Fire and rescue service response to COVID-19
On 4 August 2020, the Home Secretary commissioned us to examine how fire and rescue services responded to the pandemic.
We answered these questions:
- What is working well and what is being learnt?
- How the fire sector is responding to the COVID-19 crisis?
- How fire services are dealing with the problems they face?
- What changes are likely because of COVID-19?
We focused on these five issues:
- What services are doing during the pandemic and what impact the tripartite agreement between the National Fire Chiefs Council, National Employers and Fire Brigades Union had.
- How services looked after their staff, in particular their minority ethnic and vulnerable staff.
- How services fulfilled their statutory functions.
- What worked well including any best practice.
- How did services work with others, including other blue light services.
We published our findings in January 2021: Responding to the pandemic: The fire and rescue service’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.