Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service Community Risk Management Plan

2015 – 2019 Summary

Welcome!Welcome to Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (BFRS) Community Risk Management Plan 2015 – 2019 SUMMARY

This summary of our Community Risk Management Plan 2015 – 2019 shows how we will deal with local risks, create safer, healthier and more resilient communities, and deliver local social and public value to our council tax payers. It contains our key priorities, objectives and recent achievements so you are aware of our wider role in all communities, delivering a diverse range of community safety initiatives alongside local, regional and national partners. Our excellent operational response in fighting fires, rescuing people from road traffic collisions and water related incidents ensures the people of Bedfordshire are as safe and well as possible.Voted Fire and Rescue Service of the Year in 2015 we are proud of our performance over the past four years and our full Community Risk Management Plan 2015 – 2019, is available on our website (http://bit.ly/1UGTk6C ).The BFRS is governed by the Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Authority made up of twelve elected councillors appointed by Bedford Borough (3), Central Bedfordshire (5) and Luton Borough (4) Councils.

Our Aims and Priorities

The Service’s Vision is to provide an excellent fire and rescue service for the communities of Bedfordshire.

To respond effectively, manage risks, and reduce the number of emergency incidents that we attend.

Making every contact count.

Ensuring that we make every possible use of the

contact that we have with vulnerable people in

society by way of education and advice and, where

appropriate, making referrals to partner agencies.

Keeping our operational Firefighters as safe as possible through the

application of robust risk assessment processes,

appropriate training, Personal Protective

Equipment (PPE), and other equipment.

Providing excellent prevention, protection

and response functions to our communities, making improvements aligned to

our changing risks to keep people safe in their home, in public places, at leisure time

and when travelling.

Firefighter SafetyDelivering

effectiveness and improvement.

To ensure high standards of corporate governance and continued Service

improvement.

To develop our employees and create a safe, fair and caring workplace

for our staff.

Vision

Service Objectives

Service Priorities

Prevention, Protection, ResponseOur core functions are preventing incidents from occurring, protecting the public from harm and responding effectively to emergency calls.

Protecting Our CommunitiesCommunity risks vary across the county and we focus upon supporting stronger and safer communities, improving health and well-being, protecting the environment and local economy and safeguarding children and young people. Prevention in our CommunitiesOur extensive community safety work is not just about preventing fires, safer driving and water safety but combatting the causes of incidents to prevent potential risks becoming real emergencies. Our risk modelling has identified that less affluent social renters, elderly single people reliant on state support and transient young single people are most at risk of accidental dwelling fires and rural families are most at risk from chimney fires. BFRS actively targets these groups when delivering Home Fire Safety Education and advice.

Making Roads Safer We attend around 375 Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs) each year, often rescuing

people trapped in vehicles. The social cost of these within Bedfordshire is estimated at £200m annually. You are most at risk from injury or death if you are a young driver, a cyclist, a pedestrian or a “born-again” biker. Through our “Biker Down!” scheme and a co-ordinated national plan delivered locally we have helped reduce those killed or seriously injured by 8%.

Our Fire Cadets

Part of a national scheme our four Fire Cadet units at Kempston, Leighton Buzzard, Luton and Sandy Community Fire Stations have 56 young people between 13 – 18 years taking part. They learn the basic skills of fire fighting and fire safety and work in their communities to raise awareness of the need for fire safety, safe driving and taking care around open water. They work within the National Fire Service Youth Training syllabus and have the opportunity to undertake a BTEC qualification and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. If you are aged between 13 – 18 years and want to join our Fire Cadet group in Leighton Buzzard, Bedford/Kempston, Sandy or Luton please contact Pete Buckingham or Kayleigh Jean via contact@bedsfire.com or call (01234) 845000.

Protection: Supporting Local BusinessPast enforcement action informs our extensive business education programme and 98% of our effort goes into educating and advising businesses. We conduct over 4,000 Fire Safety Audits and consultations each year to help businesses prevent fires, continue to trade and contribute to national wealth and sustainable employment. We also gather risk information to inform our firefighters about built environment risks. Response: Our PerformanceDespite all our significant efforts delivering prevention and protection services to our communities, inevitably emergency incidents still occur. When they do, BFRS responds quickly to deal efficiently and effectively with them.During 2014 – 2015 we rescued over 300 people from fires, road traffic collisions, water and other incidents. Within the Community Risk Management Plan 2015 – 2019 we identified key response standards with regard to how quickly we would arrive to help you when you need us and our performance against these are set out below:

We will:Our

StandardOur

Performance 2014/15

Answer emergency calls within 7 seconds or less. 90% 95%�Provide�an�initial�response�of�two�fire�appliances�with�crews�of�5�and�4�(total�9)�for�fires�threatening�life, structures or the environment;

75% 80%

Ensure this initial response (see above) arrives within 5 to 10 minutes. 80% 80%

�Attend�all�Road�Traffic�Collisions�we�are�called�to�within 13 minutes. 80% 94%

�Provide�an�initial�response�of�a�fire�appliance�with�a�crew�of�five�and�this�response�will�arrive�within�20 minutes for incidents that are not potentially life threatening, such as lock-ins, lock-outs and animal rescues.

96% 98%

Moving ForwardAcross the country Fire and Rescue Services are making efficiency savings as a result of the Government’s 2015 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) while continuing to provide high quality services. Like many other Services we are also exploring closer working with local Police and Ambulance Services as well as enhancing our partnership working with local authorities and other organisations.Our safety campaigns have consistently reduced fires during the past ten years which enables us to use our extensive experience in preventing incidents and protecting the public to work with a broad range of partners in more focussed and socially productive ways. Our approach is not to fall back to ‘core services’, but seek to deepen our social footprint and increase our public value as ‘Civic Leaders’, putting us in the forefront of delivering safety initiatives and working as part of Community Safety Partnerships that co-ordinate key information and advice across a variety of local agencies.

Since the publication of the CRMP 2015 – 2019 our highly motivated and skilled Firefighters, community safety teams and support staff have continued to deliver a widening range of prevention and response services by engaging, educating and intervening across a myriad of risks posed to young, old, disabled, mentally impaired and vulnerable people to ensure we do make every contact with local people count. Over the next twelve months we will look for opportunities to deliver mutual benefits in support of other public services and go further towards enhancing community wellbeing. We will offer our services, where possible, to work with other intervention and referral services to influence the lives and health outcomes of vulnerable people and make a greater contribution to medical interventions. The way we continue to deliver our outstanding, award winning, service to our citizens whilst addressing continuing reducing budgets and improving organisational morale and resilience through this period of sustainable change is something we want to explore further in 2017/18. If you would like to be part of this please visit our “We Want Your Views” page on our website and contact us (or email consultation@bedsfire.com or call 01234 854000.

What We Provide

*includes 22 who also work as full-time Firefighters, **includes 3 who also have an on-call contract

What Does This Cost (2015/16)?

Capital SpendingThe Fire and Rescue Authority has invested £1.519m. in capital schemes during 2015/16 including purchasing modern fire appliances, operational equipment such as defibrillators, whilst also continuing to modernise our buildings and IT equipment. This is funded through borrowing, with only a small proportion funded through central government grants.

Full-time Firefighters & Officers 276On-call (Retained) Firefighters* 144Control Room Staff 24Support Staff** 145Fire Stations 14Fire engines 29Specialist vehicles 20Support vehicles 57Aerial Platforms 2

Employees £ 22.5mPremises £ 1.0mTransport £ 0.7mSupplies & Services £ 2.1mAgency & Contracted Services £ 0.5mCapital Financing £ 1.8mTOTAL £ 28.6m

Tackling Risks

Tackling IncidentsThese are the types and numbers of risks we currently deal with:

Bedford

Harrold

Kempston

Potton

Sandy

Biggleswade

Shefford

Ampthill

Luton

Stopsley

Dunstable

Leighton Buzzard

Toddington

Woburn

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service has 14 Community Fire Stations based around the county to ensure we can provide a effective response to fires, road traffic collisions, water rescues and other incidents as swiftly as possible.

13.07%

28.82%

2.3%

18.36%

16.10%

7.47%

13.95%

Property Fires

Smaller Fires

Road Traffic Collisions Attended

Special Services (Non Fires Excluding Road Traffic Collisions)

Automatic Fire Alarm (Good Intent)

Automatic Fire Alarm (Apparatus Fault)

Automatic Fire Alarm (Malicious)

Your Fire ServiceNationally Fire and Rescue Services are continuing to face major reductions in Government funding and we will need to make major changes in how we provide our protection and rescue services. In January 2016, 89% of local people supported a 1.99% rise in our portion of the local council tax, the maximum we can increase it without a referendum. It is likely we will continue to make further savings over the next few years and we will be consulting local residents about how we can do this most effectively.

Our Attendance at Incidents (figures from 2014/15)

• We received 18,400 calls to Fire Control;• We rescued over 300 people from fires, road traffic collisions, water & other incidents; • We attended 5,975 incidents;• Of which 1,079 were Primary Fires*;• Which caused 19 Fire Casualties; • There was one Fire Fatality;• We attended 459 Accidental Dwelling Fires; • We attended 375 Road Traffic Collisions;• At which there were 215 casualties;• We received 876 automatic fire alarm (AFA) calls;• There were 942 false alarms from AFAs;• We completed 5,506 Home Fire Safety Checks;• We installed 5,174 smoke alarms;• We fitted 262 carbon monoxide alarms;• We installed 262 impaired hearing alarms;• We installed 150 arson letter bags/locking letter plates;• We carried out 4,130 Fire Safety Audits and Consultation with local businesses.(*Fires in buildings, cars, caravans or anything insurable)

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue ServiceSouthfields RoadKempston, Bedford MK42 7NRTelephone number: Bedford (01234) 845000E-mail contact@bedsfire.comWeb: www.bedsfire.com