Inspectors Say North Yorkshire Fire Service Has Improved

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services says significant steps have been taken in response to its previous concerns about North Yorkshire's Fire and Rescue Service.

During March and May 2022,inspectors had identified two causes of concern.

• The service doesn’t have in place robust processes to ensure transformation activities provide efficiency and effectiveness.
• The service doesn’t have in place adequate workforce planning processes. This means that areas such as safety-critical training, succession planning, absence and work-time management don’t support its current and future integrated risk management plan.

In December 2022 HMICFRS set out a number of recommendations to deal with the concerns and the Fire Service drafted an action plan to tackle the issues.

Now, following a revisit to North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service in September 2023, HMICFRS says it has seen that significant steps have been taken in response to the causes of the concerns and it has now removed them.

Zoë Metcalfe, Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner for York and North Yorkshire said:

“As Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, effective oversight of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service represents a key part of my role in serving the public.  Since the causes of concern were issued, I have sought regular assurance from the Chief Fire Officer that necessary improvements were being made to address them.

“I am delighted that the Inspectorate has formally recognised the clear progress the Service has made to address both causes of concern. This process clearly demonstrates the value of independent oversight of critical public services, and I would like to commend the Chief Fire Officer and all those in the Service who have worked so hard at pace, to provide an improved service to our communities.”

Chief Fire Officer Jonathan Dyson said:

“Since I was appointed Chief Fire Office in July 2022, I have been committed to ensuring we make progress to transform the Service and have the appropriate processes in place to monitor and assure what we do.

“We welcome the independent scrutiny from HMICFRS and I am delighted that they have recognised our efforts and have removed the two causes of concern.

“A huge amount of work has gone into making these improvements and I would like to thank everyone from across the Service and enable, who have helped to deliver this progress. As a people centred and progressive Service, we will continue to deliver improvements to ensure we are efficient and effective and delivering the best possible services to our communities.”

In a letter to the Fire and Rescue service this week Michelle Skeer from HMICFRS said:

"I am pleased to see the significant steps that the service has taken in response to the causes of concern we issued. The strengthened working relationships between the enabling services have helped to change the working culture and improve staff understanding of the benefits that the collaboration can provide. We saw evidence that showed the improvements made are sustainable and that they will continue to be monitored at a senior level. 

The service recognises that there is still more work to do, particularly in refining the processes to monitor and evaluate the services provided by Enable. However, the steps taken since our previous visit reassure us that there is a much-improved position regarding enabling services and the benefits they bring to the service.  

The risk and resource model, and the actions within it, are in progress and aim to lead to change and create efficiencies to further benefit the service. During our inspection, the service told us that it had managed this change effectively, and that it had a minimal negative effect on the staff involved. 

The service has reviewed and developed processes in relation to its workforce and is improving data and updating systems to support and develop this further. The absence management policy and procedure is expected to be implemented imminently, and we look forward to reviewing this in the future. 

We recognise the considerable work carried out to support these improvements. As a result, we now consider both causes of concern to be resolved. We will, however, continue to monitor them during our scheduled inspection of the service in 2024 as part of our established inspection methodology. "

The full letter can be found at https://hmicfrs.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/publication-html/north-yorkshire-frs-causes-of-concern-progress-letter-october-2023/

The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner has thanked the Chief Fire Officer and his team for significant progress.