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Looking ahead to the fourth round of fire and rescue service inspections in England, a new consultation proposes, for the first time, an examination of how they are governed as well as deeper look at leadership and the their role in local resilience forums.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has published a 25 page consultation document setting out the framework for its inspection programme for 2025-27. It is the first time that the inspectorate is proposing to look at how the fire and rescue service is held to account by a scrutiny body.
The consultation says that the focus will be on the robustness of the governance and whether it creates a positive culture where ‘standards of conduct exist to support the health and wellbeing of its workforce.’
In a recent report by the inspectorate on fire service management of misconduct, it recommended that the Chief Fire Officer should regularly report misconduct issues, outcomes and trends to the fire authority.
Fire and rescue services can be governed in many different ways including as a department of a county council, a stand alone fire authority that includes membership from different local councils, a larger Metropolitan authority and in some cases it forms part of a combined authority such as Manchester and London where the respective Mayor delegates oversight and scrutiny to a deputy mayor.
The previous government brought in legislation to allow for Police and Crime Commissioners to take on governance of fire in addition to their police oversight role but to date only five Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners have been created: Essex, Staffordshire, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire and most recently, Cumbria.
HMICFRS proposes to also focus more on how well fire and rescue services lead and will extend this to all levels of the organisation. To emphasise its importance, the inspectorate says it will add a leadership section to future reports.
Resilience functions also form part of this consultation with the inspectors asking about how fire and rescue services work within local resilience forums and their partnership arrangements for planning for local risks.
The next round of inspections is due to start in summer 2025 and will include the 44 fire and rescue services in England.
The consultation period for the Proposed fire and rescue services inspection programme and framework 2025-27 is open until 15 September.
