Concerns about Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service's performance
Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service still needs to improve in several areas and has not made enough progress since its last inspection, the fire inspectorate has said.
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Effectiveness, efficiency and people 2023/25 – Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has graded Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service’s performance across 11 areas and found the service was ‘adequate’ in four areas, ‘requires improvement’ in six areas and ‘inadequate’ in one area.
HMICFRS said the service needed to improve how it ensures fairness and promotes diversity, particularly in ensuring it provides adequate facilities to maintain the dignity of its staff. The service also needs to improve how it manages and looks after its people, and ensure it can improve and deliver change at a reasonable pace.
His Majesty’s Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services Wendy Williams said:
“I have concerns about the performance of Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service, particularly around how the service ensures fairness and promotes diversity.
“The service hasn’t made enough progress in providing suitable, gender-appropriate, welfare facilities for its staff at its fire stations. We also found several other areas where progress wasn’t as expected, including in how it manages and looks after its people.
“We recognise the service has faced challenges over recent years and acknowledge that one of our previous causes of concern has been discharged. And there is a clear commitment from staff and senior leaders to improve. However, many areas have deteriorated or remain unchanged.
“Given the nature of some of the problems we have identified, we will keep in close contact with the service to monitor its progress and revisit in six months to review its improvement plans.”
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Effectiveness, efficiency and people 2023/25 – Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service
Notes
- For further information, please contact the HMICFRS Press Office on 0300 071 6781 or HMICPressOffice@hmicfrs.gov.uk.
- 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 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 have expanded our previous four-tier system of judgements to five. These changes mean that it isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between grades awarded in this round of inspections with those from previous years.
- A reduction in grade, particularly from good to adequate, doesn’t necessarily mean that there has been a reduction in performance, unless we say so in the report.
- Read more information about the 2023-25 assessment framework for fire and rescue service inspections.