Agenda item

To consider a report

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

45.2     ACFO Evans reported that three new projects had been added to the programme report: Replacement Mobilising System 2018, Intelligence Led Response and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

45.3     SOC C Ball advised that the Service was part of a national collaborative project with 27 other Fire and Rescue Services, the South Eastern PPE Consortium, to procure replacement PPE. The contract to supply new PPE had been awarded to Bristol. The new PPE would be delivered in Spring 2019. “Show and tell” sessions were being arranged with firefighters. The new PPE was lighter, safer and came in a wider variety of shapes and sizes, with PPE specifically tailored to the female shape.

45.4     In response to a question, SOC C Ball advised that Bristol would be providing a fully managed service and, as a result of the procurement process, this was significantly less expensive than the Service’s current PPE contract.

45.5     ACFO Evans advised that the co-responding project was rated red as the current trials remained on hold as the result of national negotiations on pay and conditions. It was noted that this situation was outside of the control of the Service.

45.6     SOC A Peckham reported on the Collaborative Working project which was rated green. The effecting entry for the Ambulance Service pilot would be discussed under a separate agenda item but had proven to be very successful. The Control Room had gained access to STORM and the Service continued to assist with vulnerable person searches, with a project evaluation taking place at the next Collaboration Board which would lead to a revised Memorandum of Understanding. This would identify how Fire and Rescue Service resources could be best directed to make a positive impact on a search.

45.7     ACFO Evans advised that, further to the previous update given to Members, the procurement of a drone by BFRS would now progress quicker, due to Police Joint Protective Services decision to immediately procure drones for operational reasons.

45.8     It was noted that the internal audit of Collaboration had identified a number of issues relating to the control framework.

45.9     Councillor Downing reported that he would be attending a meeting at Central Bedfordshire Council at which the Community Safety Strategy would be discussed and advised that he would be questioning why arson was not identified as one of the priorities.

45.10   ACFO Evans advised that the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) was amber as it was subject to national delays and slippages which were outside of the Service’s control.

45.11   In response to a comment, ACFO Evans confirmed that he had initiated the intelligence led response project to review the profile of the current response in relation to the resources allocated to incidents and to assess risk to determine if the Service would benefit from a more tailored and risk-oriented approach.

45.12   SOC C Ball reported that the 4i mobilising system project was now business as usual, and whilst a small number of glitches awaited resolution, a closure document was being prepared.

45.13   In relation to the new Replacement Mobilising System Project, the consultants engaged to assist in the options appraisal had now produced a short list of three options for more detailed analysis, including indicative costs, and the report would be presented to the meeting of the Fire and Rescue Authority on 26 April 2018. Members were assured that the consultants had fully engaged with the Service during this process.

45.14   SOC G Jeffery provided an update on the Retained Duty System Improvement Project (RDSIP). Significant progress had been made with the new system providing additional flexibility. The next stage of the process was to fully integrate the pay system with the iTrent HR system and the payroll module had recently gone live.

45.15   The Wholetime Duty Management System project had been initiated to better manage whole time crew availability and improve integration with iTrent.

45.16   ACFO Evans then reported on the performance indicators for Quarter 3, a number of which were the subject of exception reports.

45.17   PI01 (primary fires) had missed its target by 15%, although this was largely as the result of a spike in Quarter 1 when the indicator had been reporting as 32% over target. This had been linked to deliberate fires and, in particular, the national trend of an increase in vehicle fires relating to criminal activity. Fire prevention work continued, with anti-arson campaigns being run across Bedfordshire. Arson would continue to be raised as an issue at Collaboration Board meetings.

45.18   PI02 (primary fire fatalities) had also missed target as 4 fire fatalities had occurred in 2017/18 to date. It was noted that one of these was a late call of fire, and two were suicides.  Although it was recognised that the Service had limited ability to prevent certain fire deaths, this was a national indicator that was reported on by all Fire and Rescue Services.

45.19   PI03 (primary fire injuries) had missed its target as there had been 22 injuries as at the end of Quarter 3, 13 of which had occurred in Quarter 1. All had been minor injuries.

45.20   PI04 (deliberate fires) had missed its target by 36%, although there had been a significant improvement in performance in Quarter 3, performance was still being adversely affected by a large spike in Quarter 1 as discussed above.

45.21   PI05 (rate of accidental dwelling fires) was rated amber as it had missed its target by 7%. There had been a number of electrical fires in the quarter attributed to human error. Performance against this indicator would continue to be monitored and the avoidance of these fires would remain a focus during Safe and Well visits.

45.22   ACFO Evans highlighted strong performance against PI06 (deliberate building fires), which was reporting as 37% better than target, and the indicators measuring crewing levels, all of which had met or exceeded target levels. Good performance had also been achieved in relation to mobilisation to false alarms and hoax calls.

45.23   ACFO Evans advised that performance information on the response times was not available as there had been issues arising with the introduction of the mobile data terminals, which had created ‘ghost data’ affecting the reliability of the performance indicator.  The issue had been raised with Essex Fire and Rescue Service and the system supplier. It was considered that performance was likely to be consistent with the 5 year average.

45.24   PI26 (the percentage of fire safety audits carried out on high and very high risk premises) had missed its target by 14% as the inspection programme had been re-prioritised following the Grenfell Tower tragedy as the inspection work had been directed towards the inspection and audit of all high-rise residential premises. The Group received assurances that the full audit programme would be completed by year-end.

45.25   PI27 (fires in non-domestic buildings) was on track to exceed its target, and performance had improved dramatically against PI28 (automatic fire detector fire alarms in non-domestic properties) following the implementation of the new call handling and mobilising policy.  The number of calls to these incidents had decreased by 41% from the previous year and the number of calls not mobilised to had tripled. There had been no adverse impact from the introduction of the new mobilising policy.

45.26   The next steps were to more actively manage the small number of properties that continued to generate a high number of calls. There was also an increase in calls received from remote call centres.

45.27   ACFO Evans reported that the number of Road Traffic Collisions attended by the Service continued to increase. A large percentage of the incidents attended required the Service to either rescue individuals or make the area safe.

RESOLVED:

That the progress made on the Service Delivery Programme and Performance be acknowledged.