Communities and Local Government
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Guidance note 1
Contents
2 What fire authorities need to do
3 What should be in an Integrated Risk Management Plan
1 Introduction
1.1 This is the first of a series of Guidance Notes designed to provide advice and assistance to fire authorities and those who are asked to develop Integrated Risk Management Plans (IRMPs). It explains what you need to do to produce an IRMP and what it might contain. The guidance is intended to be neither prescriptive nor exhaustive, and you may wish to develop your own arrangements based around the content of this document.
1.2 The Government thinks that a modern and effective fire and rescue service should serve all sections of our society fairly and equitably by:
a. reducing the number of fires and other emergency incidents occurring;
b. reducing loss of life in fires and accidents;
c. reducing the number and severity of injuries in fires and other emergency incidents;
d. reducing the commercial, economic and social impact of fires and other emergency incidents;
e. safeguarding the environment and heritage (both built and natural), and
f. providing value for money.
1.3 It does not believe this can be done on the basis of the present prescriptive and formulaic national approach to providing fire cover. Instead, the fire service needs a more modern, flexible, and risk-based approach that can deliver improvements in community safety based on locally identified needs. This is the purpose of asking each fire authority to develop an IRMP.
1.4 The Government thinks effective IRMPs will do the following fundamental things:
- identify existing and potential risks to the community within the authority area
- evaluate the effectiveness of current preventative and response arrangements
- identify opportunities for improvement and determine policies and standards for prevention and intervention
- determine resource requirements to meet these policies and standards
1.5 IRMPs are not only about replacing national fire-cover standards with local ones. They involve shifting the focus in planning to put people first, looking at the risks arising from the full range of fires and other emergency incidents, and at the options for their reduction and management. To be effective, IRMPs will need to provide a fully integrated, risk-managed approach to community safety, fire safety inspection and enforcement, and emergency response arrangements that will contribute to a safer environment. In order to provide a fair and equitable service it will be necessary for fire and rescue authorities to take into account in their IRMPs the diverse needs of the population they serve and to assess how best to meet these needs, particularly in relation to community safety provisions. Local authorities already have a duty to prepare strategies and plans for a number of other purposes, e.g. community strategies, Equality Action Plans, etc. IRMPs will need to be co-ordinated with these and the plans of other relevant agencies if they are to have maximum effect.
1.6 IRMPs should be dynamic documents, reviewed and revised regularly as circumstances change and new information becomes available. It may take a number of years to achieve some of the changes identified in them and to meet the targets and objectives. At the same time, they are also likely to identify a number of early actions that can be taken to improve community safety and service delivery. An important underpinning principle, however, is that there must be adequate evidence to support and justify any changes proposed, ensuring the maintenance and improvement in community safety.
2 What fire authorities need to do
2.1 Responsibility for preparing an IRMP rests with the fire authority. Although it may delegate this task to its chief fire officer and his staff (or other appropriate persons), it is strongly recommended that elected Members are fully involved throughout all stages of the process.
2.2 In formulating policies and standards, you will need to think about what information will help you assess whether your objectives and targets are being delivered, whether that information is readily available and who will collect it. Communities and Local Government will examine and disseminate examples of innovation and good practice which lead to high performance, with a view to improving consistency whilst maintaining flexibility.
2.3 IRMPs will be strategic documents, which although reviewed and revised regularly, will essentially remain valid for a number of years. They will need to be accompanied by an annual action plan, linked to your authority's business and financial planning process, which sets out what will be delivered over the coming year and especially what changes are planned. As a number of the possible changes identified in the IRMP will need to be phased over a period of years, Action Plans will need to take this into account. The standards, targets and outcomes should be published in your annual Best Value Performance Plan.
2.4 Consultation with the community you serve and your staff will be an essential element in the preparation of an IRMP. Guidance Note 2 will provide advice on the consultation arrangements the Government expects fire authorities to undertake. This will be the first time local people have been consulted about managing risk in this way. Consultation provides an opportunity to explain how the service has been performing, what opportunities exist for improving community safety, and how any changes will deliver those improvements.
2.5 As some people become aware that fire authorities will be setting locally determined response standards to replace the nationally prescribed fire cover standards, it may initially cause some concern. You will need to explain that this process provides for the first time an opportunity for fire authorities to achieve a real step-change in the provision of community safety activities to meet locally determined needs. You will need to be able to show that the intention of the policies and standards you propose to introduce will have a net effect of improving community safety.
2.6 In order to be ready for the withdrawal of the national recommended standards of fire cover, you will need to start consultation on the draft IRMP by the beginning of November 2003. If you can do so earlier this will be better. Sufficient time will need to be allowed for considered responses from all groups with an interest. Cabinet Office guidelines and good practice suggest a minimum period of twelve weeks should be allowed for written consultation, which is therefore likely to be completed before the end of February 2004. In any event, you should agree a plan for the consultation well ahead of starting. Advice on the consultation process will be issued in Guidance Note 2.
2.7 Communities and Local Government should also be consulted on the draft IRMP. As it will be making specialist teams available to offer training, advice, assistance and guidance to authorities and their fire brigades during the preparation of the IRMP, this will provide opportunities for comment throughout the development phase.
2.8 You will need to set up arrangements for monitoring and auditing your performance to help you review the effectiveness of your policies and procedures. This will enable you to consider remedial action during the year to ensure delivery of objectives, and it will help you when it comes to reviewing the IRMP and preparing your Action Plan for the following year. You will need to ensure your monitoring and audit arrangements are robust, transparent and able to stand scrutiny.
2.9 As the Government wishes to continue to monitor the performance of fire authorities and their fire brigades in reducing incidents, fire-related deaths and injuries, and other aspects of service delivery related to community safety, national performance measures are to be developed to reflect the change in approach. Improvements in community safety outcomes will be the key measures of good performance and success. Guidance on this will be given at a later date.
2.10 Communities and Local Government will need to be fully aware of each authority's aims, objectives, standards and targets in order that performance can be assessed. You will be asked to send a copy of your final agreed IRMP and annual Action Plan to Communities and Local Government and the external auditor.
2.11 The following table summarises the steps you will need to take and suggests some milestones that will allow you to meet the target to produce an IRMP by 31 March 2004. Agreeing your own specific timetable is one of the first things you will need to do:
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Agree an overall timetable and milestones, and commission work on a draft IRMP. |
By beginning of June, although preliminary planning should commence earlier |
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Produce agreed draft IRMP and Action Plan for consultation |
By end of October, but earlier if possible |
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Consultation with the community, staff and Communities and Local Government |
November to February, but earlier if possible |
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Consider what reporting, monitoring and auditing arrangements will be needed |
October and November |
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Fire authority to formally consider the outcome of consultation, commission any revisions, and formally adopt the IRMP and Action Plan |
By end of March |
3 What should be in an Integrated Risk Management Plan
3.1 Each fire authority will have to decide what to put in its IRMP. This section of the guidance sets out what we consider to be the essential elements. In deciding what should be in your IRMP, you need to bear in mind that:
- all the elements described below are important and inter-related, and the IRMP needs to cover all of them. It will probably help your decision-making to have a broad overview rather than a lot of detail about a few aspects. Try not to get bogged down in data or detail at first
- the IRMP must contain enough material to back up the proposed policies and standards so that when you go out to consultation, it makes sense to those who read it, and it is convincing
- although these will be the first IRMPs, you are not starting from a blank sheet of paper. In fact, much of the IRMP will be drafted around the current arrangements and ways of making improvements
3.2 The rest of this section and the more detailed material in the Appendix to this document explains the purpose of each element of the IRMP, what inputs might be needed, and what outcomes you should be looking for from each part of the process. The chart on the next page summarises the process. Further guidance will be issued as the project develops, and regional seminars/training will be offered to assist authorities and brigades.
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3.3 Identify existing and potential risks to the community within the authority area
3.3.1 The first task in preparing an IRMP is to identify, characterise and prioritise the existing and potential risks within your fire authority's area. You will need to look in some detail at what has happened in recent years, and what might reasonably be expected to happen. This will include examining the number, type, geographical location and time of day of all incidents attended in recent years (fires, RTAs, other special services e.g. flooding, co-responder, etc). While risk to property, the environment and heritage will continue to be of importance, risk to life will in future be given the highest priority.
3.3.2 The Appendix suggests a wide range of data types and sources you might look at. Fire authorities and their brigades already hold a lot of this information. You will need to consider the extent to which you can rely on existing information gathered for 1(i)(d), fire safety, and other purposes, and whether you need to visit any individual premises to gather additional or more specific information. The Community Fire Safety Toolbox 'Foundation Stones' offers detailed advice on the collection and analysis of information (see section on 'fire facts and statistics' in the Toolbox). The Toolbox web site can be found at www.firesafetytoolbox.org.uk
3.3.3 Fire brigades that have taken part in the 'Pathfinder' trials in recent years will have more detailed information available for part or all of their areas than many others. However, we believe that every fire authority could make a sound start on its local risk identification by:
- assembling the data they have as simply as possible;
- consulting other local authority and public service departments about relevant data they hold, e.g. on the characteristics of housing or commercial areas, on population movements during the day or at weekends, etc; and
- consulting their staff about the information they have on the nature and causes of incidents.
3.3.4 You should be aiming to produce plans, maps, summaries or tables that show actual incidents and identifies areas, time periods, community groups, etc in terms of their relative risks. This may include risks that have not previously been considered. You may also identify in this part of the process data that it would be helpful to collect or improve, or research you would like to do into correlation between incidents and possible causal factors. These needs could feed into the first Action Plan so that work is undertaken over the year to fill the gaps.
3.4 Evaluate the effectiveness of current preventative and response arrangements
3.4.1 Before the fire authority can determine the policies and standards it wishes to apply, it is necessary to examine what it currently does, what it achieves, and how its performance compares with that of others in the light of the 'risk map' identified above.
3.4.2 The Appendix suggests a range of specific questions to consider to help you evaluate:
- the authority's performance in preventing emergency incidents and deaths and injuries; and
- how effective its emergency response was in saving life and property.
3.4.3 This will identify strengths and weaknesses in current prevention, response, and resource allocation. The first key consideration is how well the present distribution of resources match the pattern of risks already identified. This will allow opportunities for improvement to be identified by comparing performance with what might be judged to be achievable given the circumstances in the area. Trends and comparisons, both nationally and with other brigades having similar characteristics, will provide an effective means of doing this.
3.4.4 Given the way the current risk assessment categories are defined and the way the national recommended standards of fire cover work, you may find that some aspects of current response arrangements are not the optimum for the risks identified. In evaluating risk to life, you will take into account where the priorities lie. For example the risk to life from fires is highest in residential premises, especially higher density, lower quality housing, while there is a lower risk of injury or death from fire in commercial premises, reflecting the massive investment in in-built detection, suppression and public protection measures. You will need to make adequate arrangements to ensure your plans are based on knowledge rather than assumptions.
3.4.5 Essential questions to answer, and which are addressed in the Appendix, are:
a. what might we have done differently;
b. did we get the balance right between prevention and intervention; and
c. has more time and resource been spent in non-productive activities (people shut in lifts, false alarms, etc) than on those that might have greater benefits?
3.4.6 At the end of this part of the process, you should have an idea of where and how effective work is currently being done (lives saved, properties protected), and what is less effective (attendance at incidents where nothing was achieved, and where lives could not be saved by intervention). You need to identify what might have been done differently.
3.5 Identify opportunities for improvement and determine policies and standards for prevention and intervention
3.5.1 The first step is to identify the opportunities for improvement in community safety (whether fire or other risks) using preventative measures, and considering how they could be delivered. The primary focus in the fire service has historically been on intervention, although many authorities and brigades have now realised the importance of changing their priority from intervention to prevention.
3.5.2 The principal aim is, of course, to reduce the number of fires and other emergency incidents that occur, and thereby the resultant deaths and injuries, and to protect the built and natural environment. You should set challenging, but realistically achievable goals for each of these aspects, and achievable timescales. As a minimum, these should be consistent with national targets, and where possible will aspire to even greater improvements. Your policies will be expected to reflect this aim, and to contain objectives and standards for achievement.
3.5.3 The National Community Fire Safety Centre already provides advice, guidance and support to fire authorities in the development of their own policies and practices to promote community fire safety. Each authority has already produced a CFS Strategy to give focus to this work, and these can form a useful basis for identifying opportunities for improvement in prevention activities.
3.5.4 As indicated in earlier paragraphs, IRMPs should relate to all incidents to which fire brigades may respond, and preventative activities should do likewise. While fire authorities have responsibilities for reducing the incidence of fires, other non-fire incidents may fall within the remit of other agencies. This does not mean that you do not have a significant part to play in prevention, and your IRMP will need to identify the ways in which you can work in collaboration with the relevant agencies to deliver the wider aspects of improved public safety.
3.5.5 Reaching final decisions about potential for change is likely to be an iterative process. If the fire authority wishes to make an improvement in any one area, it may require a shift of resources. There will usually be a number of ways of achieving this, each with its own implications. That is why we suggest separating options for improvement, policies and standards, so that authorities can take decisions one step at a time.
3.5.6 The policies needed to deliver some improvements could relate to the terms and conditions on which staff are employed as well as to operational matters. How those could be brought into effect is outside the ambit of this guidance. Even if it is currently unclear how or when these could be effected, it is still important to identify them where they are an essential component of delivering improvements to the community.
3.5.7 Fire authorities will be required to set their own standards for both prevention and intervention purposes, following consultation with the communities they serve. You will need to express these standards in terms that are easily understood and will allow performance against them to be measured. The current national guidance on recommended standards of fire cover will be withdrawn at an appropriate time when authorities have completed their IRMPs and are ready for implementation.
3.5.8 Before deciding on the emergency response standards to be set, you will first need to consider whether there are any categories of calls, or circumstances, in which an attendance would be deemed to be inappropriate. Examples are given in the Appendix.
3.5.9 In setting response standards for those incidents the authority has decided to attend, you will need to identify the attendance times to be met and the resources to be deployed, the net effect of any change being improved community safety. You may wish to set different standards for fires and for other emergency incidents. Because of the geographical variation in risks, it is expected that emergency response standards will vary throughout the authority area and be proportionate to the risks. They should not be constrained by artificial boundaries (such as existing fire station areas).
3.5.10 You will also need to compare the resource implications that will flow from the prevention and intervention standards you are considering setting, with the potential benefits that might be achieved by improved community safety. This will be a matter of some consequence to consultees when the draft IRMP is published for comment.
3.5.11 Some policies and standards will be dependent on the contribution of other agencies. IRMPs should set out clearly what will be needed from joint working arrangements with other statutory and non-statutory partners (police and ambulance services, local authorities, utilities, Environment Agency, transport services, etc) in the prevention of both fire and non-fire incidents, and in emergency response. The Health and Safety Executive also has important and long established responsibilities for enforcement of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act and related provisions, which place duties on employers to ensure (through a risk-based process) the safety of employees and the public, including measures to prevent, control and mitigate the consequences of fires.
3.5.12 The outcomes from this phase in the production of an IRMP should be a clear statement of the authority's goals for improved community safety, the areas identified for improvement, the policies designed to deliver those goals and improvements; and the standards set for prevention and intervention. Anyone reading the IRMP should be able to see how the policies and standards will contribute to the goals.
3.6 Determine resource requirements to meet these policies and standards
3.6.1 The last step is to consider the resources you will need to deliver your goals, policies and standards. For example, the properties currently used to house appliances and crews, i.e. the fire stations, do not in themselves contribute to the emergency response provision, and generally only provide domestic and administrative bases. Fire authorities may wish to consider using other opportunities to meet these needs, particularly in view of the greater flexibility likely to be adopted in some areas where the level of risk changes at different times of the day and night and a more dynamic response is required. The provision of fire stations in every locality to accommodate appliances that may only be in the area for a few hours would clearly be wasteful.
3.6.2 You should only make changes where it is clear that the overall net effect will be to improve community safety. It must be recognised that where it is found to be necessary to redeploy resources to areas of greater identified need, it may not be possible to justify the current level of service for some communities, and you may need to consider whether any additional prevention activities might be desirable. Of course, you are starting from the existing position and not a blank sheet of paper. So initial discussions may revolve around which resources should be redeployed and how, rather than considering a wholly new disposition. You may also wish to consider whether some special services might be provided on a re-chargeable basis.
3.6.3 When considering resource requirements, you will need to take into account the potential workload of appliances in each area, and the arrangements for inter-brigade operational support to deal with the changing levels of demand, major incidents, New Dimension preparation, and the provision of special appliances and equipment, etc.
3.6.4 An important consideration throughout all stages of producing an IRMP is the maintenance of safe systems of work for firefighter safety. All existing statute, regulation, and guidance relating to health and safety matters remain extant, and should be complied with. This will include central guidance issued on operational matters, the Integrated Personal Development System, provision of protective clothing and equipment, etc.
3.6.5 The outcome of this process will be an IRMP for all the authority's resources - staff, buildings, equipment - showing how they are allocated between different types of work, different working hours (given that much preventive work needs to take place during other people's working hours), and different locations.
Appendix
This appendix provides some more detailed suggestions about questions to ask and issues to consider at each stage of developing IRMPs. It is organised in sections to correspond to the main guidance. The list is not intended to be exhaustive, but is indicative in order to promote consideration of local issues based upon what has happened in the recent past, and what might possibly occur in the future.
A.1. Identify existing and potential risks to the community within the fire authority area
A.1.1 Evaluating risks to local communities will mean bringing together various data sets in a user-friendly way. This could be as simple as maps with overlays or as sophisticated as GIS systems. Detailed guidance to assist in this analysis can be found in the Community Fire Safety Toolbox 'Foundation Stones'. Fire brigades already hold a great deal of this information, but reference can also be made to many local and national sources. Obvious questions to consider are the following:
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How many incidents have we attended, and of what type? |
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How serious were they? |
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What do we know about causes? |
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What do we know about fatalities and casualties? |
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A.1.2 There is clear evidence nationally to link the occurrence of fires and other emergency incidents with socio-economic patterns. Local patterns will become clear when the activity data referred to above is compared with the local demographic picture. This should provide clear evidence of those sectors of the community most at risk, and inform the process to achieve improvement.
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What do we know about community related factors that might affect risk? |
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What do national trends tell us about what we might expect? |
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Note: Relevant supporting data at both local authority and ward level (including indices of deprivation) is available through National Statistics Online at www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk
A.2. Evaluate the effectiveness of current prevention measures and response arrangements
A.2.1 Having produced the picture of existing risks/vulnerable communities, you now need to consider how well the current arrangements work in protecting the community and making it safer. Fire brigades already undertake some monitoring of the effectiveness of the services they provide although this process now needs to become more robust. In particular, you need to consider your effectiveness against what could be achieved in the circumstances. Given the limitations of the current approach to risk categorisation and the national recommended standards of fire cover, you may conclude that in some areas the current response arrangements could be bettered. Moving from nationally prescribed standards to locally set standards provides a unique opportunity for tackling local priorities but it also requires more judgement to be used to review whether a better outcome could have been achieved if things had been done differently. In particular, you will need to take a view about whether a better outcome could have been achieved through a different balance between prevention and intervention.
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Prevention |
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Responding to fires and other incidents |
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Rescuing people (all types of incidents) |
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A.3. Identify opportunities for improvement and determine policies and standards for prevention and intervention
A.3.1 Once you have looked at the local risk and the effectiveness of current arrangements, you should consider what opportunities exist to improve community safety.
A.3.2 Guidance from the National Community Fire Safety Centre will help to inform the development of a strategy for moving from intervention to prevention. This includes the development of local partnership opportunities to build capacity and extend brigade outreach, especially in targeting particular risk groups. Local safety initiatives should be co-ordinated with national campaigns to maximise opportunities for increased public awareness and positive action. The Community Fire Safety Toolbox can be an integral part of training, personal and professional development, and the establishment of a permanent 'knowledge network'. Comparable approaches will need to be developed with other agencies to help drive down the risks from non-fire emergencies. Relevant questions and considerations include:
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What might we have done differently? |
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Is the balance between prevention and intervention right? |
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Questions about prevention |
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Questions about intervention |
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A.3.3 Each fire authority is required to determine, in consultation with the communities it serves, the policies and standards to be adopted for intervention measures. The emergency response set should be proportionate to the risk.
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Setting standards |
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A.4. Determine resource requirements to meet these policies and standards
A.4.1 In following this risk management process you will have recognised the need to adopt a flexible and proportionate approach to providing and deploying resources to meet the local standards you have set for preventative action and to provide a dynamic emergency response. In practice, of course, you are not starting with a blank sheet of paper, and you will need to consider carefully how existing policies and resource allocation can best deliver improvements in small stages rather than seeking to implement a 'grand plan'. A 'one size fits all' approach is unlikely to be appropriate.
A.4.2 Below is a list of questions that might be helpful when you are thinking about this step:
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What resources do we need? |
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