Lincolnshire 2021/22

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service’s overall effectiveness requires improvement.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service was good in its 2018/19 assessment.

In Round 1, the service received an overall good grading, with only ‘protecting the public through fire regulation’ being graded as requires improvement.

The service has published a new integrated risk management plan (IRMP). However, at the time of our inspection, it still wasn’t reporting on the progress of this plan. This plan describes how prevention, protection and response work will be resourced to reduce the risks and threats to the community. But the service still has work to do to make sure that it has enough resources to meet demand. It needs to focus on monitoring and assessing the results of its work, to establish what works and what it can do better.

The service still needs to improve how it works with local people to better understand risk in the community. The service needs to target the hard-to-reach parts of its community and those who are most vulnerable. Levels of prevention activity are low and mainly carried out by its specialists, after referrals from other organisations. Although the service has arranged for its fire prevention work to be assessed by Lincolnshire University, this remains an area that still needs improvement since our first inspection.

It has improved its protection work and how it targets high-risk premises. This includes, for example, building owners and landlords who don’t follow all the fire guidance and regulations that they should. Evidence of this is the increase in non‑compliance rates. The service has invested in additional resources to support its risk-based inspection programme. Although it was too early to understand, at the time of inspection, how effective these resources are. The way it stores and records protection data is also inconsistent, and it needs to improve how audits are quality assured.

Since our first inspection in 2018, the service has made good progress with putting in place national operational guidance. The service sets response standards for arrival at fires and road traffic collisions. But it doesn’t currently meet these targets. Since our last inspection in 2018, however, it is better at collecting risk data. Although the process does lack quality assurance.

Its control room function is resilient. This is, in part, thanks to its work with, and support from, the East Coast and Hertfordshire Control Consortium. This involves four fire services (Lincolnshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Humberside) sharing resources. These include IT networks, training and strategic plans. But the service could do more to improve training for control room staff. Critically, it hasn’t reviewed and published new fire survival guidance following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommendations.

The service is ready to respond to major and multi-agency incidents. The service has a cross-border exercise plan with neighbouring fire and rescue services. This helps them to work together effectively to keep the public safe. The plan includes the risks of major events that the service could provide support or ask for assistance from neighbouring services. Exercises have significantly reduced during the pandemic, with eight exercises being carried out in the year 2019/20 and none in 2020/21.

We also heard from some staff that they have not been involved in either a cross‑border exercise or multi-agency training. The service should consider offering this training to all operational staff.