Chief Fire Officers Association

Home Safety Week: Get ready for winter – Protecting older people from fire, reducingexcess winter deaths through expanded Safe and Well visits

28 September – 4 October 2015

Toolkit for participating fire and rescue services

Focus: This year’s campaign will focus on older people and winter fire safety, and helping to support the broader health agenda by reducing the estimated30,000 preventable deaths that occur during the winter period. The Week also coincides with Older People’s Day on 1 October 2015.

Contents

  1. Introduction
  1. Ageing Safely Strategy
  1. People over 60 – Fire Statistics
  1. Excess Winter Mortality
  1. Older People’s Day – 1st October 2015
  1. Getting the message out there:

What are you going to do?

Addressing excess winter deaths

Support for Older People’s Day

  1. News release/press article
  1. How was it for you?

1.Introduction

The third CFOA Home Safety Week will take place from 28th September to 4th October 2015. The campaign will take the form of a ‘mini-campaign’, with a focus on older people and winter fire safety and interventions to reduce excess winter deaths.

Very few agencies play as an important a role in helping older people remain safe and well in their own homes as the fire and rescue service. Firefighters and community safety teams come into contact with older people every single day. We know that they are at highest risk of fire in the home and in most parts of the country are those we target most keenly through our prevention work.

Annually, around 670,000 Home Safety Assessments, or Safe and Well visits as they are now becoming known, are delivered by fire and rescue services, the majority of which are targeted at people aged 65 or over.

Nationally, this work has played a key role in helping to reduce preventable fire deaths in England. Accidental dwelling fire fatalities, which account for three fifths of all fire fatalities, have reduced by around 50% over the past decade.

This success and proactive intervention work has received recognition and praise from the Cabinet Office, NHS and PHE England. Simon Stevens, Head of NHS England, and Duncan Selbie, Head of Public Health England, have publicly called for the wider role of the fire and rescue service to be recognised and utilised to support the broader health agenda, and, in particular, to help protect older vulnerable people and address winter mortality issues.

Representatives from NHS England, Public Health England, the Local Government Association, and CFOA met in April 2015 to agree to develop a new working relationship, with a common aim to improve the quality of life for those who could most benefit from fire and rescue service Safe and Well intervention. At this meeting, NHS England and Public Health England set down a challenge to CFOA to help address and reduce excess winter deaths, as our partners in health and social care call them, this year.

Identifying people at risk from fires

From 21 September 2015, fire and rescue services will have access to the Exeter system and relevant data on nine million people over the age of 65, which will help you identify and target prevention to individuals most at risk.

Home Safety Week 2015 Toolkit.

This toolkit has been produced to help you plan and execute activities during the CFOA Home Safety Week to support the challenge from senior health colleagues to address excess winter deaths for 2015/16. It will also provide a good opportunity to promote to communities around the United Kingdom that fire and rescue services are now working in partnership with health colleagues to expand Safe and Well visits to include, in addition to fire safety messages, some key health interventions. The Week will also enable you to support Older Person’s Day, which coincides with the UN International Day of Older Person’s on 1st October, should you wish to do so.

2.CFOA - Ageing Safely Strategy

Statistically, older people are most at risk from dying or being injured in a fire. Our response to this challenge is the CFOAAgeing SafelyStrategy, which sets out ways in which fire and rescue services can stabilise the number of deaths and injuries among older people and better support those who have experienced fire.

The strategy sets out 10 main objectives:

  1. Prevent fires through interventions targeted at those aged 50+
  1. Work in partnership to provide help and guidance where it is most needed
  1. Prevent fire though the provision and dissemination of information, advice and guidance
  1. Continue to build meaningful and productive relationships with the local community
  1. Protect older people by giving them access to assistive technology
  1. Protect older people in residential and nursing homes or sheltered accommodation
  1. Respond to diverse individual needs including culture, religion, language, etc.
  1. Respond to fires and extinguish them quickly, effectively and efficiently
  1. Be responsive and assist people to recover from their experience of fire
  1. Learn from emergency incidents, to help refine this strategy
Quick link
CFOA Ageing Safely Strategy – download the strategy.

3.People Over 60 – Fire Statistics

The statistics between April 2013 and March 2014 speak for themselves and underline the need for Ageing Safely:

  • There were 380 fire deaths in Great Britain of which 178 (47%) were among people aged 60 or above.
  • Those over the age of 80 are 10 times more likely to die in a fire than someone aged 30 or under.
  • Older men are more likely to die in fires than women.
  • The leading cause of fatal house fires is careless handling of fire or hot substances, mostly cigarettes which accounted for 85 deaths.
  • 41% of fatal fires start in the living or dining room.
  • More than half (52%) of all fires in the home are caused by cooking appliances, followed by 13% caused by other electrical appliances, 10% by wiring and 7% from smoking materials.
  • More than half (52%) of all non-fatal injuries are caused by cooking appliances.
  • 92% of households have smoke alarms fitted.

In addition:

  • The cost of fire involving over 65s to society is £2.3 billion per year (2011/12).
  • The average cost of a domestic fire is £27,000.
  • A single fire fatality costs £1.8m.
  • 23% of the UK population will be over 65 by 2033.

Quick links
  • Fire Statistics Monitor – download the latest full year for England
  • Fire Statistics Wales
  • Fire and Rescue Statistics in Scotland
  • Northern Ireland Fire Statistics– available from Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service.

4.Excess Winter Mortality

In common with other European countries, more people in the United Kingdom die in the winter than in the summer.

The Office for National Statistics Excess Winter Mortality in England and Wales, 2013/14 Statistical Bulletin, estimated that 18,200 excess winter deaths occurred in 2013/14.

The majority of deaths occurred among those aged 75 and over; there were 14,000 excess winter deaths in this age group in 2012/13 compared with 4,000 in people aged under 75 years of age.

11.6% more people died in the winter months compared to non-winter months in 2013/14.

There were more excess winter deaths in females that in males in 2013/14 as in previous years.

For the winter of 2015/16, the NHS estimate the number of winter deaths will be around 30,000, again with a bias towards females over 65 years of age.

The main causes of winter deaths for the over 65s are due to:

  • Influenzaand chest conditions;
  • Cold housing; and,
  • Loneliness and isolation.

It is for these reasons our partners in health have asked us to support work to address excess winter deaths through expanded Safe and Well visits.

Quick link
  • Office for National Statistics: Excess Winter Mortality in England and Wales, 2013/14 (Provisional) – download the latest full year for England and Wales.
  • National Record of Scotland: Winter Mortality in Scotland, 2013/14 – download the latest full year for Scotland.

5.Older People’s Day – 1st October 2015

Although the Department for Work and Pensions is working hard to champion Older People’s Day 2015, it is up to organisations like ours to make it happen.

Last year more than a million people took part in more than 6,000 events throughout the UK. This year will be even bigger and better with thousands of opportunities nationwide to:

  • socialise – coffee mornings and tea dances with a difference, games tournaments, ping pong matches and quizzes
  • get healthy and active – exercise taster sessions, gardening with a group and nature walks
  • volunteer – being part of a community group to do something good in your area for everyone’s benefit
  • share skills– skills swap shops where younger and older people learn new skills from each other

Quick links
Older People’s Day 2015 – latest news, links to partner organisations, calendar events and branding resources.
International Day of Older Persons – background to the UN’s aims and objectives.

6.What are you going to do?

Before you set the wheels in motion, it’s important to think carefully about what you want to achieve from taking part in and supporting Home Safety Week 2015.

With an emphasis on using the Week to kick-start work to address excess winter deaths through Safe and Well visits, you may wish to consider downloading and reading the annual Cold Weather Plan for England, Wales and Scotland. For example, since 2011, the Government (Public Health England) has published an annual Cold Weather Plan for England. The Plan aims to prevent avoidable harm to health by alerting people to the negative health effects of cold weather, and enabling them to prepare and respond appropriately. It also sets out a series of actions taken by the NHS, social care and other agencies throughout the year.

The Office for National Statistics Excess Winter Mortality report identifies influenza rates as having a big impact on mortality during the winter months, affecting both the elderly and the young. The Cold Weather Plan recommends that people aged over 65 or older or people with disability should get an annual flu jab. In order to support this important programme of work, you may wish:

  • to consider working in partnership with local health agencies to promote flu jab messages to older householders as part of Safe and Well visits; and,
  • to provide, in partnership with health colleagues, literature promoting the benefits of the flu jab to householders as part of Safe and Well activity.

Fuel poverty is also flagged up in the Cold Weather Plan as contributing to mortality rates. You may wish to consider working in partnership with your local authorities and energy companies to help keep people warm and safe this winter. This could be achieved by firefighters and advocates being trained in fuel poverty matters in order to recognise the signs of fuel poverty. This would enable your staff to be the eyes and ears for the relevant agencies and refer identified vulnerable households towards grants for improved and safe heating supplies and help towards making homes more energy efficient.

Isolation and loneliness can also be a big factor in winter deaths for the over 65s. A number of fire and rescue services do work in this area in partnership with organisations such as Age UK and the British Red Cross. When firefighters previously visited older people, it was hard for them to see other non-fire issues that needed to be dealt with, yet had to walk away and leave them.

In essence, this partnership work is delivered through fire and rescue Safe and Well visits and involves a contact assessment process which identifies issues and provides information to ensure referral occurs immediately to Age UK.

Clearly, you will also wish to use the Week to promote key winter fire safety messages. Fire statisticsreveal more accidental house fires take place during winter than at any other time. We know that elderly people can be particularly vulnerable at this time of year due to the increase in use of portable electric heaters and open fires. The Week therefore provides a good opportunity to:

educate older householders about the need to ensure that portable heaters should never be left on unattended overnight;

that fireguards should cover an open fire at all times;

and that people should always remember to keep their candles away from curtains,material and furniture.

As with any safety visit, ensuring appropriate fire and CO detection and warning systems are in place is a priority. CFOA has recently revised its position statement on Domestic Fire detection – details can be found at

6.What are you going to do (continued)

Should you wish to support Older People’s Day 2015, the following provides some ideas to help you plan your activities and events:


7.News release/Briefing/Article

Safe and Well - Get ready for winter

Fire and Rescue Service working in partnership with health to keep older people safe and warm during the winter months

ANYSHIRE’S firefighters and community safety teams are joining forces with health colleagues across the country to kick-start work to protect older people from fire this winter and to support the health sector to reduce excess winter deaths.

DESCRIBE YOUR LOCAL EVENT/S, WHAT YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DETAILS SUCH AS TIME AND VENUE

Other fire and rescue services will be marking the week in similar ways, explained INSERT NAME AND ROLE OF LOCAL SPOKESPERSON: “We engage with older people every day to help them remain safe and independent. In partnership with health colleagues we are expanding our Safe and Well fire safety visits to include a number of interventions designed to help to reduce the risk of older peopledying during the winter period.

“Almost half of all fire deaths in the UK involve people over the age of 60 and by the time someone reaches 80 they are 10 times more likely to die in a fire than someone under 30.”

“In common with other European countries, more people in the United Kingdom die in the winter than in the summer. The majority of deaths occur among those aged 75 and over; there were 14,000 excess winter deaths in this age group in 2013/14 compared with 4,000 in people aged under 75 years of age.”

LOCAL SPOKESPERSON said: “We’re responding by working with our health partners to...

  • TARGET SAFE AND WELL VISITS AT OLDER PEOPLE.
  • DO YOU WORK WITH THE THIRD SECTOR?
  • DO YOU INVOLVE OLDER PEOPLE IN VOLUNTEERING?
  • WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO SUPPORT THE WIDER HEALTH AGENDA DURING THE WINTER MONTHS?

NOTES TO EDITORS

  1. The Chief Fire Officers Association ( is encouraging all UK fire and rescue services to take part in Home Safety Week to help protect older people from fire and other winter related health issues. It has a six-year strategy to stabilise and reduce deaths and injuries among older people at a time when the population is in fact ageing.
  1. Older People’s Day 2015 is a national event being marked by a range of organisations who want to celebrate the contribution older people make to society and coincides with the United Nations International Day of Older Persons. For further information visit

8.How was it for you?

In line with previous years, CFOA encourages your collective participation in the campaign and your feedback will not only shape our future involvement, but also enable us to demonstrate to our partners in health about the impact and contribution our involvement can make to the broader health agenda, and the public good.

Shortly after the campaign CFOA will be circulating a brief e-survey. The survey will ask the following questions, so it would be helpful if you could think early on about how you might collect this information:

  • What activities did you run to support the health and fire agenda?
  • What was your main aim?
  • How many older people did you directly engage with?
  • How many Safe and Well visits did you deliver?
  • How many older people might you have indirectly engaged with (e.g.through local media coverage or partner organisations)?
  • Has the campaign helped you forge working relations with health partners (e.g. GPs, CCGs, hospitals)?
  • How much media coverage did you achieve?
  • How useful was information you received from CFOA before the event?
  • What additional information or support would have been helpful?

Contacts
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about the campaign, please do not hesitate to contact Mike Larking who has produced this toolkit on behalf of CFOA.

01606 868426