Royal Berkshire 2021/22

HM Inspector's summary

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

I am pleased with the performance of Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service in keeping people safe and secure from fires and other risks. For example, it continues to make effective use of its resources and responds quickly to fires and other emergencies.

We were pleased to see that the service has made progress since our first inspection in 2019, working effectively to address areas for improvement in quality-assuring its prevention and protection activity. It has made sure that learning from incidents is shared across the service and the public is public informed of ongoing incidents.
It has made sure that its staff record their maintenance of competency consistently. The service has also made sure positive values and behaviours are accepted by everyone across the service. It has developed a positive feedback culture and effective grievance procedures.

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

The service understands the risk and demand in its area. It has evaluated the way it mitigates risk using its prevention, protection and response teams. It has revised its risk-based inspection programme (RBIP) and is now more focused on the highest risk. This makes sure it can keep the communities of Royal Berkshire safe from fire and other risks.
The service is facing challenges in recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce. The cost-of-living crisis and pressures raised through pension changes make workforce planning difficult for the service. It should continue to assess innovative ways to mitigate this risk.
The service has improved its work in equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and its workforce demonstrates positive values and behaviours. The service seeks feedback and challenge from its workforce and the community. This supports it to make decisions based on the needs of both.

Overall, Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service is providing a good service to the public. It is effective in preventing fires and protecting the public through enforcement and fire safety audits. It has good response standards and knows the areas in which it can make improvements. We look forward to returning to the service for its future inspection.

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s overall effectiveness is good.

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service was good in its 2018/19 assessment

The service has identified and assessed a range of fire and rescue-related risks to its communities. It has used a range of information and consulted widely, to produce a comprehensive community risk management plan (CRMP), formerly known as its integrated risk management plan (IRMP). The consultation is well planned and supports the service to include the public in its decision-making.

The service continues to be good at preventing fires and providing the public with advice and guidance about fire safety. It also protects the public by ensuring it enforces fire safety regulation proportionately.

The service responds well to fires and other emergencies despite a reduction in its fire engine availability. Its incident commanders are well trained and prepared for major and multi-agency incidents, working well with other fire and emergency services.

Since our previous inspection in 2019, the service has addressed several of the areas for improvement that we highlighted. These include improving its operational debrief process, introducing quality assurance in its prevention and protection work and improving information provided to the public about incidents.

But there is still some work to do. The service should continue to evaluate its prevention and protection work to make sure it meets the needs of the community. And it should monitor its response standards and fire engine availability to make sure it continues to resource to risk.

View the five questions for effectiveness

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s overall efficiency is good.

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service was good in its 2018/19 assessment

The service has good financial management arrangements in place and a range of assurance measures to keep control of its spending. Scenario planning is used effectively so that strategic plans are robust.

The service is making effective use of benchmarking opportunities to improve its value for money. It knows it still has buildings within its estate that need to be improved.

The service is collaborating well with other organisations to increase efficiency. Where possible, the service continues to work with other organisations to procure equipment to make sure the Thames Valley’s response to emergency incidents is consistent.

The service has made better use of technology to assist its operational effectiveness, an area of improvement identified in our previous inspection. It could improve further by assuring its workforce’s time is spent productively and through better integration of its systems.

View the two questions for efficiency

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

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service was good in its 2018/19 assessment

The service has made good progress against the areas for improvement identified in our previous inspection. The behaviours it expects and the values it promotes are now well understood and displayed by all staff. Staff are confident to use the feedback systems in place and feel valued and listened to. Grievance procedures have been reviewed and are effective.

The service promotes a positive learning culture. The service has made sure that the competency recording process is consistently applied and staff are well trained for their roles.

The service has effective and well-understood health and safety policies and procedures in place and promotes them to all staff. The service could improve its absence procedure to ensure a consistent approach is applied by managers.

The service is facing challenges in recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce. The cost-of-living crisis and pressures raised through pension changes make workforce planning difficult for the service. It should continue to assess innovative ways to mitigate and manage this risk.

The service has high personal development review completion rates but should make sure that all staff use the process to support development. The service has improved its promotion process and is developing its leaders. It could do more to identify high potential in its workforce to support succession planning.

View the four questions for people

Key facts – 2020/2021

Service Area

488 square miles

Population

0.92m people

3% local 5 yr change

Workforce

89% wholetime firefighters

11% on-call firefighters

0.43 per 1000 population local

0.56 national level

1% local 5 yr change

5% national 5 yr change

Assets

17 stations

20 fire engines

Incidents

1.9 fire incidents per 1000 population local

2.7 national

2.0 non-fire incidents per 1000 population local

2.7 national

3.5 fire false alarms per 1000 population local

3.8 national

Cost

£18.23 firefighter cost per person per year

£25.22 firefighter cost per person per year (national)

Royal Berkshire 2021/22

HM Inspector's summary

Effectiveness

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

Efficiency

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

People

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

Key facts – 2020/2021

Service Area

Population

Workforce

Assets

Incidents

Cost

Judgment criteria