Your Fire & Rescue 2022/25

Foreword

Our Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) sets out the essential work we will carry out over the next three years to manage and reduce fire-related risks and other emergencies to protect the communities of West Yorkshire. This plan has been developed to reassure you that we carefully consider how we meet the demands of our ever-changing society.

The ambition of West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service (WYFRS) is “Making West Yorkshire Safer” and to do this we must recognise and understand the challenges and risks that our local communities face now, and in the future.

WYFRS will continue to protect the communities of West Yorkshire whether through our prevention and protection activities, or by responding to operational incidents.

We will continue to work closely with the five local authorities in Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield and key partner agencies including the Police and Ambulance Services. We aim to ensure that together we provide the best service possible for all our communities, especially the most vulnerable in society by supporting our community’s wellbeing.

Over recent years we have responded and adapted to numerous challenges with positive and innovative measures. These challenges include financial cutbacks, and most recently, during the Coronavirus pandemic.

We will continue to make changes to the way that we work to respond to today’s challenges and the ones that may lie ahead.
We ensure that we have the right resources in the right place at the right time, that our staff are highly skilled, and that we provide an excellent service to our communities.

We aim to ensure that together we provide the best service possible for all our communities, especially the most vulnerable in society. 

  • John Roberts Chief Fire/Chief Executive
  • Councillor Darren O’Donovan Chair of the Fire Authority 
     

Who we are

WYFRS is one of 44 Fire & Rescue Services in England and Wales and the fourth biggest Metropolitan Service in England.

Our service is governed by the West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue  Authority which has 22 elected Members from across the five local authorities.
 

WYFRS serves a population of more than two million people, spread over almost 800 square miles, providing emergency cover 24-hours a day, every day of the year.

Our Chief Fire Officer and Management Board are responsible for delivering the Authority’s statutory duties.
 

Why we are here 

The dedication and commitment of our staff has saved many lives within West Yorkshire.

We work with our communities to prevent fires and other emergencies. We continue to improve community safety and well-being, reducing the risk to life, property, and the environment.

All Fire & Rescue Services have duties and responsibilities that are set out in several legal documents.

Our ambition → Making West Yorkshire Safer. To improve community safety and well-being, and reduce the risk to life, property, and the environment from fire and other emergencies.

How we do it

Strategic Priorities

Our CRMP sets out our priorities for the period 2022-2025. We will:

  • Improve the safety and effectiveness of our firefighters.
  • Promote the health, safety, and well-being of all our people.
  • Encourage a learning environment in which we support, develop, and enable all our people to be at their best.
  • Focus our prevention and protection activities on reducing risk and vulnerability.
  • Provide ethical governance and value for money.
  • Collaborate with partners to improve all of our services.
  • Work in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.
  • Achieve a more inclusive workforce, which reflects the diverse communities we serve.
  • Continuously improve using digital and data platforms to innovate and work smarter.
  • Plan and deploy our resources based on risk.

Areas and focus

Our ‘Areas of Focus’ are reviewed annually.

Over the next 12 months we will focus our attention on a number of key areas, which will influence our programme of change and support continuous improvement:
 

  • Invest in our estate in Birkenshaw to provide a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient, headquarters, training centre and new fire station.
  • Deliver efficiencies and increase productivity against national targets set for the 2021/22 – 2024/25 spending review period.
  • Prepare and respond effectively to incidents caused by extreme weather which arise as a consequence of climate change.
  • Implement learning from the Manchester Arena Inquiry to improve how we respond to mass casualty incidents. 
  • Implement the new, approved Fire Standards to ensure the Service is demonstrating its commitment to continuous improvement.
  • Engage with the community to inform our firefighter recruitment campaign to improve the diversity of our workforce.
  • Maximise the health, safety, and wellbeing of all our staff by investing in personal protective equipment, and innovative fire station and fire engine design to minimise exposure to contaminants.
  • Target our prevention activity on the most vulnerable in society by using intelligence and partnerships to inform our prevention strategy.
  • Continue to engage with owners of high-rise residential buildings to ensure they are aware of the duties placed on them through new regulations which aim to make buildings safer for residents.

What we do

Service Delivery

We provide emergency cover 24/7 throughout the county of West Yorkshire.

To keep our communities safe, we deliver the following services:

  • Prevention - Raising awareness about the risks people face to prevent emergencies and reduce vulnerability.
  • Protection - Promoting and enforcing the fire safety measures required by law to ensure buildings and occupants are protected.
  • Response - Preparing for and responding to emergencies.
  • Resilience - Being able to deal with major emergencies and disruptions locally and nationally, while continuing to deliver our day-to-day services.
District Teams
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We deliver these services through five District Teams and these teams each develop a local action plan.

Fire Control
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Our call operators within Fire Control deal with 999 calls and provide 24/7 cover to coordinate our response to all types of emergency.

Service Support
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Our Service Support staff provide essential services across several functions and are fundamental to our operations.

  • Finance & Procurement 
  • Property Services
  • Information & Communications Technology 
  • Occupational Health, Safety & Wellbeing 
  • Fire Stations
  • Committee & Member Services 
  • Equipment 
  • Corporate Communications 
  • Human Resources 
  • Diversity & Inclusion 
  • Corporate Services
  • Strategic Development 
  • Transport & Logistics 
  • Legal Services
  • Training & Development 
  • Districts
  • Service Improvement & Assurance 
  • Fire Prevention 
  • Fire Protection 
     

Our people

We employ approximately 1,400 staff who all play their part in promoting safety and well-being across all the communities in West Yorkshire.

We recognise the importance that our workforce plays in achieving our ambition. We continue to be one of the country’s leading Fire & Rescue Services, supporting and developing our workforce and investing in their future.

Our People Strategy provides a strategic framework to support the ambition and strategic priorities of the service by ensuring we have the right people with the relevant skills, in the right place at the right time.

Firefighter safety

We endeavour to provide our firefighters with the best equipment, training and relevant operational guidance to enable them to stay safe when responding to emergencies.

Our fire appliances and personal protection equipment is designed to reduce the exposure of hazards and contamination to our firefighters.
We continue to invest in new fire stations and modern training facilities that are fit for purpose and reflect the requirements of our communities and diverse workforce.

Over the years we have seen the number of emergency incidents reduce. As a result, there is less opportunity for our firefighters to gain real incident experience, however the risk of these emergencies remains.

To overcome this, we apply a risk-based training strategy that is delivered through District Teams. We also continue to invest in our central training programme to make sure firefighter skills remain at the highest level.

Firefighters train and exercise in the environments in which they are most likely to attend emergencies.

Firefighters spend time visiting a variety of premises to gather information on risk. This can enhance their effectiveness when responding to incidents.
 

Our values

Our health & wellbeing, leadership & development and diversity & inclusion strategies support all our staff to reach their full potential.

  • Communication – We clearly and carefully communicate in a way everyone understands.
  • Teamwork - We recognise everyone’s strengths and contributions, working effectively as one team.
  • Integrity - We are trustworthy and ethical in all that we do, always behaving with integrity.
  • Learning - We learn all the time, we share our experiences and celebrate success.
  • Responsibility - We are responsible and take ownership of the work we do.
     

Code of ethics

‘Our Values’ complement the new National Fire Chiefs Council Core Code of Ethics. We will ensure this new code is at the heart of everything we do.

Putting our Communities First

We put the interests of the public, the community and service users first.

Integrity

We behave with integrity including being open, honest and consistent in everything that we do.

Dignity and Respect

We treat people with dignity and respect, making decisions objectively, based on evidence, without discrimination or bias.

Leadership

We are all positive role models, always demonstrating flexible and resilient leadership.

We are all accountable for everything we do and challenge all behaviour that falls short of the highest standards.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We continually recognise and promote the importance of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, both within the Fire Service and the wider communities in which we serve. We stand against all forms of discrimination, create equal opportunities, promote equality, foster good relations and celebrate differences.
 

Understanding risk

Our diverse communities and ever-changing environment create a unique mixture of risks. We have large cities and towns including some of the most deprived in the country.

Our industrial heritage has seen large mills put to different uses or left unoccupied.

We have many miles of waterways set in steep valleys that flood regularly and rapidly. We have remote communities, large areas of moorland, motorways, major railways, an international airport, large industrial sites, commercial centres, farming, major sporting and cultural events and much more.

As well as the local risks, our firefighters and resources form part of the national response to major emergencies.

How we assess risk
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Understanding risk in our communities is crucial to achieving our ambition of Making West Yorkshire Safer. We do this by using evidence, foresight and our professional experience to identify the risks that we face as a service.

We assess how likely each risk is to threaten life, property, and the environment. We model the level of risk in small geographical areas to create ‘risk profiles’. Using this information, we know where to base our people and resources and where to focus our prevention and protection activities.


We have created a database to categorise buildings in West Yorkshire. This allows us to plan for more frequent risk visits to the highest risk buildings while reducing unnecessary visits to the lowest risk buildings. This allows us to be more efficient in the service we provide to businesses across the county.

We have assessed every high-rise building in West Yorkshire, liaising with building owners to understand and identify any fire safety deficiencies including those which incorporate external walls.

We work closely with government and the National Fire Chiefs Council to ensure we are prepared to respond to any national work programmes in the future.

We work continually on assessing risk within the built environment to:

  • Streamline and update our database on the changing levels of property-related risk.
  • Develop the building risk review process to include new and medium-rise buildings.

Risk information is available on all frontline fire engines allowing our operational firefighters to access the most up-to- date risk information on-route to incidents or when required.

Foreseeable risks
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We must assess all foreseeable Fire & Rescue-related risks that could affect our communities. These may be local, cross-border, multi-authority and/or national.

To manage foreseeable risk, WYFRS updates and maintains a Foreseeable Risk Register.

This register is used to assess the emergencies that we need to respond to, and to ensure we are suitably trained, equipped and prepared.

  • Fire - Fires can vary from small refuse fires to large industrial incidents or historical buildings.
  • Technical Rescue - Major transport incidents, building collapse, rescues from height, rescues from water, confined space rescues and animal rescues.
  • Environmental - Climate-driven incidents like widespread flooding and wildfire.
  • Transport - Accidents on major roads, motorways, railways and airports.
  • Hazardous Materials - Incidents at major chemical sites or chemical-related leaks, explosives and spills within buildings or on highways.
  • Malicious Attacks/Terrorism - The threat of a terror or malicious attacks on people, infrastructure or transport

Our risk assessment complements the National Risk Assessment, National Risk Register, and the West Yorkshire Community Risk Register.

Threats and risks to our own business continuity are captured within our Corporate Risk Register.

We will continue to learn lessons from significant operational incidents.
 

Planning our resources against risk
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Our fire engines and specialist resources are located and staffed to provide the optimal level of emergency cover based on local risk.

WYFRS Stations
  • Wholetime Stations - 24/7 availability from the station
  • Day Crewing – On station during the day, respond from home at night (On-Call)
  • On-Call – Respond from home or place of work during the day and night

Planned response times

 

Risk Band Risk to life Risk to property Other
Very high risk 7 minutes 9 minutes 15 minutes
High risk 8 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes
Medium risk 9 minutes 11 minutes 15 minutes
Low risk 10 minutes 12 minutes 15 minutes
Very low risk 11 minutes 13 minutes 15 minutes

 

 

In 2023/24 we achieved our planned response times 95% of the time. We continually monitor our response times and strive to provide the appropriate response as quickly as possible to all incidents.
    
Usually when we arrive at incidents outside our planned response times it is due to the remote location of the incident. We monitor response times to identify areas that require any changes to procedures so that we can improve service delivery.
    
The table breaks down our planned response times by risk band and group, and the information below highlights our performance against our planned response times for the most recent fiscal year, 2023/24:

  • Risk to life - 84%
  • Risk to Property - 88%
  • Other - 93%
  • Average - 95%
Planning our resources against risk (Map View)
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Planning our resources against risk

 

Vulnerability

Trends in society are leading to increasing numbers of vulnerable people living within our communities. These trends include:

  • People living longer.
  • Health needs, including mental health are becoming more complex.
  • Deprivation and the cost of living.
  • Increased care in the community.

All of these areas form part of our focus in identifying the most vulnerable people within our communities to ensure the risks from fire are reduced. This is carried out in line with our Community Risk Management Model.
 

Reducing risk and vulnerability
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We balance our time and resources between reducing local risk, attending incidents and preparing for the emerging and changing risks we face.

  • Reducing local risks – We do this through our Prevention and Protection strategies targeting our resources towards the highest risks.
  • Attending incidents – Although our ambition is “Making West Yorkshire Safer” there is still a requirement to attend incidents and we will ensure our resources are in the best place to respond to the highest risk areas.
     

Community engagement

Our Community Engagement Framework will support our prevention activities by improving contact with hard-to- reach communities and understanding risk.

Our community engagement activities will improve visibility and transparency. This work allows us to cascade key community safety messages, gather research on fire and risk reduction themes and provide an opportunity for members of the community to feedback on our service.
 

Prevention
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Educating people about the risks they face to prevent emergencies and reduce vulnerability.

Our firefighters carry out most of our prevention activity when they are not attending and preparing for emergencies. Data and intelligence will inform local decision-making to allow for a more agile response to any changes in risk at a district level. To deal with more complex cases we employ specialist prevention staff who work with our partner agencies to reduce risk within our communities.

All our resources are allocated across the county in proportion to the risk factors. Our prevention initiatives are targeted to the needs of the most vulnerable.
Our Corporate Communications Team play a key role in promoting our prevention campaigns making sure our message reaches the most vulnerable members of the community.
 
Prevention work does not end within the home; for example, we work with young people in schools and through community groups to keep them safe from fire, road traffic collisions and the dangers of water.

We have invested in our Youth Interventions Team who deliver many initiatives through the Prince’s Trust Programme and other bespoke training courses.

Protection
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Promoting and enforcing the fire safety measures required by law to ensure buildings and occupants are protected should a fire occur.

We enforce the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005; the fire safety law that applies to nearly every building other than single private homes.

We have invested in our Fire Protection Team which allows us to assign the correct resources to the areas which are most at risk. We ensure inspecting officers have the capacity to deal with new and emerging risks within West Yorkshire. Our Risk- Based Inspection Programme utilises data and information to direct our resources towards those premises which present the greatest risk to occupants should a fire occur.

Our dedicated team is made up of qualified and experienced fire safety officers who are available to provide advice, support and investigate complaints relating to poor fire safety. We can demonstrate that through our initiatives or alternative statutory methods such as enforcement and licensing that every premise our inspectors enter, is a safer building when they leave.
 
Through partnership working with local authorities, we support building regulations to ensure new buildings are designed to incorporate relevant fire safety measures.
We know that business engagement is key to supporting businesses with their fire safety responsibilities ensuring they can grow and support the local economy. Our Business Fire Safety Advisor roles have been developed to engage with all business types, not just those which do not comply with legislation. These new roles will develop and increase our protection capabilities and will provide ideal opportunities for succession planning within the team.

We support smaller, local businesses to meet their fire safety duties individually and through the work we do with the Local Enterprise Partnership.

Additionally, our Fire Protection Team enforces legislation for the storage of petroleum-spirit by issuing certificates for petrol stations and licenses for the storage of explosives and fireworks.

Our work to reduce persistent false alarms has resulted in a significant decline in numbers over the last 10 years and continues on that trajectory.

Response
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Preparing for and responding to emergencies.

Our Fire Control Room receives all our 999 emergency calls, and our operators assess each call to determine what emergency response is required. Fire Control sends the fire engine(s) or specialist resource(s) who can respond quickest to deal with the emergency.

Our response time combined with the number of firefighters attending a fire is critical. More serious and complex emergencies usually need more firefighters to deal with them. We call this our ‘speed and weight of attack.’

We aim to keep the current number of fire stations and fire engines, to maintain our current ‘speed and weight of attack’.

Each station has a shift system based on the level of risk that the local community faces. Higher risk areas are covered by whole-time (24/7) stations. Lower risk areas are covered by
on-call stations. Those areas in between have a combination of both; day crewed (working during the day and on-call at night).

Our 46 fire engines are equipped to deal with the vast majority of emergencies. If the type of emergency is complex, we have strategically located specialist resources to call upon.

When a fire engine is unavailable due to an emergency or operational training, we have a system and procedures in place to relocate other fire engines to maintain a good standard of cover where it is required, most according to risk.

To ensure the nearest fire engines respond to the emergencies that occur close to and over our county border, we have arrangements in place with our neighbouring Fire & Rescue Services to share fire engines and other specialist resources if required.

Resilience
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Being able to deal with major emergencies and disruptions whilst continuing to deliver our critical services.

Each of the Fire & Rescue Services across the UK can resolve most emergencies with their own fire engines and firefighters. However, occasionally, major incidents can happen that need the support of Fire & Rescue Services from other areas.

Measures are in place to allow us to call upon other Fire & Rescue Services to support us when major incidents occur.

Nearly all serious emergencies require a ‘multi-agency’ response. By working with our partner agencies in West Yorkshire, we can respond with the right mix of skills, expertise, and equipment to deal with the risks we expect to face.

We operate in accordance with the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP) so that we work effectively with West Yorkshire Police, Yorkshire Ambulance Service and other partner agencies at serious and major emergencies.

Local resilience forum

We recognise that the causes and consequences of fires and other emergencies, cannot be addressed by the Fire & Rescue Service in isolation. Working in partnership with other agencies is, therefore, a fundamental part of the way services are delivered at all levels and in all areas; partnership working is therefore regarded as part of our core business.

As a member, WYFRS plays a key role in the West Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum (West Yorkshire Prepared) which was established under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

West Yorkshire Prepared coordinates the actions and arrangements between responding services to prepare for and respond to civil emergencies when they occur. It also helps people and communities recover after adverse events. Our partners work collaboratively for the benefit of the communities we serve.

westyorkshireprepared.org.uk
 

National resilience assets

We host a suite of specialist resources that can be deployed anywhere in the UK; likewise, we can call on specialist resources hosted elsewhere across the country to respond in West Yorkshire. We have agreements in place to share these resources when needed and we consider our national commitments when making local plans.

Flood Response

We have assets that are ready to respond to local and national flooding incidents. The High-Volume Pump removes water at incidents of wide area flooding as well as supplying large amounts of water for firefighting. Our Water Rescue Teams are ready to respond nationally to assist in the search, rescue and evacuations.


Enhanced Logistics Support

We can manage multiple Fire & Rescue Service resources at major incidents.

Urban Search and Rescue

Our units specialise in locating and rescuing people from collapsed buildings and heavy transport incidents.

Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear (explosives)

We are ready and equipped to respond to chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear hazards.

Response to Terrorist Attacks

We are ready to assist the police and ambulance service in response to an attack.
 

Collaboration

The Policing and Crime Act 2017 places a duty on Police, Fire, and Ambulance Services to work together to ensure that they can become more efficient and effective.
 

WYFRS has a long history of partnership working to help achieve our ambition of Making West Yorkshire Safer and the implementation of the Tri-Service Collaboration Board is making this a reality.

We understand the value that working with others can bring and we work closely with partners such as local authorities, blue light services, health teams, community groups and voluntary organisations to identify and support the most vulnerable people in our communities.

Making the most of collaborative opportunities has enabled us to co-locate services and deliver joint training to staff. This collaborative work underpins a more cohesive service delivery, achieves better value for money in procurement and has facilitated more effective planning for emergencies and pre-planned events.

Our current collaborative projects include taking a collaborative approach to sharing data and reducing demand on all services which will allow for a more holistic approach to preventing risk to the most vulnerable in our society.

Efficiency and effectiveness

Our finances
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Our finances

Our services are funded by the taxpayer; we have a legal duty to ensure the services we provide offer value for money to the taxpayer and meet the requirements of an ever-changing society.

Our annual budget is £112.904 million, and we believe that we are providing the best affordable service for our communities.

Through the implementation of smarter working and the introduction of an improved budget management system, the service has achieved a balanced budget.

This means that our expenditure is matched by our funding and there is no need to use any of our reserves.
 

Value for money
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WYFRS adds social and economic value through our response to fire and non-fire emergencies and through our prevention and protection activities.

At fire-related incidents we prevent further damage to property. Secondly, we prevent injuries and save lives at non-fire emergencies including rescues from water, making environments safer, spills and leaks, extrications and medical assistance.

Our prevention and protection activities include Safe and Well visits, audits and inspections of commercial premises along with fire setter and antisocial behaviour schemes. It has been calculated that each of these activities provide a positive social return on investment.
 

Efficiency and productivity
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As part of the 2021/22 Spending Review, the National Fire Chiefs’ Council and the Local Government Association proposed that across Fire and Rescue Services in England, the fire and rescue sector could create 2% of non-pay efficiencies and increase productivity by 3% by 2024/25.

Our Efficiency and Productivity Plan details how the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority aim to deliver efficiencies and increase productivity against national targets set for the 2021/22 - 2024/25 spending review period.

Where the budget is spent
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Revenue Budget 2024/25 £m
Employees 89,967
Premises 6,183
Transport 2,703
Supplies and services 8,019
Lead Authority charges 391
Capital financing  8,605
Gross Expenditure 115,868
Less income -2,964
Net Expenditure  112,904

Our commitment to tackling climate change

The impact of climate change and the increase in extreme weather conditions (heat waves and flooding) continue to have an impact on the number of environmental incidents we attend.

We will balance the environmental, social and economic impacts of the activities the service undertakes and will continue to promote environmentally friendly ways of working.

In recent years, we have taken positive steps to reduce carbon emissions by introducing electric cars into the vehicle fleet.

We have designed our new Headquarters site to reflect home working patterns whilst also further rationalising our estate by relocating our Service Delivery Centre and Cleckheaton Fire Station to the same site.

When redeveloping existing premises or designing new buildings we will ensure we maximise opportunities to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency across our estate.

Learning and improving our service

We have reviewed our achievements and performance over the last three years. To achieve our ambition of ‘Making West Yorkshire Safer’, we will not stand still, we will continue to learn, adapt and improve in everything we do.

How we learn and improve
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We listen to feedback from the public, our staff, their representative bodies and other interested parties. This feedback helps us to understand what we need to do better and what we might need to change each year and to celebrate our achievements.

We value the scrutiny provided by the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority, our internal auditors, and welcome external inspections of our service such as Customer Service Excellence and HMICFRS.

We also commission impartial and independent reviews of what we do to shape our plans in the interest of improving our service.
 

Operational learning
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Operational Learning is a key element of how we improve as a service; highlighting areas of good practice and areas that we can develop to improve both firefighter safety and the service we provide to the communities of West Yorkshire.

We are committed to learning, developing and adopting best practices in all that we do. Our operational staff follow National Operational Guidance produced by the NFCC and we evaluate and share operational learning following incidents at a local, regional, or national level.

The key to this work is our ability to find the right balance between prevention, protection, response, resilience and service improvement to reduce the risks facing our communities.
 

How we share operational learning and best practice
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Our Operational Learning Team is responsible for capturing the learning points following training and/or operational incidents. This is achieved through our robust debrief process.

We are committed to and will continue to engage in the National Operational Learning programme to ensure best practice is achieved and embedded into both our service and nationally to allow for continuous improvement across the fire sector.

For example, the work that has been produced by our Grenfell Project Team has improved the way we deal with high-rise building incidents.

We will continue to share operational learning through the JESIP joint learning process to support and develop regional and multi-agency working.

Through operational learning, we have been able to implement new initiatives to assist our staff in carrying out their duties more efficiently and with better safety practices in mind.
 

Fire standards
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“Produced by the Services for the Services”

As part of the reform for Fire & Rescue Service, the Fire Standards Board have established professional standards to help drive continuous improvement across the fire sector.

These standards are a key component to continuous improvement which all Fire & Rescue Authority’s in England must implement to ensure progress is measured and further improvements and enhancements are identified. The HMICFRS will use these standards as part of their future inspections.

An internal WYFRS board has been established to oversee the successful implementation of the Fire Standards and to realise the expected benefits of achieving the standards.

Service assurance
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We have a Service Assurance Framework which is a system in place to make sure we are doing what we say we will, and to the standards expected of us. This framework contributes to our annual statement of assurance and demonstrates compliance with the National Framework 2018.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service (HMICFRS)
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HMICFRS assess and report on how well Fire & Rescue Services prevent and protect against and respond to fires and other emergencies. It also assesses how they look after their workforce. They carry out inspections based on the three pillars; Efficiency, Effectiveness and People for the 44 Fire & Rescue Services in England and Wales and report what they find. They also examine and report on critical national issues and themes in an annual State of Fire Report.

Our most recent HMICFRS report found that we were rated good in all areas across the three pillars; Effectiveness, Efficiency and People. While this was a great achievement, WYFRS is not complacent and we are currently working through a number of recommendations in an action plan which was established to embed HMICFRS feedback. We continue to review and embed HMICFRS feedback across the organisation, helping us to continually improve the service we provide to our communities.

Digital and data
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Our Digital and Data Strategy outlines our digital investment and is focused on equipping our service with the right systems, technology and data.

We continue to make major changes to our digital infrastructure: keeping up to date with data and technology developments. This enables us to determine how these digital systems could better support the way we transform and deliver our services to our staff, partners and the community.

We will future proof our collation and analysis of data, allowing us to make informed decisions about how to identify and address risk and vulnerability within our communities.

Access to accurate, ‘live’ information and data will drive change and continuous improvement whilst also contributing to increased productivity in all areas of the service.

Our new performance management system will provide transparency, accountability and be the platform to share data with our fire service colleagues, partner agencies, and the communities of West Yorkshire.
 

Smarter working
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A Smarter Working philosophy and methodology is embedded throughout WYFRS. By supporting innovative and more efficient ways of working departments and teams can drive change and improve.

The outcome of our Smarter Working programme demonstrates the value it adds in both time and money increasing productivity ensuring we are the most efficient and effective service we can be.
 

Programme of change 2024/25

Moving forward with our programme of continuous improvement, we will focus on efficiency and effectiveness without compromising public safety.

We will update this plan annually to include our approved ‘Programme of Change’.

Birkenshaw Site Redevelopment

Deliver a modern, energy-efficient Headquarters with a purpose-built training arena. 

OneView Programme

Performance management programme to provide a transparent, timely and flexible method of sharing performance data with our colleagues, partners, and the communities.

Fire Control

The existing mobilising system is approaching end of life. To meet the ever-changing demands placed on WYFRS and to continue to provide a resilient, effective service, a new mobilising system is required.

Office 365

Technical requirements to keep Microsoft office products up to date with the latest features and security. This includes the implementation of SharePoint Online, MS Teams and some Viva Products which will enhance work productivity and collaboration.

Keighley Fire Station

The construction of a new fire station on the existing site to replace an oversized and outdated fire station.

Halifax Fire Station

The construction of a new fire station on the existing site to replace an oversized and outdated fire station.

Huddersfield Fire Station

The construction of a new fire station on the existing site to replace an oversized and outdated fire station.

Accessible Content Toolkit Project

Ensuring that digital content, including websites, mobile apps and documents that are shared electronically are accessible to all audiences.

Special Projects Implementation

Following the conclusion of the Special Projects research phase on Aerial Appliances, Fire Appliances and Fire Station Design, the project has moved onto the implementation phase.

Data Centre

The relocation of our backup data centre which is required for disaster recovery and business continuity purposes.

MDT software

Replacement of Lego MDT software to coincide with the go live of the replacement mobilising system.

National Operational Guidance

The National Operational Guidance project will improve the access to operational information, bringing together policy, guidance, and training materials into a single easy to access location. 

Culture Review

Embedding, developing, and displaying the recommendations from the London Fire Brigade report, HMICFRS report, and the NFCC Culture action plan, ensuring that best practice is embedded and understood by all.

Risk and Capabilities Review

To review all WYFRS specialist asset locations, staffing and operational activity to ensure they are aligned to risk and to identify areas to improve efficiency and operational effectiveness without compromising Service Delivery.

Operational Staffing Project

Review all wholetime operational staffing to improve flexibility, resilience, and efficiency. 

Phase one has now been completed and the project has moved into phase two which will see operational staffing transition to a fully locally managed system.

Contact us 

Tel: 01274 682311
Website: westyorksfire.gov.uk
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service Oakroyd Hall
Bradford Road Birkenshaw West Yorkshire BD11 2DY
Social Media @WYFRS