Business Fire Safety

Quarter 1 2023-24

Secondary Measure	Actuals
BFS Consultation respondents satisfied with DFRS	26
Totals BFS consultation returned	26
Total dissatisfied	0

Q1 2023/24 26 responses in total. 25 respondents reported that they were ‘very satisfied’ with the service and 1 respondent reported being ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’ but left no further comment. 1 respondent did suggest having: 
‘Maybe some examples of bad practice’ 

Quarter 2 2023-24

Secondary Measure	Actuals
BFS Consultation respondents satisfied with DFRS	27
Totals BFS consultation returned	28
Total dissatisfied	1

Q2 2023/24 - 27 responses in total. 27 respondents reported that they were ‘very satisfied’ with the service, 1 respondent reported they were ‘neither satisfied or dissatisfied’.

Quarter 3 2022-23

Secondary Measure	Actuals
BFS Consultation respondents satisfied with DFRS	17
Totals BFS consultation returned	17
Total dissatisfied	0

Q3 2022/23 17 responses in total. 15 respondents reported that they were ‘very satisfied’ with the service, 2 respondents reported they were ‘fairly satisfied’.

Quarter 4 2022-23

Secondary Measure	Actuals
BFS Consultation respondents satisfied with DFRS	19
Totals BFS consultation returned	19
Total dissatisfied	0

Q4 2022/23: 19 responses in total. 18 respondents reported that they were ‘very satisfied’ with the service and 1 respondent reported being ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’ but left no further comment. 1 respondent did suggest having:

‘A dedicated telephone number that would permit our business to communicate with the fire Service in advance, thus ensuring a (potentially) better interaction for the visit.’

You said.... We responded

Period	No.	You Said	We Responded
Q2 2023-24	1	The person who visited was lovely and knowledgeable and did have positive things to say about the home and our fire book. but i have found that the reports sent to us do not have any feedback at all on what we are doing well, just what is a fault ,and then this gives an impression its your fault and feel like a child being told off because you missed something , this gives the whole experience with the fire visit a very negative expectation and experience as we know / expect there will always be a fault written so we focus on that we fail as no positive of what we do well or that everything else appears up to date in the reports, this is then sent to cqc and local authority who only see whats failing not what we are improving on in a care home due to the reports. i hope you will take this in to consideration so care home do feel that yes we missed something but also you did this well
Q1 2023-24	1	Maybe some examples of bad practice
Q4 2022-23	1	A dedicated telephone number that would permit our business to communicate with the fire Service in advance, thus ensuring a (potentially) better interaction for the visit.	At present when a Fire Safety Audit is booked in with a premise, a letter is sent to the responsible person to confirm the date and time of the audit and the expectations of it. Within this letter the telephone number for the appropriate area office is included. Should responsible persons require further information prior to the visit or have specific questions, they can contact the area office who will either answer their questions or direct them to an appropriate inspector. In addition, there is information on the Services website, For business :: Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service (derbys-fire.gov.uk) , this gives guidance for Responsible persons with regards Fire safety.
Q3 2022-23		No comments
Q2 2022-23	1	Basically, trivial matters which had been identified have been dealt with however, CQC and Derbyshire Care are saying the property is unsafe. This is not a true reflection of the site visit or letter provided. Our consultant was also assisting during the inspection and started to resolve any problems before the inspector left the site. We now have CQC demanding action which is unfair.	The Group Manager for Protection has followed up this incident and determined that the Fire Inspector spoke to the Care Home Manager and explained they were happy that they would have the items covered in the schedule actioned quickly, they also spoke to the CQC inspector to reiterate this. DFRS has acted in accordance with our policies and requirements in this instance and no further action is required.
Q1 2022-23		No comments
Q4 2021-22		No comments
Q3 2021-22	1	Received a letter saying you were coming on a certain date and time. Might have been better if a phone call was made as we might not have been available at that time	DFRS have processes in place to provide reasonable notice for inspections in agreement with responsible persons.  Our administrators will always call in the first instance but if there isn’t an answer by phone an appointment will be arranged and communicated by letter.  If this isn’t convenient it is possible to rearrange the date and time by contacting us.
Q3 2021-22	2	Engage with the brewery as well as the licensee.	An inspection will be arranged with the responsible person of a licensed premises, the licensee is welcome to advise the brewery of the planned visit. The brewery itself may not be contacted unless there are fire safety concerns to be addressed.
Q2 2021-22		No comments
Q1 2021-22		No comments
Q4 2020-21		No comments
Q3 2020-21		No comments
Q2 2020-21		No comments
Q1 2020-21		No comments
Q4 2019-20	1	Regular visits and giving speeches of awareness and safety requirements at community gatherings i.e. Sunday temple service mosques and community centres etc.	Thank you for your comment. We are in the process of appointing 3 Business Safety Advisors who will be working across Derbyshire to promote fire safety. They will work in and with the community to promote understanding and wider awareness of fire safety matters and how to comply with the relevant regulations’.
Q4 2019-20	2	By issuing the letter so that postage can be saved when the Officer was here. This happened on the last visit from a Fire Officer too.	Thank you for your comment. Our letters are written and produced after a fire safety inspection is completed and the data entered into our system. Our letters are often personalised as to the issues identified pertinent to each premise, thus it would be impractical to produce them on scene. Where ever possible we do utilise email to reduce postage and printing costs.
Q4 2019-20	3	Possibly to have information leaflets as lots of good advice given and lots to take in. Or an information sheet with links to the relevant websites.	Thank you for your comment. We do utilise a number of specific leaflets to distribute and raise awareness of Fire Safety matters for the public but we limit these as they are expensive to produce and difficult to measure their effectiveness. We do however constantly update and promote our website content to cover a wide range of fire safety matters with regards to help and guidance.
Q3 2019-20		No comments
Q2 2019-20		No comments
Q1 2019-20		No comments
Q4 2018-19		No comments
Q4 2018-19		No comments
Q3 2018-19		No comments
Q2 2018-19	1	By giving reasonable notice of any intended visit, only to ensure that there will be a responsible member of the Board available to assist	DFRS have processes in place to provide reasonable notice for inspections in agreement with responsible persons, reasonable notice is defined as up to 5 weeks. Whilst we view this as reasonable notice, the vast majority of inspection dates and times are agreed to take place in less than 5 weeks and to suit the needs of the business, in this instance the visit was made at the request of the occupiers with a date and time agreed locally.
Q2 2018-19	2	Be sure the secretary is aware if access to the tenants’ property is required. I twice asked if this was the case, so I could give my tenants adequate and legally required notice. On both occasions I was told only the communal areas would be inspected. This proved to be inaccurate	In the case of HMO type premises Fire Safety Legislation enforced by DFRS applies to the common parts of the building. If/where further advice is requested beyond this, we will provide advice on a goodwill basis. A letter of confirmation is sent prior to a pre-arranged inspection detailing why the inspection is taking place, what this will entail and what to expect with opportunity to contact the Fire Safety Inspecting Officer if required prior to the visit. The letter that was sent in regards to the visit in question did state this and gave direction as to what other legislation was applicable.
Q1 2018-19	1	You could have a named person that visits all businesses in Derby that give advice on how to improve fire safety in order to prevent a fire, especially after the two fires in Derby (Curzon St and Burton Road) and London Grenfell disaster.	This aspiration is unachievable within the confines of resources available, however we have just appointed 3 business safety advisors who will take a more proactive role in promoting fire safety compliance within the business community across the county.
Q1 2018-19	2	Perhaps arrive and work with contracted fire risk assessors, so we do not keep getting conflicting advice. This happens regularly.	As the enforcing authority our role is to advise, educate and regulate. It would be inappropriate for us to work with FRAs and then also regulate their work (conflict of interest). Of course FRAs can always ask for advice from us where required as a means to perhaps avoid any conflict when we carry out inspection work.
Q1 2018-19	3	Annual visit / inspection to ensure procedures are being followed correctly. Annual meeting with the residents of the scheme.	Annual visits would go against our adopted methodology of inspecting high risk premises based on their individual risk. Annual inspections would also be onerous both of fire resources and unfair on businesses themselves. With regards to meeting residents, this responsibility lies with the responsible person or persons of the premise as opposed to the FRS as the regulator.