REFLECTING ON 2016 – A YEAR OF SUCCESS
Following on from the recently announced successful turnaround in the Service’s financial position and the first wholetime recruitment in four years coming in 2017, we began the new year with Trevor McIIwaine, a now retired Group Manager, being recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours, being awarded The Queen’s Fire Service Medal for Distinguished Service. This is an award for members of fire and rescue services for the exhibition of conspicuous devotion to duty.
Trevor, who began his career as a firefighter at West Midlands Fire Service, joined Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service in 1998 and went on to spend nineteen years here, working his way up to Group Manager. His dedication to the Service and his commitment to helping protect the local communities was recognised and, rightly so, he was awarded with this prestigious award which came at the delight of the Service and Trevor himself.
Trevor’s influence continued to bring more success in 2016, this time with the Fire Protection Group who are a part of the Better Business for All Partnership.
For a number of years the Fire Protection Group have been heavily involved in the Better Business for All Partnership with other local authority regulators within Leicester and Leicestershire. They have been committed to reducing the burden on businesses whilst carrying out their statutory duties.
The team were invited, along with a number of the local authorities, to the Better Business for All National Awards Ceremony in Westminster, London. This was in recognition of some of the excellent, innovative work carried out by the group. The group went on to be awarded the judge’s prestigious ‘Leading the Way’ award, which is in recognition of what has been achieved by the partnership so far. We are proud to be recognised as national leaders in such an essential part of our work.
As if that wasn’t enough of an achievement, another award was won before the end of 2016 by the Braunstone Blues who are a team made up of dedicated personnel from Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, Leicestershire Police and East Midlands Ambulance Service. Their purpose is to help reduce demand and repeat calls on all the emergency services by supporting people in Braunstone to help themselves, by educating them about alternative support services.
The team managed to beat off competition to win the Best Emergency Services Partnership of the year at the Excellence in Fire and Emergency Awards 2016. The team were delighted to be awarded with this prestigious award and hear the positive feedback:
- The Braunstone Blues Project is pioneering and unique in the UK and its Healthy Safe and Secure home visits have added value to fire service’s home visits.
- The extending working relationships to non-traditional fire service partners and in non-traditional activities has been a beneficial development so long may this project continue.
These successes have been celebrated widely across the Service and we are hoping to build on these in 2017 – whether this may be through more awards being won, new initiatives being introduced or carrying on our fantastic prevention work.
ENDS
About the Service
Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service provides emergency response, prevention and protection services from 20 stations across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Its headquarters is based in Birstall, Leicester.
The Service’s prevention, education, enforcement and inspection programmes have resulted in significant reductions in the number of incidents. In the last ten years, fire related incidents have reduced by 46 percent.
During 2015/16, the Service attended 666 road traffic collisions, of which 174 were extrications freeing 208 people trapped inside their vehicles and completed 5086 home fire safety checks, fitting almost 4481 smoke alarms. Staff organised or supported almost 1431 events aimed at promoting fire and road safety and arson prevention, whilst also visiting 332 schools to deliver fire and road safety education to pupils.
Contact:
Dominic Halliday
Communications and Digital Media Administrator
0116 2292178
dominic.halliday@lfrs.org
