South Yorkshire’s fire service says it has already taken significant steps to improve its service, following the publication of a national inspection report.
The report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate for Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) identified several areas for improvement- as well as many areas of good practice.
areas of good practice
Inspectors said the service is ‘good’ at looking after its people, but needs to improve under the ‘effectiveness’ and ‘efficiency’ inspection categories. The service is rated as ‘good’ in seven out of 11 sub-categories.
Chief Fire Officer - Chris Kirby, said, “The report highlights many areas of good practice across the service and we are proud of these positive findings. We are particularly proud to be rated ‘good’ for People with those we employ as our most important and valued asset."
areas for improvement
We have made significant improvement since the inspection team visited us last summer"
Chris Kirby adds, “However, we acknowledge there are also areas for improvement and we will use this report to drive further improvements to our service for the people of South Yorkshire."
He continues, “We’ve already addressed several of the areas identified in the report and believe we have made significant improvement since the inspection team visited us last summer.”
Improvements made since the inspection
Improvements South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue has made since the inspection team visited, include recruiting more on-call firefighters, beginning to overhaul its Occupational Health Unit, and delivering more work to implement nationally developed guidance for firefighters.
The report follows an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) in summer 2022.
Assessment criteria
It is the second time South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue has been inspected since HMICFRS extended its remit to include inspections of fire and rescue services in 2017.
The inspectorates assess and report on the efficiency, effectiveness, and people management qualities of the 45 fire and rescue services in England. Services are rated either ‘inadequate’, ‘requires improvement’, ‘good’, or ‘outstanding’ under each of these.