New report finds Norfolk Fire has made "clear improvements"
National inspectors observed the service
A report from national inspectors has found that Norfolk Fire and Rescue has made "clear improvements" in five areas since October 2021.
The inspectors, from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), looked at the service’s effectiveness and efficiency, and how well it looks after its people - finding is was good or adequate in eight of eleven areas.
"We want people to have no doubt that they can rely on us"
Ceri Sumner is chief fire officer from the county's fire service:
“I am very proud of the consistent hard work of everyone at Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service over the last two years to move us further forward on our journey of improvement – it has been a real team effort.
“This report recognises our good progress in a number of areas, but we know we still have more work to do, particularly in targeting our prevention activities, improving how we evaluate the quality of our work and attracting a more diverse workforce.
"We've increased our prevention team from 3 to 15 people and increased the number of home fire safety visits that we do. I'm really pleased to see improvements in our culture be recognised.
"We'll now be looking at all of the areas of improvements and where we've got certain strengths that we can build on. We want people to have no doubt that they can rely on us, whenever they need us."
What did the report find?
Lee Freeman, HM Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services at His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found:
• The service has made prevention a high priority. We were encouraged to find a significant increase in both resources and time allocated to reducing risk.
• The service is good at making sure it is affordable now and in the future. Its medium-term financial strategy is clearly linked to its community risk management plan (CRMP), and this is subject to rigorous analysis and challenge. Overall, the service has a sound understanding of its future financial challenges.
• The service has well-defined values, which staff understand. There is a positive working culture throughout the service, with staff feeling empowered and willing to challenge poor behaviours when they come across them.
• The service needs to do more to further improve performance, productivity and ways of working. It needs to do more to provide effective assurance on the quality of its prevention and protection activities and do more to make sure its workforce is as productive as possible.
• The service needs to make sure staff are appropriately trained for their roles and that the systems used to review workforce capabilities and staff training are effective.
• The service needs to do more to make sure all staff view internal promotion processes as open, transparent and fair. It needs to also make sure that the processes used to identify, manage and develop talent are applied consistently.
• The service needs to make sure that equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are at the heart of its talent management approach for identifying and developing future and current leaders.
What has Norfolk Council said?
Norfolk County Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Partnerships, Cllr Margaret Dewsbury, said:
“Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service plays a hugely important role across our communities and county. The improvements highlighted by inspectors clearly demonstrate how hard the service is working to make itself even more effective and efficient in responding to emergencies and protecting people from harm.”
The HMICFRS team spent eight weeks in Norfolk in September and October 2023 in the third of its ongoing series of inspections of fire and rescue services across the country.
These are an assessment of the services’ effectiveness and efficiency and how well they look after their people. It last carried out a full inspection in Norfolk in October 2021.