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About West Midlands Fire Service
Our job is to keep safe the 2.9 million people of the West Midlands. We serve a diverse population across Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
We’re the second largest fire and rescue service in England, covering an area of 902 square kilometres which include areas with the highest risk in England outside of London.
We’re the second largest fire and rescue service in England, covering an area of 902 square kilometres which include areas with the highest risk in England outside of London.
What we do
We operate 38 fire stations across the West Midlands with 1,164 firefighters working to make the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier.
But there’s a lot more to West Midlands Fire Service than putting out fires. From the risk-based locations of our stations, to how we’re governed, to Our Plan – our three-year strategy for keeping you safe.
Our Plan
In Our Plan we share our priorities which support our vision of ‘Making the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier’.
Everything we do is connected by our vision. Our highly-trained staff aim to deliver the best fire, rescue and risk reduction services which have our communities at heart - helping them to stay safe and to thrive.
Our Plan covers a rolling, three-year period and is based on our assessment of the risks our communities might face.
Click the button below to learn more:
How we're run
West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority
West Midlands Fire Service is governed by a fire authority made up of 15 councillors representing our local councils. They are also joined by a West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner representative and two co-opted members.
There are four decision-making committees and two advisory panels/forums, in addition to the full Fire Authority, that aid in either decision making or advisory capacities. The list of the committees and their terms of reference can be found here: Committees and their terms of reference
A full list of the councillors, as well as the public meetings and documents relating to fire authority governance, can be found on our Committee Management Information Service system.
Our leadership team
Our leadership team, which we call the 'Strategic Enabling Team' (SET) is dedicated to guiding the shape and direction of our service and ensuring that we’re meeting our legal responsibilities.
Comprising a diverse group of managers across various departments, SET ensures that our service remains focused on our core priorities and objectives outlined through our Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP). This enables us to remain adaptable and responsive to the ever-evolving environment of the public sector.
To find out more about specific SET members and their roles and responsibilities, click/tap a name or photo.
Our ethics and values
Everything we do is connected to our vision of making the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier, which puts our communities at the heart of everything we do. Our ethics and values guide how we do this.
National Core Code of Ethics
In 2021, a National Core Code of Ethics (CCoE) was developed for fire and rescue services (FRSs) in England. It sets out to improve the organisational culture and workforce diversity of FRSs, ensuring that communities are supported in the best way, and to support a consistent approach to ethics, including behaviours.
The code was developed in partnership with the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC).
You can see the full National Core Code of Ethics here.
West Midlands Fire Service has adopted the code. It will guide our individual behaviours and form the basis for decision making as we go about our work.
We are fully committed to the principles of the CCoE and also ensure that we consider:
- the needs of communities, partner organisations, our service, and our employees
- our service’s own values, guidance, policies and procedures.
Our Values
In late 2021, we developed our new values - as a team - through extensive engagement across the service. Our staff chose them, to support a consistent approach to ethics, values and behaviours.
The Core Code of Ethics are the foundation for Our Values:
- Community at our heart – We make a difference every day. Our community focus makes the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier
- Excellence – We have a passion for progress and are fearless in our pursuit of innovation and improvement - always striving to make tomorrow a little better than today
- Trust – We create an open and honest culture that enables our people to thrive, by prioritising well-being and treating one another with integrity, dignity, and respect
- Leadership – We are all positive role models and accountable for upholding the highest standards in performance and behaviour
- Diversity, Inclusion, Cohesion, Equality - We continually recognise and promote the value of DICE, both within our service and the communities in which we serve. We stand united against all forms of discrimination.
Our values also encompass the things that are important to us as a service, supporting us in achieving our vision and delivering our strategy.
They help us to improve our culture and workforce diversity, ensuring that we continue to make each other and our communities safer, stronger and healthier.
What we publish
We publish a lot of information and documents to ensure we are transparent and open about how we operate. Our documents section contains all of our publications and information which is released and categorised in line with guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office publication scheme.
Our freedom of information section holds all our published information requests we receive, you can also make a new request for information if what you want isn’t already published.
If you or someone you represent requires an incident report, sometimes called a fire report, we can provide this. Typically it’s used by insurance companies. Depending on the type of information required, there is sometimes a charge for this information.
Finally, for details around our procurement and contracts procedures and you can find this on our site as well.
