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After a damning inspection report published in November, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service has now received the verdict from its own auditors and it’s not easy reading. It finds ‘significant weaknesses’ in governance in the aftermath of hateful social media messages sent by its senior leadership team last year.
Grant Thornton is the external auditor for Shropshire and Wrekin Fire and Rescue Authority (the Authority). It shared an interim report at an extraordinary meeting of the Authority’s Standards, Audit and Performance committee on 25 February.
As part of its value for money inspection, the auditors look at governance and given the behaviour of the service’s leadership that led to misconduct hearings and the suspension of the Chief Fire Officer and his Assistant Chief, the report has much to say on this.
“We reviewed the Authority’s arrangements to deliver sound governance and have concluded that there were significant weaknesses.”
Late last year His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) published its inspection report about the performance of Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service where it said that six out of 11 inspection areas required improvement with one on best use of resources judged as inadequate.
The Grant Thornton auditors make substantial references to the HMICFRS report in its analysis of the Authority’s governance arrangements.
Looking at the leadership and culture of the service, the auditors replay the activity of the Authority’s panel that looked at the behaviour of the service’s leadership and the Authority’s decision in October to reinstate the Chief Fire Officer with a written warning and a mandatory training requirement. The Assistant Chief resigned ahead of the conclusion of the inquiry.
“We are not satisfied that some of the Authority’s leadership demonstrated appropriate behaviours and set the tone from the top.”
Other services have commissioned independent reviews of their culture – and as seen recently in North Wales and Mid and West Wales these reveal the depth of poor behaviours and attitudes that don’t belong in a modern workplace. Grant Thornton suggests that that Authority review its leadership, look at the ‘tone from the top’ and consider whether a wider review of its culture is required.
The service commissioned a culture review that reported in February 2024, two months before the leaking of WhatsApp messages between the service’s senior leadership team. HMICFRS wrote in its report, where the fieldwork was carried out during the summer of 2024: “The service needs to do more to improve its culture as, despite commissioning an independent review, it hasn’t progressed any of the recommendations, and some behaviour isn’t in line with service values.”
The Authority is made up of 17 councillors drawn from local authorities in the area and is responsible for the governance of Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service with its 610 staff and 23 fire stations across this large, land locked county.
In April 2024, ITV News journalist Paul Brand spoke to former Shropshire Area Manager, Jan Morris, about her experience of seeing hateful WhatsApp messages about her sent between senior leaders in the service and how she was taking the fire authority to an employment tribunal.
The auditors note in their report that the Authority is dealing with potential claims and says that the Authority should estimate the size of current and future claims as part of its financial planning. It doesn’t provide any details on the ‘significant contribution’ already added to the Authority’s reserves as a mitigation measure but adds that the Authority should be more ‘transparent’ in how it makes value for money decisions when incurring ‘considerable costs.’
In one of the audit reports many recommendations, it says that the Authority should have an ‘appropriate policy for use of social media’ and that staff should be aware of it and receive training. Alongside this, it also recommends that the Authority update its policies and procedures regarding investigation of complaints and disciplinary matters. HMICFRS found that the service had a confidential reporting line in place but staff told the inspectors that they were not confident to use it.
Responding to a request for comment about content and outcome of the meeting about this report, the Authority said:
“Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service is a highly respected emergency service with dedicated officers who work day in, day out to keep Shropshire people safe.
“The Service and Fire Authority accept the external auditors report and have submitted management actions to meet the recommendations in full. While recognising and accepting recent challenges, the Chief Fire Officer and the Fire Authority are positive and energised about the future.”
The Authority meeting on 25 February where this report was discussed was not recorded, but the papers including the Grant Thornton audit report are available.
Read the HMICFRS thematic report on culture in fire and rescue services – Fire services make progress to improve culture but more must be done, fire inspectorate warns.
