Wakefield District Risk Reduction Plan 2014-2015 Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................ 3 District Policy ...................................................................................................... 6 Organisation ..................................................................................................... 12 Wakefield Local Risk Reduction Areas ............................................................. 16 Monitor, Review and Audit ................................................................................ 25 Appendix A: Risk Reduction Targets ................................................................ 26 Appendix B: Sample Partnerships and initiatives .............................................. 34 Introduction District Commander Damian Brown Wakefield District covers 338 square kilometres and is home to 325,800 people in a diverse range of city, urban and rural communities. Wakefield offers exceptional transport links from its prominent position at the intersection between the M1 and M62 motorways and the A1 (M) at its eastern boundary, thus providing excellent travel connections to the City by road. The district combines the 5 towns in the North East of Normanton, Castleford, Pontefract, Knottingley and Featherstone as well as Ossett in the North West and South Elmsall in the South East and a host of other smaller communities. Wakefield City acts as the historic seat of the district’s commercial centre, with numerous high street chain stores, Trinity Walk shopping centre, markets, libraries, cathedral, public transport hubs and train stations. The City is also home 3 to the headquarters of the Metropolitan District Council, West Yorkshire Police and the Yorkshire Ambulance Service retaining its strong tradition of public service employment. The West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS) Wakefield District Office is situated in Brunswick Street. Our ambition is ‘Making West Yorkshire Safer’ and our aim is to provide an excellent Fire and Rescue Service working in close partnership to pool resources to reduce death, injury, economic loss and contribute to community wellbeing. This district plan provides the strategy from which four Local Risk Reduction Plans have been developed. These local plans focus on the needs of the local communities within Wakefield District and contain greater detail of how Prevention, Protection, Response and Resilience will be managed. As part of a longer term risk reduction plan Wakefield Fire Station will be reduced to one Fire Appliance over the coming years and South Elmsall and Hemsworth Fire Stations will close to make way for a new Fire Station at South Kirby in 2015. The new Fire Station is currently being built on the South Kirby Business Park. A ‘Command and Leadership’ project trial will take place within Wakefield District commencing in April 2014. This trial will see locally based Station Commanders transfer from their current offices on local Fire Stations and re-locating centrally at the Wakefield District office in Brunswick Street. Our positive risk reduction activities last year delivered a significant decrease in the number of overall arson incidents, fires within private dwellings and fires in places of work. More importantly, these actions have saved lives and reduced serious injuries across the District. The number of road traffic collisions we attended last year was reduced to their lowest level on record; road traffic collisions continue to be a major part of our operational response which always have the potential to become very serious incidents across our major and rural road networks. Within our Service Plan we have set four strategic priorities for 2011-15. These priorities assist us to set objectives to manage performance and direct our resources where they are most needed. Deliver a proactive fire prevention and protection programme Deliver a professional and resilient emergency response service Provide a safe, competent and diverse workforce Provide effective and ethical governance and achieve value for money in managing resources Our modern day firefighters are well prepared through vigorous training programmes and have the equipment and technology to deal successfully with a host of incidents the Fire & Rescue Service attend. 5 We intend to build on our success and continue to work with our partners to reduce the risk to the communities of Wakefield during 2014/15. Damian Brown District Commander District Policy This Wakefield District Risk Reduction Plan directly underpins the strategy set in our Service Plan 2011-2015 and is produced as a working document to address the priorities set for Wakefield District by Service Delivery Board. District Priorities The Service Delivery Board has determined the following priorities: • One District Fire Station will reduce its current risk band - Castleford from Low Risk to Very Low Risk. • We will maintain resilience and availability of appliances at the following Retained Duty System (RDS) stations: Featherstone and Hemsworth. Where necessary, we will recruit on call firefighters to achieve this. • Wakefield District operational staff will carry out a programme of prevention work and will complete 36900 home fire safety points. • Wakefield District operational staff will complete 1060 fire protection inspections. They will also collect safety critical information which can be used to assist firefighter safety, should an incident occur at the property. • Ensure that the risk to those members of the community who are the most vulnerable is reduced as far as possible through innovation and partnership working. • Continue risk reduction work in the South Elmsall and Hemsworth areas prior to the relocation of resources to South Kirkby. To achieve this we will focus specifically on the following areas: • Dwelling fires • Fires in other buildings • Road Traffic Collisions Risk Reduction Hierarchy In order to achieve these priorities and reduce risk across Wakefield District, this plan is aligned to WYFRS’s risk reduction philosophy. Four elements provide a focus for our activity, known as the Risk Reduction Hierarchy: Fire Prevention 7 Fire Protection Operational Response Resilience Fire Prevention – Fire Safety in the Home Wakefield District staff will: • Direct resources into areas and communities with the highest level of risk • Work closely with communities and our partners to identify and visit the hard to reach and the most vulnerable within the district • Carry out home visits with a challenging new points based target to reduce the risk of fire. Where required, we fit smoke detectors to give an early warning in the event of fire. We will prioritise home fire safety checks (HFSC) to the following: • Vulnerable individuals and groups identified through partner agencies • Priority risk areas and households identified by lifestyle type • Hot strike visits after a fire • Direct calls requesting HFSC for vulnerable individuals and households • Hot line referrals for individuals and households • Advice on request The District Team will advise on the dangers of arson and how to protect properties which are at risk. If appropriate, working with our colleagues in West Yorkshire Police, we will carry out ‘target hardening’ measures on high risk properties. We are also proactive in working with our partners to remove combustible waste materials from the streets of Wakefield district. We will support and deliver education programmes to a number of at risk groups throughout the district. Specifically, children and young people will be targeted by a programme of Year 5 talks and the Young Fire-fighters’ Scheme, as well as other specific events. Prevention – Road Safety Wakefield District staff have a role to play in preventing road traffic collisions and the resultant damage to human life, as it is working to reduce fire related deaths and injuries through prevention work. Wakefield District activities in road safety will be through specific interventions, campaigns, schemes and initiatives which are designed to change peoples’ driving behaviour so as to reduce death and injury caused by road traffic related incidents. Responding to road traffic collisions will always be a major part of what we do as an emergency service, but with effective educational activity and promotional campaigns, particularly working with partner agencies, we aim to achieve ongoing sustainable reductions in fatalities and serious injuries. Fire Protection – Fire Safety in the Workplace The district will complete 1060 fire protection inspections and collect safety critical risk information as detailed in the individual Station Risk Indicators. These will be conducted, on a risk-assessed basis, at premises throughout the district to ensure that adequate fire safety measures and arrangements are in place. Where 9 required we will provide advice on how to protect life and property in the event of fire. Specialist officers will carry out the most complex fire safety inspections, aligned to district based crews who will focus their inspections on the following premises types: • Sleeping risks • Fire engineered buildings • Premises which are a high risk to firefighters They will also gather vital safety critical risk information during these audits and respond to any dangerous conditions to protect the public. Operational Response and Resilience WYFRS’s Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) will determine the distribution of operational response