"Significant Improvement" Continues At West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service

After a troubling inspection by official watchdogs in November 2018, where West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service was found to "require improvement", a new re-inspection has found continued "significant improvement".

Following the discovery of many failings, changes were made in leadership, notably the appointment of a new Chief Fire Officer, as well as other alterations in senior staff and councillors on its governing local authority, West Sussex County Council.

A long review process also began.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services inspectors were reporting today (May 21) after an additional visit since their extra inspection last year.

They said extra funding from West Sussex County Council had been used to increase capacity in the fire service's prevention and protection teams.

In a letter to the Chief Fire Officer, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, inspectors said this had contributed to the improvements being made, and that a new IT system is supporting these improvements.

They also noted that the funding has been used to create an "organisational assurance and governance team" which inspectors said had brought an "increased level of co-ordination and support" for organisation-wide improvement.

Inspectors also praised the positive work going on around culture and values within the service.

They noted staff have been engaged in developing organisational behaviour statements.

However, inspectors identified that further work needs to be carried out in the service's prevention activity to better target the most vulnerable people and support those most at risk of fire.

Although inspectors said some of the changes could have been quicker, they added that the pace of change had 'understandably slowed' due to COVID-19 and the service having to deal with the consequences of the pandemic.

In his conclusion, Matt Parr, the lead HMICFRS Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services, wrote:

"The amount of improvement work and change in the service continues to be significant."

Leaders of WSFRS said the service "will now use all the inspector's feedback to further improve its work".

Chief Fire Officer, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton commented:

"It is really good news that the inspectors noted that we continue to make significant progress.

"We have always been realistic about the amount of time this work will take to get right, but the revisit has shown that we continue to make very real progress."

Cabinet Member for the Fire and Rescue Service and Communities, Duncan Crow added:

"A lot of work has been going on at the fire service to tackle areas of improvement raised.

"We are on a journey and it is good to hear from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services that this journey continues to move positively and in the right direction as the revisit has demonstrated."