Increased Firefighters and Advanced Tech, Merseyside Looks Forward to Safer Future

We hope that you enjoy reading our draft Community Risk Management Plan. You can tell us what you think about our proposals by completing a survey which is available below. Consultation closes on 27th May 2024.

Click here to complete the survey or scan the QR code below.

 
You can also email any comments to [email protected] or write to the CRMP Officer, Strategy and Performance, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Bootle L30 4YD.

Click on the plan to read. 

Welcome to our Draft 2024/27 Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP). Since we published our last plan Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (MFRS) has continued to provide outstanding services to the public and visitors to Merseyside. 

If you need our help in an emergency, you can be assured that we have one of the fastest responses in the country. If you are more likely to have a fire in your home or business, we will help to reduce that risk and if you live in a community where anti-social behaviour is a problem we will work with other organisations to keep you safe. Through our outstanding prevention and protection work, we have driven down fire deaths to the lowest ever number.

We are working hard to diversify our workforce with 8.2% or our firefighters coming from a black, Asian or minority ethnic community. 13.4% of our firefighters are female, which is way above the national average for fire and rescue services. We have improved our diversity year on year and we will be carrying on with our positive action recruitment programme over the next three years, so we continue to have a Service that reflects our community.

Since we launched our last plan in July 2021 we have:
• Increased the number of firefighters in Merseyside
• Increased the number of fire engines in Merseyside
• Improved our Fire Control room operations with more staff, new technology and working arrangements that enhance our response
• Introduced specialised capabilities to help us deal with wildfires, large building fires, water incidents and waste fires
• Made over 190,000 visits to people’s homes and businesses (which has reduced the number of emergencies we’ve been called to)
• Increased the number of Protection officers to respond to the Grenfell Tower fire Inquiry recommendations
• Introduced computer systems that help us provide better services
• Built a new training and development academy and superstation to improve training and facilities for our staff and we hope to bring people to Merseyside from around the globe to train and learn from us
• Introduced duty systems and ways of working which reflect the demands placed on the Service, making us ‘Outstanding’ in how we use our resources

Because of the changes we have made, we believe that people in Merseyside (and visitors to the area) are safer than ever and this new plan includes proposals that will help us continue to improve everyone’s safety in the future.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. Since we wrote our last plan in 2021, we have been inspected twice by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and on both occasions they found that we were:

• Outstanding at preventing fires and other risks,
• Outstanding at responding to major incidents and
• Outstanding at making the best use of resources

The inspectorate said: “I congratulate Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service on its performance in keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks. We were pleased to see that the service has made progress since our last inspection in May 2021. For example, the service has improved how it commands fire service assets assertively and safely at incidents, how it promotes equality, diversity and inclusion and how it works with underrepresented groups in the workforce.”

We are very proud of our achievements and you can read more about them in this Plan. If you would like to read the inspection report, you can find it here. We will continue to build on our success for the benefit of our communities. https://hmicfrs.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/frs-assessment/frs-2023-25/merseyside-2023-2025/ 

In this plan we are proposing to increase our resources and response, use technology and alternative ways of working to work smarter, add value in Merseyside and have a positive impact outside Merseyside. You can read the full details from page 40, but in summary we propose to:

1. Increase our fire engines from 32 to 34
2. Reintroduce a small fires unit to attend lower risk incidents
3. Protect frontline fire engine availability
4. Enhance water rescue
5. Plan for an respond to the challenges presented by alternative fuels
6. Enhance the way we mobilise our fire engines
7. Further improve Control room technology
8. Use our Watch Managers differently to increase effectiveness
9. Educate communities about wildfire and flood risks in their area
10. Continue to assist the Ambulance Service
11. Target prevention work at people at highest risk, including in sheltered accommodation
12. Introduce a new framework for fire safety related enforcements and prosecutions
13. Provide national and international training at our new Training and Development Academy
14. Work with the Home Office on the programme to refresh the current National Resilience assets.
15. Work towards achieving Net Zero by 2040