Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service

We set high standards for our performance because we’re committed to delivering the best service for our communities.

HMICFRS Inspection

In 2022, Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service was graded as Good by His Majesty’s Inspectorate for Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).

The Good grading was achieved for all three areas of inspection:

Effectiveness – our emergency response and services we provide to the public
Efficiency – how we manage our finances and how efficient we are
People – our culture, training and how we treat our people

In its summary the HMICFRS stated TWFRS had “made progress” since the last inspection, were providing a “more effective” service and had “secured a sustainable financial future”

For details of the independent inspection and its findings, read the full inspection report on the HMICFRS website.

Values and Culture Review

The national spotlight report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services was published in March 2023. This has provided an opportunity to reflect and take action to address how we embed values, culture, fairness and diversity in our Service.

The report focused on the following themes:

• values and culture, including bullying, harassment and discrimination
• training and skills
• fairness and diversity

Altogether 35 recommendations were made and subsequently we have undertaken a self-assessment and set out our plans on how we are going to meet the recommendations.

Some of the recommendations were for other organisations, with 20 of those for Fire Services to action directly. Our progress against these actions can be found on the Values and Culture Action Plan.

You can view our update by clicking the following link.

Response to Covid-19

In October 2020, HMICFRS carried out a thematic inspection focused on our initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The inspectorate reported that the Service continued to meet all its statutory duties, as well as extra demands placed on it to support partner agencies and the local community. The service prepared itself well in anticipating the challenges presented by COVID-19 and the national measures to reduce the spread of the virus.

Statement of Assurance (SOA) and Our Year in Review

The Statement of Assurance (SoA) is a ‘look-back’ document, which provides information on the Fire Authority’s financial, governance and operational performance during 2022/23, and includes details of how the requirements of the Fire and Rescue National Framework for England 2018 are met.

The Fire Authority has a responsibility to publish a SoA annually and this statement sets out the approach taken to ensure the appropriate governance arrangements are in place. The SoA is used as a source of information on which to base the Secretary of State’s biennial report under section 25 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004.

The data contained within the SoA comes from a range of internal systems, including our Incident Recording System, Community Fire Risk Management Information System, Risk Management Assurance Database and external data from the Office for National Statistics.

Our SoA shows how we performed last year and the previous year, how much money we spent and how we spent it:

Statement of Assurance 2023/2024
Statement of Assurance 2022-2023
Statement of Assurance 2021-2022

We have also develop an Our Year in Review document each year that highlights some of the positive work that took place over the last financial year. This is in the form of a fold out pamphlet, or a digital version.

Our Year in Review 2022/23 – Print

Our Year in Review 2022/23 – Digital

Find out more about our financial governance.

Quarterly performance reports

Data contained in the operational performance report is extracted from the Incident Recording System (IRS) and Community Fire Risk Management Information System (CFRMIS) in relation to incident data and Home Safety Checks (HSCs).

We produce performance reports every quarter to show our progress against previous incident data and targets:

2023/24

2022/23

2021/22

Equality, diversity and inclusion

Annual equality data and gender pay gap

The Annual Equality Data Report includes information on our employees and the communities in our area.

It helps us to identify equality priorities and prevent discrimination.

The Gender Pay Gap Report shows the differences between average pay for men and women.

The data contained in the below reports comes from our Human Resources workforce database, Community Fire Risk Management Information System, Learning and Organisational Development database and post incident surveys.

Annual Equality Data and Gender Pay Gap Report 2022-2023