Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service has received good ratings across the board in the latest HMICFRS inspection.
The Service was inspected in December 2021 and the report was released today (Wednesday 27 July) stating that SFRS was rated ‘Good’ for ‘Effectiveness’, ‘Efficiency’ and ‘People’.
The report highlighted some areas in particular where the Service had improved including the way it develops leaders and develops staff but also it praised the way SFRS has a clear set of values, a positive culture and effectively identifies risk within the community. It also promoted that the Service was effective at preventing fire and is well prepared to respond to major and multi-agency incidents.
Chief Fire Officer Rod Hammerton said:
“I am extremely pleased with the results of the inspection and am proud of the Service and the staff who make it what it is. This puts us in a handful of the very best performing Fire Services in the country.
“We’ve worked tirelessly to improve and have put particular effort into maintaining the best level of service we could in the wake of the pandemic.
“We received a Good rating at our previous inspection in 2018 and it is satisfying to see we are still operating at a high standard as well as addressing the areas for improvement in the last inspection.
“The report recognised the large strides the Service has made in areas like prevention that have been a key focus for us with the ever present aim of making Shropshire safer. I am also pleased to see results highlight that SFRS is prepared to attend incidents of a large scale and can effectively work with our partners.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of our fire family who always strive to make SFRS better and have dedicated themselves to serving the community, whether they are wholetime firefighters, on call firefighters or support staff. Together we have created and maintained a Service to be proud and this is reflected in the HMICFRS Inspection Report.”
You can find the full report here.
Chairman of Shropshire and Wrekin Fire and Rescue Authority said:
“I could not be more thrilled to see the results of the HMICFRS Inspection, although I was always confident that the Service would receive such a positive rating. SFRS has faced some big challenges in the last few years like many of us have, including the COVID-19 pandemic, flooding and the large scale incident at Greenways. Its fantastic for the hard work of our staff to be recognised in this way.”
