Fire & Rescue Inspection
FRS 2023-25 CoC Recommendations: Avon Fire and Rescue Service
Published 22 November 2023
Cause of Concern recommendations tracked by HMICFRS for Avon Fire and Rescue Service (2023-25)
20
Recommendations
13
Completed
National — applies to all forces
Recommendations (20)
| # | Recommendation | Directed at | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | Cause of concern: The service’s mobilisation system, which records information and dispatches resources to emergency incidents, isn’t reliable and crashes during emergency 999 calls. This unnecessarily delays the mobilisation of resources, which results in the public receiving a slower response to emergencies. Recommendation: By 19 September 2023, the service should develop an action plan to make sure fire control staff are provided with regular updates and welfare support is put in place. | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F10 | Cause of concern: Prevention activity isn’t a sufficiently high priority for the service, and there is no prevention strategy, which should drive its day-to-day activities. The service doesn’t adequately prioritise home fire safety visits (HFSVs) on the basis of risk. We found that H SVs were arranged based on staff’s availability as opposed to risk. We found several HFSVs that were outstanding for a significant period of time due to resourcing issues. Recommendation: Within 28 days, the service should develop an action plan to address the HFSVs backlog in a way that is both timely and prioritised on the basis of risk. | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F11 | Cause of concern: The service has shown an intent to improve its culture, with some staff reporting improvements across the service. However, more needs to be done. We found evidence of behaviours that weren’t in line with service values. We were told about cultures among some teams where staff demonstrate unacceptable behaviours, such as using sexist or inappropriate language and disguising this as banter. And worryingly, some staff don’t have the confidence to report these issues. We were told that there is a disconnect at different levels of the service, such as between middle and senior management, and information isn’t always filtered down to the whole workforce. Recommendation: Within 28 days, the service should develop an action plan to assure itself that senior and middle managers act as role models and show they are committed to service values through their behaviour | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Open |
| F12 | Cause of concern: The service has shown an intent to improve its culture, with some staff reporting improvements across the service. However, more needs to be done. We found evidence of behaviours that weren’t in line with service values. We were told about cultures among some teams where staff demonstrate unacceptable behaviours, such as using sexist or inappropriate language and disguising this as banter. And worryingly, some staff don’t have the confidence to report these issues. We were told that there is a disconnect at different levels of the service, such as between middle and senior management, and information isn’t always filtered down to the whole workforce. Recommendation: Within 28 days, the service should develop an action plan to assure itself that staff are confident using its feedback processes to raise their concerns | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Open |
| F13 | Cause of concern: Prevention activity isn’t a sufficiently high priority for the service, and there is no prevention strategy, which should drive its day-to-day activities. The service doesn’t adequately prioritise home fire safety visits (HFSVs) on the basis of risk. We found that H SVs were arranged based on staff’s availability as opposed to risk. We found several HFSVs that were outstanding for a significant period of time due to resourcing issues. Recommendation: Within 28 days, the service should develop an action plan to develop and implement a prevention strategy that prioritises the people most at risk of fire and makes sure that work to reduce risk is proportionate | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F14 | Cause of concern: Prevention activity isn’t a sufficiently high priority for the service, and there is no prevention strategy, which should drive its day-to-day activities. The service doesn’t adequately prioritise home fire safety visits (HFSVs) on the basis of risk. We found that H SVs were arranged based on staff’s availability as opposed to risk. We found several HFSVs that were outstanding for a significant period of time due to resourcing issues. Recommendation: Within 28 days, the service should develop an action plan to make sure it quality assures its prevention activity so staff carry out HFSVs to an appropriate standard | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F15 | Cause of concern: Prevention activity isn’t a sufficiently high priority for the service, and there is no prevention strategy, which should drive its day-to-day activities. The service doesn’t adequately prioritise home fire safety visits (HFSVs) on the basis of risk. We found that H SVs were arranged based on staff’s availability as opposed to risk. We found several HFSVs that were outstanding for a significant period of time due to resourcing issues. Recommendation: Within 28 days, the service should develop an action plan to make sure staff carry out HFSVs and wider prevention activities competently | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F16 | Cause of concern: The service has shown an intent to improve its culture, with some staff reporting improvements across the service. However, more needs to be done. We found evidence of behaviours that weren’t in line with service values. We were told about cultures among some teams where staff demonstrate unacceptable behaviours, such as using sexist or inappropriate language and disguising this as banter. And worryingly, some staff don’t have the confidence to report these issues. We were told that there is a disconnect at different levels of the service, such as between middle and senior management, and information isn’t always filtered down to the whole workforce. Recommendation: Within 28 days, the service should develop an action plan to make sure that its values and behaviours are understood and demonstrated at all levels of the organisation | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Open |
| F17 | Cause of concern: The service has shown an intent to improve its culture, with some staff reporting improvements across the service. However, more needs to be done. We found evidence of behaviours that weren’t in line with service values. We were told about cultures among some teams where staff demonstrate unacceptable behaviours, such as using sexist or inappropriate language and disguising this as banter. And worryingly, some staff don’t have the confidence to report these issues. We were told that there is a disconnect at different levels of the service, such as between middle and senior management, and information isn’t always filtered down to the whole workforce. Recommendation: Within 28 days, the service should develop an action plan to make sure that staff are trained and supported to identify and challenge inappropriate behaviour | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Open |
| F18 | Cause of concern: The service has shown an intent to improve its culture, with some staff reporting improvements across the service. However, more needs to be done. We found evidence of behaviours that weren’t in line with service values. We were told about cultures among some teams where staff demonstrate unacceptable behaviours, such as using sexist or inappropriate language and disguising this as banter. And worryingly, some staff don’t have the confidence to report these issues. We were told that there is a disconnect at different levels of the service, such as between middle and senior management, and information isn’t always filtered down to the whole workforce. Recommendation: Within 28 days, the service should develop an action plan to make sure that the appropriate support is provided to those raising workforce concerns | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Open |
| F19 | Cause of concern: Prevention activity isn’t a sufficiently high priority for the service, and there is no prevention strategy, which should drive its day-to-day activities. The service doesn’t adequately prioritise home fire safety visits (HFSVs) on the basis of risk. We found that H SVs were arranged based on staff’s availability as opposed to risk. We found several HFSVs that were outstanding for a significant period of time due to resourcing issues. Recommendation: Within 28 days, the service should develop an action plan to make sure the prevention department has enough resources to implement all its prevention activity and review whether wholetime firefighters can offer more capacity to prevention. | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Open |
| F2 | Cause of concern: The service’s mobilisation system, which records information and dispatches resources to emergency incidents, isn’t reliable and crashes during emergency 999 calls. This unnecessarily delays the mobilisation of resources, which results in the public receiving a slower response to emergencies. Recommendation: By 19 September 2023, the service should develop an action plan to make sure it has strategic oversight arrangements in place and that any faults are recorded regularly and escalated to senior leaders where necessary. | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F20 | Cause of concern: Prevention activity isn’t a sufficiently high priority for the service, and there is no prevention strategy, which should drive its day-to-day activities. The service doesn’t adequately prioritise home fire safety visits (HFSVs) on the basis of risk. We found that H SVs were arranged based on staff’s availability as opposed to risk. We found several HFSVs that were outstanding for a significant period of time due to resourcing issues. Recommendation: Within 28 days, the service should develop an action plan to make sure there are strategic oversight arrangements in place and detailed key performance indicators for HFSVs | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F3 | Cause of concern: The service’s mobilisation system, which records information and dispatches resources to emergency incidents, isn’t reliable and crashes during emergency 999 calls. This unnecessarily delays the mobilisation of resources, which results in the public receiving a slower response to emergencies. Recommendation: By 19 September 2023, the service should develop an action plan to make sure its mobilisation system is effective and it doesn’t result in the public receiving a slower response to emergencies. | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F4 | Cause of concern: The service still doesn’t have an effective system to make sure it gathers and records relevant and up-to-date risk information to help protect firefighters, the public and property during an emergency. We found examples of the risk information available not being effective, accurate or up to date. Concerningly, most operational staff haven’t been given the support they need to collect risk information, and there is limited strategic oversight in place to improve the risk information process. Recommendation: By 19 September 2023, the service should provide an action plan to demonstrate how it will meet our recommendations, and it should have an effective risk information process in place. The service should make sure fire control has access to relevant and up-to-date risk information, including evacuation strategies, in high-rise residential buildings. | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F5 | Cause of concern: The service still doesn’t have an effective system to make sure it gathers and records relevant and up-to-date risk information to help protect firefighters, the public and property during an emergency. We found examples of the risk information available not being effective, accurate or up to date. Concerningly, most operational staff haven’t been given the support they need to collect risk information, and there is limited strategic oversight in place to improve the risk information process. Recommendation: By 19 September 2023, the service should provide an action plan to demonstrate how it will meet our recommendations, and it should have an effective risk information process in place. The service should make sure it has effective quality assurance and strategic oversight arrangements in place | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F6 | Cause of concern: The service still doesn’t have an effective system to make sure it gathers and records relevant and up-to-date risk information to help protect firefighters, the public and property during an emergency. We found examples of the risk information available not being effective, accurate or up to date. Concerningly, most operational staff haven’t been given the support they need to collect risk information, and there is limited strategic oversight in place to improve the risk information process. Recommendation: By 19 September 2023, the service should provide an action plan to demonstrate how it will meet our recommendations, and it should have an effective risk information process in place. The service should make sure it has identified all those premises that require a specific risk visit | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F7 | Cause of concern: The service still doesn’t have an effective system to make sure it gathers and records relevant and up-to-date risk information to help protect firefighters, the public and property during an emergency. We found examples of the risk information available not being effective, accurate or up to date. Concerningly, most operational staff haven’t been given the support they need to collect risk information, and there is limited strategic oversight in place to improve the risk information process. Recommendation: By 19 September 2023, the service should provide an action plan to demonstrate how it will meet our recommendations, and it should have an effective risk information process in place. The service should make sure risk information is uploaded in a timely manner | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F8 | Cause of concern: The service still doesn’t have an effective system to make sure it gathers and records relevant and up-to-date risk information to help protect firefighters, the public and property during an emergency. We found examples of the risk information available not being effective, accurate or up to date. Concerningly, most operational staff haven’t been given the support they need to collect risk information, and there is limited strategic oversight in place to improve the risk information process. Recommendation: By 19 September 2023, the service should provide an action plan to demonstrate how it will meet our recommendations, and it should have an effective risk information process in place. The service should make sure staff are trained in how to carry out and identify site-specific risk information. | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Completed |
| F9 | Cause of concern: The service still doesn’t have an effective system to make sure it gathers and records relevant and up-to-date risk information to help protect firefighters, the public and property during an emergency. We found examples of the risk information available not being effective, accurate or up to date. Concerningly, most operational staff haven’t been given the support they need to collect risk information, and there is limited strategic oversight in place to improve the risk information process. Recommendation: By 19 September 2023, the service should provide an action plan to demonstrate how it will meet our recommendations, and it should have an effective risk information process in place. The service should make sure temporary risks, including individual vulnerabilities that are added onto the risk information system, are managed appropriately. | Avon Fire & Rescue Service | Open |