Inspection of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service North Service Delivery Area

Prevention and Protection

How effective is the Service in the North SDA at keeping people safe? We consider this to be satisfactory.

Understanding fire and other risks

Effectiveness grading: Satisfactory

The newest iteration of Local Fire and Rescue Plans has been delayed, and while we accept that station plans have been developed, knowledge of these was not as widespread as the SDA might have hoped. We found a good understanding of the risks across the North SDA down to local station level. There is some evidence of response arrangements being considered and adapted to meet changes in risk, but this requires some additional consideration for developing risk, particularly within the renewable energy sector. Operational Intelligence (OI) is accessed via the Service-issued demountable tablet to a greater degree than was evident when using the previous system.

Preventing fire and other risks

Effectiveness grading: Opportunity for Improvement

A wide range of prevention activity is undertaken by staff across the SDA, much of it aligning with Community Planning Partnership (CPP) and Local Outcome Improvement Plans (LOIP) that have a degree of input from the Service. Many added value outcomes are achieved for the community through this work, but no clear evaluation of the outputs or outcomes is being undertaken. There was not a consistent level of involvement in community safety engagement work by On Call fire station personnel across the SDA. There are a number of instances, following Home Fire Safety Visits (HFSV) being conducted by non-station personnel, of potentially safety critical information not being passed to fire station operational personnel.

Protecting the public through fire regulation

Effectiveness grading: Good

Local Enforcement Delivery Plan (LEDP) outcomes are being achieved, with a risk based approach being successfully applied to guide the work of audit and fire safety enforcement officers. Recent staff turnover has been addressed, and new entrants are working towards competence in their roles across the SDA. Pressure from dealing with the volume of Short Term Let (STL) licencing applications and the ongoing issues with the functionality of the Prevention and Protection Enforcement Database (PPED) are both a drag on the capacity of the enforcement team.

Response

How effective is the Service in the North SDA at responding to incidents when they do occur? We consider that the Service’s response is satisfactory.

Preparing to respond to fires and other emergencies

Effectiveness grading: Satisfactory

The Service has assessed local risk and developed response plans accordingly. It has an exercise regime to test these plans in conjunction with partners and has processes in place to amend plans as required. The achievement of the Target Operating Model (TOM) for On Call Retained Duty (RDS) personnel is a significant challenge for the North SDA. There is clear evidence of a number of initiatives and approaches in use across the SDA to raise the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) post numbers and to maintain appliance availability for On Call stations. Significant challenges for the On Call stations remain as they seek to fulfill the near Wholetime (WT) station work requirements within much more limited time availability. Communications between the team working within Assets (Assets) and the SDA are becoming more regular and these should be established through governance processes. The Service’s Unwanted Fire Alarm Signal (UFAS) policy has been implemented and has achieved a significant reduction in appliance mobilisations to these types of calls. Challenges remain with the requirement for regular replacement of fire and specialist appliances, and with the level of upgrades required to the property estate, including the remediation of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in stations, within current and future budget allocations made to the Service.

Responding to fire and other emergencies

Effectiveness grading: Good

There is strong evidence in place in support of the Service being able to receive and process emergency calls, mobilise the necessary resources and to effectively deal with operational incidents. Frontline staff are provided with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), kit, equipment and a wide range of fire appliances that allow them to do their jobs safely and effectively. The age of the spare appliance fleet in the SDA remains a challenge for the Service.

Partnership

How effective is the Service in the North SDA at working in partnership with others to improve community safety outcomes? We consider that partnership working is good.

Actively supporting partnership working to identify and protect the most vulnerable in the community

Effectiveness grading: Good

There is good partnership working across the area, both at formal and informal levels. The statutory community planning partnership structures are supported by officers within the North SDA. There are formalised referral pathways between partners to share information regarding those who are deemed to be at greatest risk within communities. SDA officer representation at LA scrutiny is praised for its consistency, and for their input and engagement with the process. The style and content of scrutiny committee performance papers was valued with qualitative showcase items used to create context. There appears to be a lack of an effective evaluation process, from either the Service or LA partners, for the outputs and outcomes that are being achieved from community safety initiatives. Whilst SFRS continues to develop the Community Asset Register (CAR), awareness of it is inconsistent with frontline staff. In remote areas, community resources are brought to bear in emergency situations outwith the formal approaches set out in the CAR. Some partners expressed frustration relating to the turnover of officers. The NSDA provides valued, strong and consistent representation to regional and local resilience partnerships.

People

How effective is the Service in the North SDA at managing and supporting its workforce? We consider that there is an opportunity for improvement.

Managing performance and developing leaders

Effectiveness grading: Opportunity for improvement

The TOM for the WT in the North SDA is currently maintained at slightly over 100%. For the On Call, despite a range of proactive measures to recruit new personnel, the TOM is 35% below the levels that the Service aims to achieve. The Tracker system used for On Call recruitment is an effective system; however, administrative capacity to support it is limited following managed changes within the People Directorate. This has been shown to produce recruitment challenges at SDA and LSO level. Local On Call recruitment managers can often miss key dates on the tracker system, and this in turn can lead to extended recruitment processing times for new entrants to the Service. Recent Service changes to On Call contracts are positive and should remove barriers to entry for some who seek to join the SFRS. We found evidence of local design and delivery of leadership and management training by the SDA due to a lack of widespread provision from the Service. While we found evidence that officers and managers feel empowered to make decisions locally, this was against a backdrop of a view that corporate decision making is over-centralised. As was the case elsewhere within the Service, we found that staff appraisals are considered to be a bureaucratic process that do not act as a planning driver.

Ensuring people have the right skills and training

Effectiveness grading: Opportunity for improvement

We found that Task and Task Management (TTM) initial training courses, and additional follow-on courses, can be difficult to access at the most appropriate training venues, and suitable times, for new in service On Call trainees. The National Instructor Pool (NIP) approach has been introduced to mixed reviews within the North SDA. Consistency of access to trainers from the now established Training Function at station level has still to be achieved. Changes to the Training for Competence (TFoC) programme for station based personnel has been very well received across the SDA. We had concerns expressed to us that that the fire appliances used for driver training were aged and lack the full functionality and driver safety features that are found in more modern vehicles.

Supporting mental health and wellbeing

Effectiveness grading: Satisfactory

We found that the Service has in place systems and processes for personnel to access appropriate support from occupational health professionals when it is needed. Staff were mainly complimentary about the mental health support available to them. Details of this are readily available and placed in public areas on notice boards. We did note that no SFRS action plan is yet in place following the publication of our recent mental health thematic inspection report. While not a universal view, we found significant numbers of managers within the SDA who perceived there to be a lack of support in managing staff absence provided by human resource professionals within the Service.

Promoting equality and diversity

Effectiveness grading: Opportunity for improvement

We found that the Service had taken proactive measures aimed at making the workforce more representative of the communities it serves. The Service has a positive action strategy that assists with the recruitment of underrepresented groups to grow diversity within the workforce. There is mandatory professional behaviours and equality training for all staff, which is completed on an iterative basis. Despite these efforts, however, Service data shows gender and ethnic minority workforce balance continues to be disproportionate.