Our goals and plans

We have six strategic goals which provide focus for our plans and activities.

For each of these goals, we have considered what we need to do in taking the next steps towards achieving our ambition to be an outstanding service. We have identified the opportunities and challenges we are likely to encounter and reviewed our strategic assessment of risk. From this we have developed our plans for the coming three years which are outlined in the following sections.

Goal 1 Prevention

We know that the best way to help people stay safe is to prevent emergency incidents from happening in the first place. We do this through a wide range of activities and services, ranging from safety campaigns to bespoke interventions. We prioritise those individuals and communities who face the highest risk of harm when allocating resources and designing services.

Through our community engagement activities, we focus on building and nurturing relationships with a variety of groups across the county. Dialogue within communities, combined with insights from our data analysis, help us understand how we can tailor and deliver our services to best effect. It also allows us to promote the work of the Service and reinforce our key positive action messages to encourage people from all backgrounds to apply for roles within our Service.

Goal 2 Protection

Buildings such as business premises, hospitals, care homes, tall buildings and apartment blocks must comply with relevant fire safety legislation, including the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

We have a statutory role in enforcing this legislation, which we do through a risk-based programme of inspection. However, our work extends beyond this, to include providing information and guidance to businesses, providing professional feedback as statutory consultees for planning applications and consulting on public safety at sporting and entertainment venues and large public events such as the Goose Fair.

Goal 3 Response

When we receive a 999 call we respond immediately with the nearest appropriate fire engines and specialist equipment, depending on the size and nature of the incident. Our aim is always to deal effectively and efficiently with the incident, to save lives and minimise the damage to property and the environment.

We maintain our operational preparedness by ensuring that colleagues are fully trained and properly equipped and have access to up to date and accurate risk information. We undertake regular exercises and drills, including some with partner agencies, to ensure we are well prepared and have effective procedures.

We routinely collect learning from incidents and feed that back into our own training and procedures to continually improve our performance and ensure the safety of our colleagues and the public. Where appropriate we share our learning with other organisations, both regionally and nationally.

Goal 4 People and culture

Our people are our biggest asset, and this goal is focused on ensuring we maintain a workforce with the skills, professionalism, capacity and flexibility to deliver our services.

We have a strong set of values, which underpin a positive, ethical and open culture. We value diversity and we engage in positive action to promote NFRS as an employer of choice to all sections of our community.

We place great emphasis on the safety, health and wellbeing of all our colleagues, particularly those involved in incident response, and provide a range of services to support the physical and mental health of everyone.

Goal 5 Service improvement

To achieve our ambition to be an outstanding service, and then to maintain that performance, we need to be open to change and continually seek to improve our ways of working. This involves all areas of the organisation working together to improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the work we do.

It also involves us building and maintaining strong relationships within the community to better understand the needs of different groups, and how best to mitigate the risks.

We will need to innovate and collaborate with others to ensure that we can provide an effective but affordable service.

Goal 6 Sustainability

We need to protect the long-term future of the service by investing in our buildings and equipment through a timely and costeffective programme of capital investment.

We also need to ensure that we respond to new and emerging risks, by investing in new methods, skills, and equipment where required.

We take our social responsibility to reduce our own impact on the environment seriously, by reducing the carbon footprint of our organisation and by seeking ways to minimise the impact of our fire-fighting activities on the local environment.