We set out our priorities and objectives in ‘Our Plan’. It’s a rolling, three-year document which covers things like reducing serious traffic accidents, helping people have safer, healthier lives and making sure we tackle emergencies effectively and safely.
A welcome from Phil Loach, our Chief Fire Officer, and
Councillor John Edwards, Chair of West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority
Thank you for visiting these pages about our strategic plan and our vision of ‘Making the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier’.
We hope you get a real insight into how our work delivers the priorities and outcomes set by the people of the West Midlands through their Fire Authority.
Every day we are making a very real and positive difference – to people and families in our communities, to businesses and to visitors to the West Midlands.
A lot of this relies on us working closely with a wide range of other agencies and organisations, including councils and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
They do it at a time of unprecedented change and significant financial challenges.
Our Government funding reduced by £37m between 2010/11 and 2018/19. It will be cut by a further £1m in 2019/20. However, we have responsible plans in place to manage this reduction and to minimise any potential impact on the public.
Our community consultation and engagement has shown, very clearly, that our residents understand and overwhelmingly support how we do things, including how we monitor and manage risks across the West Midlands. This feedback helps to set our priorities and what we will achieve going forward.
So, how do we plan our response, prevention and protection activities to keep the communities of the West Midlands safe?
Our Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) provides the evidence base to identify the priorities and objectives set out in our strategic plan and the forecasting of future risk to determine where our staff and response vehicles are best placed.
We continually review our IRMP to make sure we are meeting the changing needs of our communities and ensure that our staff have the right skills to enable them to respond to emergencies and carry out the wide range of activities needed to reduce risk and vulnerability.
By using evidence and looking at the future risk in the West Midlands, we make sure our staff and resources are positively reducing risk and vulnerability where it is needed most and when needed, respond assertively, effectively and safely.
”Our staff play a major part in helping people live safer, healthier lives and supporting the West Midlands economy.
Phil LoachChief Fire Officer
”Our Government funding reduced by £37m between 2010/11 and 2018/19. It will be cut by a further £1m in 2019/20. However, we have responsible plans in place to manage this reduction and to minimise any potential impact on the public.
John EdwardsChair of the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority
The West Midlands
We identify and analyse risks across the West Midlands, and use the information to come up with our Community Safety Strategy
(also known as our Integrated Risk Management Plan or IRMP).
2,864,900
Population
70
White
902
Area (sqkm)
19
Asian/Asian British
3,212
People (sqkm)
6
Black/Black British
1125675
Homes
4
Mixed Origin
97,000
Non-Domestic
1
Other
Knowing where the risks are, we can decide where we need our fire stations, firefighters and vehicles. It also helps us plan how we deliver our full range of services which we split into response, prevention and protection.
Lots of people are really surprised by the variety of our work, which is reflected in our vision statement:
‘Making the West Midlands Safer, Stronger and Healthier’.
We are the second largest fire and rescue service in the country, serving 2.8 million residents across seven local authority areas (Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton councils).
The West Midlands has a diverse and multi-cultural population, spread across 902 square kilometres. It includes areas with the highest risk in England outside of London, presenting a range of socio-economic and health and wellbeing challenges.
