Agenda item

3.1         The Chair welcomed the guests from the London Ambulance Service (LAS), the London Fire Brigade (LFB)and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

3.2         Graham Norton and Philip Powell addressed the Committee. The key points to note were:

·           20,000 more incidents in 2015.

·           An increase from 59.2% to 63.3% of calls being category A calls in 2015/16.

·           Implications for performance this year: it is challenging to maintain performance with unprecedented demand.

·           There are three areas of growth: 111 calls forwarded to 999 where need be, healthcare professionals calling and the Met calling in. These 3 areas represented 27% of call volume in 16/17.

·           Efforts to “Hear and treat” (and manage those calls where appropriate on the phone only) have been made, LAS has the highest numbers in the country of “frequent callers”,

·           LAS are working with NHS England to improve handover with Accident & Emergency and are also working with the MPS to understand activity.

·           LAS has more people and vehicles out this year than last year, are being proactive to help manage demand via social media, and have adjusted staffing plans leading up to winter pressure, working with the wider health system to minimise delays in hospitals.

·           There is now a dedicated team helping to manage the pressures and redirect ambulances to hospitals as effectively as possible. 

·           There was a systems failure with logging calls on 1st Jan 2017 from 12.30 am to 5.15 am. Some callers waited longer than they should have and LAS apologise. An external investigation, carried out by NHS England, has been launched to look at the impact on patients. LAS will share the findings with OSC when the investigation has concluded.

·           LAS was previously placed in special measures by the CQC, there are a range of projects in place to address this. There is a process in place now to ensure the right kit is always in ambulances. 140 new ambulances are being built and will start being delivered in March. LAS are also looking at the needs of increasing numbers of bariatric patients to identify if LAS need more specialist equipment, and more vehicles that can transport this group of patients. Governance was also highlighted by the CQC. A new duty of candour has been put in place to support openness. Graduate recruitment been redesigned to give a clear outline of what recruits can expect. There have been improvements in medicines management with enhanced staff training and the encouraging of incident reporting.

·           Recruitment was previously a weakness but 700 front line staff were recruited last year. SE London sector is now fully staffed, last time performance was reported to this committee this was not the case.

·           There are improved personal development plans for staff development: over 60% have had an appraisal so far this year.

3.3         In response to their questions, Members were advised of the following:

·           Previously, lots of paramedics were leaving to go to Australia and New Zealand, but currently the posts are fully recruited to in Lewisham. However, because of demand and handover issues at hospitals, performance was still to be improved.

·           Currently the service receives far more calls than ever before, particularly over the last couple of months.

·           Handover at hospitals is taking much longer than it should do. Hospitals have a target of 15 minutes from arrival to handover, in south east London that target is a struggle to meet. This does impact directly on LAS performance and hospitals are aware of that. Lewisham Hospital does all it can to offload patients as soon as possible as it is very aware of the risks. The hospital and the LAS are very keen to sort the problems out but this is all against a backdrop of huge demand.

·           LAS have been involved in the production of the Sustainability and Transformation Plans in London but officers present cannot advise on any further details as they are not directly involved.

·           Although there is a real push to increase recruitment, LAS have found that whilst being an ambulance paramedic previously used to be entered into as a job for life, more graduates were now seeing it as a 4-5 year career. Further recruitment would be carried out in Australia this year.

·           The duty of candour policy has had an impact around cases of serious harm: being open and honest with patients and relatives and ensuring that staff understand, and feel able, to come forward and report incidents without fear.

·           In response to queries about the diversity of the LAS workforce and efforts to recruit more widely from other countries with more ethnically diverse populations, officers advised that they would send further details about the staff profile and efforts to recruit more widely.

3.4         Keeley Smith, Borough Commander LFB, gave an update to the Committee. The following points were noted:

·           A pump was removed from Forest Hill in August 2013 along with other pumping appliances across London to provide emergency fire cover during periods of strike action. Due to budget cuts, these pumping appliance were permanently removed at the end of June 2016. Under the London Safety Plan 5, a number stations closed, including Downham Fire Station and some other stations had a pumping applianceremoved on 9 January 2014.

·           Mayor Khan has reviewed LFB services to see how the cuts brought in by the previous Mayor/Plan have affected the service. The review of performance found that, against key targets, response times remain adequate across London. However some response times have worsened slightly as a result of the cuts and the review recommends that the LFB budget not be cut any further. Nonetheless, there is a 23.5 million budget gap inherited from Mayor Johnson.

·           Mayor Khan has pledged to keep the budget the same for 4 years, but the LFB will make some cuts because of inflation.

·           The new draft London Safety Plan does not recommend further front line appliance cuts, but does outline other possible savings including blue light collaboration and rethinking the way LFB respond to incidents - keeping the target response times of 6 & 8 minutes for pumps but looking at attendance times for the fire rescue units that attend big accidents ( and also aerial attendance times).

·           In Lewisham there is an aerial appliance at Forest Hill and the fire rescue unit at Lewisham will be included in the review for specialist appliance attendance times. The specialist appliances won’t be cut, but LFB are considering if they are at the right stations for quickest response. The draft plan outlines that by assessing whether appliances are in the right places, it has been found that there would be a better attendance rate if a pump was put back in Forest Hill station but this would only improve the second appliance attendance time by a couple of seconds so a pump will not be placed back at Forest Hill.

·           There have been no significant changes to attendance times in recent months: LFB aspire for 6 minutes for first appliance and 8 minutes for second and that is currently mirrored in Lewisham although not mirrored through all wards.

·           LFB have a new interim commissioner, Dani Cotton, following the retirement of Ron Dobson.

3.5       In response to questions, Keeley Smith advised:

·           The new plan sets out plans to explore ways to enable fire stations to be better utilised by and for the local community. Nine PFI stations have been built and, as part of the specification criteria, they included community facilities and this has been found to have worked quite well. LFB are looking at making stations more open, but this does depend on the age and layout of all stations meaning that some will be more open than others. There is a small community room at Lewisham on ground level but Deptford, Forest Hill and New Cross will be more awkward. Each station do community events and open their doors to engage with local people.

·           After the decisions in the previous London Safety Plan, Downham Fire Station was sold to a developer for the provision of social housing. Central departments oversee estate matters.

·           The removed appliance from Forest Hill was in Croydon. LFB do not own their fleet, they are leased from Babcocks. As a result those removed appliances were put in a central location for emergency fire cover, not needed, and because there is now no threat of industrial action they were returned to Babcocks.

·           The number of people injured by fire continues to come down and that is excellent, as prevention is always better than reaction. Previously the focus was on areas, now LFB is looking at where people are vulnerable, rather than postcode. There is an assessment of risk tool that the public can go on to the website to use and see how LFB view their area.

·           Although Lewisham has a borough commander, the service is London wide and stations don’t mirror or serve solely the boroughs they are located in.

·           The LFB borough commander attends the Lewisham Safer Partnership Board along with the MET borough commander and station commanders work in partnership with local stakeholders too.

·           The LFB Fire safety department and the fire engineering department look at solutions to make sure all buildings going up comply with fire safety requirements: LFB recommend putting sprinklers in schools and residential homes and commercial buildings. The LFB is pleased to see Lewisham Homes retro fitting some properties with sprinklers.

3.6         Kate Halpin, MET borough commander, provided an update to the Committee. The key points to note were:

·                New Mayor Khan is in the process of finalising a new police and crime plan and priorities. The Met previously had MOPAC 7 under Johnson, to reduce crime by 20%. A 20% reduction in crime was achieved in Lewisham.

·                The new mayor’s priorities appeared to mirror those of Lewisham SLP: violence against women and girls (VAWG), serious youth crime, hate crime and organised crime.

·                The consultation on the new plan closes on 23 February 2017. The MET is also waiting to see who is going to replace the current commissioner. Savings and efficiencies have to be made and it is unlikely that a new commissioner will stop that process.

·                London currently has 32 borough commanders and it is now proposed to collapse 32 borough units in to 12 Basic Command Units (BCU). At the moment this would align Lewisham with Greenwich and Bexley, under one Chief Superintendent with borough leads under that position. This is under consultation: the outcome of which can be fed back to the committee in due course by the borough commander.

·                Performance - crime is increasing across the country, the MET have bucked that trend, probably because the MET had not cut police numbers the way that others areas had. The Met had cut lots of back office resource before, but this would not be sustainable going forward. There needed to be better use of IT to increase online reporting.

·                The new BCU model still has local policing: by the end of the year each ward in Lewisham will have 2 Dedicated Ward Officers (DWO) and one PCSO as a minimum.

·                All secondary school will get a schools officer.

·                Crime figures last week included fraud for the first time as crime is changing.

·                In October 2016 body-worn cameras on staff were introduced, focused on those more likely to carry out stop and search, which is a very important tool but has to be used correctly. The body-worn cameras have led to complaints reducing and early pleas at court.

·                Jo Oakley, the current Superintendent was leaving and Alan Ray would be joining the borough on 6 March 2017 as her replacement.

3.7       In response to questions from Members, Kate Halpin advised:

·                Moped crime is a national and London phenomenon. Stopping people on mopeds is difficult as officers can’t pursue them if they aren’t wearing a helmet, so most involved in moped based crime don’t wear helmets. Traffic officers are trialing various initiatives to tackle this. Camden and Islington are the hotspots for this crime. The Police Federation (and the Home Office) are also looking into this as there are currently members facing potential charges of death by dangerous driving charges.

·                Communication is key: the borough commander meets with the lead officer and member for the Council and have agreed that all parties will update the other, inclusive of ward officers, if relevant press releases are going out.

·                The further roll out of schools officers and working closely with head teachers was important. The first ones were in Southwark after the murder of Damilola Taylor. The Met doesn’t want to demonise young people, as most are fantastic. All the cadets are brilliant and help build relationships and understanding. There is also the Trilogy service working with young people in the youth service in Lewisham and the DWO and PCSO work with local primary schools.

·                The issue of sirens bothering residents at night is difficult: a speeding police car can be a lethal weapon and they need to get to an emergency quickly, but no officer wants to risk hitting a car or person as a serious incident could see their career on hold for 3-4 years while it is investigated. Senior officers do try to encourage sirens not being used in middle of night unless necessary but it is a judgement call and better to be safe.

·                The police work closely with local authorities in relation to LAC and try to not always think of criminal justice options first.

·                There has been a purge on mobile phone usage while driving, the message given to officers is zero tolerance.

·                There are ongoing discussions about enforcement of the borough wide 20mph limit: most speeding is not enforced by local Lewisham Met officers, but is the Roads Police and Transport Command who have the calibrated cameras etc. They will look at hotspots and complaints and focus on education and advice rather than enforcement to start with.

·                The issue of sirens bothering residents at night is difficult: a speeding police car can be a lethal weapon and the police need to get to an emergency quickly. However, no officer wants to risk hitting a car or person. Senior officers do try to encourage sirens not being used in the middle of night unless necessary but it is a judgement call and better to be safe.

·                The police work closely with local authorities in relation to looked after children and try to not always think of criminal justice options first.

·                There has been a purge on mobile phone usage while driving, the message given to officers is zero tolerance.

·                There are ongoing discussions about enforcement of the borough wide 20mph limit: most speeding is not enforced by Lewisham Met officers, but is the responsibility of the transport command who have the required calibrated cameras etc. They will look at hotspots and complaints and focus on education and advice rather than enforcement to start with.

3.8         RESOLVED: That

(a)          The Committee receive further information from the LAS regarding staff diversity and handover issues at specific hospitals.

(b)          The Committee receive further information from the LFB regarding the sale of, and plans for, Downham Fire Station,

(c)          Councillor Michael, as chair of the Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee, ensure that all Members see the Council’s response to the MOPAC consultation.