Avon Fire and Rescue Service makes progress but 'more work to do'

A fire service rated as "inadequate" is making progress but has more work to do, a watchdog says.

His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) raised concerns in 2023 over how Avon Fire and Rescue Service responded to emergencies.

The service's mobilisation system, used to dispatch resources, had crashed during 999 calls, HMICFRS said.

But in a revisit, the watchdog said improvements were being made.

Inspector Wendy Williams said: "During our revisit, we were encouraged to find that the system was more reliable following escalation with the third-party supplier, but the system is still not free from technical faults.

"The supplier's response times are being monitored more regularly.

"It is thought that the technical fault has been identified, but the service will be carrying out further tests to make sure the mobilising system is stable over a longer period.

"This is following three further incidents discovered in November 2023."

In a previous report, conducted between June and July in 2023, the watchdog graded the fire service on 11 criteria.

The service was given the lowest rating in four areas - understanding fire and risk, preventing fire and risk, responding to fires and emergencies, and promoting values and culture.

It was told it required improvement on a further five criteria and was rated adequate on two others.

Since then, staff - including fire crews and managers - received comprehensive training, but some firefighters felt "they may require further training and guidance, such as training in completing tactical plans for higher-risk sites," the inspectorate said.

In her revisit letter, Ms Williams said the service had started to make "good progress" and had invested time and resources to develop its action plan.

"Despite good progress being made, there is still more work to do," she added.

"While the action plan is comprehensive, it is too early to determine how effective the plan will be in addressing the accelerated causes of concern."

The service is installing mobile data terminals onto fire engines so crews can access risk information more easily, compared to current tablets, which have been described as unreliable.

The service said it was also aiming to visit all 610 premises requiring site-specific risk information (SSRI) visits by 31 March to ensure risk information concerning buildings and places of risk is effective, accurate and up to date.

Ms Williams said: "We look forward to seeing the future progress made, particularly once all SSRI visits have been completed and the service has tested the stability of its mobilising system over a longer period."

She added the watchdog would return to the service to carry out further assessments in the near future.

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