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Hertfordshire 2021/22

Read more about Hertfordshire

This is HMICFRS’s third assessment of fire and rescue services. This assessment examines the service’s effectiveness, efficiency and how well it looks after its people. It is designed to give the public information about how their local fire and rescue service is performing in several important areas, in a way that is comparable with other services across England.

The extent to which the service is effective at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks is good.

The extent to which the service is efficient at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks requires improvement.

The extent to which the service looks after its people is good.

Matt Parr

Matt Parr, HM Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services

HM Inspector's summary

It was a pleasure to revisit Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, and I am grateful for the positive and constructive way that the service engaged with our inspection.

I am satisfied with some aspects of the performance of Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service in keeping people safe and secure from fires and other risks, but there are areas where the service still needs to improve.

We were pleased to see that the service has made progress since our 2018 inspection with producing an up-to-date integrated risk management plan (IRMP) supported by a fire cover review (FCR). It continued to perform well at managing its risk-based inspection programme (RBIP), working with local businesses and other organisations.

My principal findings from our assessments of the service over the past year are as follows:

  • the service now has an up-to-date IRMP;
  • the rationale for the allocation of resources needs to be clearer and based upon its IRMP;
  • there is innovative practice with the service making good use of opportunities to engage with others about its protection work; and
  • all staff should understand the service’s values and culture.

The service has an up-to-date IRMP dated 2019–23. It has assessed a range of current and future risks and threats and produced an FCR to support the information within its IRMP.

The service now needs to produce a clear rationale for the resources allocated to all its activities, and this needs to be clearly linked to the risks and priorities that it has set out.

We were pleased to see how well the service is carrying out its protection work, including having a well-managed RBIP. We have highlighted how the service engages with others to promote compliance with fire safety regulations as innovative practice.

Although we found that the culture of the service is positive in most cases, it is worrying that there were ongoing negative behaviours in fire control at the time of our inspection. The service’s commitment to address the issues and improve the working environment is noted and we look forward to seeing improvements in this area.

Effectiveness

How effective is the fire and rescue service at keeping people safe and secure?

Last updated 20/01/2023
Good

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s overall effectiveness is good.

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service required improvement in its 2018/19 assessment

The service now has an up-to-date integrated risk management plan (IRMP) in place and is making good use of data from its FCR to support it. But the IRMP doesn’t clearly direct activities well. We are keen to see the service address this problem through its upcoming community risk management planning process. It needs to make sure that its resources are allocated appropriately for prevention, protection and response activity.

The service doesn’t evaluate the effectiveness of its prevention strategy, so it is missing opportunities to make improvements. It needs to make sure it targets its prevention activity at those people most at risk and that it uses its resources efficiently.

But we are pleased to see how effectively it carries out protection work. Most notable is the way the service manages its risk-based inspection programme (RBIP), and how it works with others, including local businesses.

It is good that the service is consistently meeting its own response standards. Incident commanders are well trained and competent. The service is prepared to attend major and multi-agency incidents.

But the service must improve its gathering, maintaining and sharing of risk information. It must also make sure that firefighters accurately record the information.

View the five questions for effectiveness

Efficiency

How efficient is the fire and rescue service at keeping people safe and secure?

Last updated 20/01/2023
Requires improvement

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s overall efficiency requires improvement.

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service required improvement in its 2018/19 assessment

The service needs to show a clear rationale for the resources allocated between prevention, protection and response activities. This rationale should be linked to the risks and priorities in the integrated risk management plan (IRMP).

The service’s current budget is £37.5m and is expected to rise to £39.2m for 2025/26, taking into account inflationary rises. We are pleased to find that the service’s financial planning, financial systems and audit arrangements are all satisfactory.

We have found that the service is willing to collaborate with others, but it can’t yet show significant financial benefits from this, or improvements in value for money.

We found evidence that the pace of change at times is too slow, particularly around the introduction of new technology.

The service has estate and fleet strategies, but it doesn’t exploit the opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness that are presented by changes in fleet and estate provision.

View the two questions for efficiency

People

How well does the fire and rescue service look after its people?

Last updated 20/01/2023
Good

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service is good at looking after its people.

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service required improvement in its 2018/19 assessment

We are encouraged to see that the service now has well-defined values that are understood by most staff. And that leaders are consistently modelling appropriate behaviours. We also found improvements have been made towards EDI, particularly the most recent equality impact assessments (EIAs).

While the culture of the service is mainly positive, the service must carry out its commitment of giving support to improve the experience of control staff at work.

The service has improved its workforce planning. And staff can access the training that they need to carry out their roles.

As in our 2018 inspection, the service still needs to do more to make sure that its methods of gathering staff feedback are effective. Staff told us that they have limited confidence in the current methods.

We found that staff still aren’t confident that promotion and progression processes are fair. The service should demonstrate to staff that all promotion and progression processes are fair and easy to access. It also needs to do more to make sure its recruitment processes are fair and easy to access for applicants from a range of backgrounds.

View the four questions for people

Key facts – 2020/2021

Service Area

634 square miles

Population

1.20m people
3% local 5 yr change

Workforce

74% wholetime firefighters
26% on-call firefighters
0.55 per 1000 population local
0.56 national level
local 5 yr change
5% national 5 yr change

Assets

29 stations
40 fire engines

Incidents

2.0 fire incidents per 1000 population local
2.7 national
2.5 non-fire incidents per 1000 population local
2.7 national
3.7 fire false alarms per 1000 population local
3.8 national

Cost

£23.32 firefighter cost per person per year
£25.22 firefighter cost per person per year (national)

Judgment criteria

Read the judgment criteria
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