Strategic goal 1

This goal focuses on the work we do to prevent fires and other emergencies and reduce the potential harm such incidents can cause.

Last year was one of our most productive in terms of community safety and engagement activities. We delivered over 16,000 safe and well visits to people who were identified as being at risk from fire in their homes, alongside a wide programme of community events, educational activities and community safety campaigns.

We aim to build on this in 2026-27, extending and refining our services to reach even more people in all parts of our community. This will include piloting a new fire cadet scheme for young people and refreshing our resources relating to risks within rural communities. We will be taking delivery of a new community outreach vehicle, which will be used to promote fire safety at a range of community events.

Our main focus for improvement will be our approach to delivering home fire safety visits. We will be seeking ways to improve our productivity and effectiveness, including working with our partners to ensure we provide the most appropriate, person-centred services to the people who need them.

During 2026-27, we aim to achieve the following objectives:

• Deliver a pilot scheme for fire cadets, as part of our developing youth engagement strategy
• Fine-tune how we resource, tailor and deliver our home fire safety activities, based on learning since the organisational restructure implemented in 2024
• Embed our use of evaluation and quality assurance to ensure we are delivering quality services that deliver positive community outcomes
• Improve our use of data and management information to improve efficiency and decision-making, support the targeting of resources and further development of services
• Determine the approach we will take in relation to compliance with the Forensic Science Regulator’s Code.