East Sussex 2021/22
Read more about East SussexThis is HMICFRS’s third assessment of fire and rescue services. This assessment examines the service’s effectiveness, efficiency and how well it looks after its people. It is designed to give the public information about how their local fire and rescue service is performing in several important areas, in a way that is comparable with other services across England.
The extent to which the service is effective at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks is good.
The extent to which the service is efficient at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks is good.
The extent to which the service looks after its people requires improvement.
Matt Parr, HM Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services
HM Inspector's summary
It was a pleasure to revisit East Sussex Fire and Rescue, and I am grateful for the positive and constructive way that the service engaged with our inspections.
We are pleased to see the that the service has made progress since our 2019 inspection.
I am pleased with some of the performance of East Sussex Fire and Rescue in keeping people safe and secure from fires and other risks, although it needs to improve in some areas to provide a consistently good service. For example, the service has built up a comprehensive understanding of risk within the county. This information is used to target the most vulnerable people and premises and provide support and guidance from prevention and protection teams. Access to risk information has improved and is readily available for staff.
These are the findings I consider most important from our assessments of the service over the past year.
The service has invested time and money to ensure its integrated risk management plan (IRMP) is fit for purpose. There is a clear link showing how the service uses this information to drive day-to-day activity.
Prevention work is targeted at the most at risk of fire and other risks, and the service understands the importance of evaluating activities for future improvement. It works effectively with partners to achieve successful outcomes.
The protection team is well resourced, and the service has completed all inspections on premises identified as part of the building risk review, which was a main priority. Work has begun on the new risk reduction model that will ensure the service targets the highest-risk premises, and we look forward to seeing this work in the future.
Staff are supported well through periods of absence, with the service seeing a marked decrease over the last year. There is good support for monitoring colleagues who have been involved in incidents with the potential to cause post-traumatic stress, and we have identified this as promising practice.
Staff felt confident in commanding incidents, with sufficient training and maintenance of competence. The service needs to ensure the process for capturing and sharing learning from exercises, training and operational incidents is effective to make further improvements. The service carries out positive action campaigns before operational recruitment in order to encourage applications from groups who are underrepresented in the workforce. However, there was a lack of understanding among some staff of why this happens. The service needs to ensure there is adequate training for staff in equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), so staff understand the benefits to the service.
Overall, East Sussex Fire and Rescue has made good progress since our last inspection. I encourage it to continue with its efforts to make improvements in the areas we have highlighted.