Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service: Causes of concern revisit letter
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Letter information
From:
Roy Wilsher OBE QFSM
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary
His Majesty’s Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services
To:
Mark Preece
Chief Fire Officer
Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service
Sent on:
7 March 2025
Background
Between October and December 2023, we inspected Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service. During our inspection, we found that two causes of concern we issued after our 2021 inspection hadn’t been fully addressed. We also identified a new cause of concern. On 3 May 2024, we issued the three causes of concern and made the following recommendations:
Cause of concern
Protection cause of concern
The service doesn’t have enough trained and experienced protection staff to implement its risk-based inspection programme and take proportionate action to reduce risk and enforce fire safety regulations.
Recommendations
Within 28 days, the service should provide an action plan which shows how it will:
- provide enough appropriately trained and experienced staff to meet the inspection, reporting and enforcement requirements of its risk-based inspection programme;
- make sure it has enough appropriately trained and experienced staff, so it can take reasonable and proportionate enforcement action. This should include prohibition, investigation and, where required, prosecution. The service should have enough staff for this to take place without affecting the risk-based inspection programme and other protection work; and
- provide resilient fire safety advice 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and, where necessary, take immediate action to keep people safe.
Cause of concern
Values and culture cause of concern
The service hasn’t done enough since our last inspection to embed its values and associated behaviours and promote a positive workplace culture.
Recommendations
Within 28 days, the service should provide an updated action plan which shows how it will:
- engage with its staff to develop a compelling vision of the service’s future culture and set out a clear pathway to achieving this, which staff can understand and relate to;
- support managers to confidently challenge and manage inappropriate behaviour;
- establish effective measures to monitor and manage staff workloads; and
- make sure all staff have equitable access to appropriate welfare support.
Cause of concern
Equality, diversity and inclusion cause of concern
The service hasn’t done enough since our last inspection to improve understanding and awareness of the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and remove barriers to embedding EDI in the service.
Recommendations
Within 28 days, the service should provide an updated action plan which shows how it will:
- engage with its staff to develop clear EDI objectives and a plan to increase awareness of EDI and its importance across the organisation. This should include understanding the impact positive action is having on staff;
- understand the reasons for low declaration of staff diversity information and put in place a plan to address this;
- assure itself it has effective grievance procedures. It should identify and implement ways to improve staff confidence in the grievance process; and
- improve the understanding and use of equality impact assessments (EqIA) in all aspects of its work and consider if its policies and procedures are inclusive and support those with protected characteristics.
On 14 June 2024, you submitted an updated improvement action plan setting out how you would address the areas of concern and our recommendations.
Between 7 and 9 January 2025 we carried out a revisit to review progress against the updated improvement action plan. During the revisit we interviewed staff who were responsible for developing this plan, including you as chief fire officer. We also interviewed managers and staff with responsibility for protection, people and EDI, together with colleagues from their teams.
On 20 January 2025, we shared our initial findings with you.
We have carried on reviewing your progress through continued communication and checkpoint meetings, the latest being on 9 January 2025. We have also reviewed presentations you gave at our Fire Performance Oversight Group meetings, the latest of which took place on 22 October 2024. This letter provides an update on our findings.
Governance
We found appropriate and robust governance arrangements in place to monitor the progress of your updated improvement action plan. Attendees continue to monitor and scrutinise progress through the service’s regular improvement board meetings. The Chief Executive of Gloucestershire County Council chairs these meetings.
Action plan
The service has an updated improvement action plan that covers the causes of concern. This identifies senior responsible officers, deadlines and the people assigned to each task. The plan includes updates on the progress of actions made against each cause of concern and the associated recommendations. The service continues to monitor its progress against the areas for improvement we identified in our last inspection, and records this progress through its updated improvement action plan.
Progress against causes of concern
Protection
The service has made good progress in how its protection department is resourced. This helps it to make sure it has effective arrangements in place to provide all aspects of the protection function.
The service is on track to meet the target set within its risk-based inspection programme. It has put systems in place to monitor performance in this area, and risk is now prioritised.
The service has introduced an enforcement plan and procedure and has trained individuals within the department in this area. This has increased enforcement activity.
The service has introduced a duty fire safety team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, who operational staff can contact out of hours for advice and support.
Values and culture
Through its workplace charter, the service has made good progress in developing its values and making sure they are accepted and understood by staff. As a result, it has also made good progress in improving the culture within the service. There has been a lot of communication and consultation with staff to develop this area of work.
Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service has provided training for staff members in challenging and managing inappropriate behaviour. These skills have given staff the confidence to challenge behaviours, should this be necessary.
The service makes well-being support available to staff and communicates this effectively. The service has also produced a policy for monitoring staff hours, but it doesn’t consistently implement this policy. The service monitors workloads through the appraisal process and has taken considerable steps to increase capacity through investment, but there are still staff members who feel they are working at or beyond capacity.
The service has made progress to support individuals with protected characteristics and has introduced reasonable adjustment passports, but not all staff are aware of this support. The service should make sure it continues to support all individuals with protected characteristics. The service should also review its occupational health provision to make sure there are no delays to appointments and that the support provided to staff is appropriate.
The service also has ambitious plans in relation to its work on values and culture. This includes sharing examples of the support that staff can receive from HR so the workforce is more aware of how to handle sensitive issues. We look forward to seeing this promising work continue.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service has made good progress in improving the way it promotes EDI. It has provided education in this area to all staff, including face-to-face education and e-learning. However, the service needs to make sure that this learning is understood by all staff. Staff should receive training on the importance of EDI and on how they can contribute to EDI within the service.
The service also needs to make sure that the support in place for people with protected characteristics meets their needs.
The service has carried out positive action training to emphasise the importance of having a diverse workforce. There has also been an increase in staff declaring their diversity data. This has been supported by staff training sessions and the service has produced a booklet that helps to explain the importance of declaring diversity data. Within the booklet there is a QR code that directs staff to a form where they can submit their data.
The service has introduced a professional standards officer role to support staff in relation to its grievance and misconduct processes. It reviewed its grievance policy and shared this review with staff. But not all staff members are aware of or understand the grievance policy and process, and not all staff have the confidence to use the available confidential reporting line.
The service has reviewed its EqIA process, and has provided awareness training to all staff and specific training for managers completing EqIAs. The service has a consultation and assurance process for completed EqIAs. However, a number of EqIAs on the work plan have yet to be completed. This means the service can’t yet be sure that equal access is being provided to all staff and members of the public.
The service has ambitious plans to further promote EDI. We look forward to seeing this promising work continue.
Conclusion
We were pleased to see the significant steps the service has taken in response to the causes of concern we issued. The action taken to address the protection cause of concern has made sure that the service is adequately resourced to carry out all areas of protection activity. This includes the increased work to meet the target set for its risk-based inspection programme. It also includes increased enforcement activity and the introduction of the duty fire safety support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This cause of concern is closed.
The action the service has taken to address the values and culture cause of concern has made sure that its values and behaviours are accepted among the workforce. This has been further supported by senior managers being more visible and approachable and displaying the service’s values. Staff also feel confident in challenging inappropriate behaviour. Therefore, these two recommendations are completed and the cause of concern is closed. The service is monitoring the two remaining recommendations as part of the area for improvement process. These areas for improvement are to establish effective measures to monitor and manage staff workloads, and to make sure that all staff have equitable access to appropriate welfare support.
In relation to EDI, we recommended that the service should understand the reasons for low declaration of staff diversity information and put in place a plan to address this. Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service has made good progress against this recommendation. Therefore, this recommendation is now completed. The service has carried out a lot of work to educate staff on positive action and the importance of recruiting a diverse workforce, but not all staff understand the EDI objectives or recognise their importance. There has not yet been sufficient progress made on this and the other two recommendations we made.
We will continue to monitor the service’s progress against the three remaining recommendations for the EDI cause of concern. We will do this through regular contact and attendance at the service’s improvement board meetings. This cause of concern will remain.
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Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service: Causes of concern revisit letter