Fire does discriminate

Welcome to the first edition of our newsletter sharing with partners the work NYFRS are doing to keep our communities safe from the devastating effects of fire.

National statistics show that not everybody is at equal risk of a fire starting or of surviving a fire; fire does discriminate. Factors which increase the likelihood of a fire include living in rented properties, being under the age of 60 and a household size of five or more members.  However factors which put people more at risk of dying in a fire are being over the age of 65, people with mobility issues, those that live alone and people who live in more deprived areas (taken from our Community Risk Profile 2022).

We recognise that the Fire Service alone cannot keep communities safe. We need partners to refer vulnerable people to us so that we can provide fire prevention advice in the form of our free Safe and Well visits. Through events such as our online partnership seminar, formalising information sharing agreements, quarterly newsletters and building an area of our website where we can share partnership resources we hope to increase the number of Safe and Well referrals leading to improved outcomes for the community.

 www.northyorksfire.gov.uk/your-safety/safe-athome/home-fire-safety-partnerships/

Referrals recieved

Since it went live in North Yorkshire during July 2022 we have received 84 referrals through Safelincs. 79% of these have been self referrals / referrals from a family member while we have largely continued to see agencies using the pre existing referral pathways such as the form on our website, freepost cards and a point of contact within their local fire station.  By raising awareness of Safelincs in the partnership seminar and the many benefits it brings we are hoping to see a significant increase in it’s use over the next quarter.  Agency use of Safelincs will help us identify trends and gaps in referrals, which we can overcome with additional awareness raising.

Most referrals that have been received through Safelincs reflect concerns around the use of  medication, smoking, drug use, a person having limited mobility or having a hearing impairment.

The partnership seminar

On the 28th September we held our first online partnership seminar where we welcomed over 30 organisations to find out more about our prevention work and learn
about the Safe and Well referral process.

We follow national guidance to make Safe and Well visits person centred, looking at risk factors relating to the home (e.g. whether it has smoke alarms fitted) the person (e.g. do they have any disabilities) and their behaviours (e.g what risks do they take and how do they manage hazards).

During visits we point out key areas where a fire is most likely to start and provide control
measures and suggestions on how to lower their overall risk of fire.
Each member of the Prevention Team (which comprises of a Watch Manager, Safeguarding Officer, Community Safety Officers and Public Safety Officers) presented about a different element of home fire safety – from smoking to heating your home safely, from cooking practices to the risk of deliberate fires, from clutter to the safe use of emollient creams to name but a few.

Something which is often commented on by people who receive a Safe and Well visit is the broad spectrum of things we do advise about. Hopefully those of you who were able to attend enjoyed meeting the team, and now have an increased awareness of who (with their consent) you should be referring to the Fire Service. There are many factors to consider, not just whether a person has smoke alarms fitted or not! Our new
online referral tool Safelincs will make the referral process a smoother, quicker process for
all – more details can be found below.

For anybody who was unable to attend the seminar a recording will be made available upon request and in the future we hope to hold updates/refresher sessions. In the meantime if you feel that your organisation would benefit from a version of the presentation please feel free to contact us.

Future editions of our newsletter will have spotlight features about the onward referrals we
make to other agencies about health and wellbeing matters, as well as our Safeguarding
and Fire Investigation work which were both touched upon in the seminar.

Armed Forces Covenant

Interested in getting a better understanding of the military, partnering with Defence and accessing a pool of fantastic talent as your potential future employees in the form of service leavers, veterans, reservists and their families? Then the first step would be to sign the Armed Forces Covenant (AFC) to pledge and show your support.

The AFC is a promise from the nation that those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces, and their families, are treated fairly and with respect. Nationally almost 9,000 and across Yorkshire and the Humber more than 600 employers have signed the Covenant to demonstrate they are forces-friendly. The pledges can be tailored to your business and there are no costs involved – just lots of business benefits.

Earlier this year, at a signing ceremony in Northallerton, the new NY Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, the Chief Constable, NY Police and the Chief Fire Officer, NY Fire & Rescue Service, co-signed the AFC with Squadron Leader Merv Ashe, RAF Leeming.

Having pledged their support, NYF&R is now engaging with the military-focused recruitment support services, actively participating in events, preparing fire prevention courses for armed forces children and exploring many other engagement opportunities.

For more information and guidance on signing the AFC, please contact Pauline King, Regional Employer Engagement Director:

E. yh-reed2@rfca.mod.uk  M. 07947 330791.

Safelincs

NYFRS are now using the national online referral tool Safelincs (HFSC (safelincs.co.uk)). By asking a series of questions Safelincs calculates an overall score of the fire risk from very high through to low fire risk. Using this information we are able to match our resources to those who are in greatest need of a Safe and Well visit, and to
simply provide a written self assessment to individuals who are at low risk of a fire. The
online tool is able to be used by an individual or an agency, should take less than 10 minutes to complete, show images to accurately describe the level of clutter, provides a case reference number to agencies with an information sharing agreement wishing to make follow up enquiries, will automatically send cross border referrals across to the relevant Fire Service area and can be translated into different languages at the click
of a button. These improvements in the referral process are helping us to provide the best
possible service to those most vulnerable in our communities.

Prevention Campaign calendar

To ensure the safety messages we are providing are relevant and have the most impact we follow a fire prevention campaign calendar which reflects different seasonal activities, holidays and festivities as well as national campaigns.

Over the next quarter we will be focussing on Dark Nights (promoting messages about the safe use of candles around Halloween and bonfire night safety), chimney fire safety (key messages include getting your chimney swept regularly, having a carbon monoxide alarm fitted and burning appropriate fuels) and Christmas fire safety (key messages include not overloading plug sockets, taking care with cooking, making sure electrical gifts are safety tested, and any guests who are not normally in your home know what to do in the event of the smoke alarms going off and there being a fire).

We will be sharing information about all of these campaigns on our social media accounts, please share them to your own pages.

Coming next time

The second edition of our newsletter “Partnering in Fire Prevention” will be published in the new year. It will include a case study of a partner referral made to NYFRS, information about product recalls and guidance about how to register kitchen appliances to be notified of product recalls. Please make suggestions about what you would like to see included or if you would like to be added to the distribution.
Contact us: Prevention@northyorksfire.gov.uk or call 01609 780150