Firefighters have responded to the latest release of inspection reports for fire and rescue services in England, which have been released today.
This tranche of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) reports consists of fifteen fire and rescue service inspections, and is the second tranche in this round of inspections.
Tam McFarlane, Fire Brigades Union national officer, said:
“We welcome the chief inspector’s recognition of the hard work of firefighters in the horrendous wildfires last week.
“However, firefighters will all tell you the same thing: cuts to resources mean that fire and rescue performance is declining rapidly. Firefighters and control staff do the best job they can do each and every day, but with 11,500 less firefighters compared to 2010, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain public safety. Fire and rescue services responded to almost 150,000 fires in 2021, non-fire incidents have increased by 18% and 2021 saw a 27% increase in fire-related fatalities. Meanwhile, average response times are up by nearly 40 seconds since 2010/11.
“It’s particularly shocking that eight of the fifteen services inspected don’t have enough fire protection staff to carry out vital fire safety work and that services are over reliant on overtime to provide operational response, a direct impact of the cuts made to funding and firefighter jobs.
“The HMICFRS report has exposed that many fire and rescue services’ plans don’t show how they intend to use resources to reduce the risk posed to the communities they serve.
“More broadly these reports highlight the full reality of a decade of devastating budget cuts with some Fire and Rescue Service’s so cash starved that they are selling land and buildings to try and survive. The Fire and Rescue Service is in desperate need of increased investment and if the Inspectorate are serious about improving firefighters’ working lives a good start would be focussing on the insulting real terms pay cut of nearly £4,000 firefighters have seen since 2009, and the ridiculous 2% pay offer firefighters recently received.
“These reports also make it blatantly clear that there are serious issues when it comes to the management culture of fire and rescue services. In the majority of cases reported in the HMI staff survey, the source of bullying, harassment or discrimination was someone more senior to the person experiencing the behaviour.
“Given chief fire officers are ultimately responsible for this mess, serious questions should be asked about the white paper plans to boost their powers. Culture starts at the top.”
NOTES
You can read more information about the recent fire and rescue white paper here.
You can read more information about the recent pay offer to firefighters here, with an update here.
You can find statistics related to response times here (Table FIRE1001).
