This document will be reviewed and re-evaluated on a quarterly basis and the results reported to CMT and to the Authority.
|
No. |
Action Plan |
Executive Officer |
Responsible Officer |
Priority |
Timeframe |
Corporate Aim/Service
Plan Objective/Target |
Comments |
| 1. | Continue to offer Home Fire Risk Assessments and, where necessary, fit smoke alarms to all households in Merseyside as part of a completely free service. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | High | 2004/05 | 1/LPI 3 | |
| 2. | Increase the percentage of smoke alarms which operate in accidental dwelling fires. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | High | 2004/05 | 1/LPI 6 | |
| 3. | Promote residential sprinklers as the ultimate fire safety measure and work with Government, local authorities, the sprinkler industry, developers and designers of buildings and other interested bodies to promote low cost, self-contained ‘first attack’ systems, including partial property protection, to achieve a far wider use of this safety system. Continue to lobby the ODPM to influence the current review of the Building Regulations to include residential sprinklers. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | High | 2004/05 | 1/1.8/LPI 9a | |
| 4. | Work with Local Education Authorities to promote school sprinklers as a cost effective risk reduction measure and to achieve a commitment to have sprinklers in the design of two new schools in 2004/05. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | High | 2004/05 | 1/LPI 9b | |
| 5. | Through local initiatives and partnership working, gain access to the most hard to reach and vulnerable in the community, in particular, the older residents and those with physical and behavioural challenges. We will create more fire safety ‘advocates’ from within local communities to deliver a more flexible customer focused home safety strategy. They will be representative of a ‘target group’ by virtue of ethnicity, gender, age or other characteristics. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | Very High | 2004/05 | 1/1.6 | |
| 6. | Deliver and extend our youth programmes designed to develop self-esteem and community awareness. These will be expanded by the introduction of a Young Firefighter Scheme. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | Medium | 2005/06 | 1 | |
| 7. | Play an active role and set targets in the various local District and Merseyside partnerships where they are involved in community safety, including reducing incidences of fire and non-fire emergencies | DCFO | District Managers | Medium | 2004/05 | ||
| 8. | Work with partners to develop a pan Merseyside approach to reducing the risk from abandoned vehicles. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | High | 2004/05 | 1/1.1/LPI 1 | |
| 9. | Develop the partnership with our Police colleagues to create a Fire/Police Arson and Fire Investigation Protocol and develop partnership working at Headquarters and area level and devise common recording methods. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | Medium | 2004/05 | 1/1.12/LPI 1 | |
| 10. | Introduce, with partners, a pan Merseyside approach to the boarding up of unoccupied properties and the removal of combustible materials | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | Medium | February 2005 | 1/1.14/LPI 1 | |
| 11. | Work closely with our Police colleagues on an area and Merseyside basis to predict patterns of arson, investigate them professionally and seek successful prosecutions where appropriate. Also identify those properties most vulnerable to an arson attack and, with the responsible person(s), carry out a joint arson risk assessment. Seek funding from Government and elsewhere to support the Authority’s arson objective and work with other youth agencies/bodies to influence young people on the dangers of arson (these include Youth Offending Teams, Youth Inclusion Programmes, alternative referral from the Courts and The Prince’s Trust Volunteers). | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | High | 2004/05 | 1/1.12/LPI 1 | |
| 12. | Build upon our active involvement on Crime & Disorder Reduction Panels and strengthen the Merseyside Arson Task Force, including the employment of “arson interventionists” to work at District Council level reducing the incidence of arson. We will also look at arson reduction from a regional perspective. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | Medium | 2004/05 | 1 | |
| 13. | Offer those schools most at risk of an arson attack a specific arson risk assessment. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | Medium | 2004/05 | 1/1.2/LPI 1 | |
| 14. | Increase the number of volunteers who are acting as “Friends of Merseyside Fire Service” to promote fire safety awareness within all sections of the community and extend the range of issues Friends are able to help us with. This expansion will demand a new relationship with voluntary sector partners. |
CFO |
Stn. Manager Huyton |
Low |
2004/05 |
||
| 15. | Revise the role & duties of day related `uniformed’ staff in the light of the settlement of the recent national pay dispute. This will be in response to the need to be available when the community and the Service needs them the most. Any new system of work will be within the framework provided by the pay agreement and will include flexible working arrangements. | DCFO ACFO |
Fire Safety Manager | Medium | 2004/05 | ||
| 16. | Seek to introduce a third party accreditation scheme, for equipment, system installation and fire safety advice to support building owners and occupiers in meeting their fire safety responsibilities. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | Low | 2004/05 | ||
| 17. | In conjunction with the Universities in Liverpool, establish a contestable research fund of £25,000 with the aim of encouraging academic research into fire related matters in Merseyside. | DCFO | I.P.D.S. Manager | Medium | 2004/05 | 1/1.9 | |
| 18. | Continue to work closely with building owners and occupiers and with the fire alarm companies, to make sure fire alarms are correctly installed and maintained and to develop good building management practice to reduce the number of unwanted false alarms. Where this fails we will be prepared, where appropriate, to publicise the diversion of public resources and, where appropriate, take enforcement action to improve the management of their buildings. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | High | 2004/05 | ||
| 19. | Work more closely with call receiving centres to put in place some filtering and additional monitoring of AFA calls received in their centres. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | Medium | January, 2005 | 2/2.11 | |
| 20. | Respond to alarms with automatic equipment in line with the risks they present. This means that we propose:- to make no change to the current arrangements for responding to calls for assistance in domestic properties where a smoke detector is sounding;- to mobilise two appliances under emergency conditions in response to all alarms from automatic equipment unless in an exceptional circumstance a risk assessment has indicated an enhanced initial attendance is required. This is in accordance with the Authority’s risk response standards and A.F.A. policy. | DCFO | Ops Planning Manager | Very High | August 2004 | 2/2.12 | |
| 21. | Formalise our policy to challenge callers to our mobilising centre when there is reason to believe that the call may not be genuine. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | High | November 2004 | 2/2.15 | |
| 22. | Introduce a protocol to respond to abandoned calls from public phone boxes, only where there is a good reason to believe they may be genuine. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | High | September 2004 | 2/2.8 | |
| 23. | Develop a protocol with Transco, referring all calls to attend domestic gas leaks or carbon monoxide detectors to them to deal with. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | Low | February, 2005 | 2 | |
| 24. | Relocate the Authority’s specialised vehicle/equipment capability at two operational resource centres. The locations for these centres will be Kirkdale and Birkenhead fire stations. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | Top Priority | May 2004 | 2/2.16 | |
| 25. | Site a foam unit and bulk water carrier at appropriate alternative location(s), staffed on a flexible basis. | ACFO | Support Services Manager | Medium | January, 2005 | 8/8.9 & 8.10 | |
| 26. | Reduce the number of aerial appliances we maintain from 5 to 4. These pan Merseyside vehicles will be sited at Southport, City Centre, Eccleston and Birkenhead. | ACFO | Support Services Manager | Top Priority | November, 2004 | 8/8.11 | |
| 27. | Replace two of the four aerial appliances with combined pump platform appliances. These will form part of the Authority’s aerial appliance capability. | ACFO | Support Services Manager | Medium | 2005/06 & 2007/08 | 8/8.12 | |
| 28. | Subject to the outcome of the public enquiry, relocate our City Centre Fire Station from its current location at Canning Place to a new site at St. Anne Street, Liverpool | ACFO | Support Services Manager | Medium | 2005/06 | 8/8.17 | |
| 29. | Establish with District Councils and Merseyside Police, a strategy for dealing with unsafe structures across Merseyside and review our role in attending such incidents. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | Low | 2005/2006 | ||
| 30. | Enter a partnership with the Heart of Mersey organisation with the aim of reducing the effects of coronary heart disease in Merseyside, in line with Government targets. | ACFO | Personnel Manager | Medium | 2004/05 | ||
| 31. | Run a pilot scheme, at location(s) to be determined, in partnership with Mersey Regional Ambulance Service, where both services will co-respond to specified calls where someone is suspected of having a heart attack. Firefighters will be equipped with defibrillators and be trained in their use. After 12 months, the pilot scheme will be reviewed to consider its success and whether it should be continued and extended to other areas of Merseyside. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | Very High | October, 2004 | 4 & 8/4.31 & 8.6 | |
| 32. | Develop protocols with District Councils and all social housing providers to reduce the number of non-life threatening incidents we attend. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | Low | December, 2004 | 1 & 4/1.10 & 4.25 | |
| 33. | Establish a dedicated rescue team to ensure the Authority meets the expanded role of the Service in respect of rescue from non-fire emergencies. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | Very High | January, 2005 | 2 & 4/2.13, 4.29 & 4.37 | |
| 34. | Establish response standards to life threatening non-fire emergencies, following analysis of relevant data. | CFO | Knowledge/ Risk Manager | Medium | August, 2004 | ||
| 35. | Use the outcome of the risk assessment of the River Mersey to inform future response arrangements to the tidal River Mersey and use it to inform our response to other water rescue situations. Provide training to our personnel to allow them to work safely on or near water during emergencies. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | Medium | December, 2004 | 3 & 4/3.2 & 4.33 | |
| 36. | Expand our urban search and rescue capability. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | Medium | January, 2005 | 3 & 4/3.1 & 4.33 | |
| 37. | Produce a new risk map of Merseyside with areas categorised as high, medium or low risk and set new attendance times for these areas. | CFO | Knowledge/Risk Manager | High | 2004/05 | ||
| 38. | Introduce a protocol to share relevant data with the Police & Ambulance Services (in respect of emergency incidents) | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | Medium | January, 2005 | 1/1.5 | |
| 39. | Pending production of the new risk map of Merseyside, the Authority will send two fire engines to all property fires in areas classed as ‘C’ risk with the first engine arriving at the incident in 8 minutes and the second in 10 minutes. The Authority aims to achieve this attendance time on at least 85% of occasions. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | High | May 2004 | 2/2.1 | |
| 40. | Pending production of the new risk map of Merseyside, the Authority will send two fire engines to all property fires in areas classed as ‘D’ risk, with the first fire engine arriving at the incident in 10 minutes and the second in 12 minutes. The Authority aims to achieve this attendance time on at least 85% of occasions. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | High | May 2004 | 2/2.1a) | |
| 41. | Pending production of the new risk map of Merseyside in those areas currently classified as ‘A’ or ‘B’ risk, the attendance time to property fires for the first fire engine will be 5 minutes and the second within 8 minutes. The Authority aims to achieve this attendance time on at least 85% of occasions. Our policy will be to mobilise two pumps to current ‘A’ and ‘B’ risk. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | High | June 2004 | 2/2.2 | |
| 42. | Where it is confirmed that people are still inside the property, we will send three fire engines to the incident. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | High | April 2004 | 2/2.3 | |
| 43. | Develop our RAPID system to review appropriate response times. | CFO | Knowledge/Risk Manager | High | 2004/05 | ||
| 44. | Following the Authority’s risk assessment, pilot a scheme to vary the number of appliances at any location, commensurate with such risk. The Authority will, however, maintain a rescue pump at all 26 fire stations, 24 hours a day, but the pilot will involve the relocation of support pumps. | CFO | Knowledge/Risk Manager | Very High | 2004/05 | ||
| 45. | Change the staffing on the third pump at Southport fire station from wholetime to a flexible staffing system(s), an example of which is retained. | ACFO | I.P.D.S. Manager | Top priority | March 2005 | 2/2.5 | |
| 46. | Where an aerial appliance is required at an incident the Authority aim, as an interim measure until the new risk map is finalised, for it to arrive within 10 minutes to high risk areas, within 15 minutes to commercial risk and within 20 minutes to other incidents. The Authority aim to achieve this attendance time on at least 85% of occasions. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | High | April 2004 | 2/2.7 | |
| 47. | Pilot the use of a targeted response vehicle (TRV) to attend secondary and vehicle fires. We will obtain new four-wheel drive vehicles to provide a response in targeted areas at peak times. Vehicles will be staffed on an overtime basis initially from 1600 – 2200 hours each day, although these times may be subject to change. | ACFO | Service Support Manager | Very High | July 2004 | 4 & 8/4.22 & 8.13 | |
| 48. | Form an Incident Command & Continuity Team who will receive specific training in Incident Command. Members of this team will attend and support the Incident Command of any significant emergencies. This Team will also attend incidents to ensure officers managing emergency incidents have a clear framework in which to work. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | Very High | September 2004 | 2/2.14 | |
| 49. | Complete incident investigations in accordance with Authority policies and produce reports of such investigations detailing underlying factors influencing fire ignition and spread (where these can be determined), including human behaviour, fire safety knowledge and exposure to fire safety messages. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | Medium | June, 2004 | 1 & 4/1.11a & 4.33 | |
| 50. | Introduce additional vehicles and equipment to help the Authority perform roles in connection to resilience and as an integral part of capability to provide assistance at a whole range of emergencies. | ACFO | Ops Planning Manager | High | February, 2005 | 3 & 4/4.33 | |
| 51. | Extend the successful use of non-uniformed technical officers in the Authority fire safety team which will open up opportunities for a wider group for the community to access careers in the Fire and Rescue Service, bringing with them the knowledge which will compliment the operational experience of uniformed fire officers. | DCFO | Fire Safety Manager | Medium | 2004/05 | 1 | |
| 52. | Implement a review of rank structure to reflect the core roles identified in the IPDS in relation to risk management. | ACFO | I.P.D.S. Manager | High | 2004/05 | 4/4.33 | |
| 53. | Consider development of local arrangements to make additional payments to recognise special skills which particular staff may develop. | ACFO | Personnel Manager | Medium | 2004/05 | ||
| 54. | Develop options for more flexible working patterns for some firefighters, looking in particular at opportunities for part-time working, reduced commitment for some staff for night-time working, more flexible call out arrangements and arrangements where some staff may not be based at a single fire station but may move to different parts of Merseyside to address the particular risks faced by different communities. | ACFO | Personnel Manager | High | June 2004 | 4/4.14 | |
| 55. | Develop and implement measures to secure a better work/life balance for our staff through family/friendly policies covering areas such as childcare, parental leave, job sharing, etc | ACFO | Personnel Manager | Medium | 2004/05 | 4/4.18 | |
| 56. | After consultation with the trade unions, extend the Authority’s existing arrangements for pre-arranged overtime to all firefighters, in appropriate circumstances, where this can help the Authority to improve services and reduce risk, in a cost effective way | ACFO | Attendance Management Manager | High | September, 2004 | 4/4.7 & 4.8 | |
| 57. | Establish a Crew Level Maintenance team, with the aim of ensuring the overall watch staffing levels are maintained at a level required to enable an appropriate life-saving response on rescue pumps and on support pumps. On a single pump fire station this means five personnel on a rescue pump. On a multi pump fire station this means five on the rescue pump and four on the support pump, this to be achieved on 85% of occasions. The Authority’s minimum level would be four and four. This approach conforms to guidance from the Health & Safety Executive. | ACFO | Attendance Management Manager | Very High | July 2004 | 2/2.6 | |
| 58. | Pilot the use of closed circuit TV on our fire engines as part of an approach to placing the safety of personnel at the heart of the Authority’s response. We will pursue strong action against any individual who acts in an aggressive manner to our personnel. | ACFO | Service Support Manager | Medium | July 2004 | 8/8.14 | |
| 59. | Conduct and complete a review of fire cover and other cross border arrangements with neighbouring fire authorities. | CFO | Knowledge/Risk Manager | Medium | 2004/05 | ||
| 60 | Pilot the role of Station Locality Manager for a period of 12 months to improve performance on stations and to forge partnerships with District Councils and other local agencies. | DCFOACFO | Attendance Management Manager | Very High | 2004/05 | 4/4.4 | |
| 61. | Create new arrangements with the voluntary sector. | DCFO | Partnerships Manager | Medium | 2004/05 |