From L to R: Deputy Chief Fire Officer Phil Garrigan, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service; Clare Duggan, Director of Commissioning Operations, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside; and Deputy Chief Fire Officer Mark Cashin, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, pictured at the Health and Fire Summit.
Photo: Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service.
A Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Fire Summit was held at Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service recently to identify how partnership work between organisations across the two counties can help target the most vulnerable people. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and NHS England met with partner organisations to discuss further ways of working together to reduce risk to vulnerable people in the community, particularly the elderly.
Both fire and rescue services in Cheshire and Merseyside are keen to support the national programme of work to assist the health agenda. Research shows that personal fire risk increases with age. Both Cheshire and Merseyside fire and rescue services therefore focus considerable effort and resource on identified vulnerable older households. Annually, around 85,000 Home Fire Safety Checks are delivered in Cheshire and Merseyside, the majority of which are targeted at people aged 65 or over.
At the summit delegates discussed ways in which the home visits carried out by fire and rescue services could further assist other organisations in their objectives to help vulnerable people.
Mark Cashin, Cheshire’s Deputy Chief Fire Officer, said, “This has been a really useful summit in terms of considering ways that we can further strengthen our collective approach to protecting people in their homes. There has never been a better time to build on our partnership activity to ensure that we continue to target and protect the most vulnerable in our communities.”
Deputy Chief Fire Officer Phil Garrigan, from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, said, “The delegates who attended the summit have a common aim and that is to keep people as safe as possible in their homes. Gathering representatives from partner agencies from Cheshire and Merseyside in one room allowed us to discuss how we can work together effectively to ensure communities are safer, stronger and more resilient.”
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service has released a publication ‘Dying for Data – Reducing Fire Deaths in Merseyside’ highlighting the extensive work the service has undertaken to help vulnerable people by safely and securely sharing data with partner organisations.
