Minutes:
The Sub-Committee welcomed the Local Borough Commander, Martin Corbett (MC) to the meeting.
MC informed the Sub-Committee of the latest performance indicators for the brigade.
The area of main concern for the brigade was deliberate fires. In the last quarter there had been 88 incidents against a target of 51, 27 in July, 32 in August and 29 in September. The Fire Brigade would be looking to do something different next year to reduce these figures; this would include joint working with the police tasking group to help identify possible hotspots. Other options included increased use of the cycle patrols, starting them earlier in the year to identify possible trouble spots and undertaking more visual audits.
The quarter had seen a reduction in accidental dwelling fires after a high of 36 in quarter 1. There had been 12 incidents in quarter 2, with 10 occurring in July.
Fire related injuries were well within target with just 3 in the first 6 months of the year. All other indicators were within target.
The Fire Brigade also undertook some innovative youth engagement work.
· The LIFE programme was now funded centrally and was continuing. The programme was aimed at 13/18 year olds who were referred by YOT, NEET etc. and was targeted at those who were likely to respond.
· Each course had between 12/16 participants and included fun elements as well as a disciplinary element.
· A second element was the cadet scheme which involved a 6 month course with a BTEC available at the end. Cadets attended college once a week. For the future the brigade were looking at doing some joint work with the police cadets.
· A third programme was the SAFE DRIVE STAY ALIVE course which was aimed at year 11 students and was extremely hard hitting. This performance would be held at the Queen’s Theatre on the 9th and 10th November with one performance in the morning and one in the afternoon each day.
· The Fire Brigade attend the Junior Citizens Scheme which is coordinated by Community Safety and involves the police as well. There had also been 2 open days to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Fire Brigade. These had proved so successful the Borough Commander would be looking to run the open days as annual events.
The Borough Commander advised the Sub-Committee that the draft of LFP 6 would be available by the end of November for consultation. One of the issues to be addressed in the Plan was whether the Fire Brigade should just react to problems like the floods in Havering or should they be more proactive and undertake prevention work.
Officers advised the Sub-Committee that the Emergency Planning Team were driving a piece of work looking at how the Council and partners could become involved in preventative work.
The Borough Commander advised that the brigade were looking to work more collaboratively with both the police and Ambulance Service. Across London the Fire Brigade were looking at their property portfolio to see if any properties would be suitable to base all three emergency services on the one site.
4 boroughs across London were joint responding to incidents.
The Sub-Committee noted the report.