EHJ April 2005, pages 12-14

Fitness for purpose was launched nationally in February. So far, there have been few takers. But if Blackpool DC's experience is anything to go by there may be a lot more mileage in this 'softly softly' approach to enforcement that has gone down so well among the bed and breakfasts of Blackpool's North Shore. EHJ visits the northern resort

It's hard to imagine that the serried ranks of grand Edwardian and Victorian houses that make up Blackpool's community of bed and breakfasts could ever all be full. They seem to go on forever, row after identical row. But then this is early March, Blackpool's quietest time. This is when the builders, plumbers, electricians descend. Scaffolding goes up, the no vacancies signs come out and refurbishment is done.

Except this year is slightly different. In addition to the tradesmen plying their trades, two private EHPs, Peter Phillips and Peter Montandon have become regular features on the windswept streets of Blackpool's North Shore. The "two Peters" have been contracted by Blackpool DC, following a successful pilot scheme, to offer help and advice to hoteliers on how to comply with what some see as a bewildering array of health and safety, fire, and food hygiene rules. Badged up as fitness for purpose, ministers hope local authorities will adopt this "softly softly" approach to enforcement, which has been embraced by the town's hoteliers.

Blackpool came to life on 29 April 1846. That was the day the railway arrived, transporting families from Yorkshire and Lancashire to the coast. Now, 12 million people visit each year, to see the illuminations, ride the big dipper and laze by the sea. They all want to be entertained, fed and accommodated, most of them between June and November.

This creates a problem for Ian Almond, public protection manager for environmental services at Blackpool DC. With a team of six, including trading standards, he is responsible for 5,000 food premises and over 2,500 hotels and guesthouses, all serving cooked breakfasts and evening meals during the height of the season. With such a high number of businesses to police he is forced to prioritise his resources.

"Food safety is key in Blackpool because we are a seasonal resort and we have a lot of businesses that arrive with no experience of food handling, operating right around the clock. So, to take the few resources we have and divert them into generally well-run businesses like bed and breakfasts is just not effective," observes Mr Almond. In short, under pressure from the Food Standards Agency, inspection regimes and audits, a large rump of Blackpool's economy, the bed and breakfasts, was being neglected.

That was until the foot and mouth epidemic and the birth of fitness for purpose, an initiative aimed at helping businesses become safer and meet their statutory obligations under health and safety, food hygiene and fire safety legislation. The ethos of the initiative is very much one of cooperation. By educating businesses and using one point of contact, it aims to reduce the number of visits and red tape suffered by small businesses.

Unusually for an environmental health initiative, it all started within the Department for Culture Media and Sport. Concerned that images of burning pyres of cattle were damaging Britain's tourist industry, Whitehall officials looked for ways to provide tourism with a boost. Driving up standards, by making sure that all the hotels, bed and breakfasts and restaurants that tourist come into contact with are fit to trade, seemed the fillip that tourism needed. So, in March 2003 fitness for purpose was launched and six local authorities signed up as pilot sites, Blackpool being one of them.

Two years on and the initiative has been heralded a success. It was launched nationally in February, partially because of the positive results achieved during Blackpool's pilot. Despite initial distrust Blackpool hoteliers have come to see fitness for purpose as helpful. The exercise has also eased pressure on the council's hard pushed environmental health department and standards are being raised, so the public is benefiting.

"A classic win, win situation," explains Mr Phillips, one of two private EHPs working for the environmental health consultancy IFEH who have been drafted in to roll out the strategy. "When you do a traditional inspection you know businesses are hiding things from you. But this way we sit and talk through issues for a couple of hours. I then get to learn much more about what is really going on in a person's business so I can offer help to get things sorted out."

Fitness for purpose is, in part, about self assessment. Hoteliers are asked to go through a checklist covering fire safety, health and safety, food hygiene and trading standards. They are asked over 300, single issue, closed questions such as: are your bunk beds situated near windows? Are your contractors competent? Do you have fire alarms? And so on. Priorities are allocated. Businesses are made aware that providing adequately identifiable fire escapes is a higher priority than wearing appropriate footwear. Problems are highlighted, discussed and then actions are decided on. Anyone participating is told that only in extreme life-threatening circumstances would enforcement action be taken. Also, what they tell the fitness for purpose representative is said in confidence. "This means I get to hear about things I would never normally know," explains Mr Phillips. "For example, one of the big issues here is risk assessing window cleaners, also the placing of double beds near windows. I get to hear about this stuff without even having to look around a premises."

Once the threat of enforcement is removed and an advisory tone is set, EHPs are finding that business owners feel happy to talk honestly about strengths and weaknesses within their business.

Another key aspect of fitness for purpose is to work within the community and existing hotel associations. This generates its own momentum as businesses talk to each other, share information and fears are dispelled. "What impresses me is the way all these places talk to each other," explains Mr Montandon. "They compare what I have said to them with what I have said to other business owners and if they all feel they are being treated the same, they are more likely to do something about the problems."

Gynn Avenue, a district of the North Shore made up of 52 small hotels that are often run by couples without staff, was chosen as the pilot area. The Department for Culture Media and Sport chose September to launch the initiative at the local Hilton Hotel. Most now agree that choosing the height of the season to launch the initiative may not have been the best decision.

"It was a very troubled and aggressive meeting because they did not know what they were letting themselves in for. We were told that hoteliers did not have three hours to be here," remembers Mr Almond. "By the end of the meeting they had calmed down. The second meeting was amazingly different. It was a much more positive reaction. We could not get away."

Historically, Blackpool hoteliers have been prey to conmen offering services, training and goods on the back of the traders' fear of prosecution. "We even had one firm call itself Blackpool Counsel, offering all sorts of training at outrageous prices. We had to deal with them through trading standards," said Mr Almond. With fitness for purpose hoteliers found themselves able to get advice on products and services being offered, help on avoiding private litigation and practical advice from the EHPs.

Sheila and Conrad Tyson were the first hoteliers to get involved in the pilot. They have been running the Merginn, bed and breakfast, in Glynn Avenue, for six years and found the new approach adopted by the council refreshing. "Because we were relaxed, we asked questions and discussed problems openly," said Mrs Tyson. "It allowed us to think things through rather than be defensive. Previous inspections seemed to be geared to finding something wrong each time."

During the pilot each visit to a bed and breakfast was followed up four weeks later to see whether highlighted problems had been dealt with. Analysis of the pilot showed that 98 per cent of hotels had made some form of improvement. Mr Altmon was impressed with the outcome. "When we did revisits we found big improvements, it is also encouraging to see that these businesses, despite being left alone for a year, have kept up standards." The pilot's results endorsed the softly, softly approach showing a 64 per cent improvement in food hygiene training, a hundred per cent improvement in those with accident books, and a 60 per cent increase in hotels getting their electrics properly checked. The council has now extended the project to a neighbouring grid of bed and breakfasts on the North Shore. Next year, Blackpool DC hopes to use fitness for purpose to tackle the much more problematic area around central Blackpool.

Blackpool is split into three areas, the south and north shore, comprised of large, generally well maintained, Victorian and Edwardian properties catering for families and the more traditional trade. Central Blackpool, around the tower, tends to attract the more raucous stag and hen parties. Here you can get a room for as little as £8 a night, with no breakfast, not a problem when partying is foremost in your mind.

Fitness for purpose has proved itself among the more responsible businesses on the North Shore, but Mr Almond believes it could be equally as effective in central Blackpool.

The council is looking to define distinct areas of town within the inner wards that have some kind of centre like blocks of shops. "We would like to look at these areas in total from a council point of view and put a fitness of purpose concept into them," explains Mr Almond. "It might be like what we have done on the North Shore, except we would tack on things like improving transport, street lighting, doing up the whole area and treating it across the board from planning to highways. Maybe we could introduce a local street college arrangement where we identify a training need, so we could deliver on site training." He is hopeful that given the social problems associated with the town centre, he could attract funding for such a project.

Funding has been an issue with fit for purpose. The costs of Blackpool's pilot was shared between the environmental services and the tourism department. But central government has failed to provide any money, despite Richard Caborn, minister for sport and tourism, hoping to provide local authorities with £2m worth of seed funding to kick start the initiative nationally. Nothing has, so far materialised, so anyone looking to adopt fitness for purpose is going to have to be creative in the way it is paid for.

Using contract EHPs, lends itself to the initiative as they are then able to distance themselves from the council's enforcement role. The scheme could also be adapted to work in-house. Mr Altmon believes councils could take elements of the project, whether it is just the health and safety module, or food hygiene, and apply them to the businesses on their patch. But it might not suit everyone. "This may not work so well with bigger businesses," he points out. "It is not one size fits all with this. It is aimed at small businesses with few staff who want to comply with all the different regulations. It helps when they are dealing with a number of officers. It's easy for them to become confused."