The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the practical implications
of outdated and inflexible working arrangements in the fire
service, reinforcing the need for national reform, a new report
has said.
In his annual assessment of England’s fire and rescue services,
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services, Sir
Thomas Winsor, found that:
- fire services rose to the challenge of the pandemic, with
many fire and rescue staff taking on additional activities;
- changes to improve fire and building safety in the wake of
the Grenfell Tower fire are necessary and welcome; and
- progress has been made on introducing a code of ethics to
address toxic working cultures found in a few fire services.
However, the Chief Inspector said fire leaders were not always
able to quickly deploy firefighters to support the pandemic
response – for example the COVID-19 national vaccination
programme – because fire National Employers and the Fire Brigades
Union failed to reach a national agreement.
In his report, Sir Thomas questioned why such an agreement was
even necessary during a public health emergency, given there were
strong safety protections in place for all fire and rescue staff.
The Chief Inspector has previously made six recommendations for
national reform of the fire service, which he said remains
necessary and needs to accelerate.
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Fire and Rescue
Services, Sir Thomas Winsor, said:
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, fire and rescue staff have shown
their bravery and selfless determination to carry out lifesaving
work by going above and beyond their normal duties. I pay tribute
to all those who stepped forward.
“But if the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that there are
too many barriers preventing firefighters from fully supporting
their local communities when they need it most, which we know
firefighters find frustrating.
“The public has great admiration for firefighters, and rightly
so. While the pandemic has caused significant and unavoidable
delays to reform, I am impatient on behalf of the public that
more has not been done by now to modernise working practices.
“The unprecedented challenges of the last year have shown us that
national reform of the fire service is needed now more than ever.
Implementation of the recommendations I have already made will
contribute greatly to building the fire service the public
deserves.”
In the second ever State of Fire and Rescue, Sir Thomas
re-emphasised his recommendations for fire service reform,
including:
- Improving a woeful lack of race and gender diversity. Only
five percent of fire and rescue staff are from a minority ethnic
group, compared to 14.6 percent of the total English population;
- The government should change the law to give chief fire
officers operational independence, which if put in place before
the pandemic, could have helped them deploy firefighters more
quickly to do tasks beyond their normal duties; and
- The way the government allocates funding to the fire sector
should be reviewed, as fire services are worried about their
long-term financial future once the full effects of the COVID-19
pandemic are known.
The government announced yesterday that it would consult on
legislating to create operational independence for chief fire
officers as part of a new White Paper on fire reform, which will
include changes to fire governance.
Due to the pandemic, new dates have been established for the
implementation of the Chief Inspector’s national recommendations,
with some deadlines extended by a year.
