Agenda item

(To receive a report from Mark Baxter, Chief Fire Officer, which informs the Committee of the outcomes of the assurance visit and the action plan the service has in place to achieve their recommendations)

Consideration was given to a report from Mark Baxter, Chief Fire Officer, which advised the Committee of the outcomes of the assurance visit on 28 January 2022 from the National Resilience Assurance Team (NRAT) to assess Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue’s flood response against two national standards documents: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Flood Rescue Concept of Operations (DEFRA FRCO); and the National Fire Chiefs Council Rescue Boat Code (NFCC RBS).

The Committee was advised that following the assessment it was identified that Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue would be able to declare 2 x ‘Type C Teams’ (Water & Flood Rescue Technician Team).

The report highlighted at 1.4 the areas for improvement, which mainly related to the same issue of appropriately qualified instructors.  Pages 58 to 59 of the report provided the Committee with details of an action plan, to ensure that the relevant areas highlighted were addressed, for Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue to achieve 2 x ‘Type B Teams’ (Water and Flood Rescue Team).

In conclusion, the Committee was advised that once the outstanding actions were completed, LFR would be able to confirm its status as being Type B compliant with NRAT. 

During consideration of this item, the Committee raised some of the following comments:

·       Whether the long-term sickness mentioned on page 57 of the report pack related to Covid/mental health issues or whether they job related issues.  The Committee was advised as this was personal information this would not be shared, but assurance was given that staff were supported through this period while they had been absent from work, and that there had been no specific trends, it was had just been unfortunate timing to have two people off on long-term absence at the same time;

·       Thanks were extended to the Chief Officer for the comprehensive report and congratulations were extended to the achievements of the service; and

·       The role of the national flood assets.  The Committee was advised that not all fire and rescue services had national assets, but Lincolnshire did, as flooding was one of the highest risks identified in the Community Risk Management Plan and also the Councils Corporate Risk Register.  It was reported that there was a central team who were hosted in Merseyside (national resilience team) and if any foreign rescue service, or any county had significant flooding incidents that went beyond their own capabilities and assets, they had the ability to call on national resilience and the central team would then co-ordinate the mobilisation of assets on the register to help with the incident.  It was highlighted that to work alongside the host service, officers needed to be properly trained, and that was why the Assurance Team assessed fire and rescue services to ensure that there was a consistent level of training and a consistent level of PPE and that qualified personnel could all perform at the same level.  The Committee noted that Lincolnshire FRS had provided support to Cumbria when they had received significant flooding; and support was also provided to Lancashire to help tackle wildfires.

The Chairman on behalf of the Committee extended thanks to the Chief Fire Officer for the presentation.

RESOLVED

That the report and action plan presented be received; and that the comments raised by the Committee be taken into consideration.