december’s disability cornwall event lawrence house museum … · 2019-12-12 · information...

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December’s Disability Cornwall event

Values: People, Service to the community, Diversity Cornwall Fire and Rescue Services Community Engagement, Equality and Diversity Strategic Team champion disability. This involves an annual Christmas Diversity event which is held at and supported each year by Tolvaddon Community Fire Station. Tolvaddon Community Fire Station welcomes people from Disability Cornwall, Healthy Cornwall, South West Ambulance Foundation Trust, Devon and Cornwall Police, Diverse Communities Team, Mobility Cornwall and ‘Santa’ to attend this event, celebrating and raising awareness of disability. The event is family friendly and in 2018 was attended by over 400 people from the local community, including those living with a wide range of disabilities. This event provides a fun, inclusive environment for people to talk to a variety of services about their needs and help understand what we can do to make them safer. The feedback received was extremely positive with people saying what a fun, inclusive event that is catered for everyone.

Lawrence House Museum

Values: People, Service to the community, Diversity Lawrence House Museum contacted Launceston Community Fire Station and asked to help raise funds through one of their coffee mornings that was being held for The Firefighters Charity. The station suggested they could add to the coffee morning by attending to talk to attendees about the history of Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service along with fire safety messages. Launceston Community Fire Station arranged volunteers to attend and created a picture board of firefighters in Launceston throughout the ages. Photos were gained from ex-service members along with anecdotes to go with the images. On the day of the coffee morning 5 firefighters attended to liaise with the public and spread fire safety messages. From attending the coffee morning home fire safety check referrals were gained and it was discovered that risk information held for Lawrence House Museum could be improved, a salvage plan for this has been formulated and is to be tested at upcoming drill nights.


Safer Newquay

Values: People, Service to the community, Improvement Regular meetings and updates have been had with all operational partner organisations within Newquay, where issues were discussed that affected all organisations and operational plans to target crime and disorder were put forward. Safer Newquay is a multi-agency approach with pooled resources in an attempt to reduce crime and disorder. The crimes that occur have a budgetary effect on all organisations and the regular meetings give the opportunity to pass on useful, relevant and tactical information in a safe and secure environment.

Air BnB

Values: Service to the community, Protect, Improvement

After undertaking some research it was found that there were large areas of Cornwall with unregulated B&B’s with no knowledge of the Fire Safety Order or any precautions needed. Newquay Community Fire Station targeted Air BnB’s online to remind them of their responsibilities. A press release went out from the Service explaining the importance of landlord’s responsibilities, letting agencies were also contacted and delivered educational meetings such as Newquay Community Fire Station hosting a Holiday Lets Fire Safety Awareness evening for all Air BnB operators and any interested parties. Alongside this Newquay also offered free safety checks and advice to the attendees. As a result of this, large areas of Newquay now have a better understanding of the Fire Safety Order and what precautions or measures they need to have in place before renting their properties.


Accidental Dwelling Fires

Values: Service to the community, Prevention St Austell remains a high risk for accidental dwelling fires. Due to this, St Austell Community Fire Station has a task to increase the awareness of national fire safety messages in order to decrease the number of accidental dwelling fires that occur. In order to get these messages across, a monthly article was produced by the station that promotes and reinforces all of the national fire safety messages to the community. These articles go out to the community via the St Austell Voice newspaper. The articles have appeared in the St Austell Voice newspaper for the past year and continue to do so. The messages have definitely been spread throughout the community as St Austell Community Fire Station have received a lot of good feedback about the messaging and this has also prompted many more home fire safety check requests, which shows this is being well received.

Learn to Live

Value: People, Service to the community, Improvement White Watch at Tolvaddon Community Fire Station were invited to attend the ‘Learn to Live’ seminar held at Redruth Cinema. White Watch initially met with partner agencies to discuss the seminar and also participated in the event planning and execution. White Watch were involved in the meeting and greeting of attendees prior to the seminar. The Watch then observed the event, gauged reactions from the audience (students) and subsequently engaged with the students afterwards to answer any questions arising from the seminar as well as promoting general road safety awareness and key safety messages. Due to the hard hitting and graphic content contained within the seminar, multiple students were very interested in the firefighters role and the equipment deployed in the event of a serious road traffic collision. This enabled the watch to engage in a dialogue with the students and was the perfect opportunity to reinforce the messages about road safety within this particular demographic.


School Parking Action

Values: Service to the community, Prevention, Improvement Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service was contacted by a local Councillor with concerns about the amount of traffic in and around St Mewan School at leaving time, potentially obstructing emergency services access. The amount of vehicles in the area caused queuing back onto the main road which created a road safety hazard. St Austell Community Fire Station designed a bespoke campaign to encourage drivers to not arrive prior to the pick-up time of 2.50pm, when the school gates open. The flyer was delivered by school book bags requesting that drivers do not arrive until after 2.50pm. Green Watch at St Austell Community Fire Station visited the school on 3 separate occasions engaging with drivers to help improve the congestion. The service’s social media accounts were used to reinforce and spread the message. As a result there is visibly less congestion in the area, less concerns about the traffic, there is good community engagement as well as positive engagement with local members.

Seasonal Fire Safety messages

Values: Service to the community, Prevention In order to explore ways to reach as larger percentage of the population as possible, Black Watch at Tolvaddon Community Fire Station looked at ways of communicating fire safety messages to the community of Illogan, which was our adopted village. Black Watch came across the Parish Council Office whilst conducting a low risk visit and established that the Illogan Parish newsletter is delivered quarterly to all properties in the village. Seasonal fire safety were included within these newsletters and an ongoing relationship with the editor was established, the editor now requests a contribution from Tolvaddon Community Fire Station for inclusion in each issue. Off the back of the messages going out to the community of Illogan several people have contacted Tolvaddon Community Fire Station as a result of reading these messages to request talks or home fire safety visits. A large number of households in the village have been reached using relatively little resources.


Safeguarding Case

Values: Service to the community, Perform, Diversity, Improvement This was a safeguarding case/vulnerable person with alcohol dependency and mental health issues. The task for the Service was to ensure immediate safety, improve the situation for the individual and work to improve their safety as well as ensuring fire safety in the premises. This was a multi-agency safeguarding referral with a coordinated blue light services response for safeguarding, initiated professionals meeting to review the individuals care, treatment and dependency. All agencies were involved to ensure exposure to the process and to develop a greater understanding of safeguarding throughout the team. The multi-agency professionals meeting resulted in a complete review of medication, treatment, housing and dependency for the individual. A revisit confirmed that the individual is receiving better care and treatment, their physical and mental health has improved. The team has developed a thorough knowledge of the process and shown a commitment to our core values. Furthermore, a close relationship with the mental health team has resulted in awareness training.

Fire Safety

Values: Service to the community, Prevention, Improvement Black Watch at Tolvaddon Community Fire Station were contacted by a care worker about a client who was non ambulant and a smoker. The client had no smoke detection and there was signs of cigarette burns on the carpet around the bed, therefore there are concerns that the client will cause a fire. Black Watch ensured the safety of the client and the care worker as well as the safety of the property. The watch performed a home fire safety check, contacted the appropriate safeguarding officer and the Prevention Team who supplied a fire proof bedding and a fire retardant matt. The watch also discussed the creams that would be administered to the client with the care worker so they had a better understanding and to help reduce the risk of fire. This case resulted in multi-agency work with several visits to the client’s property undertaken. Advice and equipment was given to the client and the care workers were educated to ensure they were more aware of fire safety.


BBQ Safety

Values: Service to the community, Perform, Diversity, Improvement This was an initiative to ensure the safe disposal of disposable barbecues. The aim of this was to prevent the unsafe disposal of barbecues in bins along coastal paths, educate the public with risks, preventative actions and how to dispose of used barbecue equipment, prevent accidental bin fires. With the overall view to reduce the following: accidental bin fires, call outs to accidental secondary fires, accidental wild fires, increasing the availability for primary activity. Green Watch at Penzance Community Fire Station used local knowledge and evidence based information to highlight a trend of disposable BBQ fires along the Penzance to Marazion beach areas. The watch created information sheets, BBQ and bin stickers with safety advice. Engaged with public at Sainsbury’s in Penzance whilst putting advice stickers on all BBQ’s. They also engaged with the public along the coast path whilst putting stickers on the bins within the risk area. Short questionnaires were then given to the public to educate them further and to confirm their knowledge.

Gulval School visit

Values: Service to the community, Prevention, Improvement Gulval School invited Green Watch at Penzance Community Fire Station along to their Great Fire of London lesson where the children looked at how the fire service has changed over the years. The children looked around the appliance and saw all the new equipment the service uses as well as understanding what the firefighter role is in the community. This encouraged discussions around fire safety in the home including smoke detectors and what to do in the event of a fire. The watch were also able to use this time to engage with the children around road safety messages. This visit enabled the watch to educate the children with risks and preventative actions, promote safety in the home and community and to promote road safety.


Veterans Breakfast Club

Values: Service to the community, People

Green Watch at Penzance Community Fire Station engage with members of the community that are encompassed within our high risk groups. In November the watch hosted a breakfast for veterans at their Community Fire Station. This allowed the watch to socialise with those that attended as well as provide them with plenty of home fire safety advice. Barriers were broken down through conversations and sharing experiences of previous jobs and service given by the veterans of Penzance. As well as this a minutes silence was shared for Armistice Day.

Dementia Café

Values: Service to the community, People As part of the Dementia Awareness Week national campaign Green Watch at Penzance Community Fire Station visited the local Dementia memory café to engage with vulnerable members of the community. The watch socialised with the members and gave both community and home fire safety advice, signposting any concerns with the guidance of the living safe and well leaflet. Concerns and safety issues were able to be resolved and both carers and the members were educated in fire safety routines within the home, especially those relevant to dementia. The aims of the visit were to help prevent and reduce the number of accidental dwelling fires, educate the public with potential risks and preventative actions and to promote safety within the home and community.


Roskear School

Values: People, Service to the community, Prevention Black Watch at Tolvaddon Community Fire Station visited Roskear School to deliver fire safety messages as well as help to educate the pupils on the great fire of London. The watch liaised with Roskear School for the great fire of London project the pupils were working on. They then organised a safe area and a speech for the pupils to watch the re-enactment of the great fire of London. The pupils were fully engaged with the visit and this was a very effective way to educate children about the importance of fire safety. The visit also put the Service in a relaxed positive light for the pupils to meet the firefighters, get to know the role and build trust.

Liskeard Community Safety Pilot

Values: People, Service to the community, Improvement October was a relatively quiet for Liskeard Community Fire Station incident wise but they made up for this with more opportunities to drill and develop the crew. The crew passed on a premise for Fire Safety Officer to look t after an inspection and carried out 30 home fire safety checks. The Movember event had already raised nearly £500 and great organisations had been arranged to attend the station event taking place on 29 November. A partnership with the NHS began, they let crews drill at a high risk care facility and future drills are planned at varying venues. A new initiative is in the works involving social prescribing of certain groups in need of interaction. This could be a good opportunity to utilise the station and staff interpersonal skills. A visit to the memory café at Passmore Edwards Court took place – even got the group and staff enjoying using the HRJ. The Fire Fighters Charity visited the station and commended efforts in the fundraising carried out, which was passed onto the on-call personnel.


Little Fistral

Values: Service to the community, Prevent In combination with the Newquay Safe campaign and evidencing previous incidents throughout the county, Red Watch at Newquay Community Fire Station took measures to invoke more publicity on the subject matter of BBQ’s, safe disposal and competent use. The task was simple; reduce injuries from disposable BBQ’s, reduce the number of unnecessary calls Cornwall Fire, Rescue and Community Safety Service receive due to incorrect disposal or misuse and thus preventing harm, fire spread and damage to property. The solution was to educate and publicise this as best as practicable and do so in conjunction with external agencies and media outlets. The watch made use of the multi-agency campaign at Little Fistral in place for anti-social behaviour. The action plan in place to tackle it (patrol of the area every night at 21:00 – a high risk time period) gave us opportunity to speak to high levels of our target group (wild campers). This worked in two ways, educating and informing, but also being the perfect ice breaker engagement with individuals who were suspected of causing other problems in the area.

The watch made use of the multi-agency campaign at Little Fistral in place for anti-social behaviour. The action plan in place to tackle it (patrol of the area every night at 21:00 – a high risk time period) gave us opportunity to speak to high levels of our target group (wild campers). This worked in two ways, educating and informing, but also being the perfect ice breaker engagement with individuals who were suspected of causing other problems in the area. Along with Station Manager Taylor, the watch also participated in a radio interview with BBC Radio Cornwall, this included individual team members recording sound bites with varying messages, from use on the beach to correct disposal. We also took photos to be used on their social media pages and Station Manager Taylor conducted a live interview. The outcome of this included our recorded interviews being used and discussed on the Lawrence Reed show along with many other avenues. It worked cohesively with the joint work of Newquay Safe partnership and the groups causing the anti-social behaviour and fire incident, of which there have been no further instances of writing this. The watch reviewed progress at Newquay Safe meetings, for example the success of designated disposal bins for BBQ’s and how we could improve. The campaign has so far proved a success, demonstrating not only the effectiveness of joint working, but to also show the effectiveness of community engagement work from the watch and station management undertaken during Newquay 24 period.


Protected Characteristics

Values: People, Service to the community, Improvement Tolvaddon Community Fire Station was contacted by a parent of a child with autism. The child had thrown a cylinder into an open fire within the home, causing it to explode and consequently setting the carpet alight and causing burns to the parents arm. Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service were not called to this incident. Since the incident, the child has been terrified of the fire being lit within the home, due to his autism. This was the only source of heating in the home and therefore this was problematic. Furthermore, the child would not go to bed on their own, causing issues relating to sleep deprivation for the family. The parent requested assistance from Tolvaddon Community Fire Station, in educating, reassuring and thereby alleviating the child’s anxiety and fear around fire. As part of the action plan, the family visited Tolvaddon Community Fire Station who took a measured approach and showed the family all aspects of the station. This was tailored to meet the specific needs of the child and was delivered in a way which the child would understand. The watch advised the family on escape plans and made sure the child

understood their role in the situation and how they could help the family as well as themselves. Further to this, Tolvaddon Community Fire Station visited the child’s school and spoke with each class about fire safety, smoke detectors and action plans which was issued in an age appropriate manner. As a result of this work, the child is now happier to go to bed and less fearful of the fire. The family can now light the fire and sleep in their own beds. Many of the school children were aware of the incident that occurred involving their friend and therefore Tolvaddon Community Fire Station sought to engage with the school, providing an opportunity to educate everyone about fire safety. This also allowed the watch to learn and experience how to tailor advice and education to a child with a specific learning need, which is something that can be used again in the future.

december’s disability cornwall event lawrence house museum … · 2019-12-12 · information...

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