Concerns about Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service's fire safety regulation
Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service needs to urgently improve the effectiveness of its fire safety regulation, the fire inspectorate has said.
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Effectiveness, efficiency and people 2023/25 – Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has graded Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service’s performance across 11 areas and found the service was ‘adequate’ in four areas and ‘requires improvement’ in seven areas.
HMICFRS said that while improvements have been seen in most areas, more improvements are needed. In particular, the service needed to improve how effective it is at protecting the public through the regulation of fire safety and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its IT systems.
His Majesty’s Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services Wendy Williams said:
“I am satisfied with some aspects of the performance of Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service, but there are areas where the service needs to improve. In particular, the service’s effectiveness at protecting the public through the regulation of fire safety is a cause of concern.
“We were disappointed to find that it hadn’t made enough progress against the cause of concern we identified in 2020/21. We found high-risk residential buildings that still hadn’t been inspected and the service still needs to put in place a suitable risk management system.
“We also found that the service hasn’t made the progress we expected in other areas. For example, IT systems are still not efficient or effective, and the productivity of the workforce still needs to improve.
“I will continue to check the service’s progress in addressing areas for improvement and monitor the cause of concern and associated recommendations.”
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Effectiveness, efficiency and people 2023/25 – Warwickshire 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.