Agenda item

Report by the Chief Fire Officer.

The report provides a context to the Performance and Assurance Framework for the purpose of future scrutiny of the Executive’s approach to performance.

6.1     The Committee considered a report by the Chief Fire Officer (copy appended to the signed minutes).

6.2     Summary of responses to Members’ questions and comments: -

·         The hotel fire in Midhurst is classified as a primary fire, not a dwelling fire and is reported separately to the Home Office – the cause of the fire is not yet known but is not thought to be deliberate or suspicious

·         The Service is achieving 2.9 audits per 100 premises which is higher than the national average and performing well compared to its neighbours. It also carries out other checks that are not included in these figures and prioritises quality over quantity and is confident that the target is correct

·         It is unrealistic that all fire safety inspections could be satisfactory and in fact unsatisfactory inspections show that the Service is targeting premises where it can be most effective to make vulnerable people and premises safer

·         The Service has circulated a guidance report for refurbished buildings to district and borough council housing departments concerning fire safety which was well received

·         The Service uses a risk-based inspection programme following national guidance - feedback from inspected businesses is taken on board

·         The Service has 35,000 buildings on its risk-based inspection database which are sampled for audits and will respond to referrals for inspections - businesses usually cooperate with inspections

·         If significant fire safety defects are identified in premises, enforcement powers can be used – low level/low risk defects receive advice but are not monitored

·         Where people work from home, this is still classed as a domestic environment

·         All but one of 715 customers assessed as having a high level of fire risk were contacted within 7 days and offered a visit – the other person was contacted after eight days and the visit has now been completed

·         Reasons for the target for the time between the Joint Fire Control Room receiving an emergency call and a fire station being alerted (CM17) not being met include a high turnover of staff (19 out of 50 are currently in development) and the time taken to get information from callers who initially contact other emergency services and the call has to be transferred to fire

·         Average mobilisation times are not shown (these can be very quick) neither are the types of incidents

·         An action plan is in place to recruit and retain more control centre staff, this work also includes a cultural element, but some staff may be drawn to similar jobs in London Fire Brigade, other blue light services or other roles within West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service

·         The Service could use a GPS system to locate calls, but this would take too long so other ways are used such as What 3 Words

·         All control centre staff, regardless of where they live, are skilled at locating incidents

·         There has been a 6% increase in the availability of retained staff

·         The Committee congratulated the Service on its protection work

6.3        Resolved – that the CM17 measure will be reviewed and the new position reported to the next meeting of the Committee at which stage the Committee will decide if it wishes to consider it further