Gaps found in North Wales Fire Service’s approach to targeting high-risk households
Gaps in how North Wales’s fire service identifies those at a higher risk of being impacted by fires has been identified.
The details were laid out in an Audit Wales report which was presented at the North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority meeting on Monday, October 20.
The report looked at how the fire service targeted fire prevention, focusing on the most vulnerable, to help reduce fires, serious injury or death.
It also assessed how the fire service worked with individual households.
It noted positively that North Wales had seen a 33% decrease in dwelling fires and a 43% drop in fire fatalities and casualties, between 2009-10 and 2023-24.
It was also stated that the service had “a good basic approach” to targeted fire prevention but “could do more to ensure resources are targeted where they are most needed”.
Prevention is targeted at those who face the highest risk and measures risk levels by households.
The proportion of home fire safety checks completed in higher risk households, in the first nine months of 2024-25, was 29.4%.
The fire service had taken steps to help it understand who was at a higher risk, drawing on sources from previous fire data, referrals from partner agencies, the public, local fire crews and NHS data.
The use of NHS data, the report said, was “particularly promising” and a map had been developed showing where households with high-risk factors were located and visited.
However, it was noted that data sources had “limitations” citing NHS data “sometimes being incomplete” or not capturing certain types of risk.
People living in isolated situations are known to be at higher risk of fire and those who did not access public services may not show up on figures, so were less likely to be referred, it said.
“This is a potential gap in any approach to find people facing higher levels of risk,” it said.
The fire service had recognised some of the potential gaps and challenges and it was acknowledged that the process to decide whether people were at high risk involved “considerable judgement”.
Partner agencies played “an important role” and training had been given on making “good referrals” and a Community Risk Management Plan developed.
But it was also noted that the approach “may lead to different outcomes for households with similar characteristics”. The Authority’s targeting approach was also different between referrals and NHS data.
It was recommend the fire service assess and address the gaps in its approach ensuring people of highest risk were targeted.
It should also look for risks outside of past incident data, trial approaches to identify people with higher risk, in isolated situations and adopt approaches including data use.
It also suggested involving communities with protected characteristics, to ensure an inclusive approach, to add quality assurance steps to reduce the risk of partners not referring people and compare the partners it works with to other fire and rescue authorities.
“We found that the Authority needs to strengthen its understanding of the value added by its prevention activity,” the report said.
“This is to support more clearly the targeting of resources to show the value for money achieved.”
It should also develop ways to assess the contribution of prevention activity in reducing fires, fire deaths, and serious injuries – particularly for those at a higher risk.
It was recommended to develop a structured approach to “assessing the costs, benefits and risks” of its approach and alternatives and use a structured approach to review its definitions of low, medium, and higher-risk cases and resources allocated.
Collaboration with the other Welsh FRAs to establish common definitions for comparisons and learning and to consider the views of the Welsh Government were also advocated.
At the meeting members approved recommendations and noted findings in the Audit Wales report, endorsed a targeted improvement plan and progress update in Q1, 2026-27.
By Dale Spridgeon – BBC Local Democracy Reporter
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