Memorandum by the Merseyside Fire &
Rescue Authority (FRS 26)
The Authority view this inquiry as entirely
appropriate to examine what change has taken place since the Government's
White Paper, Our Fire & Rescue Service, in 2003. It is, however,
a very challenging inquiry for the Committee as it attempts to
cover such a wide range of issues in a service that is at the
forefront of so much public attention.
The Committee is asked to note that Merseyside
Fire & Rescue Authority (MFRA) is a Beacon Council for its
Services to Older People in 2005 and was the highest scoring Fire
& Rescue Authority in the country when declared "Excellent"
following the 2005 Comprehensive Performance Assessment carried
out by the Audit Commission. This is a remarkable journey from
a well documented low point of a wildcat one day strike on 10
September 2001. This "pedigree" means that we have a
great deal to offer to this inquiry. It is in the interest of
conciseness, that we restrict our evidence to the progress on
Fire & Rescue Service reform since June 2003 (paras 2, a,b,c,
in terms of reference) and we leave others to comment on the remaining
issues.
The Authority is proud of its work on fire prevention
since it radically changed its focus back in 1999. The flagship
of this community safety programme has been the Home Fire Risk
Assessment that has seen nearly 250,000 homes visited in Merseyside
and over 400,000 smoke alarms fitted, all part of a free service.
Whilst, most of these visits have been carried out by operational
firefighters, five years of experience has meant that we have
had to become more sophisticated and targeted at those most at
need, based on a "victim profile" of fire. This has
seen over 30 specialist advocate community safety staff recognised
by the Guardian Public Service Award for "Innovation in Diversity"
and employed in the following areas:
reaching the Somali, Yemini, Chinese and Asian community
Reaching this most vulnerable group
Reaching the one in seven in the community who have
hearing challenges
Drug and Alcohol Dependency:
A very high proportion of fire deaths are alcohol
and drug related
Mobility and ability to react are a factor in many
fire deaths
District Community Safety Advocates:
Forging partnership with the caring agencies in local
authorities
Training thousands of carers working in the community
on basic fire safety.
These staff share the uniform of a firefighter
and take the "brand" into the heart of some of the most
challenging communities. They also bring a greater diversity into
the Service and have gained the respect and trust of their colleagues
by their enthusiasm and skill. This work should be a model for
all Fire Authorities and we invite the Committee to seek further
evidence of the benefits of this approach. With the threats this
country now faces, the ability of a public service to engage with
all parts of the communities must be part of the long term solution
to reduce risk.
Every study will show that fire has a social
dimension and impacts on those most in need. All the local authorities
in Merseyside are within the top 20% of the most income deprived
in England, which makes the challenges facing this Authority perhaps
greater than anywhere else. With the number of pensioners living
along rising above the national average, the number of pensioners
with a long term limited illness increasing by 30% in Liverpool
and Knowsley districts, an increasingly diverse population and
Liverpool being the fourth highest recipient of asylum seekers
in the UK, it is clear that the challenges this brings is shared
across a number of agencies and a 21st century Fire & Rescue
Service must work effectively in partnership with those to create
a shared solution.
Below is just a few of the many partnerships
the Authority has formed in recent years:
| Five District Local Authorities:
| Arson reduction schemes, youth engagement, school protection, anti-social behaviour reduction, vehicle crime.
|
| Health Services/PCTs: | Health visitor domestic fire safety training, child obesity clinics on fire stations, attendance at flu clinics, drug and alcohol dependency referrals.
|
| Social Services: | Carer domestic fire safety training, portable one room sprinklers to vulnerable clients, juvenile fire setter referral.
|
| Police: | Arson Task Force, Firework Incident and Research Safety Team (FIRST), Youth Engagement.
|
| Merseyside Centre for Deaf People: |
Accessing the deaf community through our deaf advocates.
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| Aged Carers/Help the Aged: | Accessing older people
|
| Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation: |
Joint anti-smoking campaigns.
|
| Fire Support Network: | Our very strong volunteer charity providing support in the community through 300 volunteers.
|
| Mersey Regional Ambulance Service: |
Co-responding |
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And there are many more.
After five years plus of experience, delivering services
on a scale and breadth never before attempted in the Fire Service,
the Authority believes that the model for Community Fire Safety
is built around:
— Comprehensive and ambitious local programmes of
home fire safety checks delivered by operational firefighters
within a strategic plan and framework;
— Supported by specialist staff who empathise with
those most vulnerable in the community;
— Delivered in true partnership with the other agencies
and bodies working in the same areas of the community; and
— A Service that is integral with the community,
symbolised by such things as volunteer support and wide community
use of fire stations.
CO -RESPONDER
Co-responding is the joint mobilisation of the ambulance
and fire service to someone suffering a life-threatening event.
Merseyside has carried out such a scheme from one of its fire
stations involving whole-time firefighters—as far as we
know, this is the only Metropolitan brigade to carry out this
service. The scheme has been independently evaluated and the report
by Professor John Ashton, Director of Public Health in the North
West, concluded that it was a success and lives had been saved.
We urge the Committee to seek evidence as to the true benefits
of this approach from experts in the field of public health.
The Committee may wish to note that the Review of the Fire
Service by Professor Sir George Bain saw pay rises as only justifiable
if matched by improved skills and saw co-responding as an example
of that improvement.
Despite our belief that the role was integral to the firefighter
role map, the Fire Brigades Union, both locally and nationally
are explicitly opposed to any such scheme. This is personified
in their ballot for industrial action in Merseyside that insisted
their Members played no part in this life-saving scheme. As a
result, they have expelled 24 of their Members from the FBU for
carrying out the Fire Authority policy and saving lives.
It is emphasised that co-responding is not an alternative
to the ambulance/paramedic response. For instance, in Merseyside
the Ambulance Service has had its biggest recruitment drive ever
to raise the number of paramedics.
It should also be noted that just carrying defibrillators
on fire appliances is not co-responding. It is, frankly, unacceptable
in our view to spend significant sums of money on such equipment
predominantly for firefighter safety and deny their use to someone
having a heart attack around the corner from a fire station. We
urge the Committee to endorse co-responding, to view the Fire
& Rescue Service as a good samaritan and not allow this huge
benefit to the safety of the most vulnerable in the community
to be lost in a haze of defibrillators on fire appliances.
EMPLOYER/EMPLOYEE
RELATIONS
The Service has emerged from a prolonged and damaging national
dispute in 2002-03 with a promise of a bright future—more
flexibility and efficiency in the way the Service is provided,
a wider rescue role, the ability to respond to new challenges
and new threats and greater rewards for its staff. For this to
happen requires strong leadership and the co-operation of representative
bodies.
One important element in securing change was to align pay
increases with progress on "modernisation". The reality
has been different, with the FBU opposing almost all proposed
changes or dragging out negotiation through an exhausting process.
Meanwhile, pay rises have been awarded in good faith, more on
the promise of change rather than the delivery of change.
Since the national strike in 2002-03, there have been two
more local strikes and the threat of more, plus other industrial
action. These are indications of a Union that is not modernising
at the same tempo as the rest of local government.
Many examples exist in Merseyside but perhaps one symbolises
this threat. In addition to its current provision, the Authority
agreed to provide an additional "small fires unit" for
the busy period of 1600-2200 hrs to reduce the occasions front
line rescue appliances were unavailable should there be a property
fire. This appliance is crewed by Service staff on overtime rates
of pay and deals with small fires in the open. This proposal has
been opposed throughout its one year life by the FBU yet 60% of
staff eligible to crew the appliance have taken advantage of the
opportunity to earn extra money. To make progress in this area
is notoriously difficult but some key elements need to be addressed.
If the traditional arrangements continue for providing safety
cover to the community in the event of the FBU calling a strike,
the very large, indeed, limitless expense falls on the Fire Authority
meaning they are, effectively, held to ransom. To prevent this
inequity, government should invite an open dialogue with the Service
as to how the localisation of expense and disruptive industrial
action could be dealt with.
FIRE AND
FINANCE
The Metropolitan areas provide a fire and rescue service
that:
— serves disproportionately high numbers of the
national population;
— needs to invest disproportionately higher sums
in community safety because of the high levels of deprivation,
poverty and social need in metropolitan areas;
— needs to invest disproportionately higher sums
in preparing for the emerging threats posed by new dimensions
in comparison to the rest of the country; and
— are expected to find a disproportionately higher
level of the national saving required following Bain and the pay
agreement.
Merseyside has responded to these challenges by improving
its services whilst significantly reducing its cost base. The
recent grant settlement for Merseyside of just 1.57%, the failure
of successive governments to tackle the pension crisis means the
challenge just got bigger. Merseyside will do all it can to meet
that challenge.
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