HM Fire Service Inspectorate local area inspection: Dumfries and Galloway

As mentioned earlier in this report we structure our findings to be in line with the Fire and Rescue Framework for Scotland 2016. The Framework sets the strategic direction for fire and rescue. Contained within the Framework are 10 strategic priorities for the SFRS. To aid the reader, we have replicated the text of those strategic priorities in Appendix 1.

3.1 Performance Measures

The local Fire and Rescue Plan and Local Outcomes Improvement Plan

The 2005 Act requires the SFRS to publish a delivery plan for the local authority area. The most recent local Fire and Rescue Plan for Dumfries and Galloway was published in 2017.

Nationally, the SFRS sets out a planning structure which defines how it expects its strategic aims will be achieved. The SFRS has a Strategic Plan describing its strategic aims, from which the statutory local Fire and Rescue Plans are derived. The local plans are further developed into local Operating Plans which describe local actions and targets. Ultimately these documents are used to generate Station Plans containing station actions and targets, which in turn can be used to populate the individual personal objectives for the staff based at fire stations.

The 2017 Fire and Rescue Plan for Dumfries and Galloway includes explanatory and background material, community planning arrangements, and alignment with the partnership priorities: anti-social behaviour, adult and child protection, health and social care including alcohol and drug strategies.

The plan also contains local fire related priorities. While the SFRS has national targets against which it measures performance, the local plan for Dumfries and Galloway generally identifies six local priorities for demand reduction without specific targets. These are:

• Domestic fire safety
• Unintentional harm and injury
• Deliberate fire setting
• Non-domestic fire safety
• Unwanted fire alarms
• Operational resilience and preparedness

The SFRS Annual Operating Plan 2019-2020 for Dumfries and Galloway, unlike others we have seen, contains no detailed explanatory information relative to each priority area nor detail of how the Service will focus its activity on each issue. Below the area wide plan there are a further sub-set of three thematic delivery plans which do provide a level of detail; local enforcement delivery plan; community safety engagement delivery plan; Training and Employee Development action plan and there is a station action plan for each fire station.

Formal local authority scrutiny of SFRS performance is carried out twice a year, currently in July and December at the Dumfries and Galloway Council Police, Fire and Rescue Sub Committee.

The Service supplies a performance update to the Sub Committee which comprises a report on the six priorities that the Service has in its local plan. The format of this report was agreed with elected members following a workshop of SFRS officers and elected members, where the content of the report was discussed. We observed one meeting of this Sub Committee and found it to operate in a similar way to other scrutiny arrangements we have observed across Scotland.

Community Councils in Scotland are voluntary organisations run by local residents to act on behalf of the local community. The response rate to our short questionnaire sent to Community Councils in Dumfries and Galloway was 12.5% (11 responses). In our experience, a low response rate is not unusual.

Most Community Councils who responded described having an informal relationship with the SFRS and sought a continuation of, or improvement in, the level of engagement with the Service. Almost all, but not unanimously, had a positive view of the SFRS.

3.2 Protecting Communities: Risk, Prevention and Response

Safety, Well-being and Prevention

Prevention and Protection

There is a Group Manager^[5] and a Station Manager responsible for the management of the Prevention and Protection function. The Group Manager takes the lead on prevention activity with the Station Manager predominantly leading on protection.

Community Safety Engagement (CSE)

The CSE team in Dumfries and Galloway comprises two Community Safety Advocates (CSA) and two Community Firefighters (CFF), line managed by a Watch Manager with the role of Local Area Liaison Officer (LALO).

The team members have designated geographic area responsibilities. However the work is organised in such a way as to provide the necessary cover when required, for example during periods of leave or sickness.

Their role is to reduce fires and work with partners to address other risks within the community, such as water and road safety (see example of good practice below). This involves engaging with partners to identify vulnerable persons. Some examples of work undertaken are:

• joint Home Fire Safety Visit’ (HFSV) where there has been a referral;
• work with young fire setters who are referred by social work;
• activity based on a CSE thematic action plan calendar;
• talks to youth groups and other groups on request;
• targeted talks to P7/S1 pupils;
• CPR training to pupils;
• S6 pupils driving awareness training; and
• dementia projects.

The team describe ‘undertaking a lot of partnership working to address risks to the more vulnerable members of the community’. The majority of routine HFSVs are made by operational fire crews. Members of the CSE team focus on providing training to staff of partner organisations to improve referral decision-making and on visiting higher risk individuals.

All members of the CSE team have a breadth of fire service experience and have been fulfilling their current role for a varying number of years. All team members describe having a good relationship with partners and relevant Dumfries and Galloway Council staff.

The LALO operates as liaison with Dumfries and Galloway Council and, although not co-located with Council staff, as we have seen in other areas, doesn’t believe that this is a disadvantage. The LALO attends a number of multi-agency groups focusing on addressing issues such as anti-social behaviour, hoarding, and adult protection. The LALO has also engaged with young children as part of a local safe driving initiative to educate and inform young children of the dangers of distractions in vehicles and to influence their parents’ behaviour using creative props to deliver the important safety messages. There is a Multi-Agency Tactical Coordination Group and good relationships are reported between the SFRS and partners including the Police, where, for example, activity has included undertaking joint checks of derelict properties to prevent deliberate fires. The LALO also attends the four Council area committees in support of the SFRS Station Managers who give performance updates of community safety activity. There is little formal networking between LALOs in different LSO areas.

Deliberate fires

The local Fire and Rescue Plan has a reduction in deliberate fire raising as a priority. Partnership work with Police Scotland and Education Department in the North West Dumfries area was aimed at tackling fire related anti-social behaviour. Dumfries and Galloway is an area where there is a comparatively low incidence of deliberate fires. In 2018/19, deliberate fires increased slightly on the previous fiscal year^[6].

Table 3 shows the incidence of all deliberate fires over a four year period.

Table 3: number of all deliberate fires Dumfries and Galloway

Domestic fire safety

Home fire safety visits (HFSVs) are an established activity undertaken mostly by fire station personnel, completing around 95% of those in the area. The rate of HFSVs per dwelling in 2017/18 was slightly below the Scottish average. The number of visits made in Dumfries and Galloway has been decreasing as shown in Table 4.

Table 4: Home safety visits Dumfries and Galloway

Fire station personnel are not set a target of visits to complete during the year. The number of HFSVs that can be carried out is influenced by a number of factors, including the constraints on the availability of RDS and VDS personnel to conduct the visit, although over the last three years, RDS and VDS personnel have made around 70% of the visits carried out.

Of course HFSVs are only a measure of activity rather than an outcome. Dwelling fire statistics are shown in Table 5. The reduction in HFSVs has not been associated with a rise in accidental dwelling fires.

Table 5: Dwelling fires in Dumfries and Galloway^[8]

The statistics for 2018/19 are provisional, and revision typically increases the counts by a small proportion. 

Fire Safety Enforcement (FSE)

Fire safety enforcement is undertaken by a team comprising four Watch Managers (enforcement officers). Three team members are based in Dumfries fire station and one in Stranraer fire station. Enforcement standards are broadly in line with normal SFRS guidance.

The projected retirement profile of the Watch Managers and the Station Manager is such that all could potentially have left the Service by 2022. This is an issue that the Service is aware of. Because there is only one Wholetime fire station in the area, there is a limited pool of local Watch Managers who may wish to transfer into fire safety. Given the lead-in time for a suitable officer to acquire the necessary skills this is an issue that requires action.

Recommendation

The LSO should create a succession plan for replacing fire safety enforcement staff. 

The area has an enforcement delivery plan for carrying out fire safety audits in relevant premises. There is a target of 122 fire safety audits per year per person – the national target issued by the SFRS. In addition the local plan has a priority for reducing fires in non-domestic premises.

The SFRS has an emphasis on measuring FSE performance in respect of the number of fire safety audits undertaken. Like staff in other LSO areas, there is a substantial amount of fire safety work undertaken which does not involve undertaking an audit, for example consultation work which is important in respect of achieving public safety. There are a number of high-profile festivals in the area which create a further area of work.

The numbers of fire safety audits completed are shown in Table 6. Given the small number of enforcement staff, an absence of one staff member alone is sufficient to significantly affect annual audit totals.

Table 6: fire safety audits – Dumfries and Galloway^[10]

Premises types that are targeted for audit in the local area delivery plan also follow the guidance issued centrally by the SFRS. An annual audit is mandatory for certain premises such as care homes, while other categories of premises receive an annual audit only when risk and compliance level criteria are matched.

We asked the Service for information on the number of relevant premises in Dumfries and Galloway broken down by risk level to ascertain the potential audit workload. As at 4 July 2019, there were slightly in excess of 1,000 recorded relevant premises in Dumfries and Galloway. The list of premises is shown in the table in Appendix 2. The list of known premises is extracted from the SFRS national Prevention and Protection Enforcement Database (PPED)^[11] and not all relevant premises are recorded. Therefore efforts are made locally to add to the number of known premises using local knowledge.

Local staff describe their work as being concentrated on sleeping risk premises, particularly within the tourism sector, because these are a higher risk, and that the workload is manageable. However Dumfries and Galloway FSE staff take the opportunity to carry out audits for non-sleeping risk premises when resources permit.

In common with other areas we have visited, enforcement staff do not have a high opinion of PPED. The ‘audit due list’ facility on PPED is considered problematic and staff maintain their own spreadsheet to monitor workflow.

Local management support and relationships are good. There are few opportunities for personal development and little networking between FSE staff in different LSO or SDA areas. 

Response and Resilience

Appliances

The appliances allocated to the Dumfries and Galloway area are of a varying age, some first registered 19 years ago. Despite the age of some, they are generally in a reasonable condition, though there are some exceptions which may be considered to be reaching the end of their operational life. A small number of appliances are reported to have frequent faults.

Replacement of vehicles is outwith the control of the LSO. In May 2019, HMFSI published a thematic inspection report^[12] of the SFRS’s management of its fleet. One of the issues we highlighted in the report, and relevant to Dumfries and Galloway, is that the dimensions of the appliance room in some of the fire stations restricts the ability to house the new standard 18 tonne appliance currently being procured by the Service. Therefore the Service will have to procure different chassis or alter the dimensions of the relevant appliance bays.

Personnel on most fire stations reported that when their appliance was away, either for repair of a defect or for servicing, the turnaround time was much longer than had been experienced before Service restructure. This is due to the fact that appliances now have to be taken to the SFRS’s fleet workshop at Cowcaddens in Glasgow from Dumfries, a round trip of over 150 miles. A number of personnel we spoke to mentioned that this had a negative effect on the Service’s carbon footprint. In the legacy service vehicles were taken to local authority workshops.

The one Aerial Rescue Pump (ARP) provides a combined Rescue Pump and High Reach capability. This type of vehicle is generally not popular among staff due to its lack of versatility and the restrictions in its designated functions. A national SFRS ‘Review of High Reach Appliance Provision’ in 2017 recommended that, in the long-term, ARPs should be phased out to be replaced by dedicated high reach appliances.

As part of the SFRS’s wider transformation plans new, smaller, fire appliances have been introduced at certain locations across Scotland. These Rapid Response Units (RRUs) are intended to provide greater flexibility in response. The RRUs are fitted with Ultra High Pressure (UHP) firefighting lances which are designed to improve firefighter safety by reducing the need to commit breathing apparatus crews, and can be used to reduce compartment temperatures faster and more effectively than traditional firefighting methods. By comparison to a traditional larger fire appliance, the RRUs carry less water and equipment, and seat a maximum of four personnel, which is at least one less firefighter than the majority of larger appliances. The area has two RRUs, based at Annan and Drummore. There has been a mixed reaction, with some personnel being positive and other personnel on the whole more negative. At the time of our inspection, neither of these fire stations have been provided with the training frame necessary to support ongoing training with the UHP equipment. Again this is not an LSO issue, however we would encourage the LSO to pursue provision of this equipment.

Recommendation (N) = National Recommendation

The LSO should pursue the provision of training frames necessary to train with the UHP equipment. 

The availability and poor condition of spare appliances is reported as being an issue in the area: this is highlighted as a national issue in our report on the Service’s management of its fleet. It is a particular issue due to the size restrictions at some fire stations and the size of some of the spare appliances. Also mentioned in that inspection report and brought up by local staff during our fieldwork is that, in some cases, during an appliance changeover, all existing equipment cannot be securely stowed on the spare appliance due to locker configuration. Consequently some equipment is left off the appliance.

Equipment

With some exceptions, personnel are generally satisfied about the level and quality of operational equipment supplied, although universally they felt that the quality of equipment in the legacy service was of a much higher standard. It has to be recognised that it may well have been difficult to maintain that higher standard during a prolonged period of fiscal austerity.

Observations were made regarding the quality and poor transmission range of fire-ground hand-held radios. Hand-lamps and scene lighting are considered of a poor standard and outdated and there is a limited number of thermal imaging cameras available.

When defective equipment is sent for repair, there is a perception that the time taken to repair and return is excessive and that occasionally a replacement is of an inferior quality.

Periodic testing of equipment is carried out by fire station personnel as part of their normal routine. These tests form an important part of ensuring that the equipment is safe to use, is functioning correctly, and is ready to be deployed at an incident. The SFRS has no single asset management system for equipment and its testing. The process in use in Dumfries and Galloway is a mixture of a legacy paper-based recording system and for the RRUs, the SFRS centrally defined paper-based record. For the non-RRU related testing we believe the system in use is not robust and records are often poor. In quite a number of cases, records are routinely overwritten and therefore a complete historic record for a piece of equipment is unavailable.

Recommendation

The LSO should, in discussion with colleagues from Response and Resilience Directorate, devise and implement a more robust system for the recording of testing of equipment until such time as a national system is available. 

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

There are some issues around communication when PPE is sent for repair and is later condemned, with a lack of feedback to the individuals concerned advising that replacement kit is required. Generally there is lack of storage and drying facilities at some fire stations where overall space is at a premium. The SFRS has been implementing a replacement programme for its PPE, and firefighters who have been issued with new style PPE are very positive about the standard.

Respiratory Protective Equipment

A new national standard breathing apparatus set for firefighters was introduced in early 2016. The new sets are of a different make than those previously in use in the legacy service and are perceived by personnel to be inferior; though we have no evidence that this has affected staff confidence in using the equipment.

Property

There is electronic reporting of property issues, with defects being highlighted to the SFRS’s property managers centrally who are then responsible for prioritising and instructing the work to be carried out, and monitoring the performance of the maintenance contractor.

The building at Dumfries contains a fire station and offices used as the LSO area headquarters. While the property is mostly in a reasonable state of repair, there are a number of defects affecting the fire station part of the building which have been outstanding for some time. External finish material has fallen from the training tower and consequently use of the tower for training has been suspended. While crews have access to another tower at the local training facility, we consider that this defect should be addressed and are hopeful that efforts so far undertaken by property staff to resolve the problem can be finalised as soon as possible. More generally, a number of training towers at other fire stations, whilst operational, are programmed for refurbishment. Exterior yard lighting at some fire stations is poor.

A number of personnel raised with us the issue of the recent replacement of appliance bay doors at some fire stations. The work was perceived to have been unnecessary as the previous doors were functioning well and in one case, where there was a minor defect with a door, it wasn’t replaced. Capital and revenue expenditure priorities on premises refurbishment and repair is a national matter in consultation with LSO area staff. Whilst we cannot comment directly on the work carried out on these doors, we believe that better communication of decisions and rationale regarding building work priorities would avoid negative perceptions.

Given the remoteness of some parts of the area, and therefore the consequent impact on the ability of central property managers to easily visit fire stations to monitor the progress and conclusion of repairs, we would encourage the LSO to assist performance monitoring by agreeing to provide centrally based property managers a local single point of contact to disseminate details of works instructed.

Recommendation

The LSO, in discussion with the SFRS Regional Property Manager, should explore the opportunity to improve communication around property maintenance decisions and completion of works instructed. 

The fire station at Drummore is leased from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). The facilities, including the size of the appliance bay, are limited and plans are being explored to resolve the issues. The MCA also has a base at Annan fire station. The Galloway Mountain Rescue Team has use of the fire station at Castle Douglas. We discuss this further under ‘Partnership’ on page 18.

Operational Intelligence

The SFRS has a statutory duty to obtain information which may be required by its personnel in carrying out their operational role. When information is created, either by collection as part of that duty or through the writing of an operational policy, such as a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for an incident type, it is made available to firefighters through a device within the cab of the fire appliance.

In April 2018, the SFRS introduced a national Operational Intelligence (OI) system. Separately, the provision of risk information was subject to a thematic inspection^[13] by HMFSI. In our report we describe in detail the policies and process used for managing the collection and use of data, and the software and hardware used in the system. In particular, we highlighted in our report that we considered there to be good practice within the Dumfries and Galloway area for the collection of information.

The new system uses a demountable tablet computer device. Prior to the system going live in 2018, firefighters in Dumfries and Galloway used the legacy Dumfries and Galloway FRS VMDS system and the mobile data terminal (MDT) permanently installed in the appliance cab.

As part of our local area inspection, we wanted to see how the new system was being used and the local processes for managing site specific data collection. As we ascertained in our thematic inspection, management of the scheduling of visits uses a SharePoint based spreadsheet, with the premises allocated across watches or fire stations to conduct visits. At the time of our fire station visits, the new system didn’t have a visit scheduling function and therefore the former system process was still in use.

Officers are working from a local ‘significant premises list’ which was created from assessing existing data on the legacy MDT and from local knowledge of the area. From this list each station has been provided with a 2019 inspection programme. At the time of the data submission there were 462 premises on the list. As could be expected the greatest concentration of premises is in the Dumfries area. It is to be expected that this will not be the final number as some premises may be removed from the list following the ongoing risk review.

Training in the use of the new system is via an on-line package as part of the SFRS’s Learning Content Management System (LCMS). We undertook a small sample of risk information for premises to review the ease with which staff could retrieve the information and how familiar they were with the tablet device. In our sampling, we found varying levels of skill amongst fire station based staff on the use of the new system. More often than not the tablet was only used for its mapping capability, predominantly due to issues described in our inspection report^[14]. Some personnel were also still using the legacy MDT to retrieve information rather than more appropriately using the OI tablet.

Some fire station personnel are receiving assistance in the collection of information from the rural full-time postholder. We discuss this post elsewhere in this report.

One issue with the data collection process which was raised with us at a number of fire stations, was the inability to easily record premises floor plans obtained from dutyholders. This is because most fire stations do not have access to a document scanner that can be used for this purpose. We found that photographs were being taken of plans using mobile phones and these were then uploaded to the system, resulting in poor quality of the material stored.

Health and Safety

Health and safety reporting is carried out using the RIVO Safeguard system. Generally, the system is considered very awkward to use by staff who think this is a factor causing low reporting of near misses. These types of events occur on the incident ground as well as on-station: there is a lack of understanding among personnel about the importance of reporting near misses. Near miss reporting is described by the Health and Safety Executive as a very important way of identifying problem areas. We have found this issue during a number of other local area inspections.

In Dumfries and Galloway, there has been a welcome reduction in the number of health and safety events that have resulted in injury over the last three years from six in 2016/17 to two in 2018/19. As indicated above there are issues affecting the recording of near misses. Despite the difficulties, it is encouraging that near misses have been recorded - nine in 2018/19, two in 2017/18, and seven in 2016/17.  We would encourage the LSO to locally promote the education amongst staff around importance of reporting of near misses, particularly from the incident ground, and to work with colleagues at a national level to improve the reporting tool more generally. 

Recommendation

The LSO should promote the reporting of near misses and to work with colleagues at a national level to improve the reporting more widely. 

Partnership

There is an arrangement for the use of Annan fire station by the MCA and the SFRS lease part of the MCA premises at Drummore. The MCA rescue response capability in the area covers mud, water and cliff risks. Due to the crossover in some capabilities between the MCA and the SFRS there is a desire on the part of the MCA locally to develop further joint working between SFRS and the MCA, both in exercising and at incidents. During our fieldwork a rescue incident occurred in the area and, although successfully resolved, it has been recognised that there had been potential to use SFRS’s assets at the incident. We would encourage more joint working where appropriate.

Galloway Mountain Rescue makes use of Castle Douglas fire station. Although co-located there is little joint working or training between the respective organisations, even though there is recognition locally that Mountain Rescue is a valuable resource. We would encourage the exploration of better joint working which should be to the overall benefit of the community.

At a strategic level, good partnership arrangements were described between the SFRS, Scottish Ambulance Service, and Police Scotland. At fire station level, good working relationships were described at operational incidents.

Recommendation

We encourage the LSO to explore opportunities to work more closely with the MCA and Mountain Rescue to improve relationships across providers and ultimately the service to local communities. 

3.3 Evolving Role of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service

Service Transformation

Issues around transformation of the role of the SFRS are a major consideration for firefighters. The lack of information and uncertainty on future plans for the Service is unsettling for staff.

Fire station personnel are well sighted on the potential training that would accompany any expansion of role, given that completing training for their existing role is seen as difficult (due to factors described elsewhere in this report). This is a particular issue for RDS firefighters, most of whom at present have a short finite opportunity for training. Generally speaking, the majority of RDS and VDS firefighters we spoke to were supportive of a change in role, particularly around emergency medical response, which is seen as being important in rural areas, where an ambulance response may take longer.

Modernising Response

As part of the SFRS’s transformation plans, new, smaller, fire appliances have been introduced at certain locations. These RRUs are intended to provide greater flexibility in response. The RRUs are fitted with Ultra High Pressure firefighting lances which are designed to improve firefighter safety by reducing the need to commit breathing apparatus crews and can be used to reduce compartment temperatures faster and more effectively than traditional firefighting methods. By comparison to a traditional larger fire appliance, the RRUs carry less water and equipment, and seat a maximum of four personnel, which is at least one less firefighter than the majority of larger appliances. There are positive and negative aspects associated with RRUs. The appliance at Drummore and the second pump at Annan have been replaced with RRUs. As highlighted earlier, the introduction of these vehicles has received mixed responses from personnel. At both locations, the view was also expressed that the vehicles were not always mobilised appropriately, either not being mobilised when the resource could have usefully assisted with resolving the incident or, being mobilised when another more suitable resource would have been more appropriate.

Unwanted Fire Alarm Signals

The SFRS has a national target of a 15% reduction in UFAS calls over an average of three years. While the local fire and rescue plan has a reduction of UFAS calls as a priority, it doesn’t allocate a target to the scale of that reduction. Table 7 shows that UFAS calls have reduced in the latest reporting year and are down to the same level as they were in 2015/16. Prior to the creation of the SFRS, Dumfries and Galloway FRS experienced a comparatively low level of UFAS calls, 117 in 2013/14, primarily due to arrangements within the legacy control room.

Table 7: UFAS calls Dumfries and Galloway^[15] 

One of the enforcement officers is a designated UFAS champion and locally, engagement activity has been carried out in the education sector. Historically, schools have been a source of unwanted alarms. During 2017/18, both primary and secondary schools accounted for 97 UFAS incidents, this being 18% of the total UFAS for the area that year. Following a process of discussion with the local authority education department, for participating schools, an alarm management process was put in place and there has been a welcome reduction in UFAS calls. More generally, within other premises types, there is evidence of engagement with occupiers and owners to try and eradicate false alarms and there is some evidence of the Service introducing a managed approach to reducing the number of appliances that are normally dispatched to an alarm call from premises that have poor management of their automatic systems.

Good Practice

We consider that the engagement carried out with the local authority education department and the resulting welcome reduction in UFAS calls is an example of good practice. 

Recommendation

The LSO should continue to support the local effort to reduce UFAS calls to achieve further improvement in performance. 

3.4 Governance, Accountability and Performance

Effective Governance and Performance

Local scrutiny arrangements

As mentioned earlier, reporting of performance is made to the local authority as part of the local scrutiny arrangements. The reports of activity are broken down to ward level which may provide a useful level of detail for elected members. There is also, where appropriate, a separate document which provides a level of narrative that helps provide context to some of the results.

There are 12 wards within Dumfries and Galloway, and these are grouped into four areas: Annandale and Eskdale; Nithsdale; Stewartry; and Wigtown. Each area has an area committee. The role of these committees is to scrutinise and monitor the delivery of local services particularly in relation to joint working and Community Planning including, where relevant, monitoring of service performance at an area level through review of key performance indicators, based on a twice yearly cycle. Therefore performance of the SFRS is further scrutinised by these committees, as well as the full council. SFRS’s local Station Managers, supported by the LALO, present details of SFRS performance reports at meetings of the committees.

From our discussions with the Chair of the Council Scrutiny Committee and officials, we concluded that the Service is well engaged with strategic partners in Dumfries and Galloway, playing an integral part in service delivery. The dedication and professionalism which the SFRS brings to partnership working is described very positively.

The chair of the Dumfries and Galloway Council Police, Fire and Rescue Sub Committee described the current relationship with the SFRS as exemplary. The chair also made reference to attending regular meetings at Dumfries fire station for updates on SFRS activity.

The leader of the Council indicated that SFRS reporting has improved in the past couple of years and the Service takes an active role in the Community Planning Partnership. However, the leader believed the Service was ‘underselling’ what they do and should have more involvement with the communities and believed this could be achieved with the Council’s support through the community councils.

It is an SFRS objective to use Station Plans to demonstrate how the aims of the organisation are delivered locally through relevant actions and targets. We have seen in other areas of Scotland station plans that are more sophisticated in the narrative they provide and the milestones and targets they set.

People

Appliance availability

There are occasions when appliances are unavailable. This can be the result of training commitments, scheduled maintenance, vehicle defects and crew shortages. We concentrate here on unavailability due to crew shortage. A pump will be unavailable if the personnel at the fire station cannot muster a crew. The availability for the pumps in the RDS staffed fire stations is shown in Table 8. There is a local target of 90% availability, as can be seen within Table 8 below, the majority of stations are above this and are to be congratulated for the performance.

Table 8: RDS availability - June 2018 to May 2019

The second pump at Dumfries is often called upon to stand-by at some RDS stations in order to cover the unavailability of RDS pumps.

In January 2019, SFRS appointed 18 staff to rural full-time posts to act as support officer for RDS and VDS fire stations. As mentioned elsewhere in this report, one of these posts is within the Dumfries and Galloway area with the postholder responsible for the fire stations located within the Stewartry area, one of four geographic areas within the wider Dumfries and Galloway area. The following stations are located with the Stewartry area: New Galloway; Castle Douglas; Gatehouse of Fleet; Dalbeattie; and Kirkcudbright.

The LSO designated priorities for support for this cluster of stations include monitoring and assisting with maintaining appliance availability, with a target of 90%, and the recording of operational risk information. We noted however that there are differences in respect of the remit and breadth of responsibilities of the role, although we recognise that priorities may be different in other areas of Scotland, for example providing training support.

FRS staffing is a dynamic subject which brings with it challenges. Increasing appliance availability requires predicting, as far as possible, when an appliance may be unavailable due to a lack of crew and, if possible, moving crew from one area to another to provide cover. Currently within Stewarty this is done for a period of no more than four hours. The majority of RDS staff in Stewarty use a social media platform to help co-ordinate staff availability, which supplements the Service’s own Gartan system. The ability to move staff requires goodwill amongst the wider RDS personnel to manage their time and activity to allow them to provide cover at a station that is not their normal home station.

The rural full-time postholder will, if necessary, locate at a particular fire station in order to cover for shortages of personnel to maintain daytime availability. At the time of our inspection, a significant number of hours had been added to appliance availability in the area through this activity. When working at the station, the postholder would also help RDS stations with the completion of routine admin tasks, equipment related functions, or assisting with HFSVs.

To help with RDS recruitment, primary employer engagement work has recently been carried out by the rural full-time postholder, it is anticipated that this initiative will help to increase the pool of potential RDS recruits in future. Overall, there has been a positive reaction to the creation of this post among most RDS personnel affected.

A Wholetime fire station’s establishment is based on the Service’s crewing level policy, with resilience built in for absences. In practice this means that there are occasions where there are more than the required personnel on duty and other times where there are not enough. The five watch duty system is designed to predict as far as practicable where those surpluses and deficiencies will occur, and realign resources accordingly. The SFRS’s five watch duty system is based on a 10-week, continually repeating shift cycle.

In the cycle, a typical firefighter would not be able to provide their full quota of contractual hours due to the rolling roster. Therefore, they can be required to work a number of additional shifts to make up their additional roster reserve hours. Each firefighter therefore has to pay back a number of additional hours which can be between 10 and 150 hours depending on the roster per annum (generally termed ‘Orange’ Days) where they may be called in to cover for organisational shortfalls. There are also days during the standard shift pattern (up to four) where, due to there being surplus available, staff may be told not to report for work (generally termed ‘Purple’ Days). Where this is the case, staff are provided with a minimum of 48-hours’ notice.

To ensure the duty system and Wholetime firefighter availability operates effectively, the SFRS has a national central staffing section, based in Johnstone. Central staffing is responsible for arranging the number of Wholetime firefighters on duty at each fire station. This is done by the management of leave, controlled use of overtime, the use of the additional (Orange) days and, in other less isolated areas, the use of detached duty staff. This requires affected ‘detached’ personnel to temporarily work from a station other than their home station to make up the crewing shortfall.

Dumfries is the only Wholetime fire station within the Dumfries and Galloway area and therefore the process of detachment cannot be used. There are usually 11 personnel per watch at Dumfries. The view of the personnel we spoke to was that the central staffing process is not working efficiently and Dumfries should be considered as an isolated resource on its own and be granted the flexibility for managers to manage its own availability. We see merit in this. (A similar view was also expressed to us by Wholetime firefighters in Inverness when we carried out our inspection of the Highland area, where Inverness is an isolated resource).

Recommendation

While the central staffing unit is not within the control of the LSO, the LSO should liaise with the Response and Resilience Directorate and SFRS Central Staffing around the effectiveness of the central staffing process and specifically whether the availability of personnel at Dumfries fire station could be more effectively managed as a stand-alone resource by local managers.

Appraisal

We saw evidence that personal appraisals are carried out for Wholetime operational personnel. The use of appraisals for RDS personnel is relatively new. Although limited in number, there were examples of appraisals being carried out for some RDS personnel. Where there was evidence, the overall quality was poor and is perhaps an indicator of the importance placed on the process, which was described to us as a ‘tick box’ exercise.

Learning and Development

The SFRS has a standard training programme for firefighters for general maintenance of skills and knowledge. It is designed to be a blended approach of lecture or self-directed study, and practical ‘hands-on’ experiential learning. The programme is called Training for Operational Competence (TfOC) and is modular. There are 12 core modules, 12 standard modules, and 24 advanced modules. These modules apply to Wholetime and RDS firefighters.

Due to competing demands on the time available to RDS firefighters and the finite time for their training, TfOC modules are applied to RDS firefighters in the following way:

• all 12 core TfOC modules should be covered annually;
• all 12 standard TfOC modules should be covered over a rolling 3 year period;
• advanced TfOC modules that are relative to risks in their area should be covered on a 3 year rolling programme.

The decision on what advanced modules to cover should be made by the LSO on the basis of a risk profile analysis of the area, which we believe should be balanced against realistically achievable training timescales.

The SFRS submitted a training plan and a RDS schedule for training in Dumfries and Galloway as evidence for our inspection, which was consistent with the requirements above.

Part of this blended approach is delivered using the Learning Content Management System (LCMS) which is an online learning resource for firefighters. The system contains multi-media instructional modules covering the Core Skills Framework and the Maintenance Phase Development Framework. The majority of firefighters we spoke to stated that completing the TfOC programme was difficult, and they were always in a position of trying to catch up with what was programmed. This was exacerbated following staff absence due to leave or sickness. Each subject has a series of e-learning tools, case studies, interactive packages, and assessments to support learning. A number of RDS personnel also said that some of the LCMS modules were excessively long, containing too much detail on some subjects.

This training is recorded using the PDRpro system. PDRpro is an electronic system used by Wholetime and RDS firefighters to record training and learning development, both from formal training and from continuous development obtained during incidents. Performance monitoring of the completion of training records is the responsibility of the relevant management team. During our visits, we sample checked some training records and found that there were a number incomplete in the training of core skills. There may be justified reasons why individual training may have been missed, for example due to long-term sickness. However, if training, or a record of it having taken place, has been missed, this represents a risk to the Service.

During our visits, we discussed with personnel their overall view of the training. The majority, including within the Wholetime, believed that there was too much of a focus on theory, on completing training records, and insufficient ‘hands-on’ practical training. 

Recommendation

The LSO should explore opportunities to increase the practical training available for operational staff. 

There are a number of specialist resources attached to Dumfries fire station and Wholetime firefighters there find it challenging to maintain skills in the time available for training.

A suggestion, made by Wholetime personnel we spoke to, was that more use could be made of the designated Orange Days, described elsewhere in this report. Specifically some of these days could be identified solely for training by bringing a crew in together which would help address some of their concerns. Currently reliance is placed on the crew of the RDS pump at Dumfries to provide cover to allow their Wholetime colleagues to leave the station to train in some skills, such as water rescue. This requires a degree of forward planning between the crews and can be subject to change at short notice due to RDS crew unavailability. Cognisance also has to be given to the ability of other stations to cover the specialist attributes provided by Dumfries in order to release the crew for training. For example, if the closest high reach appliance in Ayr is unavailable, then the high reach in Dumfries is kept available and therefore the crew cannot be released for training.

Effective use of LCMS and PDRPro systems relies on a suitable ICT infrastructure, both in provision of computers and adequate broadband connections. A number of fire stations that we visited had insufficient numbers of computers and poor broadband speeds.

A shortage of trained drivers in some RDS fire stations is putting pressure on the existing drivers and has the potential to affect appliance availability.

Recommendation

The LSO should explore the opportunity to utilise designated Orange Days for training.  

The LSO should examine the reasons why the training records for some staff are incomplete and take any action necessary to rectify the situation. 

LSO Support Staff

The Dumfries and Galloway area is supported by a team of support staff who have a shared remit including the Ayrshire LSO area and support to the West SDA DACO, with work fluctuating due to need and priority. The team is currently under agreed strength. Only one member of the team is permanently based in Dumfries, the remaining team members are based at other SFRS offices. There is a good relationship with Dumfries and Galloway staff but limited opportunity for the whole support team to get together, therefore use is made of video conferencing and the telephone. However, admin support in Dumfries and Galloway has challenges from a number of national issues which include:

• IT software issues, especially lack of compatibility between systems;
• lack of training in new systems introduced; and
• a lack of appreciation of the impact of new policies in remote areas. 

Workforce

RDS firefighters often have a principal employer and in some cases have their employer’s agreement to leave their place of principal employment to respond to a call, thereby supporting safety in the local community. Employers release can be an important factor for daytime RDS cover. A number of RDS personnel we spoke to felt that the support of primary employers went generally unrecognised by the SFRS and that steps should be taken to publically acknowledge the support given.  We share this view.

Recommendation

The LSO should examine ways in which the contribution and support of primary employers within the area can be suitably recognised. 

The management structure in Dumfries and Galloway comprises one LSO, two Group Managers, and six Station Managers. There has been recent changes at LSO and Group Manager level.

The majority of personnel we spoke to were positive of the management in the area and felt able to raise issues if necessary. The LSO in particular has very positive support from staff and partners. There were isolated examples of a counter view where we received some comment describing a poor relationship with management, and that some managers were seen as challenging.  

3.5 Conclusions and recommendations

Our impression in Dumfries and Galloway is predominantly positive about the effort and quality of the SFRS staff there. We did however encounter isolated examples of staff who expressed the view that they were disenchanted with the SFRS and were negative in their view of the Service and in consequence their commitment to it.

There is only one Wholetime station in the LSO area which is the base for its specialist equipment, and with that come the challenges to maintain competence in its use.

The majority of fire cover provision comes from RDS firefighters. Consequently the usual issues around resource availability and work time constraints are evident. However, the creation of a rural full-time post, in support of some RDS fire stations in the area, is beginning to improve the situation.

The single VDS fire station has very low incident activity.

There are strong local partnerships. SFRS staff and managers are seen as being open and engaging and willing to act to support partners. The LSO has a very high reputation with partners and within the Service.

The 2005 Act requires that the SFRS must have regard to this report and, having done so, must take such measures (if any) as it thinks fit in relation to the report. We are therefore confident that where we express a view on particular issues, the LSO will consider what we have said and will take it into account in forward planning. We intend to follow-up progress on these report outcomes with the LSO.

We have identified a number of issues during the inspection. In order to assist the LSO in improving performance, we have included recommendations in the body of the report for the LSO to explore further. These recommendations are listed below for ease of reading. 

List of Recommendations

• The LSO should create a succession plan for replacing fire safety enforcement staff.
• The LSO should pursue the provision of training frames necessary to train with the UHP equipment.
• The LSO should, in discussion with colleagues from Response and Resilience Directorate, devise and implement a more robust system for the recording of testing of equipment until such time as a national system is available.
• The LSO, in discussion with the SFRS Regional Property Manager, should explore the opportunity to improve communication around property maintenance decisions and completion of works instructed.
• The LSO should promote the reporting of near misses and to work with colleagues at a national level to improve the reporting more widely.
• We encourage the LSO to explore opportunities to work more closely with the MCA and Mountain Rescue to improve relationships across providers and ultimately the service to local communities.
• The LSO should continue to support the local effort to reduce UFAS calls to achieve further improvement in performance.
• While the central staffing unit is not within the control of the LSO, the LSO should liaise with the Response and Resilience Directorate and SFRS Central Staffing around the effectiveness of the central staffing process, and specifically whether the availability of personnel at Dumfries fire station could be more effectively managed as a stand-alone resource by local managers.
• The LSO should explore opportunities to increase the practical training available to operational staff.
• The LSO should explore the opportunity to utilise designated orange days for training.
• The LSO should examine the reasons why the training records for some staff are incomplete and take any action necessary to rectify the situation.
• The LSO should examine ways in which the contribution and support of primary employers within the area can be suitably recognised.