Northumberland Fire and Rescue improvements recognised

22 Apr 2022 ARCHIVED (over 3 months old) - view latest news

Northumberland Fire and Rescue (NFRS) have been recognised by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) for fully discharging all recommendations made within the Cause of Concern raised in a report published in 2021.

The investigation which took place between June and August 2021 identified that “The management of dual contracts for staff working on-call and wholetime in the service must be improved” and made three recommendations which were to be actioned by March 31, 2022.
The recommendations centred on:

• improving the management and recording of the working time of dual contract personnel,
• ensuring the meeting of statutory requirements could be evidenced,
• and that appropriate rest breaks for operational staff welfare were always maintained.

NFRS submitted its evidence in response to the Cause of Concern ahead of the expected date in early January 2022 and the service was revisited by a team from HMICFRS in March to undertake reality testing of the revised arrangements.

In publishing the revisit outcomes, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services,I Andy Cooke stated: ‘The robust plans that the service now has in place in response to this cause of concern reflect its determination and commitment to make the improvements that are needed. We recognise that the service has carried out considerable work to support these improvements. As a result, we now consider this cause of concern to be complete.’

NFRS Chief Fire Officer, Paul Hedley, said: “Northumberland Fire and Rescue have worked extremely hard since the report was published last year to address the concerns raised within the report.

“When HMICFRS identified areas where we could improve the management of the health, safety and welfare of our dual contract staff we were determined to respond to those recommendations as quickly, and as fully, as we could.

“We immediately looked at how we could make improvements following the HMICFRS Cause of Concern notification which we received in September 2021 and had all of the improved safeguarding arrangements in place by December 2021.

“I'm very proud of our response to the cause of concern. It has been a fantastic team effort and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has played a part in ensuring we were able quickly implement new procedures and systems to meet all of the HMICFRS outcome requirements.”

On Friday 22 April HMICFRS confirmed that NFRS had fully discharged all recommendations attached to the Cause of Concerns identified in the previous report.

Councillor Colin Horncastle, Northumberland County Council Fire Authority Chair said: “This is excellent news, and the full discharge of the Cause of Concern recommendations reflects the seriousness that the service leadership team attached to addressing the HMICFRS requirements in full and the prioritisation of the recommendations by the service."
 
The full revisit outcome letter can be found here