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

This goal relates to our prevention services. We have a legal duty, under the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, to prevent fires and other emergencies.

Our prevention work is vital to reducing the number and impact of emergency incidents. We use our understanding of our communities to target our efforts where they are most needed and will have the greatest impact.

Supporting vulnerable individuals

We know that there are some factors which put people at greater risk of harm in their home. Our CHARLIE profile helps us and our community partners to identify people who are at a higher risk. CHARLIE stands for:

• Care and support
• Hoarding
• Alcohol
• Reduced mobility
• Lives alone
• Inappropraite smoking
• Elderly

We train our partners in other sectors to raise awareness of fire risks in the home, including by using the CHARLIE profile to help identify people who would benefit from a Safe and Well Visit from us.

Through our Safe and Well Visits we provide fire safety advice on individual household risks. We can fit and test smoke alarms and arrange for other safety measures to be fitted where they are necessary to keep people safe. During our visit, we may identify other needs and, with the consent of the person involved, we can refer to partner agencies.

We are one of a small number of fire services in the country to employ an Occupational Therapist (OT). Our OT has specialist knowledge and links to community health teams, helping us meet the needs of the most vulnerable people in our communities.

All of our staff receive regular safeguarding training and we work with social care services to ensure that vulnerable individuals are identified and their needs are supported.

If you think that you or someone you know could benefit from further advice, help or support from us, please fill out a Safe and Well referral on our website, or telephone us.

Arson reduction

Arson can have a significant impact on communities. In 2020/21, we attended over 1,400 deliberate fires.

We work with young people aged between four and 17 years old who are referred to us because of concerns around fire-setting. We provide one-to-one education in fire awareness and the consequences of starting fires. We also deliver the ‘Firesafe’ programme to young people aged between 12 and 17 years old who have been convicted of arson and are referred to us by the Youth Offending Service. The University of Nottingham also work with us to provide psychoeducational counselling to young people who persistently start fires.

Community engagement

Our community engagement activities help raise awareness, reduce risk and prevent incidents. As part of these activities we:

• Work with young people through our schools education program
• Engage with young drivers to promote road safety
• Run targeted campaigns to promote home safety in high-risk areas
• Run themed events such as water safety awareness at key sites
• Deliver a Cadet programme which we hope to expand
• Educate and reassure local communities after serious incidents to prevent similar incidents from happening. For example, after a house fire, water rescue or road traffic collision

Integration and collaboration

We are embedded in local partnership networks to ensure a joined-up approach in promoting community safety initiatives and supporting people and families with diverse needs. For example, we worked in collaboration with Nottinghamshire Water Safety Partnership to improve safety precautions in an area where we attended a fatal incident, improving signage and installing throw lines with the aim of preventing further loss of life.

We also have a leading 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.

We have close links with a range of community and faith-based groups. This helps us to understand the specific needs of local groups and allows us to provide targeted and tailored interventions.

Fire investigation

In the event of a serious fire, we attend the scene to gather evidence and determine the most likely cause of the fire. The findings help us shape our future prevention and protection activities to reduce the likelihood of similar incidents and reduce any casualties or loss of life.

Where the cause of the fire is suspicious, we work with police crime scene investigators to gather evidence to support criminal investigations.

If you see someone setting a deliberate fire, then you should report it immediately to us or the police by calling 999.

If you know any information about deliberate fire setting in your community, you can report it anonymously to FireStoppers.

Our commitments

Supporting vulnerable individuals

We will continue to:

• Deliver Safe and Well Visits to those at the highest risk to provide advice, install smoke alarms and other safety equipment
• Develop our understanding of communities and the people who live in them, to help target and engage with those most at risk
• Maintain effective safeguarding processes, including ensuring all staff receive regular safeguarding training
• Work with individuals involved in arson or identified as potential fire-setters, to address those behaviours
• Evaluate our performance to ensure we can continually improve

We will:

• Increase the number of Safe and Well Visits we deliver to 15,000 homes per year by 2025

Community engagement

We will continue to:

• Promote fire, road and water safety through media campaigns, safety messages on our vehicles and other channels including social media to reduce the number of incidents
• Provide community reassurance and engagement in the aftermath of an incident

We will:

• Roll our cadet scheme out further, to engage young people with an interest in the Service
• Further develop our performance monitoring and evaluation of activities to ensure they are effective and provide equality of access for everyone.

Integration and collaboration

We will continue to:

• Educate and train our partners to recognise the risks of fire and make appropriate referrals to us in line with our CHARLIE profile
• Share information between agencies to help identify high-risk individuals and communities