Introduction

The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 places a statutory duty on West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS) to promote fire safety, placing fire prevention activity at the heart of what we do.

We are working towards our ambition of ‘Making West Yorkshire Safer’ by:

  • Supporting individuals to be safer in their homes
  • Working with our partners to identify and improve the safety, health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable people within our communities
  • Delivering a range of community safety activities including targeted home visits, school education sessions, social media campaigns, awareness sessions within local communities, and specialised individual support and group activities for children and young people.
  • Leading collaboration with partners to reduce the likelihood and impact of risks such as wildfire and antisocial behaviour (ASB) and to provide education on road and water safety.

The Safer Communities Prevention Strategy 2017 - 2022 redefined how WYFRS provides support to people in their homes and communities. This strategy has led to a significant reduction in fires, fire related injuries, rescues and road traffic collisions. We learn from every emergency we attend and have applied this learning when developing this strategy.

What will this strategy achieve?

Delivering this strategy will contribute to our ambition of ‘Making West Yorkshire Safer’. Engaging with the most vulnerable people in our communities will allow us to provide education on the risks at home, in the community and in the wider environment and how their behaviour has an effect on risk. We will explain the dangers and consequences of antisocial behaviour such as fire setting and violence, and we will be able to respond quickly to changing needs of the community.

Delivery of this strategy will lead to people being safer in their homes, when travelling on our road networks and when spending time in our open environment.

We aim to achieve a reduction in smaller ‘nuisance fires’, unsafe driving and antisocial behaviour. This will make communities feel safer and firefighters will be able to operate effectively without the threat of violence.

How will we achieve our ambition/goals?

To achieve success and achieve our ambition we will:

  • Use an intelligence-led approach to improve our understanding of risk and vulnerability. This data and intelligence will be gathered from partner organisations, internal evaluations, historical data and national statistics.
  • Target our resources to those who are at the greatest risk of injury or death from fire, road accidents and other types of emergencies.
  • Be consistent in our service across West Yorkshire but remain flexible to meet the local needs of our diverse communities.
  • Be professional, ensuring our staff are informed, competent, confident and skilled to deliver a high-quality service.
  • Listen to the needs of our community to understand the changing risks so we can respond quickly and effectively.
  • Learn from our experience. We will actively seek feedback from our partners and the people of West Yorkshire and use it to improve our services. We will evaluate what we do so that we can assess our impact on the community.
  • Be innovative, encouraging our staff and local communities to suggest new ideas and create local solutions.
  • Improve our accessibility through the effective use of technology and community engagement to improve our communication with individuals and communities.

What we will deliver

  • We will play a key role in the delivery of consistent road and water safety messages across West Yorkshire. We will work together with our partner organisations to improve the safety of all road users and those enjoying our countryside and waterways.
  • We will continue to promote and support innovative practice to deliver road and water safety education and other campaigns to tackle wider risks affecting our communities.
  • We will deliver ‘Safe & Well’ visits to individuals who are most at risk from fire in the home and provide advice to those less likely to experience a fire in the home.
  • Through our specialist Youth Intervention Team, we will support young people and use targeted interventions for individuals demonstrating challenging behaviour.
  • We will educate young people and build long lasting relationships through our school visit programme which will cover a wide range of topics such as fire, water and road safety.
  • We will continue to deliver seasonal campaigns which are aligned to national agendas and local learning.

Partnership working - Who will we work with

Our ambition to create safer communities across West Yorkshire cannot be achieved in isolation. Effective relationships with partner organisations will be fundamental to the delivery of this strategy.

We will continue to nurture the partnerships we have established with local authorities and other statutory services and develop new relationships with organisations and community groups which can help us reach vulnerable people.

Working collaboratively with our partners, we will:

  • Continue to deliver our person-centred service based on an assessment of an individual’s risk of injury or death in the home by fire.
  • Provide education and assurance which will help our referral processes and allow our interventions to delivered at the earliest opportunity, in the most effective way.
  • Undertake joint training programmes so our staff and partners are able to identify higher risk individuals and communities and put measures in place to improve their safety.
  • Deliver community-based initiatives which will improve the safety of the people of West Yorkshire on our roads and on or near, our waterways.
  • Where necessary, report safeguarding concerns and support local safeguarding boards.

How will we measure success?

We will monitor our service performance through a set of key performance indicators that are reported to Members of the Fire Authority.
These indicators, such as the number of dwelling fires, the prevalence of arson, the number of fire-related injuries and rescues will be monitored in each of the local authority areas across West Yorkshire to inform local performance management.

In addition to these indicators, annual District Plans will outline the key priorities and objectives which we aim to deliver in each district and how we will achieve them.

Using a set of measurable outputs / outcomes we will evaluate the impact of the interventions we deliver and share learning across the service and with partners.

We will use quantitative and qualitative data and feedback from our partners, customers and staff to support the evaluation of our community safety activity and to ensure that we deliver best value.
Learning from our quality assurance processes will be fed back to drive improvement.