‘Improvements to fire service will take time’

FIRE chiefs say it will take time to build trust with staff as they work to improve their standards after inspectors raised serious concerns about Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service this week.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) says the service must improve urgently after it was judged to be inadequate at looking after its people and requires improvement at effectively keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks.

Inspectors also have serious concerns about the way it promotes its values and culture, and how it is improving the understanding of the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion.

Chief fire officer Mark Preece, pictured above, is committed to improving the culture but says it may take time to change people’s perception of the service.

“The biggest challenge is around how we improve the culture because that takes a lot more effort to bring that change about. It’s not just about people behaving differently, it’s about people feeling differently when they come to work.

“With culture, it takes time to build trust and some of the things referred to in the report around our promotion processes and grievances are already dealt with in a completely impartial manner. There is no influence from myself at all in my position as chief fire officer or senior officers about certain outcomes being preordained before the investigation is complete. Now that may have been the case in the past going back some years but that has not been the case for some while.

“But people’s perception is still the same but the reality is a great deal different.

“But of course, if people’s perception is of that, that’s their lived reality and they are putting that culture and feeling upon themselves that they haven’t got a fair chance even before they begin.

“Our promotion processes are completely open and transparent and I would open them up to challenge so that anyone can come and see how we score candidates and how the process is run. The perception is that I sit here in my office, I look at the names and I go, right I’ve had an argument with firefighter X, I’ve had a disagreement with firefighter Y, they are not getting the job.

“The reality could not be further from the truth. I’m not wired that way and I think constructive challenge is good.”

He explained how the service’s efforts during the coronavirus pandemic meant they had not focused as much on addressing the issues highlighted by the previous HMICFRS report.

“Just as we came out of Covid, we’ve gone back into inspection and of course because all our efforts have been on supporting the community, we’ve only just started focusing on our previous HMICFRS report and they are saying we have not made sufficient progress which I accept.”

Mr Preece is also confident the service can improve in how it keeps people safe and has already made improvements on attendance times. He says responding to emergencies is “paramount” and the service is in a strong position.

“We’ve got good availability of staff which ensures we have fire crews and appliances there when they are needed. We perform better than the national average and how quickly we reach people is improving. The national standard is nine minutes and I accept we didn’t achieve that but our average was nine minutes and 20 seconds. And we are taking steps to improve that.

“We do a higher proportion of safe and well checks compared to the national average. We are going out every day now and reaching the most vulnerable in the community and we do several thousands of those visits every year.

“Community safety is very much at the heart of what we do. Our staff are tremendously proud of serving their communities and when the community needs us, in whatever emergency, we will be there in a timely fashion. That has never wavered. We have got professional and competent staff who are really committed to their communities and want to take the service forward.”