54 | ESTCOLLABORATION
The often under-estimated role of fire and rescue services in wider public service reform Recently, a public comment by a high ranking police officer got me thinking about how poor we in the UK fire and rescue service have been in demonstrating the value that we create within society. The police officer commented that the cuts were turning his force into a ‘fire brigade’ police service! I think I know what he meant, but for a proud member of a national service that has totally transformed what it provides to the British public I was disappointed by the inference. We in Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) don’t have the traditional ‘Vision’ or ‘Mission’ statement expected by businesses, instead we have a clear purpose - it is to ‘protect and improve the quality of life of the people in Greater Manchester’. Every role in our organisation aligns to this purpose, a purpose that makes no mention of fire! Words: Peter O’Reilly, Designate Chief Fire Officer, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service. Despite a 29 percent (£25m) reduction in the revenue support grant we receive from central government we’ve been successfully working to this purpose for the last four years, and it has really focused and aligned all of our business. Our firefighters, Community Risk Intervention Teams (CRITs), Community Safety Advisors (CSAs) and volunteers will be in 60,000 homes across the city region in the next 12 months; primarily to reduce the risk of fire but increasingly to reduce other foreseeable risks such as falls and crime. They will also offer health and well-being advice around drugs, alcohol, obesity, mental health and even provide information on energy switching.
Community Risk Intervention Teams focus on improving the health and well-being of the community.
This is not a volume-based activity; it is driven by a sophisticated model that identifies where the most vulnerable in our community live. It is no coincidence that the people who live in these homes are also receiving services from other public sector partners such as social care, youth services, housing and the police. The relationships we have built with our partners in the public sector have seen us move to a position where we are investing to bring an integrated approach to helping local people.
In Moss Side the community fire station boxing club has over 400 regular members of all ages and physical/mental ability, while a dedicated team also delivers a practical alternative curriculum programme, which has been developed for those young people that are disengaged from mainstream education and at risk of exclusion from a local high school. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency uses two other stations as driving test centres, and the intention is to role this model out across more of our stations. Our communities have used the community rooms in fire stations, free of charge, over 2000 times since April 2014. Recently our volunteering and youth engagement programmes have expanded to the point where over 400 local people regularly volunteer to carry out community development activities on our behalf, which include: responding to help residents clean up after a fire (Post Incident Team (PIT)) and working with young people each week on our cadet units. Since it began in 2008 our volunteers have contributed almost 200,000 hours of service to the public. Over the past year we have enabled 1000 young people to obtain in excess of 1700 practical and academic qualifications.
Supporting communities So has any of this had an impact for our community? Well, we think so. The numbers of fires continue on a downward trend; fewer people are being rescued from fires and more people who suffer a fire have had a previous experience with our staff that has helped them survive potentially life-ending events. We’ve expanded our youth engagement programmes, created apprenticeship frameworks, and employed young people directly into the service from our youth
Working together For example, we have converted a fire station in Tameside to accommodate the entire neighbourhood team from the local authority. This team now shares the same space as our community safety team and police. In Salford we have transformed the fire station at Irlam into a fully integrated police, ambulance and fire community station. At present we are installing a climbing wall onto the traditional drill tower to increase the types of health and well-being activities the local community can access.
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Since it began in 2008 our volunteers have contributed almost 200,000 hours of service to the public.
Peter O’Reilly, Designate Chief Fire Officer, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.
engagement programmes on newly developed apprenticeships. We are one of the Government’s Trailblazers, creating a new apprenticeship standard for Business Safety Adviser Apprentices, and we are leading the introduction of Traineeships within the UK fire and rescue service.
Supporting business As the fire safety regulator in Greater Manchester we make up one of over 60 regulatory departments that enforce legislation on our businesses. Businesses, particularly small and medium sized enterprises, complain that they are over-burdened by regulatory inspections and often they receive conflicting or contradictory direction. It is not actually difficult to understand this if all of the regulatory departments operate on separate risk assessments, separate action plans and are located in separate facilities. In Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service we have pushed our Fire Safety Enforcement officers into the regulatory teams of the local authorities. Why? We believe that integrating all regulatory teams will have short, medium and long-term benefits for the business communities and the taxpayer.
April 2015