Foreword

Welcome to the Enabling Services Strategy 2025-28. It explains how we will support the delivery of our CRMP and make further progress towards achieving our ambition of becoming an outstanding fire and rescue service.

Public perception, and much of the scrutiny, of the Service tends to focus on those activities which are visible, such as responding to emergencies, visiting homes, schools and businesses, attending community events and promoting safety campaigns. However, none of these things would be possible without the work of colleagues within our enabling services. These teams are fundamental to our ability to deliver to our communities. They mainly work 'behind the scenes' to provide the infrastructure and specialist support needed by our public-facing colleagues and to ensure the safe, effective and efficient management of the organisation.

Within our CRMP 2025-28, we have six strategic goals around which our plans are focused. Three of them are related to our core statutory duties of prevention, protection and responsaour support teams enable the delivery of these directly, through the provision of premises, vehicles, equipment and supplies, and through administrative and communications support. Teams also provide indirect support, for example, by ensuring colleagues have access to the systems and data they need, managing and assessing risk, and ensuring safe systems of work are in place.

Our fourth strategic goal is focused on our people and culture. Much of the work of our people services teams is aligned to this goal. More details about this can be found in the People and Culture strategy.

The final two strategic goals are focused on ensuring the Service continues to develop and improve and is managed in a sustainable and stable manner. Our support teams are often at the forefront of delivering change, providing the data, analysis and project management expertise to support projects and initiatives. They also support evaluation, business planning and governance processes and manage our finances.

The CRMP identifies the outcomes and service improvements we are aiming to deliver over the course of three years, to make communities safer and move us closer to our ambition of being an outstanding service. Within this strategy, you will find more information about what this means for our enabling services and the role each our supporting teams will play in delivering the CRMP.