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NFCC calls for ‘sustained’ FRS funding amid safety check data

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The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has called for ‘sustained funding’ for England’s fire and rescue services (FRSs) after the Home Office released its latest prevention and protection statistics.

The data, covering the year from April 2019 to March 2020, includes statistics on home fire safety checks and fire safety audits, and revealed that in the last year FRSs have undertaken 581,917 home fire safety checks (HFSCs), with 489,922 of these for disabled people or those aged 65 and over. The NFCC said this was ‘testament to the focus’ that FRSs have ‘placed on targeted interventions and advice to those who are most at risk of fire’.

These checks are, the NFCC noted, ‘one part of FRSs’ prevention work to manage community risk as part of their individual’ integrated risk management plans, alongside adopting a ‘person-centred approach to identify and address the underlying cause of fire’. Around 48,414 fire safety audits were undertaken in 2019/20, with shops most commonly audited at 7,800 or 16% of the total, and care homes second – 66% of audits, or 31,9778, were ‘deemed as satisfactory’.

FRSs also carried out 83,348 other fire safety activities, an increase of 11% compared to 75,306 in 2018/19, and issued 2,295 formal notices – a smaller number than in 2018/19 – comprising 347 enforcement notices, 788 prohibition notices, 108 alteration notices and 52 prosecutions.

NFCC chair Roy Wilsher said: ‘As the latest figures show, [FRSs] continue to work extremely hard, delivering excellent prevention and protection work and carrying out an additional 8,312 other fire safety activities during 2019/20. Although these latest Home Office figures reveal an 8% reduction in HFSCs, [FRSs] are better at targeting the work and are committed to delivering an improved risk focus to ensure the most vulnerable in our communities receive the best possible fire safety advice and support.

‘This year’s stats have also highlighted a very small decline in fire safety audits. Reduced protection capacity is an area which has been highlighted consistently by HMICFRS, which is directly related to austerity and the subsequent 23% reduction in wholetime firefighters since 2010. This year, fire protection in English [FRSs] received £16m investment from government, plus another £4m to the NFCC Protection Hub to improve central co-ordination, guidance and input to issues like the new fire safety bill.

‘We welcome the extra Home Office and Ministry of Housing Community and Local Government funding this year but would want to see that base lined through the spending review. We currently do not know what the economic impact of COVID-19 will be on the public sector, but it is essential people continue to receive an excellent level of service.

‘Resourcing to risk, maintaining the number of firefighters, better resilience, investing in people and vital prevention and protection work are all areas the government must consider to ensure [FRSs] can continue to provide the services communities need and have come to expect.’

Despite this perspective, many regional FRSs were reported to have carried out ‘record-low’ or lower numbers of safety checks on buildings, with Chelmsford Weekly News, Stroud News and Journal, Telegraph and Argus, Northumberland Gazette and MiltonKeynes.co.uk all reporting on their local FRSs’ figures.

Essex Fire and Rescue Service was said to have undertaken a ‘record-low number’ of building safety checks, with 824 fire safety audits completed – ‘the lowest number of inspections since comparable records began in 2010-11’, while Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service completed 610, 758 fewer than the 1,368 undertaken in 2010-11. Of those, 80 or 13% resulted in an ‘unsatisfactory’ rating, while 74 informal notifications were handed to premises that failed audits.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service carried out 646 audits, again ‘the lowest number of inspections since comparable records began’ in 2010-11, with 301 or 47% resulting in ‘unsatisfactory ratings, and 210 informal notifications handed out alongside 81 enforcement notices and 11 prohibition notices.

Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service undertook 427 audits, 1,133 fewer than the 1,560 recorded in 2010-11, with 146 or 34% ‘unsatisfactory’, and 133 informal notifications and four prohibition notices handed out. Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire and Rescue Service completed 267 audits, ‘the lowest number’ since 2010-11, with 79 or 30% ‘unsatisfactory’ and 101 information notifications handed out, alongside 11 enforcement and 13 prohibition notices, and one prosecution.

Finally, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service undertook ‘over 1,000 fewer’ checks compared to 2010-11, and Fire Brigades Union (FBU) general secretary Matt Wrack, stated that over a decade of government cuts had led to preventative work being ‘slashed’: ‘The Grenfell Tower fire exposed the shameful state of building safety in the UK. The scale of the building safety crisis is beyond all current comprehension – and firefighters have a crucial role to play in tackling it.’

While the FBU supported the building and fire safety bills, Mr Wrack commented that ‘to be effective, the [FRSs] must be properly funded. As things stand, the government is trying to do public safety on the cheap’.

A Home Office spokeswoman meanwhile said that the government ‘was committed to providing’ FRSs with ‘the resources they need’, stating: ‘Funding for standalone [FRSs] has increased by 3.2% in 2020-21. We’ve also made more than £20 million of funding available to the sector to support fire protection work – £16 million of which is being invested directly to increase the number of audits and qualified officers.’

www.thefpa.co.uk/

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