West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service needs improvements

West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service was inspected by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) which found it “needs to improve in some areas to provide a consistently good service”.

The inspector was “pleased” by the  service overall.

They rated the service good in five areas, including preventing fires, understanding risk and protecting the public through fire regulation, while the other six were rated adequate.

But they said some areas would benefit from improvement.

The report noted the availability of on-call crewed fire engines was still an area for improvement, as between 2022 and 2023 only 48.6 per cent of on-call engines were available. The inspector said the service has since introduced methods to increase on-call fire engine availability but that “there is still some way to go”.

The fire service was found to be “prepared to respond to multi-agency and major incidents”, although the inspector reported it could improve its response to major incidents involving tall buildings.

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The report said: “In this inspection, we have focused on how well prepared the service is to respond to a major incident at a tall building, such as the tragedy at Grenfell Tower.

“We found the service has some policies and procedures in place for safely managing this type of incident, such as a new fire survival guidance procedure.

“But it needs to develop further procedures and make sure they are consistently understood by all staff at all levels.”

Another key area for improvement was ensuring the service’s financial viability.

Although the service needs to make £500,000 in savings or income equivalent in the next year, the inspector said “income target plans were in the early stages” despite facing “significant financial challenges”.

Following a cause of concern in the fire service’s first and second inspections over staff values and behaviours, including bullying, harassment and discrimination, the inspector said improvements have been made.

The report said: “There is a positive working culture throughout the service, with staff empowered and willing to challenge poor behaviours when they come across them.”

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However, a survey of staff found that only 44 per cent felt that senior leaders consistently model and maintain the service’s values.

Issues with diversity were also recorded, as the inspector stated that “the service could do more to make sure its workforce represents the community it serves”.

Of the 59 people who joined the workforce between 2022 and 2023, four per cent identified as being from an ethnic minority background, while 8.1 per cent of the total workforce identify as women, 0.6 per cent below England’s average.

Recruitment campaigns were found not to “target under-represented groups” and the service was said to not be “leading change in this area to increase the diversity of its workforce”.

Chief fire officer Sabrina Cohen-Hatton said: “I am delighted to see the hard work and dedication of our staff reflected in this latest report. We have come a long way since our first inspection in 2018, which rated the service as ‘inadequate’ and ‘requires improvement’ across all areas, with four causes of concern.

“In fact, the publication of this report means that we are now one of the few fire and rescue services with no ratings of ‘requires improvement’, which is something I am immensely proud of.

“While this is a very different picture to our previous reports, we acknowledge that there is still more work to be done and we already have plans in place to address the eight areas for improvement identified by HMICFRS.”