How firefighters have been helping vulnerable Hartlepool families through the pandemic

At the latest meeting of Cleveland Fire Authority, councillors heard brigade staff have carried out work beyond responding to incidents during the pandemic.

Extra work has included transporting patients to and from hospitals, PPE delivery, training to frontline staff, ambulance driving and personnel support.

Cllr Marjorie James, Hartlepool Borough Council representative on the committee, raised awareness of how firefighters would be entering homes where families could be dealing with increased issues of domestic abuse or extreme financial difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

She said: “We’re aware there are a number of vulnerable children in homes where violence is quite clearly active and those children are really in danger of falling through the cracks.

“The other issue is as money bites in families, and it is, either through job loss or removal from furlough and reductions again in income, we will have a serious rise in the activities of loan sharks within our communities.

“Can we make sure we are actively looking for those elements of anxiety in our communities?”

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Ian Hayon, chief fire officer at Cleveland Fire Brigade, said staff are trained to spot all manner of safeguarding issues, and noted there has been an increase in domestic violence reported during the period – with ‘a substantial number’ of safeguarding referrals made by brigade staff.

“All of our staff have been trained in safeguarding issues right across the board,” he said.

“In relation to whatever the safeguarding issue be, whether it be in relation to children, vulnerable adults or to the financial situation referenced, our staff have been given that awareness training in relation to safeguarding.

“I am certainly aware that we have made a substantial number of safeguarding referrals into the appropriate agencies to ensure that vulnerable people in our community are protected.”

Firefighters have continued to carry out home fire safety visits to protect vulnerable residents during the pandemic, with more than 3,000 visits up to the end June.

Staff also delivered more than 400 business safety audits and completed all risk-based inspection programmes to high risk premises during the period.

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