COVID-19 inspection: West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
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Letter information
From:
Matt Parr CB
Her Majesty’s Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services
To:
John Roberts, Chief Fire Officer
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
Councillor Darren O’Donovan, Chair
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority
Sent on:
22 January 2021
Introduction
In August 2020, we were commissioned by the Home Secretary to inspect how fire and rescue services in England are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. This letter from HMI Matt Parr to West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service sets out our assessment of the effectiveness of the service’s response to the pandemic.
The pandemic is a global event that has affected everyone and every organisation. Fire and rescue services have had to continue to provide a service to the public and, like every other public service, have had to do so within the restrictions imposed.
For this inspection, we were asked by the Home Secretary to consider what is working well and what is being learned; how the fire sector is responding to the COVID-19 crisis; how fire services are dealing with the problems they face; and what changes are likely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We recognise that the pandemic is not over and as such this inspection concerns the service’s initial response.
I am grateful for the positive and constructive way your service engaged with our inspection. I am also very grateful to your service for the positive contribution you have made to your community during the pandemic. We inspected your service between 5 and 16 of October 2020. This letter summarises our findings.
In relation to your service, the co-chairs of the West Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum (LRF) declared a major incident on 20 March 2020.
In summary, the service adapted and responded to the pandemic effectively. It used wholetime and on-call firefighters to respond to emergencies. It supported other agencies, hospitals and care facilities in the sourcing and distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the critical early stages of the pandemic. Local partners recognised its support and responsiveness.
The service temporarily accepted responsibility, on behalf of Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, to respond to people who had fallen in their homes. The service also transported medical professionals to the homes of suspected COVID-19 patients. And it carried out joint visits with local authority licencing teams to assess, and offer guidance on, compliance with legislation. All staff groups supported the community by:
- delivering essential items to vulnerable people;
- fitting face masks to be used by NHS staff who were treating COVID-19 patients;
- transporting samples of COVID-19 antigen testing; and
- giving infection, prevention and control training to care homes.
The service has developed a wellbeing toolkit to offer COVID-19 guidance for staff. The service made sure that staff had the resources they needed to do their jobs effectively. It offered flexible working arrangements and adapted training provision. The service supported the changes it made with improved technology. This also enabled the service to improve the way it communicates with staff.
We recognise that the arrangements for managing the pandemic may carry on for some time, and that the service is now planning for the future. In order to be as efficient and effective as possible, West Yorkshire FRS should focus on the following areas:
- It should determine how it will adopt for the longer-term, the new and innovative ways of working introduced during the pandemic, to secure lasting improvements.
- It should identify all those staff at higher risk from COVID-19, so it can put appropriate wellbeing and support provisions in place.
Preparing for the pandemic
In line with good governance, the service had a pandemic flu plan and business continuity plans in place which were in date. These plans were activated.
The plans were detailed enough to enable the service to make an effective initial response, but they didn’t anticipate and mitigate all the risks presented by COVID-19.
The service has reviewed its plans to reflect the changing situation and what it has learnt during the pandemic.
The plans now include further detail on what elements of the service should maintain response capability if loss of staff is greater than normal. These are the degradation – referred to locally as derogation – arrangements. They cover prevention, protection, response and support functions, restriction of staff movements, the lockdown of specific buildings/offices, home/agile working, hygiene provision/procedures, main suppliers’ business continuity arrangements and social distancing arrangements on all sites.
Fulfilling statutory functions
The main functions of a fire and rescue service are firefighting, promoting fire safety through prevention and protection (making sure building owners comply with fire safety legislation), rescuing people in road traffic collisions, and responding to emergencies.
The service has continued to provide its core statutory functions throughout the pandemic broadly in line with advice from the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC). This means the service has continued to respond to calls from the public and attended emergencies. It has also continued carrying out prevention and protection work. It has done some of this remotely, to make sure that it provides for any high risks. It has continued to give staff risk-critical training.
Response
The service told us that between 1 April and 30 June 2020 it attended more incidents than it did during the same period in 2019. This was, in part, due to the service changing its policy regarding how it responds to automatic fire alarms in commercial buildings. With many buildings unoccupied during the pandemic, the service attended more calls than it would have normally.
The overall availability of fire engines was better during the pandemic. Between 1 April and 30 June 2020, the service’s average overall fire engine availability was 98 percent compared with 82.2 percent during the same period in 2019. We were told that this was as a result of an increased number of on-call firefighters being available to respond to emergencies because of being furloughed or made redundant from their primary employment. We were also told that some training courses had been postponed and staff annual leave had been cancelled.
The service introduced different crewing models as a temporary measure during this period. This included sending a crew of four firefighters to any incidents that didn’t involve a risk to life.
The service told us that its average response time to fires improved during the pandemic compared with the same period in 2019. This was due to better fire engine availability and less road traffic during this period. This may not be reflected in official data recently published by the Home Office, because services don’t all collect and calculate their data the same way.
The service had adequate arrangements in place to make sure that its control room had enough staff during the pandemic.
This included effective resilience arrangements, such as training more staff in control room roles (although these additional staff weren’t subsequently needed), and by having a flexible team of four ‘floating’ staff who can cover any shift shortfalls. The service also has fallback arrangements in place with South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service if needed.
Prevention
The NFCC issued guidance explaining how services should maintain a risk-based approach to continuing prevention activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The service adopted this guidance.
The service conducted fewer home fire safety checks/safe and well visits than it would normally undertake. It didn’t review which individuals and groups it considered to be at an increased risk from fire as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as there was no evidence to suggest a review was needed.
The service decided to continue to offer face-to-face home fire safety checks/safe and well visits because it could give staff suitable PPE. Operational staff carried out these visits.
The service introduced the option of a safe and well visit by telephone instead of a face-to-face visit. Other organisations, such as the local authority, are offering fire safety advice during any visits they are making. The service has also used technology to reach members of the public and provide partners with safety messages (for example, about water safety and cooking oil fires).
Protection
The NFCC issued guidance on how to continue protection activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes maintaining a risk-based approach, completing desktop audits and issuing enforcement notices electronically. Activity included carrying out audits on those premises that are at the greatest risk from fire. The service adopted this guidance.
The service didn’t review how it defines premises as high-risk during the pandemic.
The service conducted fewer fire safety audits than it would normally undertake. It decided to continue with face-to-face fire safety audits and enforcement work for properties that were in a dangerous condition, or where there was a risk to life and, because it could give staff suitable PPE. It introduced risk-based desktop appraisals instead of face-to-face audits, to minimise face-to-face contact between members of staff and the public.
The service continued with enforcement and prohibition activities, although overall levels have reduced. It continued responding to statutory building control consultations.
It also introduced other measures to reduce social contact, such as using telephone and/or email to make the initial contact, completing more desktop assessments, using video conferencing/live streaming, offering information on its website, reducing the number of staff on visits, and doing risk assessments in advance of visits.
The service has continued to engage with those responsible for fire safety in high-risk premises with cladding similar to that at Grenfell Tower, in particular, premises where temporary evacuation procedures are in place.
The service worked with local authorities to put in place suitable and reasonable fire safety measures where buildings were repurposed. The service extended petroleum and explosive licences during the period to provide flexibility. The service also changed its policy on attending incidents initiated by an automatic fire alarm. It made this change due to more buildings being closed.
Staff health and safety and wellbeing
The service identified wellbeing problems and responded to any concerns and further needs. Senior leaders actively promoted wellbeing services and encouraged staff to discuss any worries they had. The service also expanded its existing wellbeing programme to address the risk associated with COVID-19.
Most staff survey respondents told us that they could access services to support their mental wellbeing if needed. Support put in place for staff included occupational health, e-counselling, an employee assistance programme and a network of welfare officers. The service has developed a toolkit for staff. It includes specific support and management guidance in relation to COVID-19 (for example, coping techniques for dealing with isolation).
Initially, the service encouraged staff who were most at risk from COVID-19 to self-identify. The service also used NHS notification letters. The service worked with staff to develop and implement processes to manage the risk. It followed government guidance for staff who were identified as ‘extremely vulnerable’. It established personalised care plans for each person. It didn’t put any specific arrangements in place for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) members of staff.
Wellbeing best practice was also shared with other services. The service is seeking feedback from staff to understand how it should plan for the potential longer-term effects of COVID-19 on its workforce.
The service made sure that firefighters were competent to do their work during the pandemic. This included keeping up to date with most of the firefighter fitness requirements.
The service assessed the risks of new work to make sure its staff had the skills and equipment needed to work safely and effectively.
The service provided its workforce with appropriate PPE in a timely manner. It participated in the national fire sector scheme to procure PPE and worked with other services regionally to source items locally, which allowed it to achieve value for money.
Staff absence
Absences have increased compared with the same period in 2019. The number of shifts/days lost due to sickness absence increased by 88.6 percent between 1 April and 30 June 2020 compared with the same period in 2019.
The service used its existing absence management policy and followed government guidance so that it could better manage staff wellbeing and health and safety, and make more effective decisions on how to allocate work. It gave additional guidance to managers, who were instructed to be flexible and to deal with individual requirements on a case-by-case basis. Data was routinely collected on the number of staff either absent, self-isolating or working from home.
Staff engagement
Most staff survey respondents told us that the service provided regular and relevant communication to all staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. This included regular virtual team meetings, written correspondence, newsletters, the intranet, and senior officer podcasts with staff about wellbeing and health and safety.
The service made use of telephone, email, social media, messaging services, virtual meeting platforms, podcasts, the intranet and staff briefings when communicating with on-call staff during COVID-19.
The service intends to maintain changes it has made to its ways of working in response to COVID-19, including maintaining the new risk assessments that it has developed for staff as part of its usual processes. It will also maintain the technology it has adopted to support communications.
Working with others, and making changes locally
To protect communities, fire and rescue service staff were encouraged to carry out extra roles beyond their core duties. This was to support other local blue light services and other public service providers that were experiencing high levels of demand, and to offer other support to its local communities.
The service carried out the following new activities: assisting vulnerable people, fitting face masks, delivering PPE, antigen testing, transporting to and from Nightingale hospitals, assembling face shields, packing/repacking food for vulnerable people, and giving training. The service also trained staff (and put them on standby) to resource Leeds emergency mortuary and drive ambulances if needed.
A national ‘tripartite agreement’ was put in place to include the new activities that firefighters could carry out during the pandemic. The agreement was between the NFCC, National Employers, and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), and specifies what new roles firefighters could provide during the pandemic. Each service then consulted locally on the specific work it had been asked to support, to agree how to address any health and safety requirements including risk assessments. If public sector partners requested further support outside the tripartite agreement, the specifics would need to be agreed nationally before the work could begin.
The service consulted locally to implement the tripartite agreement with the FBU and the Fire Officers Association.
Other unions were engaged, including UNISON, if their members were asked to do extra work, including under the tripartite agreement.
All of the new work done by the service under the tripartite agreement was agreed on time for it to start promptly and in line with the request from the partner agency.
There were extra requests for work by partner agencies that fell outside the tripartite agreement, including transporting medical professionals to the homes of suspected COVID-19 patients. The service made joint visits with local authority licencing teams to assess and offer guidance on compliance with COVID-19 legislation. It also responded to vulnerable people who had fallen in their homes. People from all staff groups carried out these activities.
This work was agreed and undertaken on time and in line with the request from the partner agency.
All new work, including that done under the tripartite agreement, was risk-assessed and complied with the health and safety requirements.
In order to support the additional activities that were needed, the service developed a voluntary duty scheme to match staff to demand. On a typical day, up to 600 members of staff volunteered for additional duties. This enabled the service to effectively manage the allocation of additional duties.
The service hasn’t yet fully reviewed and evaluated its activities to support other organisations during this period. It hasn’t identified which to continue.
Local resilience forum
To keep the public safe, fire and rescue services work with other organisations to assess the risk of an emergency, and to maintain plans for responding to one. To do so, the service should be an integrated and active member of its LRF. West Yorkshire FRS is a member of the West Yorkshire LRF.
The service was an active member of the LRF during the pandemic. The service told us that the LRF’s arrangements enabled the service to be fully engaged in the multi-agency response.
The service’s deputy chief fire officer is co-chair of the LRF. As part of the LRF’s response to COVID-19, the service was a member of the strategic command group and participated in several sub-groups. The service also gave additional staff to support district co-ordination and monitor information. The service was able to allocate suitably qualified staff to participate in these groups without affecting its core duties.
Use of resources
The service’s financial position hasn’t yet been significantly affected by COVID-19. The service has made robust and realistic calculations of the extra costs it has faced during the pandemic. Up until 30 June 2020 its main extra costs were: £109,305 for supporting response activities (for example, overtime and buying back staff annual leave); £124,172 for PPE and cleaning supplies; £106,156 for ICT infrastructure/licencing; and £22,000 for building adaptations, cleaning and communications that were needed in relation to COVID-19.
It fully understands the effect this will have on its previously agreed budget and anticipated savings. Where possible, it has exploited opportunities to make savings during this period and used them to mitigate any financial risks it has identified. For example, at the time of our inspection, it saved £148,000 by reducing fuel costs and conference expenses.
The service received £2.16m of extra government funding to support its response. It spent some of this money on staffing and overtime, PPE, signage, cleaning, decontamination, ICT and additional network capacity. It has also used the funding to offset loss of income associated with changes it made as a result of COVID-19. It has shown how it used this income efficiently, and that it mitigated against the financial risks that arose during this period.
The service didn’t use any of its reserves to meet the extra costs that arose during this period.
When used, overtime was managed appropriately. The service made sure that its staff who worked overtime had enough rest between shifts.
Ways of working
The service changed how it operates during the pandemic. For example, it has introduced smarter ways of working in relation to equipment requisitions and building maintenance requirements. It has used technology to support the delivery of training. It had the necessary IT to support remote working where appropriate. Where new IT equipment was needed, it made sure that procurement processes achieved good value for money.
The service could quickly implement changes to how it operates. This allowed its staff to work flexibly and efficiently during the pandemic. The service expedited the introduction of procurement cards for staff to allow them to make small purchases. The service has supplied all eligible staff with the necessary equipment to work from home in a safe, efficient and ergonomically friendly way. It has also invested in upgrading network capacity and security to support homeworking in the longer term.
The senior leaders had positive feedback from staff on how they were engaged with during the pandemic. As a result, the service plans to adopt these changes in its usual procedures and consider how they can be developed further to help promote a sustainable change to its working culture.
The service made good use of the resources and guidance available from the NFCC to support its workforce planning, and help with its work under the tripartite agreement.
Staffing
The service had enough resources available to respond to the level of demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to reallocate resources where necessary to support the work of its partner organisations.
Arrangements put in place to monitor staff performance across the service, specifically in relation to response and protection, were effective. This meant the service could be sure its staff were making the best contribution that they reasonably could during this period. Extra capacity was identified and reassigned to support other areas of the service and other organisations.
People from all staff groups volunteered for extra activities, including those activities under the tripartite agreement. Wholetime firefighters also delivered their statutory functions. The on-call workforce took on extra responsibilities, covering some of the roles that were agreed as part of the tripartite agreement and/or other extra responsibilities. We expect services to keep their processes under review to make sure they use their wholetime workforces as productively as possible.
Governance of the service’s response
Each fire and rescue service is overseen by a fire and rescue authority. There are several different governance arrangements in place across England with the size of the authority varying between services. Each authority ultimately has the same function, namely, to set the service’s priorities and budget, and make sure that the budget is spent wisely.
Members of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority were actively engaged in discussions with the chief fire officer and the service on the service’s ability to discharge its statutory functions during the pandemic.
The service regularly updated authority members about how it was responding to the pandemic and the extra activities of its staff. This included work carried out as part of the tripartite arrangements.
During the pandemic, the fire and rescue authority continued to give the service proportionate oversight and scrutiny, including of its decision-making process. It did this by regularly communicating with the chief fire officer and receiving the service’s written briefings.
Looking to the future
During the pandemic, services were able to adapt quickly to new ways of working. This meant they could respond to emergencies and take on a greater role in the community by supporting other blue light services and partner agencies. It is now essential that services use their experiences during COVID-19 as a platform for lasting reform and modernisation.
The pandemic meant that the service needed to transform how it uses technology, in particular to allow more remote working. It was felt that this made the organisation think about how it can be more flexible in the long term. Its use of virtual platforms (and particularly podcasts) have proven effective in communicating with staff, especially given the amount of information the service had to share with staff.
The service expects to continue with the triage process that it has introduced prior to carrying out physical visits to homes and businesses to offer fire safety advice. It will continue to work with local authorities should any empty buildings be repurposed. And it will approach partners to talk to and work with vulnerable people on its behalf. As a result of the work that the service has done with LRF partners, data is being reviewed to understand how it can be enhanced to improve reporting.
Some good practice and what worked was shared with other services through the NFCC and regional forums. This includes the use of technology, flexible working and hygiene arrangements in enabling fire safety inspectors to continue to carry out audits. However, the service felt it wasn’t yet in a position to do this in relation to prevention. This was because it hadn’t completed an evaluation.
Next steps
We propose restarting our second round of effectiveness and efficiency fire and rescue inspections in spring 2021, when we will follow up on our findings.