Overall summary

Our judgments

Our inspection assessed how well Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service has performed in 11 areas. We have made the following graded judgments:

In the rest of the report, we set out our detailed findings about the areas in which the service has performed well and where it should improve.

Changes to this round of inspection

We last inspected Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service in July 2022. And in January 2023, we published our inspection report with our findings on the service’s effectiveness and efficiency and how well it looks after its people.

This inspection contains our third assessment of the service’s effectiveness and efficiency, and how well it looks after its people. We have measured the service against the same 11 areas and given a grade for each.

We haven’t given separate grades for effectiveness, efficiency and people as we did previously. This is to encourage the service to consider our inspection findings as a whole and not focus on just one area.

We now assess services against the characteristics of good performance, and we more clearly link our judgments to causes of concern and areas for improvement. We have also expanded our previous four-tier system of graded judgments to five. As a result, we can state more precisely where we consider improvement is needed and highlight good performance more effectively. However, these changes mean it isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between grades awarded in this round of fire and rescue service inspections with those from previous years.

A reduction in grade, particularly from good to adequate, doesn’t necessarily mean there has been a reduction in performance, unless we say so in the report.

This report sets out our inspection findings for Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Read more about how we assess fire and rescue services and our graded judgments.

HMI summary

It was a pleasure to revisit Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service, and I am grateful for the positive and constructive way in which the service worked with our inspection staff.

I am pleased with the performance of Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service in keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks, but it needs to improve in some areas to provide a consistently good service. For example, the service should make sure its selection and promotion processes are fair, and do more to identify and support potential leaders.

We were pleased to see that the service has made progress since our 2022 inspection. For example, it has improved its workforce plan and brought in new measures to promote equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

My principal findings from our assessments of the service over the past year are as follows:

• The service is good at responding to emergencies (including major incidents) and we are pleased with the efforts being made to maintain operational availability.
• The service has sound financial plans and understands its future financial challenges.
• The service has effectively addressed the two areas of improvement we identified in 2022 relating to EDI.
• Since our last inspection, the service hasn’t made enough progress in identifying and supporting talent to make sure it is developing its future leaders.
• In our inspection, we found that the service has recognised and addressed concerns we had heard about its disciplinary and grievance process; it has now introduced a more robust process which improves independence, supports welfare provision and will allow the service to be more effective in managing and dealing with cases.

Overall, I commend the service on the changes it has already made, and I look forward to monitoring how it responds to address the areas for improvement we have identified.

Lee Freeman

HM Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services

Service in numbers

Percentage of firefighters, workforce and population who identified as a woman as at 31 March 2024

Percentage of firefighters, workforce and population who were from ethnic minority backgrounds as at 31 March 2024

References to ethnic minorities in this report include people from White minority backgrounds but exclude people from Irish minority backgrounds. This is due to current data collection practices for national data. For more information on data and analysis in this report, please view ‘About the data’.

Understanding the risk of fire and other emergencies

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at understanding risk.

Each fire and rescue service should identify and assess all foreseeable fire and rescue-related risks that could affect its communities. It should use its protection and response capabilities to prevent or mitigate these risks for the public.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service is good at identifying risk

The service has assessed a suitable range of risks and threats using a thorough community risk management planning process. In its assessment of risk, it uses information it has collected from a broad range of internal and external sources and datasets. This includes information on health and social care, census data, data on previous incidents, and data on road traffic collisions provided by the police. Important sources for this include the Office for National Statistics and organisations focused on public safety.

When appropriate, the service has consulted and held constructive dialogue with its communities and other relevant parties to understand risk and explain how it intends to mitigate it. For example, it has spoken to local authorities, community groups, housing associations, the business community, and other emergency services. This has helped the service understand the risks faced by its communities and their needs.

The service has an effective community risk management plan

Once it has assessed risks, the service records its findings in an easily understood community risk management plan (CRMP). This plan describes how the service intends to use its prevention, protection and response activities to mitigate or reduce the risks and threats the community faces both now and in the future.

The CRMP details six service priorities:

1. Keeping our communities safe from fire and other emergencies.
2. Having a well-equipped, trained, competent and safe workforce.
3. Putting people first to maintain an outstanding culture of equality and inclusivity.
4. Delivering an efficient and effective service, that adds value to our communities.
5. Promoting continuous improvement through effective challenge and embracing learning.
6. Enabling the organisation through data and digital transformation.

The CRMP is closely linked to the service’s departmental strategies and station plans, supporting alignment across all areas. And all the service’s key performance measures are directly tied to the service priorities stated above.

The service gathers, maintains and shares a good range of risk information

The service routinely collects and updates the information it has about the highest-risk people, places and threats it has identified. This includes operational risk information about high-risk premises.

We sampled a broad range of the risk information the service collects, including:

• safe and well assessment files;
• site-specific risk information;
• protection files;
• files about short-term risks;
• tactical plans for responding to particular types of incident; and
• hazard management alerts saved on the service’s electronic information system.

This information is readily available for the service’s prevention, protection and response staff. This means these teams can identify, reduce and mitigate risk effectively. For example, the teams use hazard management alerts to communicate information about risks to firefighters. This allows them to share relevant information they hold with the wider service. Where appropriate, the service shares risk information with other organisations, such as members of the Derbyshire Local Resilience Forum, and neighbouring fire and rescue services.

Staff at the locations we visited, including firefighters and emergency control room staff, were able to show us that they could access, use and share risk information quickly to help them resolve incidents safely.

The service builds a good understanding of risk from operational activity

The service records and communicates risk information effectively. It also routinely updates risk assessments and uses feedback from local and national operational activities to inform its planning assumptions. For example, following the use of operational discretion at two separate incidents within the service, both incidents were debriefed and reviewed against policy. The service shared findings from the debriefs nationally through national operational learning and joint organisational learning.

Preventing fires and other risks

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at preventing fires and other risks.

Fire and rescue services must promote fire safety, including giving fire safety advice. To identify people at greatest risk from fire, services should work closely with other organisations in the public and voluntary sectors, and with the police and ambulance services. They should share intelligence and risk information with these other organisations when they identify vulnerability or exploitation.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service’s prevention strategy links to the risks identified in its CRMP

The service’s prevention strategy is clearly linked to the risks it has identified in its CRMP. For example, the service’s new education officers have been focusing on risks identified in the CRMP such as the dangers of open water.

The service’s teams work well together and with other relevant organisations on prevention, and they share relevant information when needed. The service uses information to adjust its planning assumptions and direct activity between its prevention, protection and response functions. For example, following multiple deaths from fires, the service carried out reviews which led to it setting up a fatal fire group. This group is responsible for analysing high-consequence fires and their locations. Its insights help shape prevention staff’s work with other organisations, such as addressing the rise in electrical fires through campaigns with Trading Standards.

The service targets its activities using a risk-based approach

The service uses a risk-based approach to clearly prioritise its prevention activity towards people most at risk from fire and other emergencies. For example, Home Office data shows that during 2023/24, of the 16,343 prevention visits that the service made, 94.4 percent (15,425) were to vulnerable or at-risk groups.

It uses a broad range of information and data, such as Open Exeter data and antisocial behaviour data, to target its prevention activity at vulnerable individuals and groups. The prevention team analyses the likelihood of a fire occurring in the premises at 6 months and 12 months after a safe and well visit. It recently risk assessed a property where a safe and well visit had been carried out within the last 12 months, and the fire severity score had reduced from 67 percent to 37 percent. The service told us its data analysis showed that accidental dwelling fires for 2024/25 were among the lowest on record for the service.

The service carries out a range of interventions, which it adapts to the level of risk in its communities. It works with safeguarding teams from Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council to provide joint training on managing risks relating to vulnerable adults. This training is provided across the two councils, equipping staff to identify fire risks and understand the fire and rescue service’s interventions, such as letterbox locks. In addition, the safeguarding teams are knowledgeable about misting systems, smoke alarms and fire blankets, improving their ability to support fire prevention efforts.

In our previous inspection, we identified an area for improvement that the service should develop a clear prevention strategy targeting people most at risk and make sure that activity carried out prioritises those most at risk. We are satisfied with the progress made, so we have closed this area for improvement.

The service should make sure that quality assurance activities are consistent

Staff told us they have the right skills and confidence to make safe and well visits. These visits cover an appropriate range of hazards that can put vulnerable people at greater risk from fire and other emergencies.

We found that the service didn’t have a formal and consistent process in place to quality assure visits carried out by operational staff. But there is a process in place to contact residents at high or very high risk following a safe and well visit, to determine the effectiveness of the visit and assess any behaviour change. In our previous inspection, we identified an area for improvement that the service should make sure it quality assures its prevention activity, so staff carry out safe and well visits to an appropriate standard. Based on our findings during this inspection, this area for improvement remains.

The service is good at responding to safeguarding concerns

Staff we interviewed told us about occasions when they had identified safeguarding problems. They told us they feel confident and trained to act appropriately and promptly. Operational staff receive relevant face-to-face training, and have access to an e-learning package. We found that staff regularly identified vulnerabilities and risks during safe and well visits, and acted appropriately to improve people’s safety. This includes escalating matters to a more qualified person and making referrals to other agencies, such as health and social care services.

Prevention staff complete enhanced safeguarding training and continuing professional development, which covers issues such as hoarding and county lines.

The service works closely with other agencies on safeguarding, and regularly attends relevant meetings with these. They include meetings of the local safeguarding board and safeguarding strategy meetings.

The service works well with other organisations to reduce the number of fires and other risks

The service works with a wide range of other organisations to prevent fires and other emergencies. These include the police, local authorities, schools and colleges, social services, community groups and health bodies.

We found good evidence that it routinely refers people at greatest risk to organisations that may better meet their needs. These organisations include Derby City Council’s multi-agency safeguarding hub and the Derbyshire Dales community safety partnership (which includes the police, district and county councils, clinical commissioning groups and probation services). Arrangements are also in place to receive referrals from others, such as local authorities, social services and housing associations. The service acts appropriately on the referrals it receives. It monitors referrals to make sure the priority they are given aligns with risk levels. The service evaluates its partnerships annually to confirm they are effective.

In 2023/24, the service reported that it carried out 4,817 prevention visits based on referrals from other agencies, and 336 prevention visits which led to at least 1 referral to another agency.

The service routinely exchanges information with other public sector organisations about people and groups at greatest risk. It uses this information to challenge planning assumptions and target prevention activity. For example, the service amends its safe and well questions in response to new information or changes in legislation. It recently added a question following changes to the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

The service works effectively to tackle fire-setting behaviour

The service has a range of suitable and effective interventions to target and educate people with different needs who show signs of fire-setting behaviour. This includes the service’s work with the FireStoppers scheme, which provides people with a phone line to anonymously report information. This allows the service to communicate regularly with fire-setters. The service’s risk reduction managers work with the police and other local organisations to identify and target antisocial behaviour. It took part in a police initiative to increase presence in hotspot areas.

When appropriate, it routinely shares information with relevant organisations to support the prosecution of arsonists. The service’s work with FireStoppers helps it monitor trends in fire-setting behaviour. This information is shared at meetings of the local performance action group, chaired by station managers. These are attended by the prevention, protection and business safety teams, and external agencies are invited when appropriate. The data management team produces a weekly report on antisocial behaviour so the service can target areas of increased activity.

The service has trained officers to carry out its FireSAFE scheme, which advises children and young people in relation to fire-setting. It also works with young people through its cadet scheme, and carries out school visits to help reduce fire‑setting incidents.

The service has improved its evaluation of prevention work

In our previous inspection, we identified an area for improvement that the service should evaluate its prevention activity so it understands what works. We are satisfied with the progress made, so we have closed this area for improvement.

The service has good evaluation tools in place to measure how effective its activity is and to make sure all sections of its communities get appropriate access to the prevention services that meet their needs. For example, it has brought in a process within the prevention team to support the evaluation of safe and well activity and prevention campaigns. The service has also reviewed its risk index, which led to amendments being made. It now has eight categories of priority, with clear direction on which resources should be committed to each level of risk.

Prevention activities take account of feedback from the public, other organisations and other parts of the service.

The service uses feedback to inform its planning assumptions and change future activity, so it focuses on what the community needs and what works.

Protecting the public through fire regulation

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at protecting the public through fire regulation.

All fire and rescue services should assess fire risks in certain buildings and, when necessary, require building owners to comply with fire safety legislation. Each service decides how many assessments it does each year. But it must have a locally determined, risk-based inspection programme for enforcing the legislation.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

Protection plans support the effectiveness of the CRMP

The service’s protection strategy is clearly linked to the risks it has identified in its CRMP.

Staff across the service are involved in this activity, effectively exchanging information as needed. For example, operational crews carry out visits to gather site-specific risk information, and watch managers are trained to fire safety level three. In addition, inspection officers complete fire safety audits identified in the risk-based inspection programme. They also carry out post-fire audits, and respond to building consultations as well as complaints and issues raised by operational crews. The service then uses information to adjust planning assumptions and direct activity between its protection, prevention and response functions. This means resources are properly aligned to risk.

The service aligns its activity to risk

The service’s risk-based inspection programme is focused on the service’s highest‑risk buildings. It is compliant with National Fire Chiefs Council guidance, and is informed by several datasets. The service considers severity, likelihood and compliance to work out a residual risk score.

The audits we reviewed had been completed in the timescales the service has set itself. The audits were consistent and showed that the service tried to work with the responsible person to resolve issues before escalating them to enforcement or prohibition. As at 1 April 2024, the service had 224 high-risk premises in its area, and had audited 166 of these between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024. It aims to audit all high-risk premises within its area.

Service audits are completed to a high standard

We reviewed a range of audits that the service had carried out at different buildings across its area. These included audits carried out:

• as part of the service’s risk-based inspection programme;
• after fires at premises where fire safety legislation applies;
• after enforcement action had been taken; or
• at high-rise, high-risk buildings.

The audits we reviewed were completed to a high standard in a consistent, systematic way and in line with the service’s policies. The service makes relevant information from its audits available to operational teams and control room operators.

The service has improved its quality assurance process within protection

In our previous inspection, we identified an area for improvement that the service should make sure it has an effective quality assurance process, so staff carry out audits to an appropriate standard. We are satisfied with the progress made, so we have closed this area for improvement.

The service carries out proportionate quality assurance of its protection activity. The service has a quality assurance officer who carries out assurance on one audit every two years for each inspection officer. This includes an in-person review of the fire safety audit and a review of all letters and records following this. This is then reviewed by the group manager for protection, recorded and filed digitally.

The service has good evaluation tools in place to measure how effective its activity is and to make sure all sections of its communities get appropriate access to the protection services that meet their needs. The quality assurance process reviews not only the individual’s performance, but also all processes and documentation involved. This gives the service assurance that the process is up to date, accessible and effective.

The service uses its enforcement powers appropriately

The service consistently uses its full range of enforcement powers, and when appropriate, it prosecutes those who don’t comply with fire safety regulations. The service has demonstrated that it has the appetite and capability to use its enforcement powers whenever appropriate.

In the year ending 31 March 2024, the service issued 33 alteration notices, 503 informal notifications, 48 enforcement notices, 8 prohibition notices and carried out 2 prosecutions. It carried out 19 prosecutions in the five years from 2019/20 to 2023/24. There were 542 unsatisfactory fire safety audits in 2023/24, and a total of 594 enforcement activities taken in the same time frame. There were 397 satisfactory audits following enforcement activity, indicating that this activity is often effective.

The service is well resourced in fire safety

The service has enough protection staff to meet the requirements of its risk-based inspection programme. In 2023/24, the service had 12 protection staff who were fully competent and 13 in development. This helps the service provide the range of audit and enforcement activity needed, both now and in the future.

The service provides fire safety training to operational supervisory managers. This supports resilience and has improved fire safety knowledge within the organisation.

Staff get the right training and work to appropriate accreditation. In several cases, the service has trained protection staff to a higher level than required by national guidance.

In our previous inspection, we identified an area for improvement that the service should make sure it has appropriate plans in place to meet the risk-based inspection programme. We are satisfied with the progress made, so we have closed this area for improvement.

The service adapts well to new legislation

Since our last inspection, the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 have been introduced to bring about better regulation and management of tall buildings.

The service is supporting the introduction of the Building Safety Regulator. The service has an in-house protection policy team. This reviews any changes to legislation and incorporates these into continuing professional development training sessions, which take place quarterly. It expects these arrangements to have a limited impact on its other protection activity. The service and the regulator have been working together since the change in legislation to inform and educate people affected by the changes.

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 introduced a range of duties for the managers of tall buildings. These include a requirement to give the fire and rescue service floor plans and inform them of any substantial faults to essential firefighting equipment, such as firefighting lifts.

We found the service has good arrangements in place to receive this information. When it doesn’t receive the right information, it takes action. And it accordingly updates the risk information it gives its operational staff.

The service works closely with other agencies to regulate fire safety

The service works closely with other enforcement agencies to regulate fire safety and it routinely exchanges risk information with them. The service gave examples of carrying out joint inspections with the local building control team, due to problems with the alarm system and the need for a waking watch at a site. It also gave examples of sharing information and carrying out joint visits with Trading Standards, housing associations, council licensing teams and the police.

The service is improving its response to building consultations

The service responds to most building consultations on time. This means it mostly meets its statutory responsibility to comment on fire safety arrangements at new and altered buildings. In 2023/24, the service responded to 90.9 percent of building consultations (613 out of 674). During our inspection, the service provided data which showed that this figure improved from month to month.

The service works proactively with businesses

The service proactively works with local businesses and other organisations to promote compliance with fire safety legislation. It has business safety advisers who work with businesses and run campaigns aligned to the National Fire Chiefs Council campaigns calendar. These advisers recently hosted several informative webinars to help business owners understand their responsibilities relating to fire safety.

The service is effective at reducing unwanted fire signals

An effective risk-based approach is in place to manage the number of unwanted fire signals. The service reports on this at its quarterly performance meetings, and monitors and records repeat offenders. It also uses a process to challenge potentially unwanted calls, which it has noted is having a positive impact. The service gets fewer calls because of this work.

The service has an effective tri-service agreement with Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service. This aims to work with responsible persons and alarm monitoring centres to reduce the number of unwanted fire signals.

According to Home Office data, in the 12 months to 31 March 2024, the service attended 2,612 false alarms. This equates to 2.4 false alarms per 1,000 population and is below the rate across England of 4.4 false alarms per 1,000 population.

Fewer unwanted calls mean fire engines are available to respond to a genuine incident rather than responding to a false one. It also reduces the risk to the public if fewer fire engines travel at high speed on the roads.

The service has evaluated its protection work

In our previous inspection, we identified an area for improvement that the service should evaluate its protection activity so it understands what works. We are satisfied with the progress made, so we have closed this area for improvement.

The service carried out an evaluation of its risk-based inspection programme and its entire protection portfolio. This led to increased governance and oversight. The service has improved how its meetings align with each other, and has set up dashboards to support the team’s ability to monitor protection activity and audit due dates. This supports the service to align its resources to the areas of work with the greatest demand.

Responding to fires and other emergencies

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at responding to fires and other emergencies.

Fire and rescue services must be able to respond to a range of incidents such as fires, road traffic collisions and other emergencies in their areas.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service’s response is linked to risk and maximises availability

The service’s response strategy is linked to the risks it has identified in its CRMP. Its fire engines and response staff, as well as its working patterns, are designed and located to help the service respond flexibly to fires and other emergencies with the appropriate resources. For example, the service has a system in place to get the most fire engine availability from the numbers of staff working on any given day. It moves staff between stations so that those with fewer available can meet the minimum number needed (four) to operate fire engines. When staffing levels permit, the service also moves staff from wholetime stations to on-call stations so they are better able to respond to incidents.

This system makes better use of resources and makes more fire engines available. It allows the service to better align its resources with the risks it has identified.

The service generally meets its response standards

There are no national response standards of performance for the public. But the service has set out its own response standards in its CRMP. It has a target to respond to fires involving risk to life within 10 minutes, 80 percent of the time. The service consistently meets its standards.

Home Office data shows that in the year ending 30 June 2024, the service’s response time to primary fires was 10 minutes and 24 seconds. This is in line with the average for rural services, which was 10 minutes and 16 seconds.

The service maintains good availability of fire engines

To support its response strategy, in 2023/24, the service had 31 fire stations with 40 fire engines. During this period, the service had wholetime fire engines available 99.9 percent of the time, and on-call fire engines available 76.5 percent of the time.

In order to help improve on-call availability, the service sometimes moves wholetime firefighters to on-call stations to increase the numbers of staff available to operate fire engines there. This process is managed by the business change team, which also provides support to on-call staff. The service told us that on-call availability had improved since the start of 2024/25. At the time of our inspection, the service told us that on-call fire engines were available 82 percent of the time.

Staff have a good understanding of how to command incidents safely

The service has trained incident commanders, who are assessed regularly and properly. Commanders attend the service’s training centre every year (for training and assessment in alternating years). In 2023/24, almost all incident commanders (97 percent) were accredited in Derbyshire. This helps the service safely, assertively and effectively manage the whole range of incidents it could face, from small and routine ones to complex multi-agency incidents.

As part of our inspection, we interviewed incident commanders from across the service. They were familiar with risk assessing, decision-making and recording information at incidents in line with national best practice, as well as the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP).

The service takes a thematic approach to monitoring incidents. It sends monitoring officers to specific types of incidents, according to themes that are periodically identified (such as water-related incidents, for example). This supports the officers to observe commanders’ performance, analyse trends, and provide targeted feedback.

In our previous inspection, we identified an area for improvement that the service should make sure it has an effective process to monitor and assure commanders of operational incidents. We are satisfied with the progress made, so we have closed this area for improvement.

The service is continuing to improve how it works with fire control

The service operates a joint fire control room with Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.

We were pleased to see that efforts were being made to align working practices between the services. This will support control room operators to do their jobs efficiently and effectively.

We found the service’s control staff were integrated into its command, training, exercise, debrief and assurance activity.

The service has accurate and up-to-date risk information that is available to firefighters

We sampled a range of risk information. This included site-specific risk information, the information in place for firefighters responding to incidents at high-risk, high-rise buildings and the information held by fire control.

The information we reviewed was up to date and detailed. Staff could easily access and understand it. Encouragingly, it had been completed with input from the service’s prevention, protection, and response functions when appropriate.

The service uses mobile data terminals which allow operational crews to access risk information while they are travelling to or at an incident.

The service is good at evaluating operational performance and applying national operational guidance

As part of the inspection, we reviewed a range of emergency incidents and training events. These included major flooding, domestic fires, rescues and a marauding terrorist attack exercise.

We were pleased to see the service routinely follows its policies to make sure that staff command incidents in line with operational guidance. It updates internal risk information with the information it receives. And it exchanges this information with appropriate organisations, such as the police, local authorities and East Midlands Ambulance Service.

The service has responded to learning from incidents to improve its service for the public. It shares significant findings from the debriefs of incidents within the organisation through operational assurance bulletins. We heard about examples of learning being shared from recent incidents where operational discretion was used.

As part of our review of the service’s debriefs, we found that at times its analytical risk assessments were inconsistent in their quality. The service should review this, making sure these assessments are being completed to a high standard and recorded in a consistent way.

We were encouraged to see the service is contributing towards, and acting on, learning from other fire and rescue services or operational learning gathered from emergency service partners. It shares and receives this information through national operational learning and joint organisational learning.

The service is effective at keeping the public informed about incidents

The service has good systems in place to inform the public about ongoing incidents and help keep them safe during and after incidents. This includes the use of social media and local TV and radio. Members of the senior leadership team and other senior officers have received media training.

The service puts out messages on social media through its communications team to warn and inform people about incidents. Fire control operators and senior officers can do this outside normal working hours.

The service is part of the local resilience forum’s warn and inform group. It regularly exchanges relevant information with other organisations in this forum.

Responding to major and multi-agency incidents

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at responding to major and multi‑agency incidents.

All fire and rescue services must be able to respond effectively to multi-agency and cross-border incidents. This means working with other fire and rescue services (known as intraoperability) and emergency services (known as interoperability).

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service is well prepared to respond to major and multi-agency incidents

The service has effectively anticipated and considered the reasonably foreseeable risks and threats it may face. These risks are listed in both local and national risk registers as part of its community risk management planning. For example, the service’s planning considers flooding, pandemics and marauding terrorist incidents.

It is also familiar with the significant risks neighbouring fire and rescue services may face, and which it might reasonably be asked to respond to in an emergency. Firefighters have access to risk information from neighbouring services. They also receive risk information through Resilience Direct up to six miles into other service areas bordering Derbyshire. Resilience Direct is the UK’s secure web-based platform to support the real-time sharing of information among emergency responders, and other public and private sector organisations.

In our last inspection, we focused on how the service had collected risk information and responded to the Government’s building risk review programme for tall buildings.

In this inspection, we have focused on how well prepared the service is to respond to a major incident at a tall building, such as the tragedy at Grenfell Tower.

We found the service has well-developed policies and procedures in place for safely managing this type of incident. The service has carried out training and exercises to test them. The service should continue to do this so that staff at all levels can be effective during such an incident.

At this type of incident, a fire and rescue service would receive a high volume of simultaneous fire calls. We found that the systems in place in the service are robust enough to receive and manage this volume of calls. Staff in the emergency control room, at the incident and in assisting control rooms can share, view and update the actions that result from the individual fire calls.

The service works well with other fire and rescue services

The service doesn’t have specialist marauding terrorist attack teams within Derbyshire, but it does have a formal agreement in place with Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service to provide this capacity.

The service has trained several members of staff to be national inter-agency liaison officers. These are security vetted, trained and identifiable responders from the emergency services. They can operate at pre-planned or spontaneous operations with extensive knowledge of multi-agency capability, procedures, and processes to support operations at high-threat and terrorist incidents.

The service supports other fire and rescue services responding to emergency incidents. It is intraoperable with these services and can form part of a multi-agency response.

The service has successfully deployed to other services and has used national assets such as urban search and rescue teams and high-volume pumps (used for flooding incidents).

The service takes part in cross-border exercises

The service has a cross-border exercise plan with neighbouring fire and rescue services, helping them work together effectively to keep the public safe. The service carries out 21.5 exercises per 1,000 full-time equivalent firefighters, which is in line with the rate across England of 25.7. The plan includes the risks of major events at which the service could foreseeably give support or ask for help from neighbouring services. We were encouraged to see the service uses feedback from these exercises to inform risk information and service plans.

Incident commanders have a good understanding of JESIP

The incident commanders we interviewed had been trained in and were familiar with JESIP.

The service could give us strong evidence that it consistently follows these principles. This included evidence of level one commanders declaring a major incident, which showed confidence in their training and an understanding of JESIP. The service also demonstrated its regular use of tactical co-ordinating groups to share information with other emergency service organisations. This included information about incidents such as heat waves, civil disturbance, flooding and storms.

We sampled a range of debriefs the service had carried out after multi-agency incidents and/or exercises. We were encouraged to find that the service is identifying any problems it has with applying JESIP and taking appropriate, prompt action with other emergency services.

The service works well with other agencies

The service has good arrangements in place to respond to emergencies with partners that make up the Derbyshire Local Resilience Forum. These arrangements include producing emergency plans to either prevent or mitigate the impact of any incident on local communities.

The service is a valued partner in the local resilience forum. It is the lead partner for the chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear sub-group, and has representation on the risk assessment, training and exercising, warn and inform and flooding sub-groups.

The service takes part in regular training events with other members of the local resilience forum and uses the learning to develop planning assumptions about responding to major and multi-agency incidents.

The service stays informed about national learning

The service makes sure it knows about national operational updates from other fire and rescue services and joint organisational learning from other organisations, such as the police service and ambulance trusts. It uses this learning to inform planning assumptions that it makes with partner organisations.

Making best use of resources

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at making best use of its resources.

Fire and rescue services should manage their resources properly and appropriately, aligning them with their risks and statutory responsibilities. Services should make best possible use of resources to achieve the best results for the public.

The service’s revenue budget for 2024/25 is £51.2 million. This is a 10.3 percent increase from the previous financial year.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service plans well to help it achieve its objectives

The service’s financial and workforce plans, including allocating resources to prevention, protection, and response, continue to be consistent with the risks and priorities it has identified in its CRMP. Since our last inspection, the service has restructured its prevention department into three sections. These cover operational risk reduction, partnership working, and support and evaluation. The service has enough protection staff to meet the requirements of its risk-based inspection programme. And at the time of our inspection it was developing a ten-year vision including strategies for its estates, fleet, leadership and finance.

The service has evaluated its mix of crewing and duty systems. It has analysed its response cover and can show it deploys its fire engines and response staff to manage risk efficiently. It does this through a service delivery risk review which takes place every three years. Since our last inspection, the service has set up a new system to get the most fire engine availability from the numbers of staff working on any given day.

The service told us that its latest service delivery risk review was informing its emergency fire cover review, which was being carried out at the time of our inspection. It builds its plans on sound scenarios. They help make sure the service is sustainable and are underpinned by financial controls that reduce the risk of misusing public money. Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Authority oversees and scrutinises the service’s budget to make sure it uses public money appropriately.

The service is good at monitoring performance and making improvements to ways of working

We were pleased to see that the service’s arrangements for managing performance clearly link resource use to its CRMP and its strategic priorities. There is a performance framework, and performance management meetings are held throughout the service. The senior leadership team monitors a comprehensive range of indicators, targets and measures, covering prevention, protection, response and support functions. Following multiple fire-related deaths, the service reduced its site‑specific risk information target to create capacity to carry out more safe and well visits in high-risk areas.

The service makes the most of its wholetime firefighter capacity. For example, it has increased its performance targets since our last inspection. Managers and staff use station dashboards to monitor key performance indicators.

The service is taking steps to make sure the workforce’s time is as productive as possible. This includes putting in place new ways of working. For example, the service has approved plans to add an additional laptop in each of its fire engines. This means that staff can be productive when other crew members are carrying out community safety activity.

The service works well with others and has improved the process for evaluating this work

In our last inspection, we identified an area for improvement that the service should make sure it effectively monitors, reviews and evaluates the benefits and outcomes of any collaboration.

We were encouraged to see the improvements the service has made since our last inspection, and we have closed this area for improvement.

We were pleased to see the service meets its statutory duty to collaborate. It routinely considers opportunities to collaborate with other emergency responders. The service shares its headquarters and training centre with Derbyshire Constabulary. Staff from East Midlands Ambulance Service and Derbyshire Constabulary are based in some fire stations.

Collaborative work is aligned to the priorities in the service’s CRMP. For example, it has a joint control room with Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service. It has set up a strategic collaboration board, which includes the chief fire officer and the head of finance.

The service now has a new process in place to improve its evaluation of collaborations, overseen by an evaluation and consultation officer. And it has set a review period for each new collaboration. Business cases for collaborations include expected benefits for the service. However, we weren’t able to review any completed evaluations, as the service hadn’t applied this new process to collaborations already in place. We look forward to seeing how this work has developed when we next inspect the service.

The service has good continuity arrangements

The service has good continuity arrangements in place for areas in which it considers threats and risks to be high. It regularly reviews and tests these threats and risks so that staff know the arrangements and their associated responsibilities.

The service has continuity plans in place for industrial action. At the time of our inspection, these were under review. The service has tested its continuity plans for industrial action several times since our last inspection. Following its testing, the service identifies learning, and records necessary actions in a log. For example, following one test, the service produced action cards detailing the responsibilities of each department (such as HR, communications, prevention and protection), should industrial action take place.

The service has also carried out some testing of its continuity plans for scenarios where fire control has to move location. The service would benefit from more testing of reasonable worst-case scenarios.

The service has put in place new procurement arrangements

An audit report identified weaknesses with the service’s procurement arrangements, such as an incomplete contracts register and a lack of procurement guidance. The service has also faced challenges in recruiting a procurement manager. In response to these issues, the service is trialling a collaboration agreement with Derbyshire Constabulary to support its procurement function.

Staff told us about improvements being made, such as changes to how contracts are reviewed and awarded. For example, the service secured a recent tender for fire engines at a fixed price over two years, with price increases in later years linked to the retail price index.

There are regular reviews to consider all the service’s expenditure, including its non‑pay costs. And this scrutiny makes sure the service gets value for money. For example, the finance team meets with budget holders to review and challenge spending. Monthly meetings take place to review revenue and capital spending. And the service has a programme board which scrutinises the efficiency and effectiveness of projects.

Making the FRS affordable now and in the future

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at making the service affordable now and in the future.

Fire and rescue services should continuously look for ways to improve their effectiveness and efficiency. This includes transforming how they work and improving their value for money. Services should have robust spending plans that reflect future financial challenges and efficiency opportunities, and they should invest in better services for the public.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service understands its future financial challenges

The service has a sound understanding of future financial challenges. It set a balanced budget for 2024/25. At the beginning of the 2024/25 financial year, it anticipated a budget deficit of about £700,000 by 2027/28. At the time of our inspection, the service told us that the expected 2027/28 budget deficit had increased to around £1.2 million. This was before the provisional local government finance settlement was published.

The service plans to mitigate its main financial risks. The service aims to develop its savings plan to avoid a future budget deficit without the use of reserves. At the time of our inspection, its medium-term financial plan included £800,000 of identified savings to be made within the three years of the plan.

The underpinning assumptions are relatively robust and realistic. They take account of the wider external environment and some scenario planning for future spending reductions. These include assumptions about pay, inflation and future funding.

We were pleased to see that the service has identified investment opportunities to improve the service to the public. For example, significant ongoing capital projects include the construction of new fire stations and the replacement of the system used to mobilise service assets.

The service has clear arrangements for the use of reserves

The service has a sensible and sustainable plan for using its reserves. This plan includes a capital development reserve to support future capital projects. It reduces the need to borrow, particularly for shorted-lived assets such as IT systems.

The fleet strategy and estate plan support the service’s CRMP

The service’s fleet and equipment strategy and asset management plan have clear links to its CRMP. At the time of our inspection, the service was decommissioning two major rescue units and replacing them with enhanced rescue units (fire engines with additional equipment for more complex incidents) and one logistics support vehicle. Although the service had planned for two logistics support vehicles, it is trialling the use of one vehicle, based on its work in the fire cover review.

The service has carried out a survey of the condition of its estates. As a result of this work, it has improved internet coverage at fire stations. And it is making improvements to decontamination facilities.

The service exploits opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness. For example, it invested £67,000 to bring the maintenance of its light vehicles in‑house. The service told us that this investment was returned as savings within one year.

The service regularly reviews its fleet and equipment strategy and asset management plan so that it can properly assess the effect any changes in estate and fleet provision, or future innovation, may have on risk.

The service has improved how it uses technology and considers future innovation

In our previous inspection, we identified an area for improvement that the service needs to make sure it makes best use of technology to improve its efficiency and effectiveness and make sure staff can use the technology competently. We are satisfied with the progress made, so we have closed this area for improvement.

The service is introducing a new system for reporting training and operational activity. This will bring the recording of training into one central system. At the time of inspection, the service had carried out 18 of its planned 22 staff training sessions on how to use the new system. The service told us that the system would go live in January 2025.

The service actively considers how changes in technology and future innovation may affect risk. The IT team provides the senior leadership team with a quarterly report on the actual and potential cybersecurity challenges that the service faces. Based on the risks identified, the service has increased a cybersecurity post from being part-time (0.5 full-time equivalent) to a full-time role.

The service has put in place the capacity and capability it needs to achieve sustainable transformation, and it routinely looks for opportunities to work with others to improve efficiency and provide better services in the future. For example, it has kept control room staff updated on progress with the introduction of a new mobilising system. And it has given them training on a mock version of the new system.

The service considers some income-generation opportunities

The service considers some options for generating extra income. By sharing estates, it generates income through leasing agreements with East Midlands Ambulance Service and Derbyshire Constabulary. The service told us that it has signed an agreement with Nottingham City Council for it to provide electric vehicle charging points at fire stations for no cost. This will save the service about £15,000 for each of its fire stations.

Promoting the right values and culture

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at promoting the right values and culture.

Fire and rescue services should have positive and inclusive cultures, modelled by the behaviours of their senior leaders. Services should promote health and safety effectively, and staff should have access to a range of well‑being support that can be tailored to their individual needs.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service’s culture, behaviours and values are positive

The service continues to have well-defined values, which staff understand. Most staff we spoke to fully understood the service’s values and the Core Code of Ethics. We found most staff at all levels of the service showing behaviours that reflect service values.

In our staff survey, 98 percent of respondents (170 out of 173) said they were aware of the service’s statement of values. A similar proportion (95 percent – 161 out of 170) agreed that colleagues consistently modelled and maintained the service’s values. And 92 percent (157 out of 170) agreed that line managers consistently modelled and maintained the service’s values.

Senior leaders act as role models. For example, in our staff survey, 78 percent of respondents (132 out of 170) agreed that senior leaders consistently modelled and maintained the service’s values. Senior leaders are visible and interact with the workforce through station visits.

There is a positive working culture throughout the service, with most staff empowered and willing to challenge poor behaviours when they come across them.

The service is good at supporting the workforce’s mental and physical well‑being

The service has effective well-being policies in place, which are available to staff. We were told these policies were well understood. A significant range of well-being support is available to support both physical and mental health. For example, the service provides critical incident debriefs following serious or traumatic operational incidents. Other measures include Blue Light Champions, chaplains, access to the Fire Fighters Charity, and referrals to the service’s occupational health team (which can be made either by management or the person accessing the team). The service has also made changes to its disciplinary process to improve the well‑being support being offered to all involved.

There are good provisions in place to promote staff well-being, such as information displayed on posters and the service’s intranet. In our staff survey, 96 percent of respondents (166 out of 173) agreed that they felt able to access services to support their mental well-being. And 84 percent (145 out of 173) agreed that they achieved a good balance between their work and private life. We found a clear understanding among staff of how to get support following a critical incident.

Managers discuss well-being regularly with their staff to understand their needs and provide support. They are aware of the processes in place to monitor and respond to well-being issues, and feel supported by HR and occupational health staff who provide advice and support.

The service has improved its annual fitness testing programme

The service has an annual fitness testing programme in place. Tests are carried out by supervisory managers on stations. The programme is supported by a fitness and well-being officer, who tests station managers and staff at more senior levels, as well as staff not based at stations. Since our last inspection, the service has provided further training to improve knowledge and understanding of the programme among supervisory managers.

An electronic system notifies staff when their test is due, and a performance dashboard monitors who is up to date with their fitness testing.

Staff who fail to pass the test are supported with fitness plans and retests. Staff are removed from operational duties where appropriate. The service’s occupational health team monitors and follows up with staff who fail fitness tests.

A three-year quality assurance programme is now in place. This will involve the fitness and well-being officer and an area fitness instructor observing one third of the fitness tests carried out on stations each year.

In our previous inspection, we identified an area for improvement that the service should make sure that annual fitness testing takes place consistently across the service. We are satisfied with the progress made, so we have closed this area for improvement.

Staff understand and have confidence in health and safety policies

The service continues to have effective and well-understood health and safety policies and procedures in place. It identifies important trends through the regular monitoring of accidents, near misses and absences, and through supporting accurate reporting of these. Examples of this include a new digital form to identify health concerns before staff complete courses at the training centre, and an increase in risk assessments. The service puts in place policies to respond to concerns it identifies. This has included buying posting pegs to reduce the risk of staff being bitten by dogs when they post leaflets through letterboxes.

These policies and procedures are readily available and the service promotes them effectively to all staff. In our staff survey, 98 percent of respondents (169 out of 173) agreed that they understood the policies and procedures the service had in place to make sure they could work safely. A similar proportion (97 percent – 168 out of 173) agreed that the service had clear procedures to report all accidents, near misses and dangerous occurrences. And 95 percent (164 out of 173) agreed that they were encouraged to report all accidents, near misses and dangerous occurrences. Staff and representative bodies have confidence in the health and safety approach the service takes.

The service monitors staff who have secondary employment or dual contracts to make sure they comply with the secondary employment policy and don’t work excessive hours.

The service has an on-call business change team which manages a new system for tracking the working hours of on-call staff. The service moved from using paper forms to a digital system where individuals record their hours and availability. The system then collates all entries and provides the service with a clear overview at service, station and individual levels.

The system highlights individuals who have exceeded agreed levels of working hours in any given period, and separately highlights staff that have dual contracts.

The team reports on working hours monthly at area performance action group meetings. Any people who exceed their contracted hours by a certain margin have a follow-up meeting with their station manager to discuss the reasons for this. Adjustments can then be made so that staff don’t continue to exceed their agreed working hours.

In our previous inspection, we identified an area for improvement that the service should take early action to monitor working hours (including overtime) to improve staff well-being. We are satisfied with the progress made, so we have closed this area for improvement.

The service is good at managing absence

We found there are clear processes in place to manage absences for all staff. There is clear guidance for managers, who are confident in using the process. The service manages absences well and in accordance with policy. Staff we spoke to had a good understanding of the process and how to apply it.

The service monitors sickness trends, which are reported to a quarterly performance board. In 2023/24, the average number of days not worked per firefighter due to short‑term sickness decreased by 28.8 percent compared to 2022/23. However, over the same period, long-term sickness absence increased by 11.9 percent. The service told us that it was taking action to understand and address the reasons for these trends. For example, work is underway to provide more support in relation to musculoskeletal injuries.

Getting the right people with the right skills

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is adequate at getting the right people with the right skills.

Fire and rescue services should have a workforce plan in place that is linked to their CRMPs. It should set out their current and future skills requirements and address capability gaps. This should be supplemented by a culture of continuous improvement, including appropriate learning and development throughout the service.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

Workforce planning makes sure that the required skills and capabilities are available

The service has good workforce planning in place. This makes sure skills and capabilities align with what the service needs to effectively carry out its CRMP. For example, a workforce planning group meets every two weeks to review skills, staffing levels, retirement forecasting and vacancies. Recruiting managers have to request recruitment for a new or vacant role through this group. Discussion at the group includes analysis of the required skills and resources, and whether the position should be temporary, fixed-term or substantive.

Workforce planning is agile. For example, when a strategic manager was recently off work for a considerable length of time, the service quickly implemented an acting-up process to temporarily fill the position.

Workforce and succession planning is subject to consistent scrutiny in the form of regular meetings to discuss requirements.

In our previous inspection, we identified an area for improvement that the service should make sure its workforce plan takes full account of the necessary skills and capabilities to carry out the integrated risk management plan. We are satisfied with the progress made, so we have closed this area for improvement.

The service has plans to improve the oversight of the skills and capabilities of its workforce

Most staff told us that they could access the training they need to be effective in their role. This wasn’t just focused on operational skills. The service’s training plans make sure they can maintain competence and capability effectively. For example, all firefighters have received fire protection training, and this is supported by regular ongoing training to maintain their skills when there are changes in legislation. And new starters receive training on the IT equipment and systems they need to carry out their roles.

However, in our inspection we found that there were multiple systems for recording staff training. This makes it difficult to see everyone’s skills and competencies, and managers can’t always access their teams’ records. The service told us that it was implementing a new system. We look forward to seeing how this work progresses. But while we acknowledge these plans, the new system wasn’t in place during our inspection. As a result, the area for improvement about recording and monitoring training that we identified in 2022 remains.

The service monitors staff competence through a workforce planning group which meets every two weeks to review skills. It regularly updates its understanding of staff skills and risk-critical safety capabilities by forecasting retirements and future vacancies. The workforce plan makes provision for succession planning for specialist skills within operational roles. The service carries out regular reviews of these plans. This approach means the service can identify gaps in workforce capabilities and resilience. It also means it can make sound and financially sustainable decisions about current and future needs.

The service promotes a culture of continuous improvement

The service promotes a culture of continuous improvement throughout the organisation, and it encourages staff to learn and develop. For example, the service’s debrief policy supports a culture of learning and improvement. Learning identified through debriefs is recorded, prioritised and tracked through an action plan.

The service effectively shares learning through several internal and external groups, and this results in policies being reviewed and updated. Strategic oversight is provided by the health and safety committee and through a quarterly performance meeting. The service also has an operational assurance monitoring process, which is carried out by incident commanders.

Most staff told us they can access a range of learning and development resources. These include face-to-face learning, e-learning and guidance documents. This allows them to do their job effectively.

Ensuring fairness and promoting diversity

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at ensuring fairness and promoting diversity.

Creating a more representative workforce gives fire and rescue services huge benefits. These include greater access to talent and different ways of thinking. It also helps them better understand and engage with local communities. Each service should make sure staff throughout the organisation firmly understand and show a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. This includes successfully taking steps to remove inequality and making progress to improve fairness, diversity and inclusion at all levels of the service. It should proactively seek and respond to feedback from staff and make sure any action it takes is meaningful.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service has processes in place to gather feedback and challenge from the workforce

The service has developed several ways to work with staff on issues and decisions that affect them. These include methods to build all-staff awareness of fairness and diversity, as well as targeted initiatives to identify matters that affect different staff groups. Staff have access to Say So, an independent reporting line that allows staff to report issues anonymously. Measures that the service takes to communicate with staff include a cultural survey every two years, quarterly online updates hosted by the deputy chief fire officer, planning days, and visits by the strategic leadership team to stations and departments.

Staff are positive about opportunities to offer feedback, such as working with control room staff to support a new mobilisation system. But while the service shares results from its cultural survey, we found that it could do more to communicate to staff what action it was taking in relation to their suggestions and feedback. The service told us that it had plans to improve how it does this as part of the new staff engagement framework it is was developing at the time of our inspection.

Representative bodies and staff associations reported that the service engages with them well.

Staff are confident in tackling bullying, harassment and discrimination

Staff have a good understanding of what bullying, harassment and discrimination are, and their negative effects on colleagues and the organisation.

In this inspection, 12 percent of respondents to our staff survey (20 out of 173) told us they had been subject to bullying or harassment and 7 percent (12 out of 173) to discrimination over the past 12 months.

Most staff are confident in the service’s approach to tackling bullying, harassment and discrimination, grievances and disciplinary matters. All staff have received e-learning in relation to bullying and harassment, as well as station and department visits from a central team. The service has a dignity at work policy which provides definitions of bullying and harassment, and makes clear that this behaviour isn’t acceptable. The process for addressing these issues is clear and sets out the responsibilities of managers. The service has made sure all staff are trained and clear about what to do if they encounter inappropriate behaviour.

While the service has improved the way it deals with bullying, harassment and discrimination over the last year, we were told about ongoing concerns with the previous process. The service acknowledges these and has introduced a new disciplinary and grievance process map, which we have identified as promising practice. This introduction addresses the concerns we heard about with the previous process.

The service is improving how it addresses disproportionality in recruitment and retention

There is an open, fair and honest recruitment process for staff or those wishing to work for the fire and rescue service. The service has an effective system to understand and remove the risk of disproportionality in recruitment processes. For example, it carried out a project in 2024 to review and improve the recruitment process for wholetime firefighters. Following this review, it has made changes to the process, including setting up a shortlisting and recruitment panel with a consistent membership, and introducing decision panels at each stage. All of these panels are made up of staff across the service, including the inclusion team and staff networks. However, the service could do more to use the diversity data it collects to improve its evaluation of recruitment campaigns for non-operational roles.

The service has put considerable effort into developing its recruitment processes so that they are fair and potential applicants can understand them. The recruitment policies are comprehensive and cover opportunities in all roles. The service advertises recruitment opportunities both internally and externally. This has encouraged applicants from diverse backgrounds, including into middle and senior management roles.

In 2023/24, no new joiners identified as being from an ethnic minority background. The proportion of firefighters that identified as being from an ethnic minority background has decreased from 2.5 percent (17 people) as at 31 March 2023 to 1.8 percent (12 people) as at 31 March 2024. The proportion of firefighters who identified as a woman has stayed approximately the same, with figures of 12.7 percent (90 people) and 13.1 percent (90 people) for the same period.

For the whole workforce, as at 31 March 2024, 2.6 percent identified as being from an ethnic minority background compared to 12.6 percent in their local population and 8.6 percent throughout all fire and rescue services. As at 31 March 2024, 26.8 percent identified as a woman, compared to an average of 20.2 percent throughout all fire and rescue services.

The service has taken steps to improve diversity. For example, it uses positive action initiatives. These include events and workshops to help people understand the selection process and fitness requirements before they apply for roles. The service has used positive action for both wholetime and on-call recruitment. And it has used digital advertising to target different groups in its community, making sure information is widely accessible. The workforce supports this.

The service is raising awareness of EDI

The service has improved its approach to EDI. It makes sure it can offer the right services to its communities and can support staff with protected characteristics. For example, EDI training is mandatory for all staff. This training covers positive action and supports the service’s ‘It starts with you’ campaign, which began in response to cultural issues in the sector that have been identified nationally. The service’s senior leadership team regularly monitors EDI training. In our last inspection, we identified areas for improvement relating to identifying and overcoming barriers to equal opportunity, and making sure that all staff are trained in EDI. We are satisfied with the progress made, so we have closed these two areas for improvement.

The service has eight staff network groups, each with an independent chair, which meet every quarter:

• gender
• LGBTQ+ and allies
• multicultural
• well-being
• veterans
• neurodiversity
• parents and carers
• digital champions.

The service has improved its equality impact process

The service has an effective process for carrying out equality impact assessments. These assessments help it identify ways in which people may be disadvantaged and then put in place measures to eliminate or reduce the impact. At the time of our inspection, most of the service’s policies, procedures and projects had an equality impact assessment. The service has trained managers in carrying them out. The EDI team quality assures the process and findings. However, the service could do more to track the necessary actions identified by the assessments to make sure they are completed.

Managing performance and developing leaders

Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service requires improvement at managing performance and developing leaders.

Fire and rescue services should have robust and meaningful performance management arrangements in place for their staff. All staff should be supported to meet their potential and there should be a focus on developing staff and improving diversity into leadership roles.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

Main findings

The service has good arrangements for managing staff members’ performance

There is a good performance management system in place, which allows the service to effectively develop and assess the individual performance of all staff.

Under the service’s policy, the appraisal process for staff should be completed at least once a year. In our staff survey, 97 percent of respondents (167 out of 173) told us they had had a formal personal development review or appraisal in the past 12 months. Most staff told us they felt the appraisal process was meaningful and contributed to their development and performance.

The service needs to do more to make sure promotion and progression processes are fair

The service needs to do more to make sure its promotion and progression processes are fair. We were pleased to see that following our last inspection, the service commissioned an external audit to review its promotion process. This identified a number of recommendations, and the service confirmed it would start work on implementing these in 2025. We look forward to seeing how this work progresses in our next inspection. But as the work isn’t yet completed, the area for improvement we identified in 2022 about the selection and promotion process remains.

The service does have strong succession-planning processes in place to allow it to effectively manage the career pathways of its staff, including roles needing specialist skills.

The service uses temporary promotions appropriately to fill short-term resourcing gaps. As at 31 March 2024, the service had an average length of 250 days for a temporary promotion, compared with the England average of 328 days. There were 35 members of staff on temporary promotions in the service, equating to 3.8 percent of the workforce.

The service could do more to encourage diversity in leadership roles

The service knows it needs to go further to increase workforce diversity, especially in middle and senior management. We were told that diversity data needs to be used more to analyse any potential disproportionality and inform appropriate responses.

However, we acknowledge that there have been some improvements. For example, the service changed the criteria for a recent senior leader recruitment campaign to encourage more applicants. Rather than applicants having to live within the county, the criteria were based on travel times.

The service should do more to develop leaders and high-potential staff

The service needs to improve the way it actively manages the career pathways of staff, including those with specialist skills and those with potential for leadership roles.

It has no talent management schemes in place to develop leaders and high-potential staff. The service has made limited progress in addressing the area for improvement we identified in 2022 relating to identifying, developing and supporting high-potential staff and aspiring leaders. As a result, this area for improvement remains. The service should consider putting in place more formal arrangements to identify and support members of staff to become senior leaders. There is a gap in its succession planning. It needs to do more to make sure it implements the criteria related to succession planning within the December 2022 Leading the Service and Leading and Developing People fire standards effectively.

Further information

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Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service 2023-2025

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Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service commended on progress made, but further changes are needed

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Useful links

Fire and rescue national framework for England 
National Operational Guidance website
National Fire Chiefs Council website