Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue needs to improve its support for "under-represented groups" according to the latest inspection.
Following an inspection from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, which has statutory responsibility for the inspection of fire and rescue services and police forces across the country, Bucks Fire and Rescue has been rated as "requires improvement".
Bucks Fire and Rescue covers Milton Keynes and surrounding areas. The service has 19 stations across the area with 4 being in Milton Keynes.
The report found that Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service ‘requires improvement’ in various areas, including in terms of ‘effectively and efficiently keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks’ and the ‘extent to which the service looks after its people’.
The report said the service needed to improve its support for "under-represented groups". Saying that it needs to provide a "fair, diverse and inclusive place to work"
On initial response to the report The Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Jason Thelwell has said
"BFRS has come a long way in the short period since our first inspection, and this has been against a continuously difficult financial landscape, during a global pandemic which has tested us all. This has only been possible because of the excellent people who work at BFRS, who strive to do their best for this Service, every day."
Matt Parr, HM Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services echo’s this sentiment in the HMI summary, saying: "I also want to recognise the disruption caused by the pandemic.’ ‘…Since there was a gap of only 18 months between our first and latest inspections and much of the intervening time was overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it isn’t surprising that many of our findings are like those in our first report."
The CFO goes on to say. "Whilst the pressures of Covid-19 have not diminished and will continue to demand our time and resourcing when supporting our partners to deliver the accelerated Covid-19 vaccination booster programme, we will take the opportunity to extract the learning from this report, and if we haven’t done so already, look at ways in which we can address them in our service priorities and objectives.
"It is now vital we digest and review the report thoroughly. The full report will be presented to the Fire Authority (FA) in the New Year, with a refreshed action plan."
Mark Chapman, Regional Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said that: “We and others had significant concerns about fire and rescue cover in Buckinghamshire even prior to this report – when fire and rescue is discussed with people overwhelmingly they tell us that they believe it has seen significant and damaging downgrades over the last decade or so.
“The concerns raised by the inspectorate regarding the ‘lean’ operational response model operated in Buckinghamshire and its ability to respond when needed should be ringing alarm bells, and action must be taken to address this.
"We have seen responses to recent fires in Buckinghamshire and namely a hotel fire in Stokenchurch that relied heavily on resources from neighbouring fire and rescue services, draining other counties of their fire cover. This cannot be allowed to continue."
MKFM has contacted Buckinghamshrie Fire and Rescue for a further comment.
