Community Safety – London
Fire Brigade
Chris O’ Connor, Deputy Head of Community Safety
18th September 2013
Our vision:
We want to make London a safer city and
our vision is to be a world class fire and
rescue service for London, Londoners and
visitors.
Our ethos:
•London’s fire and rescue service is the busiest in the
country and one of the largest firefighting and rescue
organisations in the world
• We provide services across the whole of the Greater
London area, serving 8.2 million residents as well as
those who work in or visit the city.
•Compared to ten years ago, the Brigade attends half as
many fires and almost a third fewer incidents overall. But
there is always more to be done.
.
Our strategy:
•The Authorities responsibilities are laid out within the
new London Safety Plan 5. This brings together in one
document both the Corporate plan and Integrated Risk
Management Action Plan and sets out our targets for the
next three years.
•This policy states that we aim to reduce accidental and
deliberate fires in London, where they are targeted at
homes, vehicles, rubbish, open land.
•We will achieve this through prevention activities that
focus on informing and educating people in how to
reduce the risk of fire and emergencies.
Our people:
•Nearly 7,000 staff work for the Brigade
5,800 operational firefighters,100 Brigade Control staff
dealing with 999 emergency calls and a range of nonoperational staff and additional volunteers working
behind the scenes to deliver support services such as
getting fire safety messages across.
•People are our most vital resource in achieving our
objectives.
Our 6 aims are:
Aim 1 - Prevention - Engaging with London’s communities to inform and educate people
in how to reduce the risk of fires and other emergencies.
Aim 2 – Protection - Influencing and regulating the built environment to protect people,
property and the environment from harm.
Aim 3 – Response - Planning and preparing for emergencies that may happen and making
a high quality, effective and resilient response to them.
Aim 4 – Resources - Managing risk by using our resources flexibly, efficiently and
effectively, continuously improving the way we use public money.
Aim 5 – People - Working together to deliver high quality services and to create a safe and
positive environment for everyone in the organisation.
Aim 6 – Principles - Operating in accordance with our values and ensuring that safety,
sustainability, partnership and diversity run through all our activities.
Aim 1 – Prevention LSP 5 (2013/14 action plan)
Strategic Objective 1.1 To reduce fires & the impact they
have:
• Evaluate our Home Fire Safety Visits
• Address unsuitable sleeping accommodation
• Preventing most common fires in the homes
• Reducing deliberate fires
• Evaluate volunteers pilot scheme
• Utilise social media
Aim 1 – Prevention LSP 5 (2013/14 action plan)
Strategic Objective 1.2 To target people most at risk:
• Recognise, respond to and record instances of
hoarding
• Work with a range of local partners
• Ensure people living in residential care are as safe as
possible
• Review our response to telecare emergency calls
• Review our youth schemes to ensure they are
effective
• Deliver at least 60 LIFE courses during 2013/14
Reduction in incidents
Primary fires
attended
1970
49,314
1975
50,531
2010
13,510
2011
12,896
Fire
fatalities
1975
177
1980
196
2010
60
2011
56
Community Safety - Structures
• Community Safety is the term given to the Authority’s responsibility for making
people safer in their homes and communities, as outlined by the Fire & Rescue
Service Act 2004.
• The Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) estimate the
cost of a domestic fire in London to be £48,092 .
• Prevention integral to all roles
• Borough Commanders
• Four Area Community Safety Teams
• Central Community Safety Department
Commitment to Community Safety current worksteams:
• Effectiveness of Home Fire Safety Visits
• Fatal fires – collation of data, reviews with Deputy Commissioner
• Arson reduction
• Domestic sprinklers
• Hoarding
• Unsuitable sleeping accommodation – Beds in Sheds
• Telecare systems and partnership with social care
• Safeguarding and serious outstanding risk
• Road traffic Collision reduction
• Accidental Dwelling Fires (ADFs)
• Children and youth engagement programmes
Home Fire Safety Visits
•A home fire safety visit, where
firefighters and support staff visit
homes to provide fire safety advice
and fit free smoke alarms, is our main
tool to improve fire safety in the home.
• But a smoke alarm cannot prevent a
fire – it can only alert the occupant
that a fire may have started.
• The best way of reducing the
potential for fires to occur is to change
the behaviour of residents and we will
continue to improve fire safety
awareness.
Youth Engagement – Local
Intervention Fire Education (LIFE)
• Aim – Change behaviour of young people
• A five day course aimed at 14-17 year olds
• Referred through Youth Offending Teams, Pupil Referral
Units, Schools etc.
• 60 courses per year – 15 young people per course
• Delivered over 600 courses to around 6000 young
people so far
• Delivered at selected fire stations and inside Feltham
Young Offenders Institute
Youth Engagement - Community
Fire Cadets (CFCs)
• Aim – To develop 16 young people per course and enable them
to achieve a BTEC qualification
• 12 Month programme aimed at 14 – 18 year olds
• Delivered at selected fire stations 1 night per week
• Referrals through schools, local authorities and other youth
engagement programmes
• 2 courses running currently – Bexley & Havering
• Next courses start in Sept 2013
•
Haringey, Barking & Dagenham, Waltham Forest & Redbridge
• Future courses – April 2014
•
Newham, Tower Hamlets and Hackney
Youth Engagement – Juvenile
Firesetters Intervention Scheme
(JFIS)
• Aim –Change behaviour to prevent future fire setting
• Works with young people up to the age of 18 years
• Referrals received from families, partner agencies, LFB
staff etc.
• JFIS caseworkers deliver one to one sessions either in
the home or a “clinic” environment in HQ
• Success is – “approx. 6 months without fire setting after
intervention”
• Over 3,000 referrals
• Running for over 10 years
Education programme
•Aim – To offer visits to Year 8 in every “very high
priority” secondary schools annually
•Aim – To deliver to Years 2 & 5 in every “very high &
high priority” primary schools annually
•To also deliver to medium and low schools dependant on
demand
•Key messages; Prevention, Detection & Escape,
Consequences of Arson, Dangers of Hoax Calls
•Approx. 950 schools visited per year
•Approx. 1.3 million pupils have been seen since 2001
Community Safety challenges
• Lots of change at local authority level (staff, budgets and
priorities)
• Changes in partner structures and governance (Local Strategic
Partnerships, Primary Care Trusts)
• Reduction in external funding so more competition
• Changes in bidding processes
• A need for greater evidence and evaluation of what we do
• Referral processes
• Being clear of our role and position
• Meeting the needs of all of London’s diverse communities
• Big expectations, more for less
• Lots to do
How can we address these
challenges?
• Partnership working (representation on strategic boards)
• Involvement in a wider range of initiatives
• Being innovative and changing how we do things (Troubled
Families Programme and Health and Well-Being Boards)
• Evaluation processes are mainstreamed into all our work –
challenging ourselves
• Looking at new delivery models
• Communications and marketing (Social Media)
• Understanding and implementing best practice
Case Study - Who best to identify those at high risk?
• LFB - repeat callers
• LFB – priority postcodes
• Identified through LFB Home Fire Safety Visit
• Identified through other LFB involvement
• Identified by partners
Who is a high risk ?
• Previous history of fires
• Lives alone
• Has a disability
• Lives in social housing
• Over 60 years of age
• Single parent (with child under 15)
• Smoker
• Drink / drug dependant
• Daily domiciliary care provision
What can be done – a partnership approach?
• HFSV – fire safety advice
• Arson-proof letter boxes
• Fire retardant bedding & other materials
• Referral to other agencies – two way
• Shared funding and priorities
• Improved interaction on safeguarding boards
• Domestic sprinklers / misting systems
Sprinklers have been proven to reduce the impact of fire
www.london-fire.gov.uk
Questions ?