken nationally and locally following the incident.

The initial work undertaken had confirmed that there were no residential high rise blocks in the County with Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding. Full joint safety audits with the responsible person of all occupied residential tower blocks had been undertaken and the Service continued to work closely with these responsible persons, which included housing associations, local authorities and private landlords.

SOC G Jeffery confirmed that there were no significant safety concerns that had arisen out of the joint safety audits and that the Service had good working relationships with the responsible persons in the County.

ACFO I Evans reported that, as a result of the issues that had arisen at Grenfell around the recovery phase and the response of the local authority, the Local Resilience Forum would be undertaking work to ensure that the recovery arrangements in Bedfordshire are resilient.

In relation to the stay put policy, the Group was advised that the evacuation policy was a decision for the responsible person.  Where appropriately applied the Service supported a stay put policy as it was the safest approach in the majority of circumstances and there were significant risks associated with mass evacuation. The advice was for residents to stay put unless directed to evacuate by the fire service.  The need to evacuate is reassessed continuously throughout an incident.

In response to a question, SOC G Jeffery assured the Group that a number of other high risk premises, such as care homes, were audited regularly.

Members commented on the importance of reassuring members of the public, particularly those residing in high rise tower blocks.

RESOLVED:

That the update be received.

*To consider a report

SOC G Jeffery introduced his report on the breakdown of deliberate fire data for 2016-2017 as requested by the Group at its last meeting.

The number of deliberate fires had increased by 6% in comparison to the previous year. There had been reductions in building and dwelling fires (other/unknown other) but increases in fires within dwellings (own property), outdoors and to vehicles.

It was noted that the number of outdoor fires correlated to weather conditions, with a greater number of fires occurring in drier months.

As discussed earlier in the meeting, the increase in vehicle fires was linked to criminality and these occurred mainly in the larger urban areas of the county.

The Service continued to work with partners across a wide range of activities to reduce incidents of arson and deliberate fire. These included joint fire investigations and environmental action days.

Members were assured that the Service worked closely with the Police, but that it could be difficult to secure a conviction for arson as there was often not enough evidence.  ACFO gave examples of how the difference between the definitions of ‘deliberate fire’ and ‘arson’ can result in variations in statistics between police and fire. 

Councillor D Franks requested that he be sent the figures relating to Luton Borough as these were not included in the report.

RESOLVED:

That the report and the data contained within be noted.

*To receive a verbal update

There were no exceptions to report.

*To consider a report

AC D Cook presented the review of the Corporate Risk Register. There had been no changes to risks in the Service Delivery Risk Register.

There had been an update to CRR22 (if we have inadequate or incomplete operational pre planning policies, procedures or information available to us then we can potentially risk injury or even death to our firefighters and staff). The National Operational Guidance programme was due to be completed to ensure consistency in the application of firefighting standards across all Fire and Rescue Services. There may be additional work streams arising from the completion of this programme.

RESOLVED:

That the review by the Service of the Corporate Risk Register in relation to Service Delivery be approved.

*To consider a report

The Group received its updated work programme for information.

ACFO I Evans suggested that Members receive a demonstration of the forced entry kit used by the Service to effect entry at the Group’s next meeting.

RESOLVED:

1.         That the work programme be received.

2.         That the Group receive an update on the establishment of the Strategic Road Safety partnership at its next meeting.

3.         That a demonstration of forced entry equipment be arranged to take place at the next meeting of the Group.