A Kent Fire Service case study

Engaging partners to work alongside a Fire Service brings many benefits:

• Fire reduction and information driving message amplification at no cost.
• Spreading the word to audiences you may not have previously had access to.
• Adding support and impact to the fire reduction work of the Fire Service.

Following a meeting with Kent FRS in March 2022, Andy Bigginton, Station Manager Collaboration, took up the FireStoppers gauntlet and began to implement the initiative.

Partnerships

In the months since this meeting, from a standing start, Andy has evolved existing relationships and developed new partnerships with a number of organisations who can assist Kent Fire Service in their fire reduction strategy.  These partners are outlined below along with details of the work they are undertaking/assistance they are providing:

• Kent Association of Local Councils (KALC) has been asked to recirculate the toolkit asking for a poster to be placed in town/parish information boards, churches, community centres etc. Offer for KFRS to attend KALC membership meetings to discuss partnerships and working together.
• Medway and Margate Task Forces are actively promoting FireStoppers.
• Posters have been put up by Margate Task Force, in Dane Valley, and in all high-rise buildings within Thanet.
• Leros Barracks (Canterbury), Rowcroft Barracks (Ashford), and Fort Clarence Barracks (Rochester) are promoting FireStoppers around the barracks by displaying posters, and in training.
• Lydd Ranges are promoting the service using posters.
• Following a spate of motorbike fires, in mid-2022, in Ramsgate, posters were put up in the area by local crews, the Margate Task Force, and PCSOs.
• Dartford, Folkestone, Thanet, and Sevenoaks Councils are onboard and will assist with message amplification.
• Police Community Liaison Officers will be sending out the toolkit to all 12 districts for amplification.
• Kent Wildlife Trust is promoting FireStoppers in high-foot-fall locations.
• The Kent Police force has offered Kent FRS the free use of their My Community Voice platform to promote the FireStoppers service (promoted via PCSOs). This works in conjunction with Neighbourhood Watch.
• Weekly deliberate fire reports are being utilised to manage local issues. Data is being shared with stations to ask if incidents are related or there are trends to be identified.
• The education and Firesetters teams are also targeting messaging.
• These partners will be amplifying Kent’s fire reduction messages, supported by the FireStoppers call to action and 100% anonymous, always, guarantee.

Internal Teams

• Task Forces have been put in place to identify community noticeboards within businesses such as Tesco, Asda, Costa, Morrisons, Co-op etc… where FireStoppers posters will be displayed.
• Education team and Medway Task Force are looking at having FireStoppers as a topic and/or activity as part of the Safety In Action Event (a year 6 safety project).
• A weekly report on deliberate fires started by youths is shared with task forces, the Education Team and Firesetters Team to direct engagement.
• The weekly deliberate fire report is shared with Station Leaders and On Call Managers asking if the incidents are related or trends to engage the community with the toolkit resources.
• The Kent Community Safety Team (KCST) newsletter will be highlighting the campaign and toolkit.
• The FireStoppers campaign (toolkit and messages) will be shared with housing providers to enable them to add information to tenant newsletters.

To see the toolkit/asset pack that Kent has designed (the asset artwork was agreed with Crimestoppers), please click here.

Marcomms

In addition to this, Kent has also begun to develop their marketing strategy:

• A budget has been secured to promote the FireStoppers message.
• The Comms Team is working with the Business Safety Team to identify high risk areas so that they can accurately target their messages where they will have the most impact (to drive information and to act as a deterrent in order to prevent fire).
• Kent FRS is running a number of open days, across the region, during summer and autumn where they will talk about FireStoppers within their wider education and fire reduction messages; they will also have FireStoppers collateral.
• FireStoppers assets are being used and shared across the region to ensure they are seen by all relevant organisations and communities.
• The Comms Team is to push out more FireStoppers messages on the run up to Bonfire night and the sales of fireworks.
• The Comms Team is looking to incorporate FireStoppers messaging into the Autumn Open Days.

Please note: this artwork was created by the Kent FRS Marcomms team and signed off by Crimestoppers before it went live.

Events

Ramsgate Fire Station held a day of action, on 4 June 2022. Following a number of car and motorbike fires, this event enabled the Fire Service to engage with 28 businesses from the area.

Working with the police

To share information received, and to move investigations forward, Kent will work with the CLO or CSU Sergeant in the Kent Police Force.

Kent Police has also agreed to amplify the FireStoppers message and the FireStoppers toolkit has been shared:

• With all 12 District Community Liaison Officers.
• Through Community Safety Units.
• Through Community Safety Partnerships.
• In collaboration with their My Community Voice platform Home Page - My Community Voice Kent.
• With Kent Community Safety Team (KCST).
• Through our KFRS liaison officers in the Medway and Margate Task Forces.

Results

As with any initiative like this, results don’t come overnight, but we will report back on this really positive implementation of the initiative in the coming months to show how all of the activity outlined above has impacted Kent FRS.