Surrey Fire and Rescue Service has improved, but more work needed
Surrey Fire and Rescue Service has made good progress, but more work is needed to improve its overall performance, a new report has found.
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Effectiveness, efficiency and people 2021/22 – Surrey Fire and Rescue Service
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) judged that Surrey Fire and Rescue Service:
- requires improvement at effectively and efficiently keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks; and
- requires improvement at looking after its people
However, HMICFRS said that since its last inspection of Surrey Fire and Rescue Service in 2018 the service had made good progress, including how it uses its resources to keep people safe, and promoting the right values and culture within the organisation.
In 2018, HMICFRS identified two causes of concern about Surrey Fire and Rescue Service’s performance in managing its resources and responding to emergencies, which have now been resolved.
However, the inspectorate said further changes are needed, including measuring the impact of its fire prevention work and testing its plans for dealing with major incidents, such as a terrorist attack.
Her Majesty’s Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services Matt Parr said:
“It was very heartening to see the progress made by Surrey Fire and Rescue Service. It is in much better shape – more effective and efficient at keeping people safe from fire. On balance, it is also improving how well it looks after its people. The service knows that there is a great deal of work to do to change and improve its organisational culture, but it is approaching this challenge positively.
“In this inspection, we identified no new causes of concern, but several areas for improvement. The service needs to evaluate its prevention activity to understand what works. It also needs to make sure it gives firefighters up-to-date and useful information about the risks they might face, for example in particular buildings.
“We look forward to seeing how Surrey Fire and Rescue Service puts our recommendations into practice at our next inspection.”
Today HMICFRS has also published the State of Fire and Rescue 2021, which sets out Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services’ assessment of the sector nationally.
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Effectiveness, efficiency and people 2021/22 – Surrey Fire and Rescue Service
Notes:
- This is the third time HMICFRS has inspected fire and rescue services across England and Wales. The most recent inspections in 2020 considered how each fire and rescue service was responding to the pandemic
- Surrey Fire and Rescue Service is part of the first tranche of 12 reports to be published for 2021/22. Reports for the remaining fire and rescue services will be published across the next
- Later today we will issue a further press release for the annual State of Fire and Rescue
- For further information, the HMICFRS Press Office can be contacted at 07836 217 729 or HMICPressOffice@hmicfrs.gov.uk.