0221
The Assistant Chief Officer of Prevention presented Members with the Service's performance for Quarter 3, 2022-23.
Members noted that there were a total of 2,011 incidents attended in Quarter 3, an increase of 11% on last year, and higher than the five year average of 1,774 incidents. Home Fire Safety checks had increased by 217% which reflected the commitment to increase prevention activity.
Members also noted the increase in calls to false alarms and that this was now the single largest category of calls attended. The Chief Fire Officer explained this was a complex issue and that the Service did not mobilise to known false alarms. The category included good intent calls where people thought there was a fire as well as calls to automated fire alarms. In relation to the latter, there were no multiple repeat offenders. The number of hoax calls received was also extremely low. Officers were nonetheless undertaking a review of false alarm calls and the Chief Fire Officer intended to bring a report on this to a future meeting.
Noticing the proportion of female staff in the Service, Members raised questions about the culture within the organisation in light of revelations in some other Fire and Rescue Services. The Chief Fire Officer indicated that in light of events elsewhere, the Service had now implemented an independent reporting hot-line 'Say-So' for all staff, to supplement the existing staff reporting arrangements. The Chief Fire Officer had also commissioned a firm to undertake an independent cultural review of the organisation.
RESOLVED that the Q3 2022-23 performance headlines set out in Section 4 of the report, with further details available in Appendix 1, be noted.