GREATER MANCHESTER FIRE AND RESCUE AUTHORITY
BRIEFING NOTE FOR SALFORD CITY COUNCIL
FROM COUNCILLOR GEORGE WILSON
I am pleased to present following round-up of current Fire and Rescue Service
partnership working in the City of Salford.
Salford Local Area Agreement and Local Public Sector Agreement
The Fire Service in Salford has contributed to the Salford Local Area Agreement.
Although risk reduction and prevention are key to the Fire Service the fire-related
elements within the LAA are output rather than input based in order to demonstrate
real improvements to the lives of local people. The fire-related elements within the
LAA are:
1.
Number of accidental fire related deaths
2.
Number of fire related injuries (excluding precautionary checks)
3.
Number of car fires
4.
Number of secondary fires (rubbish, bins, grass, items of no value etc)
Numbers 3 and 4 have been extracted from the LPSA previously negotiated with the
DCLG. These two indicators are accepted as one of the barometers of anti-social
behaviour. The Fire Service developed these in a partnership with the Salford
Community Safety Unit to establish the Fire Service as a key agency in the reduction
in anti-social behaviour.
An LPSA2 stretch target has been agreed to reduce secondary fires by an average
of 17.5% and car fires by 15% over three years. This was achieved by arguing that
both these incidents could be regarded as barometers of anti-social behaviour.
£29,000 pump-priming money has been provided by the DCLG to help achieve this
target. If the target is met than a reward grant of £200,000 will be paid.
Salford Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership
The Borough Commander sits at the executive level of this partnership, and this has
been a useful partnership in raising the role the Fire Service plays in crime
reduction, neighbourhood renewal, social cohesion and community safety. Whilst
the meeting is mostly crime focused it is represented by all the heads of the key
agencies in Salford. This has led to a number of useful initiatives:

Work between the Fire Service and the Youth Offending Team

Work between the Fire Service and Forest Bank Prison

Work between the Fire Service and the Drug and Alcohol Action Team
Perhaps most importantly it provided a key venue for the Fire Service to raise the
issue of attacks on Firefighters. Directly as a result of this £18,500 was provided out
of Salford’s Tackling Violent Crime initiative to purchase CCTV cameras for fire
appliances in Salford.
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Beatsweep
The Fire Service has lead on the Beatsweep initiative since its creation under the
Manchester and Crime Salford Crime Reduction project. The initial aim of the
Beatsweep initiative was to reduce arson-related crime in hotspot areas. However,
the partnership has evolved since its inception, and now has a holistic zero-tolerance
approach to all forms of crime and disorder, as evidenced by the growing number of
agencies which are now involved:
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, Greater Manchester Police,
Salford Community Safety, Salford Environmental Crime, Salford
Environmental Services, Salford Housing Department, Salford Benefits
Fraud Investigation Team, TV Licensing, Parks and Recreation,
Regeneration and Neighbourhood Teams, Salford Street Wardens, Salford
Trading Standards, Bus Companies, Community Forums, DVLA &
Automatic Number Plate Recognition, Immigration, Neighbourhood Watch,
Primary Care Trusts, Private Sector Housing and Residents Associations.
The initiative is broken into 3 phases - intelligence gathering, enforcement and
finally community reassurance. It has been shown to significantly impact on the
reduction of crime and anti social behaviour within the communities selected. The
most recent Beatsweep in Salford took place on the Duchy estate and is already
showing positive results. The Beatsweep initiative is seen as the main strategy in
achieving the Fire LPSA2 targets and as such it is committed to a further 7 in the
next 18 months. The pump-priming money obtained through the LPSA is being used
to fund this.
A conference was recently held at the Manchester Stadium highlighting the
effectiveness of the Beatsweep initiative. The Borough Commander for Salford was
one of the speakers highlighting the Salford experience.
The Beatsweep initiative is now seen in best practice and is being trialled
throughout the other nine boroughs in Greater Manchester.
Partnership with Salford Call Centre
The Fire Service has entered into an extremely productive partnership with Salford’s
Call Centre. Fire data shows that single pensioners in rented accommodation are
most at risk of being killed or injured in a fire. All individuals who are within this
group who contact the call centre for any reason are offered a free Home Fire Risk
Assessment by the fire service. This involves providing and fitting free smoke
detectors, explaining escape plans and doing a general safety check.
At present the Call Centre is providing several hundred targeted referrals per month.
It is anticipated that there will come a time when the majority of this vulnerable
group have been completed, at this point the next most vulnerable group(s) will be
specifically targeted. These may include single parents, those with long term limiting
illness, or any other groups identified as vulnerable.
Home Fire Safety Post Fatality Strategy
Salford Borough has developed a strategy which focuses in on areas immediately
after a fire death. In effect for a five day period after a fire related death that
community is heavily targeted to encourage the take up of the Home Fire Safety
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Risk Assessment. In recent fatalities such as the death of the three-year old at
Arthur Millwood Court and the death of the Polish migrant in Broughton the Fire
Service has gained entry into up to 2000 local properties. In effect the tragic death
of an individual creates a short window of opportunity for the Fire Service to gain
entry into a large number of properties it would traditionally struggle to get into. This
initiative has had multiple effects:
1.
It has allowed many more people to be made safe from fire due to the
completion of Home Fire Safety Risk Assessments
2.
It has highlighted a tragedy within the local community and reinforced the
danger of fire
3.
It has provided an opportunity to gain entry to properties and engage with
people with whom the Fire Service has traditionally struggled to do so.
Community Safety Open Day
The Fire Service recently hosted a community safety open day at Broughton Fire
Station. A large number of local agencies supported this day. The day was an
absolute success with many hundreds of the Salford Community attending the
event. The day provided a fantastic opportunity to raise community safety issues as
well as building a stronger relationship between all agencies and the local
community.
Heartstart
Salford is the only Fire Service in the UK that has entered into a partnership with
Heartstart in order to provide CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) and basic lifesupport training to the local community. This is a particularly important partnership
on the Community Risk front as Salford has the second highest incidents of heart
attacks in the UK.
The partnership encourages members of the public to attend their local Fire Station
to receive CPR and basic life support training from specially trained Firefighters. In
addition the operational crews also visit community centres, large businesses etc to
provide this training. As part of these training sessions Fire Safety is also covered
and all participants are encouraged to sign up for a Home Fire Safety Risk
Assessment. At present there are 32 Firefighter volunteers who lead this Heartstart
endorsed training.
This initiative is now going from strength to strength. It is anticipated that a further
20 Firefighters will be trained as instructors in the new year in order to meet the
increasing demand for these classes. No charge is made for any of this training by
the Fire Service.
Salford Local Strategic Partnership
Salford Command is now a member of the new Salford Local Strategic Partnership.
The Borough Commander attended the recent first meeting of the re-structured
partnership. The Fire Service believes it is a real positive that it is now represented
on this partnership and believes that it will provide opportunities for considerably
more partnership working through demonstrating the shared agenda that the Fire
Service has with many partners.
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Neighbourhood Management Partnership
Personnel in Salford Borough are involved at all levels in Neighbourhood
Management. This is a key partnership as it ties into all elements of Safer Stronger
Cleaner Greener Communities as well as crime, anti-social behaviour, and
neighbourhood renewal. There have been a wide range of successes at each of the
local boards. This has ranged from added fencing to prevent vehicle abandonment
to environmental clean ups. The influence of these partnerships is growing as it is
now seen as the key to targeting ‘hot spot’ areas in the Borough.
Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) 2007/10
I would like to conclude this report by reminding Council colleagues the Fire and
Rescue Authority has just commenced consultation on our draft IRMP for 2007/10 and
annual Action Plan for 2007/08. We would welcome any comments the City Council
wishes to make.
George Wilson
December 2006
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