Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service
Annual statement of assurance 2023 - 2024

Strategic Goal 1: We will help people stay safe from fires and other emergencies

This goal focuses on our statutory duty to prevent fires and other emergencies from happening.

In 2023/24 our key objectives were to:

  • Deliver Safe and Well Visits to 14,000 homes to provide advice, install smoke alarms and other safety equipment, and make referrals to partner agencies for support, where required. We target this service at those people who are at higher risk of a fire in the home
  • Develop our understanding of communities and the people who live in them, using data from the 2021 Census, to help target and engage with those most at risk, in an inclusive way
  • Ensure all staff complete the mandatory safeguarding training needed for their roles, and that we make safeguarding referrals in line with the various Safeguarding Boards expectations
  • Deliver fire, road and water safety education activities to those most at risk in the community
  • Provide training and education to our partners on how to recognise the risks of fire and make appropriate referrals to us in line with our risk profile, known by the acronym CHARLIE

Our focus for improvements included:

  • Upgrade our computer systems to increase our ability for mobile working and improve the productivity of our staff
  • Improve the disabled access of our Safe and Well process including online services for obtaining home fire safety advice and making referrals for Safe and Well visits
  • Improve engagement with residents from black and minority ethnic households and community organisations to ensure awareness of our CHARLIE profile and prevention services

During the year:

  • We conducted 15,765 Safe and Well Visits supporting a total of 16,248 people – of these visits, 13,329 were completed by response crews
  • 52.55% of our Safe and Well Visits were delivered to people over 65 and 43.64% were delivered to people who considered themselves to have a disability
  • We commissioned Nottingham Trent University to provide specialist analytical knowledge of the latest census data and the people who live within our communities. This partnership will assist us in identifying and improving our understanding of the diverse needs of our communities and assist us in creating safer communities
  • 99.3% of our staff have completed Level one safeguarding training. Crews based in the City have received enhanced safeguarding training in support of the ‘Safer Streets’ initiative
  • 80% of referrals that we made to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) were accepted by their team. This exceeds our 60% target and is a reflection of the quality of our safeguarding training
  • We delivered 34 Data Intelligence Community Engagement (DICE) activities targeting the most vulnerable in our communities. We also undertook 11 Community Reassurance and Engagement (CRaE) activities following serious fires in locations across Nottinghamshire. Through these activities, prevention teams, supported by crews visited a total of 6,734 properties
  • We delivered Safety Zone events to 1,896 Year 5 and 6 pupils from across the City and County
  • We delivered 290 fire, road or water safety initiatives
  • We supported 44 national safety campaigns
  • We continued to deliver our Firesetter programme and conducted 130 interventions with young people who had shown an interest in setting or playing with fire

Other Highlights

Our CRMP explains how our prevention work is vital to reducing the number and impact of emergency incidents. Through 2023/24 we have used our understanding of our communities to target our efforts where they are needed most and taken the opportunity to make every contact count.

Supporting vulnerable individuals

During this year we have launched a new community referral pathway for Safe and Well Visits on our website. The online tool has been developed through a partnership with National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), Fire Kills and Safelincs.

The tool enables members of the public to complete a form which will help to identify any potential risks within their home and provide tips to reduce those risks. From the self-assessment, we are able to identify those who would benefit from a Safe and Well visit. This new system will assist us in targeting our resources to those most at risk.

Our targeted Safe and Well visits offer advice on factors which increase vulnerability to fire and injury. This includes advice on stopping smoking, alcohol addiction, preventing falls, keeping warm in winter and general fire safety.

We have continued to educate and train our partners to identify individuals at increased risk of fire and make appropriate referrals, using the CHARLIE risk profile. 85% of referrals made by colleagues from other agencies including East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) and local council departments were for people with a medium to high risk of fire, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the referral training we provide.

Community engagement

Our community engagement activities help raise awareness, reduce risk and prevent incidents.

In communities which have experienced a serious fire we carry out Community Reassurance and Engagement visits. We offer Safe and Well visits to residents alongside general fire safety advice to help prevent similar incidents from occurring.

We also proactively target communities most at risk from having a fire through our Data Intelligence Community Engagement visits.

Integration and collaboration

During 2023/24, we have continued to work closely with a wide range of partners and community organisations to identify those most at risk and keep them safe. This included being an active member of the Safeguarding Board and the Violence Reduction Unit.

We have supported the ‘Safer Streets’ programme led by Nottinghamshire Police in the city of Nottingham. Two of our appliances continue to display signage carrying a message which highlights them as ‘safe spaces’ for women if they feel vulnerable while on a night out. Enhanced safeguarding training has been provided to crews of the designated appliances.

We continue to play an active role in the Nottinghamshire Road Safety Partnership where we work with partners to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads. These intervention activities include the `Biker Down` and ‘Operation Highway` initiatives. Similarly, we work as part of the Nottinghamshire Water Safety Partnership to help keep people safe near water.

As part of a schools-based education programme we participate in an initiative called ‘Safety Zone’. Events were held at Ashfield fire station and Holme Pierrepoint and involved partners including Nottinghamshire Police, British Transport Police, The National Grid, Royal National Lifeboat Institution, VIA (County road safety team) and East Midlands Ambulance Service. Safety Zone delivers a range of interactive education sessions based on:

  • Fire safety in the home
  • First aid and CPR
  • Knife crime
  • Railway safety and safe travel
  • Water safety and drowning prevention
  • Electrical safety

Fire Investigation

Our fire investigation team works alongside the police and forensic experts to collect and examine evidence and determine the likely origin and cause of a fire.

As well as providing expert opinion to the coroner, police and insurance companies the team also provide advice to property owners and feed information on trends and patterns into other internal departments such as Prevention to help safeguard others who may be at risk from fire.

During 2023/24 our specialist fire investigators investigated 87 serious fires across the county.