Herts Fire and Rescue Service making good progress after 'accelerated cause for concern'

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‘Good initial progress’ has been made on an action plan to improve Herts Fire and Rescue Service after it was handed an accelerated cause for concern notice by the watchdog, a report states.

The force received the notice on 24 October last year following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service’s (HMICFRS).

HMICFRS wrote to Herts Fire and Rescue Service’s Chief Fire Officer Alex Woodman stating that it must review how it carries out its prevention activity, which “isn’t a sufficiently high priority for the service”.

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The notice also said that the service should “implement a robust and consistent method of identifying risk and vulnerability” as well as to detail how it will prioritise home fire safety checks to those most at risk.

Herts Fire and Rescue ServiceHerts Fire and Rescue Service
Herts Fire and Rescue Service

The watchdog tasked Herts Fire and Rescue Service with coming up with an action plan to address these failing with 28 days of publication of the cause for concern notice. A detailed action plan setting out 21 actions to address the five areas of concern reported by HMICFRS was submitted on 21 November last year.

At a meeting of Herts County Council’s public health and community safety panel on Thursday (30 January) it was heard that ‘good initial progress’ has been made, with two action completed already and three more nearing completion.

The report stated: “HMICFRS, in their response also acknowledged that the service has ‘clearly shown a strong commitment and willingness to address this cause of concern’ and were “pleased to see that the service had put resources and appropriate governance arrangements in place to monitor progress against the action plan”. A link to the full HMICFRS response is included below.

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“The Strategic Oversight Group (SOG) has met on three occasions since being established, shortly after the update provided at the last Cabinet Panel meeting. At the first of these meetings, it endorsed the action plan prior to submission and has met on a further two occasions to monitor initial progress.

“Each of the 21 areas of work contained within the action plan has been assigned to one of the five Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) implementation groups who have responsibility for its delivery. Regular updates are also provided to the Fire Service and Community Protection Boards.

“Good initial progress has been made, with two actions already completed and a further three which are nearing completion. Initial work has focused on producing a new risk framework / model which seeks to define levels of risk, set out clear approach detailing how HFRS will respond to different levels of risk / vulnerability as well as timescales for intervention and escalation.”

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