Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Written Evidence


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:

    Bilingual Advocates:

reaching the Somali, Yemini, Chinese and Asian community

    Older Persons Advocates:

Reaching this most vulnerable group

    Deaf Advocates:

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

    Disability:

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

    Carer Trainer:

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.

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


  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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