A report published last month by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFS) identified that Surrey’s Fire & Rescue Service was in serious need of improvement.

Following an inspection in March and April, the inspection team graded Surrey as “Requires Improvement” in seven areas. Only one category was marked as “Good” and three as Adequate.

There was little sign of improvement since HMICFS’s last inspection in 2021 but in mitigation the inspector cited significant change in leadership and around 20% of the workforce having transferred to the London Fire Brigade in the past year.

The table below shows how Surrey’s performance was categorised.

There is link to the Inspector’s full report at the end of this article but here is  a sample of five of the concerns  raised in the report:

  • The service could do more to enforce fire safety legislation
  • The service needs to do more to prepare and train for incidents in tall buildings
  • The service should assure itself that its workforce is as productive as possible
  • The service needs to improve how it demonstrates value for money
  • The service needs to do more to tackle bullying, harassment and discrimination

To be fair, the report also includes a number of positive points but overall, our Fire and Rescue Service is in need of significant improvement. But what concerned our councillors was the positive spin Surrey County Council put on the report.

Surrey’s press release following the publication of what was an obviously negative report was entitled “Inspectors praise Surrey Fire and Rescue Service’s improved culture”.

Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Community Safety, Denise Turner Stewart said: “Surrey Fire and Rescue Service Leadership Team have put in place programmes of work to improve all areas since the last inspection in 2021. I am delighted that the inspectors recognised the progress made on SFRS’ cultural improvement journey”.

But opposition councillors, including our own Nick Harrison, took her to task about her misleading comments. In a press release issued on the 14th September they said:

“ Quite clearly Councillor Turner Stuart would rather talk about the cultural and behavioural improvements in the services which, whilst welcome, avoids the real issue of the safety of our residents.

The Cabinet Member’s attempts to suggest that sufficient improvements have been made recently are not supported by the Inspectors’ comment that they ‘were disappointed to find that the service hadn’t made the progress we expected since our 2021 inspection’. Our Fire Officers also deserve better than this. 

A failure to prepare and train for incidents in tall buildings, and delays to the upgrade of vehicles, can put lives in danger and damage morale.

They called for the Councillor to advise what steps she planned to take to turn the present situation around and asked when councillors and residents can expect recognition from her Administration that the current situation is not acceptable.

“What we need now is a clear plan of action, with timescales, and a recognition that things are not good enough, rather than attempts to avoid a discussion of the Inspectorate’s critical Report”.