Foreword
Having safe, healthy, and resilient communities is at the heart of everything we do. Our continued focus is to keep the people of Lincolnshire safe, and is the golden thread running through every:
- emergency call we take
- incident we attend
- home or business we visit
The Fire and Rescue National Framework for England outlines the requirement for us to publish an Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP).
Our IRMP addresses all requirements within the National Framework by reflecting up-to-date risk information. It covers at least a three-year period, and has been developed in consultation with our:
- community
- staff
- partners
Our community plan summarises:
- the fire-related risks to our communities
- our plans to reduce these risks
It is underpinned by our community risk profile ‘Understanding Risk in Lincolnshire’, which together is our ‘contract’ with our communities. We are committed to delivering against it.
Global events such as the Covid pandemic and severe weather events have demonstrated the need to be future focused on the risks and demands on all public services. We are proud of how we stood up and responded to our local communities and supported the national response. We recognise the value fire and rescue gives to the wider response to public health.
There are changes in legislation, national standards and expectations relating to how we protect our communities to work and live in a safe environment.
We are focused on:
- delivering robust and clear risk-based programmes
- strengthening our links within our business community
We will monitor this closely to ensure we are able to provide an appropriate regulatory response. Our prevention activities are person-centred and enable us to give the greatest support and advice to the people with the greatest needs.
At a local level, the number of fires we have attended is slowly increasing. Road traffic collisions (RTCs) remain a risk. We have responded to significant severe weather events, most recently the heat wave in 2022.
The health and wellbeing of our communities remains a high risk. Our co-responder scheme is an example of how we are helping to reduce this risk. Although not traditionally a fire-related risk, our responders are well placed, well trained and well-resourced to provide this support.
These events underline the importance of good risk management planning. The ability to understand risks and resource to them is key to delivering a modern fire and rescue service. As a part of the Lincolnshire resilience forum, we work closely with our multi-agency partners in both:
- planning for these risks
- responding to these risks
The strength of our partnership with Lincolnshire County Council will ensure we are well placed to support further improvements in public protection. We will collaborate with colleagues from across the council to further improve public safety.
Reductions in funding over the last decade have driven us to:
- be more innovative in the way we deliver our services
- rise to the challenge of continuing to offer a first-class fire and rescue service to people living, working and visiting Lincolnshire
We have sought opportunities to collaborate with our partners, and looked at ways we can enhance and widen the traditional firefighter role.
We are all extremely proud to be part of a fire and rescue service which strives to put the public at the heart of what we do. We continue to recruit and develop our people who represent the diverse communities that exist within Lincolnshire and continue with positive action to reflect this.
We are also supported through our National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) by developing nationally agreed standards that we will be integrating across the service, to ensure we support our people in delivering against our IRMP.
Our commitment will ensure we remain focused on delivering a service to the communities of Lincolnshire that is:
- professional
- risk-led
- innovative
We will build upon our current position of strength to ensure we can deliver on our focus ‘to keep the people of Lincolnshire safe and well’.
Foreword by Mark Baxter, Chief Fire Officer and Lindsay Cawrey, Executive Councillor.