Devon's fire service "requires improvement"

Inspectors release report today (Tuesday 17th December)

HMICFRS took on responsibility for inspecting fire and rescue services in 2017 and has now inspected every fire and rescue service in England.

In it's latest inspection, they found that Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service:

• is ‘good’ at effectively keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks;
• ’requires improvement’ at how efficiently it manages its resources; and
• ’requires improvement’ at looking after its people.

HM Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services Wendy Williams said:

“We are satisfied with some aspects of the performance of Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. But there are several areas where it needs to make improvements.

“Devon and Somerset is good at understanding the risk of fire and other emergencies and preventing fires and other risks. It is also good at protecting the public through fire regulation and responding to national risks. It does, however, require improvement in how it responds to fires and other emergencies, not least as it is failing to meet its response standards. That said, it works well with Hampshire and Dorset & Wiltshire fire and rescue services so that the quickest resource will be mobilized to an incident.

“The service needs to improve how efficiently it operates. Resources are not currently aligned to current risk. The service also needs to establish if operational crews are productive and used efficiently to support prevention, protection and response activities.

“The way that Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service looks after its people also requires improvement. At the time of our inspection, it hadn’t tested the fitness of its operational staff for over three years so could not assure itself that all members of operational staff met the minimum fitness levels required to perform the role of a firefighter. We also saw behaviours that were not aligned to the service’s values.

“While we saw some good practice, I hope to see improvements in the year ahead. I am confident that the service will work hard to build on the strengths and address the areas for improvement we have identified in this report.”

The service is in the middle of a huge change programme called Safer Together, which they say is is all about putting resources where they are most needed. It means closing some fire stations and reducing the number of engines at others. The Fire Authority, which governs the service, is meeting in the New Year to discuss the changes. 

In response to the inspection report, Chief Fire Officer Lee Howell said: “I am pleased that inspectors identified that the Service is ‘good’ at keeping people safe and secure from fires and other risks.”

He continued: “I very much welcome the inspection report which confirms that we are good at understanding the risk of fires and other emergencies, good at preventing fires, good at protecting the public through the regulation for fire safety and good at responding to national risks.

“We are also classed as good in securing an affordable way of managing the risks of fires and other emergencies now and in the future and are good at the way in which we train our staff.

“We accept that we ‘require improvement’ in the way we respond to fires and other emergencies, need to do more to use our resources to manage risk, need to further promote our values and culture, further improve fairness and diversity and develop leadership and capability.”

Lee added: “The inspectors recognised that our operational response is quicker than other predominantly rural services. We think that being able to provide a fire engine to three out of four incidents within 10 minutes can be seen to be something of an achievement given our large geographical area. However, we can do more to improve our availability of our ‘on call’ fire stations and hope to finalise improved arrangements with trade unions shortly which will further improve our response times.”

Lee concluded: “We accept the report in full and have already addressed many of the areas identified for improvement since the inspection in June.”

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority is responsible for the governance arrangements for the Service.

Cllr Sara Randall Johnson, Chair of the Fire Authority, said: “The Authority welcomes the introduction of service inspections by HMICFRS. It is a shame the time between inspection and publication has been so long. The Service has changed during this period and will continue to improve its performance. The recommendations provide a focus for both members and the Service to consider, as we strengthen public safety. Prevention and protection activities lay at the heart of all we do.”