A national measure of culture among changes set out in fire chiefs report

The National Fire Chiefs Council has published an update on its work to transform the culture of fire and rescue services but says that the pace of change is not fast enough and too many people are still being let down. 

Reporting on progress since the publication of its Culture Action Plan in July 2023, the NFCC revealed it is in discussions with government and fire employers about the creation of a national measure of culture performance. There is scant detail in the report on how this will be achieved, but it does note that the approach will lead to either ‘a key performance indicator as part of national data collection and reporting and/or a national culture survey of FRS.’

Fire and rescue services already collect a wide range of data including operational data that goes into the Incident Recording System run by the Home Office.

Work to provide fire and rescue services with ways to measure and analyse data related to building an improved culture will be set out in guidance on the NFCC’s Culture Dashboard that will be launched at the NFCC’s Culture and Inclusion conference in July. The dashboard will focus on two indicators, one on positive mental health and wellbeing and one on creating workplaces free from harassment and discrimination.

The report highlights a range of activity that it has been doing with fire and rescue services including the creation of guidance, tools and training. A work stream on the professional development of leaders saw the first cohort of direct entry Station Managers complete their first module of a three year training programme earlier this year.

To provide external scrutiny, the NFCC established an independent Challenge and Support panel chaired by Anthea Sully, CEO of White Ribbon. It has been meeting monthly and the report confirms its work will finish at the end of 2024 with publication of a final report summarising their work and any further recommendations.

The panel has already had some influence on the culture work of the NFCC as the update reveals that it has set up a new work stream on Lived Experience / Voice of victims. By setting up a national lived experience advisory forum, the NFCC says it will formalise its relationships with organisations like Women in the Fire Service and the Asian Fire Services Association. The aim is to learn ‘how they can effectively engage and listen to the voices of those with lived experience in their services, and build this into their ways of working.’

The NFCC is also working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and national victims’ charities to help services better signpost support and guidance as well as providing ‘clear routes into local police where someone wants to report a criminal matter.’

The full update on NFCC Culture Action Plan can be found here.