Agenda and minutes

of the previous meeting held on 26 July 2021 attached.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 26 July 2021 be signed as a correct record subject to amendment as follows:

·         Minute CSC/21/2 – to add a further bullet point in the third paragraph to reflect that “The Committee asked to look in more depth at areas such as P4A, roving appliances, removal of the P3 appliances together with information on station/appliance availability as part of the Forward Plan”; and

·         Minute CSC/21/3 – to add a further bullet point under the third paragraph to reflect – “that the Service should also reach out to other local authorities and partners to seek wider involvement in the fitting of domestic sprinklers and/or other fire suppression systems.

Report of the Director of Service Delivery (CSC/21/3) attached.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Service Delivery (CSC/21/3) that set out a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in order to measure the Service’s performance against Strategic Priorities for quarter 1 of 2021-22.

The Director of Service Delivery advised the Committee that the performance measures were based on the following criteria:

·         Succeeding              –          the KPI was achieving its target;

·         Near target                –          the KPI was less than 10% away from achieving                                                      its target; and

·         Needs improvement            –          the KPI was at least 10% away from achieving                                                      its target.

In terms of Priority 1, the Service was succeeding in 7 KPIs, near target in 10 KPIs and needing improvement in 2 KPIs.  On Strategic Priority 2, the Service was succeeding in 4 KPIs, near target in 4 KPIs and none needed improvement.

The Director of Service Delivery reported that the two KPIs needing improvement were:

·         KPI 1.1.4.1 – number of home fire safety visits completed (-33.9%); and

·         KPI 1.2.4.1 – number of fire safety checks completed  (-10.8%).

Both of these areas had been subject to review and an action plan had been instigated to bring performance back on target.

The Committee made reference to the following points (amongst others) in discussion on this item:

·         A breakdown of the number of home fire safety visits into who had undertaken them, i.e., wholetime, On Call or technicians was requested in future reports;

·         Whether the performance under KPI 1.2.4.1 had improved to September 2021 and whether the target was likely to be hit at year end;

·         Whether the Service was confident in its partnership approach for the referral of vulnerable people for home fire safety visits.

The Director of Service Delivery, in response to these points, advised that he would enquire if the report could be amendedin future to provide the breakdown requested above.  He added that the Service had completed 6400 home fire safety visits to the end of October 2021 so it was still behind on this target but the action plan instigated should deliver improvements by the year end.  The Service would need to consider the target for future years then based on performance and factors such as the community risk profile.  He also advised that the referral process requesting home fire safety visits from partners for vulnerable people was simple with the majority of this process being undertaken by the Service.

In terms of areas of focus at future meetings, the Committee requested reports on the following areas:

·         Risk and incident types;

·         Appliance/station availability (linked to the Pay for Availability system);

·         Home Fire Safety Visits;

·         Forward Plan of other areas of work.

The Committee expressed its thanks to officers and staff for the quality of the performance report presented.

RESOLVED

(a)        That the areas of focus for performance as set out in the bullet       points             above be agreed as a focus for the next meeting; and

(b)        Subject to (a) above, the report, including the exception reports       for KPIs 1.1.4.1 and 1.2.4.1, be welcomed and  ...  view the full minutes text for item CSC/21/6

Report of the Director of Service Delivery (CSC/21/4) attached.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Service Delivery (CSC/21/4) that provided an overview of the collaboration activity undertaken by the Service, together with the legislative requirements, the emerging national picture within the fire and rescue sector and the agenda for reform.

The Director of Service Delivery advised the Committee that the Service had saved in the region of 150 lives through its collaboration activity.  Current collaboration activity included (amongst others):

·       Co-responding;

·       Ambulance driving;

·       Police and Fire Community Support Officers;

·       Community Responders; and

·       Safeguarding.

Reference was made to the following points:

·       The work of the Police and Fire Community Support Officers and the potential to increase the numbers from 3 whilst still aligning to the new system under Pay for Availability;

·       The work undertaken in developing the collaborative approach with the South West Ambulance Service and paragraph 4.5 of this report in particular which was commended; and

·       Whether the staff undertaking ambulance driving were delayed by waiting times at hospital accident and emergency departments. 

The Chief Fire Officer advised that the Service was working through the best way to increase the numbers of Police and Fire Community Support Officers in conjunction with Devon & Cornwall Police.  The Director of Service Delivery added that staff driving ambulances were not available to the Service so they did not delay turn out times of fire engines.  It was recognised that ambulance waiting times did impact on the Service and this was being discussed with partners along with the instigation of training for staff in respect of the prognosis of the casualty and encouraging people to take themselves to hospital but it was an ongoing issue.

The Committee also raised the point of cost recovery for collaboration work undertaken by the Service.  The Director of Service Delivery confirmed that the Service had cost recovery arrangements in place for all aspects of collaboration. 

Councillor Redman MOVED (seconded by Councillor Biederman):

          “the addition of an additional recommendation at (a) to reflect that the           Committee acknowledged the great work undertaken on by staff on           collaboration activity and particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Upon a vote, the motion was CARRIED unanimously.

RESOLVED

(a)       that the Committee acknowledged the great work undertaken      on by staff on collaboration activity and particularly during the      Covid-19 pandemic; and

(b)       Subject to (a) above, the report was noted.

Report of the Director of Service Delivery (CSC/21/5) attached.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Service Delivery (CSC/21/5) that set gave an overview of the actions the Service had taken to respond to the recommendations and changes in legislation arising from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

The report addressed, amongst other matters:

·       The response by Government following the Inquiry;

·       The immediate actions taken by the Service following the fire;

·       The independent review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety;

·       Fire Safety legislation, notably the Fire Safety Act 2021 and the Fire Safety Bill;

·       The Buildings Risk Review;

·       Additional grant that had been received by Fire and Rescue Services;

·       The Grenfell Tower Inquiry;

·       The progress made with recommendations arising from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

The Director of Service Delivery drew attention to the point that the Service had undertaken a survey of all residential blocks in its areas with 6 floors and above and 3 residential towers had been identified in Plymouth with flammable cladding that did not resist the spread of fire to the standard required in Building Regulations.  Additional measures were put into place and this work was now completed and the tower locks were now a much better place to reside as a result.  He added that, in terms of the Building Risk Review, 85 of 92 premises had been inspected now and the Service was on track to complete this work in accordance with the Home Office requirements.  The Service had experienced incidents since the Grenfell Tower fire where poor construction methods had resulted in fire spread between new build properties which was a concern.

In terms of funding, the Service had received a number of grants to support investment in staff and technology to improve protection capability.  Notably, £60k had been provided to the Service as a grant to resource specialist teams to carry out the work on the Building Risk Review.  Further money had been used to support the recruitment of Business Safety Officers and Apprenticeships had been established to ensure that there was a career pathway for staff employed in the fire safety role.

In response to a question, the Director of Service Delivery confirmed that a new Building Safety Regulator had been appointed by Government who would be responsible for actions once the Building Safety Bill was enacted. The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) had a Protection Policy Reform Unit set up to understand how fire and rescue services could undertake this work in future.  The Service had seconded some of its staff to work in this Unit already so was well placed to contribute and to see what may emanate from this.  The Committee requested a six monthly update on progress with Grenfell to be included within the Forward Plan.

Councillor Coles MOVED (seconded by Councillor Parker-Khan):

          “the addition of a recommendation to express thanks to the Director of           Service Delivery and his staff in continuing, at pace, to protect the           residents of Devon and Somerset”.

Upon a vote, the motion was CARRIED unanimously.

Councillor Randall Johnson stated that fire  ...  view the full minutes text for item CSC/21/8

Report of the Chief Fire Officer (CSC/21/6) attached.

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Fire Officer (CSC/21/6) setting out the proposed draft Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) for 2022-27 together with a Strategic Risk Analysis.

During consideration of the draft CRMP, the following amendments were requested by the Committee:

·       To take account of the points raised by Councillor Buchan in her email to the Chief Fire Officer recently;

·       Under “About Us” to reference the additional work undertaken by the Service which was outside of its statutory duties;

·       In terms of the protection work undertaken, to add relevant statistics;

·       Under “Looking Back” to show the impact and/or outcomes of the changes made;

·       To reference the Emergency Response standards;

·       To remove reference to the precept which would sit elsewhere in Fire & Rescue Authority documents; and

·       To make reference to holiday let premises which may be unregulated and a risk if subdivided into numerous rooms.

The Committee requested a further version of the draft CRMP showing the changes discussed at the meeting as above.  The Chief Fire Officer undertook to provide this but commented that it may be difficult to produce this version in time for publication with the Authority agenda for its meeting on 10 November 2021.

RESOLVED that, subject to incorporation of the amendments referred to at the Community Safety Committee meeting on 2 November 2021 as annotated above, the Authority be recommended to approve the draft Community Risk Management Plan for 2022-27 for public consultation.