Scottish Borders Council

Agenda item

Scottish Fire & Rescue Service.

(a)                  Update report detailing ongoing work and initiatives in the Cheviot Area.

 

 

(b)                  Launch of ‘ Living Safely in the Home project’

 

 

 

Minutes:

Mr Matt Acton, Station Manager explained that the purpose of the report circulated was to inform the Cheviot Area Forum on Scottish Fire and Rescue Service activity since the last meeting on 3 February 2016.  The report detailed that during the period of the report there had been 2 House Fires (cooking related) occurrences of fire – open 7, occurrence of Special Services 10 and 18 unwanted Fire Alarm Signals.  In relation to partnership working, The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), Community Action Team (CAT) within the Scottish Borders core work centred on the on-going delivery of the SFRS Home Fire Safety Visit (HFSV) policy.  The team continued to expand its partnership working with the Key agencies including Police Scotland, Health, Social care and Housing in order to focus on members of local communities at High Risk from fire and achieve outcomes in helping to reduce overall numbers of accidental dwelling fires. 

 

5.1         Fire preventionand protection activity over recent years had been key to reducing the number of fires, casualties and losses in Scotland thus minimising the economic and social impact of fire on communities.  The seasonal community safety calendar provided the catalyst for a number of initiatives and schemes throughout the calendar year.

 

5.2         Activity which was ongoing within the Cheviot Ward area included Scottish Fire and Rescue Service staffs in all local stations providing Home Fire Safety Visits all year round.  The visits provided the householder with a home visit, focussing on identifying and reducing the risks of fire in the home. Smoke detectors with a 10-year battery life were provided as part of this free service; Living Safely in the Home was part of the Scottish Borders Community Planning Partnership Reducing Inequalities Strategy, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and the Scottish Borders Safer Communities Team would lead jointly on the ‘Keeping People Safe’ theme.  Within this theme, it had been identified that older people are more likely to suffer an accident in the home resulting in an A&E admission to Hospital; Firesharp was an initiative for Primary 6 pupils, providing face-to-face education within local Primary schools on matters of fire risk and prevention; The SFRS Safeguarding Policy and Procedure for Protection of Children and Adults at Risk of Harm was implemented to link into adult and child protection. The introduction of the policy had created closer ties with Social Services within Scottish Borders and ensured those people and families that fire crews identify as at risk were brought to the attention of Social Services and had resulted in joint visits to homes to reduce risk to those occupiers.  A strong partnership was being developed with the local Domestic Abuse Advocacy Service and involvement in MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference).  The Local Authority Liaison Officer (LALO) and Scottish Borders Station Manager for Prevention and Protection were fully involved in all local MARAC processes, attending the monthly conferences and all steering group meetings. 

 

5.3            Crews from Duns and Coldstream recently took part in a multi-agency Young Drivers Initiative held at Charterhall, Greenlaw. The event gave the opportunity for 14-17 year olds from across the Scottish Borders to experience the controls of a car in ‘try-drive’ sessions and to experience vehicle handling through braking exercises in order to educate the next generation of road users.

 

5.4            Road Safety Community Action Team (CAT) had delivered road safety awareness to secondary schools throughout the Scottish Borders with the support of the local whole time personnel from Galashiels and Hawick.  Fire Safety Audits provided a targeted examination of business premises and their relevant documents to ascertain how the premises were being managed regarding fire safety.  The enforcement officer also engaged with members of staff to confirm their level of fire safety awareness;  Unwanted Fire Signals were being addressed by phased intervention actions which identified premises which were producing ‘false alarms’, provided guidance on how to reduce a reoccurrence.  In a pioneering partnership between the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and British Heart Foundation (BHF), all 356 of SFRS’s fire stations were equipped with BHF donated ‘Call Push Rescue’ training kit and each station would now act as a base for local people to learn vital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills and potentially save someone’s life if they went into cardiac arrest.  It took just 30 minutes to learn CPR using the Call Push Rescue kit and community groups were able to contact their local fire station to arrange a time to go to a station, watch the training DVD, and practice with the kit.

 

Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest trial.

5.5            A national trial and a first for Scotland involving Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) to increase survival rate of patients who suffer out of hospital cardiac arrest went live on 29th October 2015.  The trial would run at seven fire stations across Scotland, with three of these being in the Scottish Borders: Hawick, Lauder and Coldstream.  Firefighters at these stations had received enhanced training in life-support, through a joint partnership approach with the Scottish Ambulance Service as part of a range of measures that it had in place across the country to target the condition and create a nation of life savers.  If a fire service resource with a crew who were trained to provide high quality CPR and had a defibrillator was nearer to a potential cardiac arrest than a local Community First Responder team, then Ambulance Control would dispatch them at the same time as the ambulance crew, so that they could provide these life saving interventions while the ambulance was on its way.  The trials were part of SFRS’s commitment to supporting the Scottish Government’s Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy, which aimed to dramatically increase patients’ survival chances and save as many as 1,000 lives by 2020.  The LALO was in post within Scottish Borders Council HQ in order to improve partnership working, with a particular focus on the elderly and more vulnerable members of society. The primary aims of this partnership activity were to help ensure the safety and welfare of vulnerable persons throughout the community, and to seek to reduce the overall numbers of accidental dwelling fires, fire casualties and fire fatalities in homes.  The Summer Thematic Action plan focused on Grass and Wildland fires; rubbish and refuse fires and Outdoor fire safety. 

 

DECISION

NOTED the report.

 

LIVING SAFELY IN THE HOME PROJECT

6.0         Michael Jaffray, Station Manager, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service gave a presentation on the SFRS approach to safeguarding persons at risk of harm, which had been launched that afternoon in the Cheviot locality as a pilot.  This included a home fire safety visits policy; post domestic incident response; safeguarding children and adults at risk of harm policy and case study/case conference policy.  Over 2500 completed Home Fire Safety Visits had been completed in the Scottish Borders during the last Fiscal year, averaging 200 visits per month with 700 deemed as High Risk.  In terms of emergency hospital admissions, due to unintentional injury, it was found that 45.8% of total incidents occurred in the home; of those incidents 38.7% were caused by falls in the home and 77% of those falls were in the 65+ age group.  Almost 40% of SB homes were classed as being fuel poor in 2013 and the Scottish Borders was an area where there was low income and high consumption of fuel.  The three main drivers for fuel poverty were fuel cost, income and energy efficiency.  Mr Jaffray went onto explain the benefits of a holistic approach - increased efficiency and effectiveness; reactive to preventative; reduce duplication; financial benefit; demand reduction and increased safety.  The Cheviot Pilot would target the elderly and the under 5s focusing on slips, trips and falls and preventing unintentional harm in the home.  For the elderly and people with mobility issues, a level 1 falls screen assessment would be carried out;  small aids and adaptations where required would be provided; other advice/guidance where deemed necessary would be provided and where required, a referral would be made to HES.  A series of events would be held in Kelso and Jedburgh, with regular updates to the Area Forum.

 

DECISION

 

(a)       NOTED the presentation.

 

(b)     AGREED that there be an update to the Area Forum at its meeting scheduled for 14 September

Supporting documents:

 

CONTACT US

Scottish Borders Council

Council Headquarters Newtown St. Boswells Melrose TD6 0SA

Tel: 0300 100 1800

Email:

For more Contact Details