PREVENTION

PREV1

Home Fire Safety Checks

We completed a total of 9,000 Home Fire Safety Checks since April 2005. We are providing training and equipment to all our station based to carry out Home Fire Safety Checks and this will support us to achieve the target in the future.

PREV2

Schools Education

Our Schools Education Team delivered our safety programme to 97% of Key Stage 1 pupils, 96% of Key Stage 2 pupils and 100% of Key Stage 3 pupils last academic year. This level of engagement can only help improve the safety of the children and their families both now and in the future.

Our partnership with the Children's Fire and Burns Trust has enabled us to deliver our safety programme into 20 of our non-mainstream schools.

PREV3

Youth Initiatives

We have run 5 Princes Trust Teams from venues in Southampton, Basingstoke and the New Forest in the last year delivering our programme to 60 young people.

We have run 6 LIFE schemes which has engaged us with 72 young people. We have had positive feedback from the young people, their schools and from within the community following the courses.

PREV4

Older People

We are developing partnerships with Primary Care Trusts to establish processes for generating Home Fire Safety Check referrals for households occupied by older people.

PREV5

Safety Campaign Management

We have run our scheduled safety campaigns in 2005 and the schedule will continue in future years. We will update our campaigns to address new and changing risks to our communities.

- Smoke alarms (January/February)

- Smoking materials (March)

- Kitchen safety (April/May)

- Summer safety (June-August)

- Electric blankets (September)

- Thatch fires (September)

- Celebrate safety (November/December)

PREV6

Arson Reduction

Overall we continue to see a reduction in the number of deliberate fires in Hampshire. We have recently signed the Local Public Service Agreements with Hampshire County Council and Portsmouth City Council which will focus resources to further reduce arson in these areas.

PREV7

Road Safety

We have continued our work on road safety with our partners in Hampshire. We have supported Junior Citizen events around the county and worked with Hampshire Constabulary improve road safety awareness of our school children.

PREV8

Risk Intelligence

We have restructured our Risk Intelligence Team to provide an improved level of service both internally to our staff and externally to our partners. We have established an arson data sharing protocol which provides daily information on arson to all the borough, district and city community partnerships.

We have developed and implemented an intranet based system that provides all our Group, Station and Watch Managers with incident information. This supports them to identify local problems at the earliest opportunity develop local solutions with partner agencies to reduce risk In our communities.

PREV9

Domestic Sprinklers

We are continuing to explore opportunities with Housing Associations, developers and architects to promote the installation of domestic sprinklers.

PROTECTION

PROT1

Audit-based Fire Safety Inspection Programme

The Community Fire Risk Information System (CFRMIS) went `live' in August 2005. Our technical fire safety inspections are now being programmed and supported by the data provision of the system. Further development work to optimise CFRMIS, and provide quality risk intelligence for IRMP planning, is well underway.

PROT2

Fire Risk Assessments

Our premises inspection programme has now been introduced. We are on schedule to meet our existing target of inspecting 25% of recorded premises under current legislation. The introduction of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order in April 2006, will result in an estimated 50% increase to the number of premises we will need to record in our database. We have developed plans for the revision of targets, at that time, to reflect our focus on reducing the numbers high risk premises across the County.

PROT3

Fire Safety Enforcement

Our enforcement strategies are now aligned to the Health and Safety Enforcement Management Model and the Governments Concordat. Our enforcement activity has risen significantly as a result of focusing high risk premises, and moving away from traditional prescriptive methods.

In preparation for the introduction of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order in April 2006. we have concentrated our efforts on staff training, policy development and technical support; our business education programme will commence shortly, in line with the Governments strategy and timescale.

PROT4

Business Community Fire Education

Through combined strategies of working in partnership with key agencies and the development of our premises inspection procedures, we have been successfully engaging managers to work harder at reducing risk within the business and commercial environment. In addition, we have introduced a series of Seminars aimed specifically at preparing local businesses for the new Fire Safety Order which comes into force in April 2006, tying our publicity and education programme in with the national strategies coordinated by the ODPM.

PROT5

Working with Local Authorities

This work has now been completed. There are still some office accommodation issues to resolve in the Winchester area, but this is not affecting our interface with local authorities. Early results show an improved service at local level for consultations, and with Group and Station Managers, working on specific premises risk reduction strategies.

PROT6

Sprinkler Protection

Working in partnership with Hampshire County Council, we have influenced, at the planning stage, a commitment to the installation of twenty five, non mandatory, water sprinkler systems. These systems are being phased in across a variety of buildings within the County, focussing on residential care and education premises. In addition, working with the Community Fire Safety Dept, we have had some limited success with the installation of domestic systems for the home, more initiatives are planned to influence this agenda with developers and housing associations.

PROT7

Premises owned by The Crown

We are still in the early stages of consultation, but good progress is being made. Currently, we are establishing, with the Crown Inspectorate, the category of premises best suited for this partnership.

PROT8

Reduction of False Alarm Calls

It is proving very difficult to have any significant effect on the number of unwanted fire alarm calls being received by the Service. The development work behind the new reduction strategy is now complete, and an implementation programme has commenced. By introducing new initiatives such as; the promotion of two stage alarms, off line policies, referral systems and a new Business Education Unit, we should start to see a reduction in calls from 2006 onwards.

RESPONSE

RES1

Reducing the Number of Emergency Incidents

We have seen a significant reduction in fires in 2004/05. We have redeployed 2% of our resources into prevention activities. New posts involved in partnerships with the local authorities have been established by transferring personnel from front line duties. These posts have been influential in reducing arson and secondary fires. They are also involved in social re-generation as well as Youth Initiatives that as well as giving short term results will benefit the Communities they serve for the future.

RES2

Reducing the Number of False Alarms Generated by Automatic Fire Detection Systems

A slight reduction was achieved in 2005/06 by collaborating working between Group Managers and TFS. The new initiatives planned and detail in R3 will improve in this.

RES3

Reducing Risk through Improved Resource Management

Trials at Winchester and Havant have been completed and results are being analysed and incorporated into IRMP 2006/07. The trial at Popley Fields Community Centre commenced in April 05 and is currently ongoing.

RES4

Saving Life Through the Co-Responders Scheme

The 3 Co-Responder schemes initiated in 2004 are now fully operational in New Milton, Romsey and Bordon and have answered over 2000 calls and saved numerous lives.

RES5

Redeploying Response Resources into Prevention Activities

The review of crewing has been completed and has confirmed that with the exception of our 3 aerial appliances the crewing arrangements are efficient and effective. The outcomes of the review will be addressed in R3 by trialling different crewing methods of the aerial at Southsea. The lesson learn from this trial will be used to inform the crewing arrangements for Southampton and Basingstoke.

RES6

Creating a "Strategic Reserve"

The original commitment at producing a strategic resource by releasing appliances form Cosham, Redbridge and Eastleigh have been superseded by the outcomes of Duty System review project.

RES7

Emergency Cover Review

The first Emergency Cover Review of the south has been completed. The information gathered during this review is being used to review the provision of emergency cover in this area.

The second review is now under way. This review is looking at our current provisions in the north of the county. This will be completed by April 2006.

The ongoing process of Emergency Cover Review is being completed by the Risk Intelligence team.

RES8

Collaborate Regionally and Nationally

The submission under the Hampshire LPSA2 was successful. Activities now being carefully monitored to determine whether the planned outcomes will be achieved.

RES9

Transition to Regional Control

Annual Risk Assessments of the Command and Control System identify equipment that may cause disruption to our ability to receive and process 999 calls and dispatch resources to deal with emergencies. We have replaced risk critical equipment as a result of this.

We have commenced a scheme to recruit and retain Part Time Control Operators to cover any short term, crewing problems that the transition to a regional control centre may cause.

This scheme will utilise the skills of existing staff who may leave the Service during the transition period for new employment as well as giving retirees and other fire and rescue service staff the opportunity to offer them skills during periods of low crewing.

We are still attracting and recruiting new staff to the Command and Control Centre despite the move to a regional centre.

MANAGING RESOURCES

MR1

Workforce Development

We have developed the draft Workforce Plan and People Strategy with Action Plan 2006-08. This will be updated through a process of consultation to support the people requirements of the IRMP 2006. In future, these documents will be revised in line with revisions to the IRMP.

MR2

Performance Management Review System

Work on introducing a new system is well advanced with aspect having been pilot with principal officers.

MR3

Equality and Diversity

We have achieved Level 1 of the Local Government Equality Standard and this work will include a specific objective to work towards Cultural Change in our IRMP 2006.

MR4

Health, Safety and Welfare

This Objective was achieved in IRMP 2005 and this work has now become core business.

MR5

Built Estate

One-third of our properties have been re-assessed and the condition survey was updated in June 2005. The outcomes of the latest survey together with other emerging building issues are being analysed and prioritised and we are on track to report to the Asset Management Working Group in October 2005.

MR6

Headquarters and Training Centre Development

Tenders have been received for the construction of Phase I and these are being evaluated. A start on site is anticipated in November 2005. The outcomes and recommendations arising from the Best Value review of vehicle workshops are being acted on with progress reported at each meeting of the Performance Review Committee.

MR7

Vehicle Fleet

The Authority has approved a recommendation to create a capital reserve with the potential to fund the vehicle replacement programme (over the next three years) without the need to rely on borrowing. This will produce an efficiency saving through reduced capital financing charges.

MR8

Corporate Communications Strategy

The corporate marketing and communications strategy was presented to and accepted by the Service Management Team in September 2005. To date we have run a programme of training for members of the Marketing and Communications department and have devised a programme of communications and media skills training for managers in the Service, with our training team. We will be launching the first staff magazine in December 2005 and are on target with our branding review. We have also run several awareness campaigns, including celebrate safely, smoke alarms and fire safety legislation education.

MR9

Network Infrastructure

The ICT Strategy has been published and is now being updated to take account of the infrastructure enhancement (see MR10 below) and the potential improvements and scope for new developments that this will support. We are on track to report progress to the Finance and General Purposes Committee in November 2005.

MR10

Network Capacity

A specification for improving the resilience and capacity of the ICT infrastructure was completed on time. Evaluation of the tenders was completed in August 2005 and, subject to contract, work will commence in October 2005. Funding has been identified for the cost of implementation in 2005/06 and for the subsequent cost of managing the expanded network from 2006/07.

MR11

Cost-Effectiveness

In the Audit Commission's `Corporate Assessment Report 2005' we were told that we, "... demonstrate the achievement of value for money ... and ... prepared to make difficult decisions in improving the service and ensuring effective use of resources." Our cost per head of Service remains well below the average. Best Value reviews of outsourced corporate support services and partnership arrangements will be completed by April 2006 and we are taking a leading role in a comparative review of the costs of insurance arrangements. Progress on cashable and non-cashable efficiency improvements - as well as progress towards the corporate aim of diverting 2% of resources to prevention activities - will be reported to the Authority.

MR12

Funding Community Based Initiatives

Groups can pool their allocations if that enables activities leading to reduced risk in local communities and/or provides better value for money.

MR13

Local Public Sector Agreements (LPSAs)

The submission under the Hampshire LPSA2 was successful. Activities now being carefully monitored to determine whether the planned outcomes will be achieved.

MR14

Regional Collaboration

We have presented proposals for the provision of a regional Human Resources adviser to the Regional management Board (June 2005), but these have not yet been accepted by the Board. We have also been instrumental in pressing for a review - by external consultants - of current training provision (including practical training facilities) to establish the scope for increased collaboration between the constituent authorities. The announcement on the location of the proposed Regional Control Centre for the South-East has been delayed owing to technical/legal issues regarding the acquisition of the preferred site.