Following a government consultation in 2022, the Home Office has published its outcome of the Fire Reform White Paper, setting out its plans for improvements to the fire and rescue services.
Titled ‘Reforming our fire and rescue service’, the consultation paper centred around three main themes:
- People – improving systems, flexibility, and culture
- Professionalism – helping fire professionals to best serve their communities
- Governance – strengthening oversight and leadership
In particular, it was aimed at offering better support for fire and rescue services across the country, including tools to tackle changes and challenges within the community. The consultation, which saw 290 responses in total, also sought to clarify the role of the firefighter, encourage cultural ties, and provide greater development and leadership opportunities for fire professionals.
In his ministerial foreword, Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire, Chris Philp stated: “…We have refined our approach to take recent changes and reports into account. We have focussed our efforts on the reform steps that will have the most impact for the public and for fire professionals: supporting dedicated fire staff to develop a profession to be proud of and ensuring that fire services do more to put the public first.”
As part of the government’s long-awaited response, Philp referred to the setting up of a professional body to “continue to raise standards”, better training for fire professionals, giving chiefs operational control of their service, helping sector leaders manage pay fairly “without getting caught up in bureaucracy”, and enabling “more directly elected leaders to bring public focus and economic rigour to fire and rescue services”.
The outcome also called for the creation of a College of Fire and Rescue that would have similar powers to the College of Policing, to help drive change. Reflecting on recent inspection findings of HMICFRS and “serious lapses of integrity”, the government proposed a statutory code of ethics to raise standards and drive up performance and professionalism.
While the white paper highlighted the value of single point accountability in fire, the government stated that it would not take forward the “mandatory transfer of FRA functions to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), Mayor, or single elected individuals”. The government did agree to legislate, at the earliest opportunity, operational independence for chief officers:
“At all times, the fire and rescue authority will be responsible for their fire service. The chief officer is effectively responsible for operationalising the authority’s strategic decisions. Operational independence would provide chief officers with the ability to make decisions on practical and management issues.”
In response to the government's consultation outcome, Chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), Mark Hardingham said: “We welcome the response to the white paper consultation which sets out the headline plans for long-awaited investment and reform to support continued improvement of fire and rescue services.
“We welcome the announcement that there will be a statutory code of ethics – something that builds upon the work of NFCC and fire and rescue services to improve organisational culture and workforce diversity, in part through the existing national Core Code of Ethics for Fire and Rescue Services.
“We also welcome the decision to give operational independence for Chief Fire Officers, clarifying the responsibilities of Fire and Rescue Authorities with those of Chief Fire Officers.
“We are clear that reform in the areas of the white paper, alongside other areas of improvement in fire and rescue services, requires long-term investment. We will continue to work with government and other national functions to make sure that fire and rescue services, and their supporting national functions, are properly resourced to respond to the areas of reform.
“Fire and rescue services must be prepared and equipped to deal with current and future challenges, in all their forms. Our aim will always be to meet the continued expectations and high levels of trust and confidence that the public has in their fire and rescue service.”
You can access the full government outcome here.