The success of North Wales Fire and Rescue Service’s ground-breaking safety scheme with housing association Cartrefi Conwy continues with the help of young apprentices from both organisations.

The free Safe and Well Check scheme launched by North Wales Fire and Rescue Service in partnership with Cartrefi Conwy is now in its fourth year and has been a potential lifesaver from day one. The success of this scheme relies on being able to talk with tenants in their homes, identify any concerns for safety and wellbeing, and take action to improve safety.

To further develop their partnership, apprentices from North Wales Fire & Rescue Service and Cartrefi Conwy are being offered the opportunity to learn more about how both organisations work to protect their communities.

Jade Gibbs, Business Fire Safety Apprentice at North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, is part way through a three year apprenticeship. As part of her learning experience, she has spent six weeks on placement with Cartrefi Conwy.

Jade told us: “As part of my broader learning experience, it’s great for me to understand first-hand how Cartrefi Conwy carries out fire risk assessments to reduce the risks to tenants in their homes.

“I really enjoyed my visits with their Independent Living Coordinators and learning what they do fire safety wise with tenants. Many of the tenants are older and what the Coordinators do helps them to live more safely on their own.”

During her placement with Cartrefi Conwy Jade also visited sites with their risk assessors from Savills to see how a risk assessment is created. She said: “This was such a beneficial experience for me, if I hadn’t been on the placement I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to witness how assessors gather the information for their reports.

“It was also amazing to see how my concerns with items I found in common areas of some flats were dealt with and followed up when this was reported to Cartrefi Conwy.”

Paul Scott, Head of Business Fire Safety, added:  "I'm really pleased to see this great example of partnership working which enriches the experience of our apprentices.

"We are hoping to develop the programme and offer other business fire safety apprentices this experience in 2019.

"Well done to all involved."

In her Customer Service apprenticeship role with Cartrefi Conwy, Maya Waud was asked to send out a letter to tenants to arrange a Safe and Well Check in their home.

Maya made some small changes to the letter before sending it out that resulted in hundreds of more tenants than before phoning in to book a visit. Maya said: “I answered the calls with other colleagues and booked in lots of Safe and Well Checks into the New Year.

“I think it’s great my apprenticeship with Cartrefi Conwy gives me the opportunity to make a difference especially on something as important as this.”

Since the partnership started over 1,000 Safe and Well Checks have been carried out at Cartrefi Conwy properties across the Conwy County. A third have been in sheltered accommodation that often house older and more vulnerable tenants.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service have also trained and assessed nine other Cartrefi Conwy colleagues to work with their Home Safety Support Workers to carry out Safe and Well Checks.