Welcome to Our Plan.
On these pages, we share our priorities which support our vision of ‘Making the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier’.
Everything we do is connected to our vision. Our highly-trained staff aim to deliver the best fire, rescue, and risk reduction services - an aim which has our communities at heart, helping them to stay safe and thrive.
We continue to build upon the outcomes of our public consultation held in 2020. In 2022/23 we continued to take great strides in developing our Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP), exploring how we can deliver our services in the best possible way and maximise the effectiveness of how we use our staff and resources, increasing our capacity and capability to respond to existing and emerging risks.
The year, 2023/24, will be a pivotal one, in which we will move to implement our CRMP developments into new ways of working.
Importantly, it will also be a year in which we reach out to you - our communities, businesses, partners and our staff - and ask you to take part in our three-yearly public consultation. This is your opportunity to let us know how we are doing and to share feedback to help shape our services of the future.
In 2022 we were a key partner in the delivery of the Commonwealth Games, which were such a huge success for Birmingham and the wider West Midlands region. Our work led to us being awarded ‘Emergency Service Collaboration of the Year’ at the Excellence in Fire Awards.
We were honoured to host the United Kingdom Rescue Organisation (UKRO) ‘Festival of Rescue’. Hundreds of firefighters from across the UK and beyond competed to be crowned ‘best of the best’ in a range of rescue skills. The event was also a great opportunity for fire and rescue services (FRSs) to strengthen their working ties and learn from one another. If you were among the thousands who came to watch, thank you! We hope you enjoyed seeing what your highly-trained firefighters are capable of.
It is with great pride that we can report that our latest inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) saw us maintain our grade of ‘outstanding’ for response to fire and other emergencies, and receive the same grading for our overall effectiveness. We are one of only two FRSs to be graded as outstanding in ‘understanding fires and other risks’.
We also improved our grading in both ‘promoting the right values and cultures’ and ‘managing performance and developing leaders’.
This latest assessment reflects the great strides that have been made in every aspect of our work. However, our work is not complete. Our ability to innovate and continuously improve is at the core of what we do.
It is clear from news reporting and independent reviews in 2022 and 2023 that the fire and rescue sector continues to face a problem with culture and behaviours. There are still people working in our sector who do not represent the values of the service, and some staff continue to suffer bullying, harassment and discrimination. This is completely unacceptable. Where we find evidence of such behaviour we will act swiftly and decisively to root it out. We are fully committed to being an inclusive, rewarding and safe place for anyone to work and to be their true selves.
This is one of the reasons we are so proud and honoured that West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) has been ranked number one in The Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers list 2022/23.
It is an achievement that reflects the ongoing and outstanding work achieved throughout our service, by all of our teams and staff stakeholder groups who remain so invested in making it happen. We will continue to build upon what we have achieved, including the adoption of the new Core Code of Ethics for the fire sector, placing our values and behaviours at the very centre of everything we do.
Our Plan recognises that when our people feel that WMFS is a great place to work, it is our communities who benefit.
So, for the first time, our three-year rolling strategy and Our Plan include a particular focus on:
- People - where we are continuing to develop and improve the culture within the service, ensuring connectivity at every level. We are making sure that we are setting all our staff up to succeed through further development of career pathways and training
- Professionalism - with an increased focus on standards and a review of training, including our Trainee Firefighter Development Programme, staff competency and Incident Command
- Pride-– in our service, ensuring the appropriate focus is given to the effective use of our estate including the completion of our Headquarters transformation, appliances and equipment, and standards of appearance.
Our commitment to delivering value for money remains one of the core elements of how we deliver our strategic priorities.
The amount of money we raise through Council Tax (our 'precept') is among the lowest fire service charges in England. We have raised it by £4.99 for 2023/24, in line with flexibility afforded by central government. The increase will help us meet significant inflationary pressures which have pushed up the cost of energy, fuel, vehicles and equipment - all central to our service delivery.
We recognise that inflation is also affecting the people we serve so, in 2023/24, we will remain committed both to further improving our efficiency and productivity, and to targeting our services to support the vulnerable in our communities who feel the cost-of-living crisis most.
