The people and the place
Merseyside has large areas that experience high levels of deprivation, social exclusion and crime - characteristics that present a real challenge to fire authorities. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority, along with all other authorities, had traditionally focused on fire intervention with its emphasis on fast emergency response times. Despite getting to 90 per cent of fatal fires in under six minutes, there remained a plateau of 20 to 30 fire-related deaths annually in Merseyside, all of which the Authority felt were avoidable.
In 1999, the Authority decided on a new strategic approach to meet the challenge of fire deaths. Chief Fire Officer Tony McGuirk explains: 'By staying with conventional approaches it is entirely predictable that there would be the conventional results of unnecessary fire deaths and injuries. We decided to be innovative and to encourage and foster creativity within the workforce.' This involved concentrating on the pre-ignition phase - tackling the fire before it even started. Practically, it meant firefighters visiting people in their homes or businesses to perform a fire risk assessment. This shift in focus coincided with Merseyside Fire Service's 25 year anniversary, and so it set a target of fitting 250,000 smoke alarms.
John Moorcroft, the Director of Community Safety, began to analyse the Authority's data on fatal fires and collate the experiences of firefighters on the ground in order to identify groups within the community who were most at risk from fire - a 'victim profile'. Aware that targeted work with these groups was likely to reap the most benefit, and that relationships with these groups were not always strong, the Authority recruited a team of community safety advocates to act as a bridge with those most in need.
The innovation and the impact
The move to targeted fire risk assessments meant that the Authority had to change the way it worked. Mike Hagen, Merseyside's Deputy Chief Fire Officer, describes a fire station at this time as: 'Like a castle with a moat around it. Inside were some very brave, mainly white male firefighters and when there was an emergency call, down would come the drawbridge, out would come the Fire Brigade in a shiny red fire engine, deal magnificently and heroically with what they found… sometimes a victim who had died before the call was even made and then we'd drive back to our fire station, pull out the drawbridge and sit there for the next call, wringing our hands saying something should be done about this needless loss of life.'
The fundamental change was to turn the fire station into an outward-looking community facility and establish an identifiable presence in all parts of the community. This began in early 2002 with the recruitment of specialist bilingual advocates to work with people for whom English is not their first language, including those in the Chinese, Yemeni and Somali communities. They were followed by deaf advocates, older persons' advocates, advocates to work with people with drug and alcohol dependencies, disability advocates, mental health advocates, asylum and refugee advocates, and advocates to train carers.
The advocates were recruited from within their communities, creating a visibility that the fire service had never achieved previously. For example Segal, their Somali advocate, is now well-known in the Somali community as the person who works for the Fire Service, so much so that she gets calls at all hours about issues people think she can address.
Since the start of the campaign in 1999, fire deaths in Merseyside have been reduced by over 50 per cent and there has been a similar significant reduction in injuries and fires. The Authority puts this down to fitting smoke alarms, having visited over half the homes in Merseyside and fitted some 400,000 smoke alarms.
In 2005 Merseyside was rated as an excellent authority in its Comprehensive Performance Assessment (one of only two nationally) and was praised for its leadership and management of change.
The confidence gained from innovating has fed into other areas of the Authority's work, notably its approach to arson. Mike Hagen believes that innovation is 'addictive, and once the culture and make-up of the organisation encourages and allows it, then it takes you where you never thought you would go.'
How did the innovation happen?
The innovation was led from the top of the organisation from the outset and leadership has been key to its success. The Authority backed the programme of fire safety checks with considerable funds - some £600,000 each year. This mainly funds smoke alarms, but also smoke alarms adapted for deaf people, fire resistant bedding packs, and some sprinklers. The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) now gives the Fire Service about £170,000 a year towards these costs.
By analysing annual fatal fire and fire incident databases, the fire service was able to pinpoint groups at risk, mapping these both geographically and by social profile - identifying variables including age, ethnicity and lifestyle. This identified the areas where it should concentrate its efforts.
In addition, firefighters in Merseyside were told: 'use your local knowledge, go out to your busy patch and tell us what the risks are'. The Fire Authority built a database on the lessons they learned, helping to identify barriers to delivering the community fire safety policy. In particular, this highlighted the need to improve relations with ethnic minority groups, the deaf and the elderly. As John Moorcroft notes: 'we had to reach older people because older people were the ones that were most at risk and they were understandably reluctant to allow us into their homes'.
Merseyside has extended its community-based approach to other problem areas such as arson. Fire-setting and fireworks are big issues for the Authority - over half the fires they attend are deliberately set. It is working with young people to address fire-related anti-social behaviour including deliberate fires, attacks on firefighters, and hoax calls. Taking a cue from police officers embedded in schools, it now has firefighters working one day a week in seven targeted schools across Merseyside, and this will soon extend to 20 schools in total.
What helped to get it started?
Senior management at Merseyside provided the leadership that was essential to making the repositioning of the organisation in the community successful. Rather than accepting that a residual number of fire deaths were unavoidable, managers were adamant that there was something they could do. The strategic focus of the Authority has now changed - it has now moved to a position where putting out fires interrupts prevention work.
The intelligent use of evidence and data helped to signpost the way forward for the Authority. Quantitative analysis of fatal fire data was compared to qualitative assessments of areas at risk by firefighters on the ground, and there was a clear match. Merseyside has commissioned more formal research, commissioning work on the impact of home fire safety checks and (with Liverpool University's investigative psychology unit) on what makes young people aggressive towards firefighters. The results - that they are 'anonymous figures in a uniform' - informed the decision to embed firefighters in schools.
What helped to keep it going?
The willingness of the leadership of the Fire Authority to support an innovative approach was crucial to its successful implementation. The Chief Fire Officer actively encouraged new and innovative schemes, and the Authority took a risk in 1999 by backing the project, and making a strong commitment to funding the programme of installing smoke alarms.
The Authority has maintained an external focus, looking to the public and private sectors for ideas. For example, the NHS Direct concept provided the basis for a further initiative: 'Fire Service Direct', a call centre which provides another channel for interacting with the public, and for scheduling home fire safety visits. An awareness of the availability of funding and partnership opportunities has allowed it to develop some of its youth engagement work, including a partnership with the Prince's Trust that attracts funding from the Learning and Skills Council as well as funding for Neighbourhood Renewal.
What helped to share the learning?
Merseyside has worked hard to promote its work and has produced videos to explain and celebrate the work it is doing with communities, often using the personal testimonies of those who have benefited. These are used externally to present to peers and at conferences, but Mike Hagen also sees the message they send to staff as invaluable: 'I think when you are innovating and changing, then you've got to be ahead on the communication, it's got to be reassuring'.
Merseyside is the only Fire Service to have been awarded Beacon status twice, and has hosted several events through this scheme. The Authority is currently a Beacon under the Every Child Matters theme, which has led to wider discussions with communities and local government (CLG) about its approach.
Challenges along the way
Change invariably creates tension, particularly when it is taking place against a backdrop of reduced funding and job efficiencies, as well as industrial action in Merseyside in 2001 and 2006 and nationally in 2002/03. Maintaining the momentum of cultural change in these circumstances has required determination from the Authority.
Another ongoing challenge for the Authority has been the need to provide robust evidence that any changes to the way it works will be safe. Mike Hagen would expect the Authority to have five years' worth of data and computer modelling before taking some decisions: 'when it comes to changing the number of fire engines you've got or how you crew them, you do have to underpin that with very, very robust evidence before you do it.'
What next?
Tony McGuirk feels that the Authority has now proved that there is credible capacity in the organisation to deliver a successful Community Fire Safety programme: 'I think we've proven that prevention is better than cure and our big plan is to keep going with community fire safety.'
The employment of community advocates has had an added value. They have identified individuals in the community who are not only at risk of fire but also have healthcare, housing or social care needs. As a result John Moorcroft's team have increasingly found themselves leading a multi-agency response to improve people's quality of life. Tony McGuirk believes that Merseyside's work 'shows the importance of trying to reach the true, fundamental cause of fire death and injury. This hinges around social aspects such as health and well-being. And I see the 21st Century fire service working far more in these areas to strike at the root cause of fire deaths.'