Fire Service teaming up with NHS in visits to the vulnerable

by Featured NewsSafety

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service teamed up with local hospitals in Staffordshire to make sure vulnerable members of the community are protected over the festive period.

From Friday (16 December), the safe and well teams undertook additional training to help them signpost residents on visits that may have underlying health conditions and get them the help they need.

Those between the ages of 55 and 74 who have smoked or still smoke will be signposted to the Targeted Lung Health Check (TLHC) service. It will help the NHS to identify problems such as lung cancer as early as possible and make sure the patient receives the appropriate support and advice through their programme – giving them a better chance of finding these issues early and treating them effectively.

The scheme also aims to reduce the number of accidental house fires in Staffordshire caused by smoking. Vulnerable people who are screened through the training will be given tailored support and guidance to help them quit.

Carmel Warren, Partnership and Intervention Manager at Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “We are continuing our work with colleagues in the NHS by introducing these additional training procedures to ensure the residents in our community are looked after as effectively as possible.

“Last July, we introduced additional training to help our emergency service colleagues spot risk factors around the homes of vulnerable people during visits – including nurses, councillors, police officers and more by moving our Olive Branch training to online delivery.”

“This new partnership will allow us to work more effectively with local hospitals to ensure people are aware of the risks of smoking – both from a health and fire safety perspective.

“We will brief all the teams on this partnership by producing a video explaining the project, we will also provide a guide on how to raise the referral and all teams will be given information leaflets to hand out to residents when they perform a Safe and Well Visit.”

A spokesperson from the TLHC programme said: “We are delighted to team up with our colleagues in the Fire Service to ensure our most vulnerable residents have access to our potentially lifesaving screening service which aims to diagnose lung cancer at an early stage when treatment can be simpler and more successful.”

UK fire service receives revised pay offer after backlash

by Breaking News

UPDATED: The Fire Brigades Union has met with fire services employers at the National Joint Council and Middle Managers Negotiating Body following an outcry over the 2% pay increase that was proposed in recent months.

The new offer is a 5% increase on all Grey Book rates of pay, including CPD, from 1 July 2022. 

The move follows the Executive Council of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has voting unanimously rejecting the initial 2% pay increase offer, which it pointed out was a real-terms pay cut in the midst of the cost of living crisis.

FBU response

The following statement has been made by FBU general secretary Matt Wrack: “The Executive Council has today [05.10.22] debated the revised 5% pay proposal from the fire service employers. By unanimous decision, the Executive Council agreed the following.

“The Executive Council recommends that the offer is rejected but this is a decision for our members to make.

“The Executive Council has agreed to commence a membership consultation on the revised proposals. This will consist of a period of consultation briefings and meetings followed by a consultative ballot.

“The Executive Council took note of the following:

  • When we were offered 2%, we were told it was a final offer and employers had no more to offer.
  • We are now told 5% is a final offer and the employers have no more to offer.
  • The only reason for the revised proposal from our employers is the campaign of the FBU, the anger demonstrated by our members and their obvious determination to fight for better pay.
  • When inflation is taken into account, the 5% offer still represents a further cut in real wages.
  • This follows years of austerity, pay stagnation and a decline in real wages.
  • Central government has failed to provide any funding to fire service employers to support additional pay.
  • Central government has deliberately underfunded our service, meaning cuts in services and jobs and squeezing pay for professional firefighters.

“At a time of such high inflation the Executive Council recommends rejection of the 5% offer. The obligation to make an acceptable and reasonable offer lies with the fire service employers. FBU members will decide what is and what is not acceptable. In this process, the only figure which matters is the figure made as an offer by the employers – which our members find acceptable. That is for FBU members to decide.

“We shall be arranging briefings for officials and various meetings and briefings for members over the next few days. Please ensure you attend and participate.”

NFCC response

The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) also responded to the increased pay offer: “We note and welcome yesterday’s increased pay offer for firefighters who should be  properly recognised and valued. This is clearly demonstrated every day in the communities they serve.    

“We know this will be a challenging time for fire and rescue services and staff. We support the fire service employers ask of government for financial assistance to ensure more sustainable future funding of fire and rescue services. This also needs to take into account other inflationary pressures, alongside pay, that are impacting on the services provided to local communities.”

Government’s fire and rescue whitepaper an ‘attack on pay and conditions’

by Featured News

The Fire Brigades Union has formally responded to the government’s fire and rescue white paper, describing it as a coordinated attack on pay and conditions.

In its consultation response submission the union criticised a range of elements to what it termed “a coordinated attack on firefighters’ pay and conditions and the fire and rescue service, in the middle of a cost of living crisis”.

It said these elements include an attack on firefighters’ right to have a say on their pay and conditions, including many conditions relating to safety and proposals that could result in industrial action – a last resort to protect the fire service and firefighters’ pay and conditions – being weakened or undermined.   

The FBU claimed that the white paper’s attacks on the fire and rescue service more broadly comes in the form of a lack of any direct plans or resources to improve the service the public receives, together with plans to boost chief fire officer powers, including over areas that have a direct effect on the service the public receives such as reducing the number of firefighters, how quickly fires are responded to, reducing night cover and shift systems.

Next week firefighters are set to visit parliament in an attempt to persuade MPs to stop the government removing their voice, and to protect their pay and conditions, with many more set to follow during the course of this campaign.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said: “It is absolutely scandalous that the government has launched this coordinated attack on the pay and conditions of hard-working firefighters, and on the fire and rescue service itself. Apparently it is not enough that firefighters, like everyone else, are going through a cost of living crisis ultimately of the government’s making. Instead, the government thinks that now is the right moment to try and strip them of hard-won rights that protect their pay and conditions. We have firefighters struggling to pay bills and pay the mortgage. These changes would only make things worse for them.”

“Firefighters go to work to save lives. They risk their health, safety and sometimes their own lives in doing so. The very least they deserve is to be free from coordinated attacks on their livelihoods and safety, and to be paid properly and treated fairly.

“When it comes to the fire and rescue service itself we are clear. Chief fire officers cannot be trusted to get it right on their own, especially on vital matters such as how quickly we respond to fires and the number of firefighters in each service. Debacles such as chief fire officers standing by whilst deep cuts were made to their services, and wasting millions of pounds of public money on equipment that didn’t work or wasn’t suitable, show that to be the case. More power for them over matters like the number of firefighters, attendance times or night cover will make the public’s fire and rescue service worse – the evidence on that is absolutely clear.”

LFB ‘in serious need of funding’ to tackle building safety crisis

by Featured NewsSafety

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) commissioner Andy Roe has said the fire service is in serious need of funding if it is to effectively tackle the building safety crisis.

At a City Hall Plenary meeting in February, LFB Commissioner Roe said that to inspect just 10% or 20% of London’s approximately 95,000 mid-rise buildings for fire safety defects, the LFB would need to recruit a “significant labour force” of “a couple of hundred” additional specialist fire safety inspecting officers. He also said that there is an £8 million budget gap expected for the LFB in 2022/23.

During Mayor’s Question Time on 19 May, Labour’s London Assembly Fire and Resilience Spokesperson, Anne Clarke AM, entreated the government to support people living in residential blocks of all heights and called for proper funding for the LFB to tackle the building safety scandal, seeking compensation for leaseholders who have already paid out of their own pocket to fix potentially deadly fire risks.

Secretary of State for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Michael Gove, stated developers will pay for mid-rise buildings between 11 and 18 metres with dangerous cladding, and funding has been provided for 8,500 high rise buildings above 18 meters in London.

Blocks below 11 metres that have been deemed in need of remediation work will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, but the government has stopped short of providing blanket protection under the Building Safety Act as revealed by Housing Minister Stuart Andrew in the Commons last month. In response to a question from Ms Clarke, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, stated: “I think the height requirement should go, either your building is safe, or it isn’t”.

Ms Clarke said: “Nearly five years on from the Grenfell tragedy it’s completely unacceptable that so many Londoners are living in unsafe homes. Ministers must extend remediation support to all residential buildings with safety defects or combustible cladding. Regardless of height, if leaseholders have already paid, they are owed compensation.

“Londoners are being let down. They’re dealing with this on top of an unprecedented cost of living crisis. It’s disgusting so many have been left to sit with this hanging over their heads. This is a building safety scandal, not just a cladding scandal. The Fire Brigade needs more funding from the government so it can recruit hundreds of specialist fire safety officers to make London safe.”