Agenda item

RESOLVED that: the Panel notes the report.

The PFCC presented the report, highlighting the following points:

·         Work to develop joint working between Northamptonshire Police and Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service (NFRS) was continuing. Darby House and the new joint garage facility in the county exemplified this approach.

·         Changes to outdated NFRS facilities were also progressing, although this involved some challenges such as issues that had help up plans connected with the disposal of Kettering Police Station.

·         Significant investment was planned in the next year in NFRS’s digital and technology capacity.

·         He was proud of the work done to enable additional investment in NFRS staffing. NFRS had recently welcomed 10 transferees in addition to 20 new recruits taken on earlier in the year.

·         The Arson Task Force had done good work on fire safety assessments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

·         The Chief Fire Officer had published his annual report in the previous month, which highlighted the good work done by NFRS personnel during the pandemic, including carrying out almost 1,100 shifts with the East Midlands Ambulance Service and almost 3,000 pharmacy deliveries. The PFCC thanked all emergency services personnel for their efforts.

The Panel considered the report and members made the following points during the course of discussion:

·         It was questioned whether NFRS planned to install throwlines at any sites in North Northamptonshire.

·         Throwline boards needed to be protected appropriately from the risk of vandalism.

·         It could be beneficial for officers from NFRS, Northamptonshire Police and local authority licensing functions to carry out joint inspection visits to licensed premises.

·         There was a risk resulting from licensing inspections being put on-hold during lockdown. It was questioned what action could be taken now to address this.

·         Licensees were responsible for ensuring that appropriate fire safety arrangements were in place on their premises.

·         It was questioned how decisions on the procurement of equipment for NFRS were informed by feedback from frontline officers.

·         The PFCC was questioned about how he was supporting NFRS to carry out home fire safety checks, given the added importance of this function when more people were working from home.

·         Reassurance was sought that the PFCC was monitoring NFRS’s performance on response times robustly and that there was sufficient focus on both rural and urban areas.

The PFCC made the following additional points during the course of discussion:

·         Throwlines had been installed at locations where there was the highest risk. He would like to roll out provision further, funded by external grants as far as possible.

·         Throwline installations needed to be easily accessible, which made it more difficult to protect them from vandalism. Appealing to people’s better nature was the way to reduce this risk.

·         Various activity had taken place in Northamptonshire to address fly-tipping. A pilot project had been run in rural areas and opportunities to extend this were now being explored. Covert cameras had also been used to support action by local authorities under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

·         The relevant organisations ideally would co-ordinate inspection visits to licensed premises but this involved various challenges in practice. He had challenged the force and NFRS to improve internal co-ordination, for example, by NFRS bringing together different functions supporting fire prevention.

·         There was now a focus on restoring normal continuity in relation to licensing inspections. However, it was important to recognise the number of premises in the county and that NFRS was not the only organisation involved in the
licensing process.

·         The Chief Fire Officer had regular engagement meetings with NFRS personnel and there were also other opportunities for officers to feed back comments through the command structure. NFRS should have good communication with frontline officers to be a successful organisation: the findings of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry reinforced this principle.

·         An area that currently concerned him was houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) in the county. Many HMOs were unregistered, which increased the risks involved. This issue needed to be taken into account when considering how NFRS used its overall resources and he provided challenge to the Chief Fire Officer on this matter.

·         NFRS carried out several thousand home fire safety checks in normal times prior to the pandemic. He would like to return to this level of activity but it needed to be done in a sensible way that did not expose firefighters to an excessive level of risk from COVID-19. In this context, he also welcomed changes to the NHS app concerning self-isolation notifications. Home fire safety checks were well-received by residents and NFRS should aim to resume its previous approach.

·         He regularly monitored NFRS response times. The average response time for all incidents had decreased from 11 minutes 36 seconds before the governance transfer to 10 minutes 10 seconds afterwards. The Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) set a target of 10 minutes. NFRS was achieving this for responses to fires but exceeding it in other areas. Response capacity had been affected by self-isolation notifications over the summer.

·         There were 8 whole time fire stations in the county, which were primarily located in urban areas. This led to a better response time in urban than rural areas, which reflected the relative level of risk. The same level of cover could not be provided in all areas of the county. Different options needed to be considered for rural areas, such as the use of on-call firefighters.

·         His long term aim was to bring together the force and NFRS control rooms but there was not currently a system that could provide all of the necessary functionality. The call handling and command and despatch system being procured by NFRS and Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service represented a shorter term solution.

RESOLVED that: the Panel notes the report.