Our work with refugees and other new arrivals

Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service is committed to serving all its communities and being an inclusive organisation. We work very closely with Refugee forum, local authority and various housing associations including Nottingham voluntary sector. We have delivered specific initiatives in welcoming new arrivals to our City & County, ensuring they have awareness of fire safety in the home.

Syrian Refugees

NFRS has worked as part of a multi-agency team to help Syrian refugees be homed in Nottinghamshire since 2016. There has been a few challenges, such as arranging language interpreters and trying to understand their cultures and backgrounds. However these people are very vulnerable and our support has been invaluable, for example these families, when asked, didn’t know to call 999 in an emergency to get the help of the emergency services. Also, we found that some of their practices were not safe such as using two pin plugs in our 3 pin sockets, and they had no understanding of smoke alarms or what to do if they want off.

Afghan Refugees

NFRS are working alongside Local authorities and other statutory partners in welcoming Afghan arrivals via the ARAP scheme to our City & County. Fire Safety talks have been delivered and will be followed by a full Safe & Well visit by fire crew when the families are housed.

Kurdish Community

NFRS are engaging with our Kurdish families and have developed a community dialogue which is ongoing.

Ukrainian Community

NFRS are working with the Ukrainian centre and other local authority partners to support the war crisis in Ukraine.