Please visit our website Privacy Policy to see the privacy policy for our website.
You can also view our organisational privacy policy.
We have a range of documents and files available to the public on our website. The file Customer Care Standards is below and you can download a copy, see any archive versions or view accessibility information.
West Midlands Fire Service are proud of the services we provide and are committed to providing you with a caring, efficient and cost-effective fire service, which we continually seek to improve. We are the second-largest Metropolitan Fire Service in the country, providing fire safety education and emergency response to people who live and work across the West Midlands area to make you safer, stronger and healthier.
Our service provides a wide range of services to you, the public. This page provides you with information about the standards you can expect when you contact us and how you can compliment, comment or complain (CCC) about the service you have received.
Your comments are important to us and help us to improve our service to you.
Our guiding vision statement is to make the West Midlands safer, stronger healthier. We believe that we have an important role to play, in helping people live safer, healthier lives and supporting West Midlands businesses and the economy to thrive.
West Midlands Fire Service is the second-largest fire and rescue service in the country, delivering emergency response, prevention, advice and legislative enforcement services to
2.8 million residents in the seven local authority districts that make up the service area within the West Midlands conurbation.
We are accountable to the public, via the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority, made up of 15 local
councillors from Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton. We’re as committed as ever to getting to the most serious incidents in a five-minute, risked based attendance time.
We continually remain focused on reducing risk by preventing emergencies through public involvement, engaging with our partners, and targeting schools, communities and vulnerable people with advice and guidance.
Our protection service prioritises the risks to the business sector, focusing on the provision of advice and, importantly, the enforcement of legislation.
Our response service protects life and properties across the range of emergencies we attend.
Please be aware that our operational staff work to a shift pattern system which, may cause a slight delay in our response.
General (non-emergencies) Always dial 999 in an emergency We will aim to answer calls within seven rings in a courteous and professional manner.
We will answer the call giving our name and location.
If we have to transfer calls we will aim to:
We will not intentionally ignore a ringing phone.
We will obtain a telephone number to call you back on at the start of the call and explain that should it be necessary to terminate the call we will ring you back when the emergency has been dealt with.
When you write to us:
We will, where appropriate, acknowledge receipt of your letter within three working days and send a written reply within ten working days.
If we are unable to reply fully to your letter within ten working days, we will let you know why and when you can expect to receive a full reply.
When we write to you, we will:
We will:
All visitors will:
West Midlands Fire Service will retain comments and compliments for a period of two years and may use content that you have provided for auditing purposes and trend analysis.
We may also use anonymised content as part of promotional material such as community fire safety promotional messages.
Complaints will be retained for a period of three years for auditing purposes and trend analysis and will be securely destroyed after this period.
We value your views. Your comments will help us to improve our services.
When things go well:
When things go wrong:
Find out more about our comments, comments and complaints policy.