Kent Fire and Rescue Service
Executive summary of 'Evaluation of Safe and Well visits 2019-20'

1. The ‘Evaluation of Safe & Well Visits 2019/20’ report addresses the impact that Safe & Well (S&W) visits have on customer behaviour relating to fire safety. We conducted a post-intervention qualitative survey to gain in-depth information about how customers were using the advice given during S&W visits, and whether visits can be used to effectively change behaviour.

2. The primary aim of S&W visits within Kent is the prevention of fatalities and casualties in accidental dwelling fires (ADF), with the wider benefit of improving safety and wellbeing. Safe & Well visits in Kent are currently offered to households that include anyone aged over 70 years, anyone aged under five years (including pregnant women), smokers, or people with long-term health conditions.

3. Note at the time of writing this report, the term Safe & Well visits includes those visits that were undertaken by station crews.

4. Although S&W visits are carried out by fire and rescue services (FRS) nationally, there is very little evaluation of their impact. In order to assess the impact of S&W visits, some FRS’ use number of incidents as a marker. That is, a decrease in ADFs in an area is attributed to the delivery of S&W visits in that area. However this approach does not account for the myriad of other factors that could influence the likelihood of an ADF, and it is not possible to confidently make a causal link between the delivery of S&W visits and reduced ADFs.

5. Therefore, Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) considered an intermediary factor in the relationship between S&W visits and incidence of ADFs - namely customer behaviour. This approach was taken to account for the human factor in the likelihood of experiencing an ADF. This allows for a more direct assessment of the impact of S&W visits, and to evaluate the current S&W targeting, delivery, and effectiveness in making customers safer.