Corporate services strategy

Corporate services encompass a variety of management and professional services that support the management, operation, and governance of the fire service.

They include:

• Strategic and business planning
• Internal governance and assurance
• Service improvement and change management
• Risk management and business continuity
• Corporate administration
• Executive support

Our ambition

Our Corporate Services Strategy underpins our ambition to be an outstanding fire and rescue service by ensuring the efficient and effective management of our organisation. We will achieve this by:

• Leading on sector best practice across a number of core delivery areas
• Being fully engaged in sector consultations to develop new sector wide initiatives, to drive up standards and identify best practice
• Being fully compliant with relevant fire standards and sector guidance
• Providing a robust business planning framework that drives organisational improvement and effectiveness, delivers value for money and exceptional community outcomes
• Enabling data-led decision making to ensure an evidence based approach to service delivery and development
• Ensuring transparent, accountable and risk-aware decision-making through robust governance structures
• Streamlining what we do, prioritising high-impact activities, and adopting innovative working practices to optimise productivity • Using evaluation to drive continuous improvement

Where we want to be

During the life of this strategy, we aim to:

• Align with sector-wide best practices, including NFCC guidance, fire standards, governance models, risk management frameworks, and recommendations from His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS)
• Respond to sector reports implementing learning where required
• Embed a robust business planning framework to drive organisational improvement and effectiveness
• Develop our project management capability to more effectively deliver the corporate change programme
• Improve systems and processes that support the oversight and management of corporate risk
• Develop a structured approach to evaluation, learning, and adapting service delivery
• Understand and address the capability and capacity across the department to ensure we have a resilient business model, able to deliver compliance in statutory areas, manage and prioritise corporate risk and support the change programme

Operating context and drivers for change

The work undertaken within our corporate function is shaped by a range of statutory requirements and fire standards.

The strategic and business planning function supports compliance with the National Framework, specifically in relation to the production of a CRMP, the Annual Statement of Assurance and the engagement of stakeholders in ongoing and meaningful dialogue about the aims and performance of the organisation.

There have been significant improvements in our approach to strategic and business planning over recent years, with the development of a CRMP which is actively used to drive decision-making and activity. Our approach is based on, and compliant with, the Community Risk Management Planning fire standard. To continue our journey towards outstanding, we need to embed our approach into a more sustainable process which smooths out resource demands and incorporates ongoing stakeholder dialogue.

Alongside our improvements to business planning, we are further developing a corporate programme office capability. There is a constant and growing need to provide specialist support for projects, including project management, project support and business analysis. Available resources are limited and need to be aligned to the higher risk/ more complex projects. We need to further develop the role of the programme office, to meet these needs and to provide appropriate support, governance and assurance for the change programme as a whole.

It is important to evaluate the work that we do, in a proportionate manner, to ensure that we are achieving the benefits and outcomes we expected. This includes evaluating the delivery of projects and initiatives. We are developing a clear framework to determine how, when and to what extent we should evaluate our activities.

Through our work on business continuity and risk management, we ensure we can always fulfil the statutory duties of primary legislation including the Fire Services Act and Civil Contingencies Act. Our approach to corporate risk management needs to be improved to better support decision making and to provide a consistent mechanism for escalating and de-escalating departmental risks. We also need to develop our approach to business continuity planning to cover all areas of the service and to include a robust programme of testing and exercising.

The HMICFRS inspection cycle acts as a continual driver for improvement across all core business areas. We are likely to be subject to our fourth inspection in Spring 2026. This round of inspections will see a greater focus on, leadership, governance, Fire Authority, and values and culture. We will respond to any recommendations.

Some parts of the service currently rely on the tacit knowledge of individuals and there are a number of single points of failure. Documentation of processes and procedures is better in some areas than others. To reduce the risks this creates and provide a knowledge base that can be used to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation, this knowledge and understanding needs to be documented and maintained. There will be opportunities within the change programme to support the documentation of processes as part of project implementations.

Resources/ delivery model

Our Strategy & Planning team provides executive and specialist support to the senior leadership team in the development, governance and assurance of its CRMP and organisational strategies and its annual delivery plans. They work closely with the Programme Office team, who support the delivery of the annual change programme and oversee its governance.

Our Executive Support team includes Business Continuity and Service Improvement. The Service Improvement team manages the relationship with HMICFRS, supporting the preparations for inspections, co-ordinating the response to inspection reports and networking with other services to share learning and best practice. It also oversees compliance with fire standards, providing regular assurance reports to SLT.

The Service Support function supports the day-to-day administration needs of the service, including provision of front-of-house services at JHQ, Mansfield and Highfields stations. They provide administrative support to other functions, including Community Safety, Fire Protection and HR, and can be called upon to act as loggists to record information during major incidents.

Delivering the strategy

Over the life of this strategy, we will deliver the following:

Outcomes

The successful delivery of this strategy will result in:

• Improved organisational resilience and efficiency
• Strengthened governance and assurance mechanisms
• Enhanced service delivery through structured evaluation and learning
• A culture of continuous improvement and innovation
• Compliance with statutory duties and best practice standards