Our 
Strategy
2024-2027

A graphic showing lots of buildings, roads, canals representative of the West Midlands, with fire service vehicles on the roads.

Our vision

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Making the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier
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Our mission statement

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We set up our people to succeed so we can serve our communities with professionalism and pride.
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Our Strategy 2024-2027

Introduction and Foreword

Explore our four areas of focus - how we plan to deliver our strategy for 2024-27

Our Strategy 2024-2027

Community risk reduction

We refer to some of our services and the individuals who provide them as ‘community risk reduction’ because they directly reduce the likelihood (risk) of a fire or other emergency occurring in our communities. 

These services are grouped into the following categories:
A graphic of a green shield with a hand on it, the word 'Prevention' underneath in a banner

Prevention

Delivering activities which support safer and healthier communities.
By focusing on those most at risk, our prevention work improves our communities’ quality of life through reducing their risk of fire, supporting them to lead healthier lives and educating them on how to be safer on our roads.
A graphic of an orange shield with two hands wrapping 3 people with a small heart inside one of them, the word 'Protection' underneath in a banner

Protection

Protecting life and property to make businesses stronger and communities safer.
We inspect high-risk and tall buildings, including residential flats, hospitals, schools and businesses, to keep safe the people who live and work there. We also advise companies on fire safety legislation, to keep their staff and customers safe and help their businesses to grow. Where necessary we can go further and take enforcement action, including prosecution, where we feel the risk is significant.
A graphic of a red shield with a ticking stopwatch, the word 'Response' underneath in a banner

Response

Dealing excellently with incidents.
Our response to fires and other emergencies continues to be graded ‘outstanding’ by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. We respond locally, nationally and internationally, saving lives, preventing harm, and safeguarding homes and businesses with the resources you need, when you need them.
There are several teams that deliver our response function:
Three graphical representations of 3 firefighters with a banner beneath that says 'Operations'
The largest number of people employed by the service, each with a critical role on the frontline delivering prevention, protection, and response services to our communities through our network of community fire stations across the West Midlands.
Three graphical representations of members of staff with a banner beneath that says 'Fire Control'
From assisting with safeguarding our most vulnerable community members to co-ordinating our response to our largest incidents, fire control sits at the heart of our service.
Three graphical representations of members of staff with a banner beneath that says 'Emergency Planning'
Meet the organisation’s statutory duties under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004). As a Category 1 Responder we have six duties, including carrying out risk assessments, business continuity and putting in place
A fire inspecting officer smiling using a tablet in a fire engine bay.

Strategic goals and performance indicators

Explaining our measures
Safe and Well Points are a measure that the service uses to determine the relative risk of a home we visit. The higher the point score, the more risk factors that are present and therefore the higher the risk presented by the home .
How will we achieve this?
You will be able more about our plans to deliver against these strategic goals, and our more detailed plans for prevention, protection and response in our Community Risk Reduction Plan, which will be made available soon.
Our Strategy 2024-2027

People

Our People are our greatest asset and a thriving, engaged workforce is crucial to our success. We put great focus on our employee experience, creating a positive work environment that promotes wellbeing and work/life balance.

We continue to be an employer of choice for our communities, through our commitment to building a diverse workforce reflective of the rich fabric of our society.
A Fire Control Operator sat smiling at her desk
groups

Inclusive and supportive culture

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive culture where all our staff understand and live by our values, and where poor behaviour is robustly challenged and effectively dealt with.
school

Development and wellbeing

We take pride in the support and development we invest in our people.

Ensuring our staff are healthy and highly skilled allows them to provide the best possible services to each other and our communities.

Strategic goals and performance indicators

Explaining our measures
RIDDOR Injuries are the most serious injuries that have to be reported to the Health and Safety Executive under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.

Staff will be asked to report their degree of trust in the organisation – reflecting how comfortable they are at work, their faith in service leadership and our various policies and processes.

An IPDR (Individual Performance and Development Review) should be undertaken at least annually with all staff, to help ensure their continuing development and provide evidence of core skills and competence.

We will also measure staff understanding of core values through regular staff surveys, with staff tested to ensure they can demonstrate knowledge of the values and how they apply to their work.

Competency Risk Assessment (CRA) is how the service determines that each member of staff has the required knowledge and skills to undertake their job, be they a firefighter, member of fire control, or one of our support staff.
How will we achieve this?
You will be able to read more about our plans to deliver against these strategic goals and our specific plans in areas such as inclusion, data reporting and staff engagement in our Inclusion Action Plan, which will be made available soon.
Our Strategy 2024-2027

Enabling Services

Designed to facilitate and accelerate delivery of key business goals, Enabling Services play a pivotal role in supporting WMFS to deliver its strategy and make the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier.

Collectively, Enabling Services provide additional expertise to achieve the service’s vision by partnering with our community-facing teams to help them be more effective in their roles.
A graphic of a mobile phone with 4 icons, representing social media networks X, Facebook, Instagram and a wifi symbol.A green shield with a tick inside and nodes coming off it
A hand pressing on a tablet used on a fire engine for information and navigation.
finance

Finance, procurement and sustainability

Finance, procurement and sustainability drive efficiency and value for money alongside supporting resource allocation to enable the delivery of key priorities and transformation.
communication

Communications and engagement

Communications and Engagement lead on engagement both within the service and with our communities, enhancing public awareness of the service, what we offer and our key safety messages.
devices

Digital, data and technology

The Digital, Data and Technology team leverage technology to enable streamlined operations, data-driven decision making and enhanced service delivery.
A graphic of a mobile phone with 4 icons, representing social media networks X, Facebook, Instagram and a wifi symbol.A green shield with a tick inside and nodes coming off it
A hand pressing on a tablet used on a fire engine for information and navigation.

Strategic goals and performance indicators

Explaining our measures
Cyber Essentials Plus is a government-backed, industry-supported scheme which helps organisations protect themselves against online threats. By aiming for the ‘Plus’ standard, WMFS will be subject to a hands-on technical verification, providing extra assurance of our cyber security.

Our Communications Trust Survey is a six-monthly survey carried out with our staff, partners and communities to assess the trust they have in our communications and engagement, including areas such as our safety campaigns and social media content.

How will we achieve this?
You will be able to find out more about how we will deliver our goals for technology, data and cyber security in our Digital and Data Strategy, which will be available soon.

Our Corporate Communications Strategy, which will soon be published, will provided more information on our approach to effective communications and engagement.
Our Strategy 2024-2027

Value

As a publicly-funded service, we are committed to ensuring our services are not only effective but efficient, too, delivering value for money and providing the best return on your investment in us.

Like all local authorities, we are subject to a Duty of Best Value to “make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in which [our] functions are exercised, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness.”
savings

Efficiency

Improving efficiency helps us to invest in the people and service we provide to you and helps us to drive continuous improvement.
productivity

Productivity

We must also meet expectations set by central government of the fire and rescue sector as a whole to improve productivity. 

We need to ensure that our crews and our support staff are making optimal use of their time and achieving the maximum benefit from the resources and money we invest in various activities such a prevention and training.
recycling

Sustainability

Of course, we must deliver value in a way that is sustainable for our people, communities and the planet – be that in the products we purchase, the vehicles we use, or how we heat and maintain our buildings – with the ultimate aim of achieving the West Midlands-wide ambition of net-zero by 2041.
A member of staff talking to a lady at a community event.
A graphic of a factory with trees and a cloud above it with CO2 written on it,A graphic of some buildings and a wind turbine with some trees beneath

Strategic goals and performance indicators

Explaining our measures
Total carbon footprint is measured in terms of tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions either produced directly by the organisation from things like heating and fuelling vehicles (called Scope 1), or indirectly from the energy we buy (Scope 2). 

CO2 equivalent is a measure designed to take account of all types of greenhouse gases but provides a consistent measure in terms of the environmental impact they have equivalent to a standard measure of CO2, the most common greenhouse gas.
How will we achieve this?
You can read more about our approach to meeting our efficiency and productivity targets in our annual Efficiency and Productivity Plan, which is updated every March. This report is produced at the request of the Home Office and sets out how we will meet the targets set for us by Government and reflected in our goals above.

Our Budget and Medium-Term Financial Plan are agreed and published every February and will provide further detail on how we will deliver our efficiency goal and achieve a balanced budget.

Will also be able to read more about how we will deliver on our commitment to achieving Net Zero within our Sustainability Strategy soon, when we publish it in full.

Find out more about how we manage risk and create 'Our Strategy'

Community Risk Management Plan
The strategic goals we have set ourselves, and this strategy as a whole, inform and are informed by our Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP), which is in turn informed by your views and opinions as shared through our 2023 public consultation. 

The CRMP is an assessment of the foreseeable challenges and risks facing our communities and what needs to be done to meet them. 

We use this analysis to inform the strategic goals, as well as to determine the specific projects we will undertake to achieve those goals and address the risks.
Discover how we plan for risks and set goals
Risk Explorer
Data drives more and more of our work to make the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier.

It helps us to understand risks across the areas we serve. We use it to create our Community Risk Management Plan and three-year rolling strategy.

Now, you, our communities, can explore some of this data yourself in our new 'Risk Explorer' tool!

All you need to do is enter your postcode, then you can explore and interact with the same data we use! You'll be able to see incidents to which we’ve responded near you, our response times, and even the different levels of risk for various emergency types. There’s also lots of handy demographic info, and you can turn different data on and off.
Check out our Risk Explorer for yourself!
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