Why are we investing in our people?

To ensure our workplace is an inclusive, positive and safe culture where everyone is valued, and to ensure we are reflective of the communities we serve.

How do we currently invest in our people?

Inclusion is one of our three strategic priorities.

• Our People and Organisational Development Strategy helps drive positive culture change.
• Our Code of Conduct and Ethics and Service values are at the heart of everything we do.
• Our leaders are positive role models who hold themselves, and others, accountable.
• In 2023 we commissioned an independent cultural review, which will help shape improvements within the Service.
• We proactively encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds for all roles in the Service.

How are we proposing to invest in our people to mitigate risk in 2024-2027?

• Identify and buy new, state of the art, breathing apparatus sets to replace current models.
• Further improve our operational facilities at our Training Centre in Washington, to enhance firefighter safety and support national training – and become a centre of excellence.
• Continue to diversify our workforce at all levels, to ensure we reflect our whole community, by:
  • Enhancing use of data to better target our audience;
  • Introducing measurable targets;
  • Raise greater awareness of wider FRS roles within minority communities.
• Improve inclusion by enhancing our understanding of how different learning styles and neurodiversity can affect development and engagement.
• Improve how we collate and use feedback from staff, stakeholders and the community, using a variety of mechanisms, including surveys; the 2023 cultural review; HMICFRS; and consultation, to continuously engage with staff and improve services and employee experience.
• Continue to develop key partnerships within the region.
• Enhance our engagement strategy and materials based on feedback from the community.

Why are we focusing on Prevention?

Preventing emergencies from happening in the first place through safety, education and engagement with our communities is the most effective way to save lives.

How do we currently invest in our Prevention work?

As we have made clear in our CRMP, we use data, intelligence and analysis to target our resources to those most at risk.

Our Prevention work is focused on 4 areas:

• Safety in the Home
• Safeguarding vulnerable people
• Community Engagement
• Youth Engagement, Education and Diversionary Activities

What are our proposals for future improvements in Prevention activities?

• Enhance our intelligence led approach to continue to improve our understanding of risk and vulnerability and target our resources effectively;
• Improve data sharing arrangements with partner agencies, to identify those most at risk;
• Increase the number of Fire Cadets branches from 4 to 5, covering each of the 5 local authority areas in Tyne and Wear;
• Explore opportunities to develop a new Safety Education Centre
• Learn from our experiences, through feedback and evaluation, to continuously improve our prevention work

Why is our Protection work so important?

There are approximately 32,000 commercial premises within Tyne and Wear and it is our role to support compliance with fire safety legislation and mitigate any risk to communities.

How do we currently deliver our Protection work?

To identify our priorities our Risk Based Inspection Programme (RBIP) takes into account both risk and compliance of a premises.

The RBIP is continually monitored and data analysed utilising nine variables, including fires, injuries, Fire Safety Enforcement including Prohibition (PN’s) and Enforcement Notices (EN’s), and levels of risk and compliance within the premises to set the inspection frequencies.

In addition to commercial premises we also cover domestic dwellings in multi-occupied premises such as blocks of flats and it is this area which, following the Grenfell tragedy, has seen the greatest legislative changes in recent years and therefore is a primary focus for us.

Our primary focus remains education within the community, supplemented by enforcement as and when appropriate.

What are our proposals for future investment in our protection work?

We will continue to enhance safety in the commercial built environment ensuring those responsible for such premises are compliant with the required legislation by:

• Review our RBIP to ensure we’re targeting risk effectively.
• Increase frontline staff training in line with the national competency framework for fire regulators, to enable an increase in resources for inspection.
• From April 2024 a new inspection team will look to support the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) which will be led by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The BSR team will focus on High Rise Residential Buildings across the region although the scope of this may change over time.

The RBIP will be supported by a ‘hot strike’ methodology long used by operational staff following a fire. The department will look to use this method following the serving of Prohibition Notices to engage and educate the local community of a potential known risk within the area. It is known that in general the built environment in the surrounding community is often similar and therefore there is a likelihood of others being at risk in these properties.

Why is it important to evolve our Response?

Demand on the fire and rescue service has evolved over the years and we continue to respond to a wide range of complex incidents, whether that be rescuing those in crisis, flooding, wildfire or a large scale road traffic collision. These demands will continue to evolve and we must adapt as we move forward.

How do we currently deliver an effective Response to emergencies?

We continuously review risk, demand and performance to ensure our resources are in the right place, and that we are providing an efficient use of money.

We have previously evolved our approach to improve service delivery, namely:

• Introduced an additional fire appliance to our fleet.
• Primary staffed the Service’s two Aerial Ladder Platforms (ALPs).
• Amended the shift arrangements at two of our 17 fire stations.

We are continuing to invest in new appliances, equipment and kit to meet the changing demands on our Service and ensure the safety of our staff.

Our response to emergencies remain among the fastest in the country with an average response time of 5 minutes 44 seconds in 2022/23.

What are our proposals to evolve our operational response?

• Introduce a Day Crewing Shift System at Wallsend Community Fire Station and reinvest the released resources efficiently and effectively by:
  • Increasing our water rescue capability by having a fire boat and water rescue available at all times.
  • Increasing our availability and resilience to respond to line rescue incidents, building collapses and large vehicle crashes.
• Introduce a response standard, to help us monitor our performance and report back to the public.
• Continue to improve and develop our operational training facilities to support national learning (Grenfell tower, Manchester Arena).
• Review, update and implement a new mobilising system.

Why is our Resilience work so important?

As a Category 1 responder we need to have robust plans in place to deal with major emergencies and disruptions whilst continuing to deliver our critical services. Nearly all serious emergencies require a ‘multi-agency’ response and so, by working with our partner agencies in Tyne and Wear, we can respond with the right mix of skills, expertise, and equipment to deal with the risks we expect to face.

How are we investing in Resilience at this time?

We currently provide a number of specialist capabilities, both personnel and resources, which enhance our ability to respond within the community and nationally to large scale or critical incidents.

We currently host a number of National Resilience assets, including:

• Urban Search and Rescue capability
• Mass Decontamination capability
• Marauding Terrorist Attack response capability
• Hazmats Detection, Identification and Monitoring capability
• High Volume Pumping capability
• Swift Water Rescue Team and Flood Response capability
• Canine Search Unit capability
• Various Tactical Advisor Capability

What are our proposals to enhance our Operational and National Response?

• Introducing an Enhanced Logistics Support (ELS) asset which will enhance our capability to coordinate the deployment of multiple resources.
• Increase our collaborative training with blue light partners at our dedicated training centre which houses our Urban Search and Rescue complex.
• Increase our collaboration with Northumberland FRS to enable an improved response to wildfire incidents.
• Enhance our Marauding Terrorist Attack capability by working in partnership with National Resilience.
• Further develop our response and training to COMAH sites