NFCC Culture Action Plan
Nearly a year into our plan, what progress have we made, what have we learnt and what happens next?
In July 2023 NFCC published the Culture Action Plan. The plan was produced following an NFCC Fire and Rescue partnership culture summit held in March 2023, where all UK fire and rescue services (FRSs) and wider partners, including Government, the representative bodies, unions, networking groups and other key partners, came together to discuss the key challenges and concerns in relation to culture and inclusion in FRSs and identify actions to address them.
Prior to the conference, we had already been working through our People, Culture and Leadership Co-ordinating Committee to deliver a wide-ranging programme of change to develop people and leadership and improve culture across FRSs. However, following the Independent Culture Review of London Fire Brigade, the sector recognised that much more was needed to deliver the step change needed to transform FRSs to be open, inclusive and welcoming places to work. As a result, Mark Hardingham, Chair of NFCC, made a public commitment that culture would be our top priority. We then published an Organisational Culture Statement and, following the partnership summit, developed and published the NFCC Culture Action Plan.
We have kept the plan under review throughout the last year and, as a result of feedback from our independent challenge and support panel and wider partners, have included an additional workstream on Lived Experience.
While NFCC has no mandate to insist that fire and rescue services carry out specific actions, the adoption of NFCC tools and guidance is often noted by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) as evidence of the implementation of positive practice.
This report provides an end-of-year progress update on the plan and sets out next steps. A further update will take place following the next NFCC Culture Conference in July. This will include proposed areas for action for the next phase of work.
Foreword
NFCC Chair Mark Hardingham
When we published the NFCC Organisational Culture Statement in July last year, it included the intent that…
everyone deserves to work in safe environments that are free from bullying, harassment and discrimination, abuse and harm, where they feel supported, welcome and able to thrive. This, in turn, enables us to support fire and rescue services to provide the best possible service to the public – services that are inclusive, professional and inspire confidence and trust.
I am really pleased that positive progress has been made in delivering against the NFCC Culture Action Plan and want to acknowledge the hard work, focus and commitment made by UK FRSs and partners over the past year. But I would also want to recognise that – in terms of delivering the transformation set out in our culture statement, as a sector we still have a significant way to go. Too many people are still being let down and too often we are hearing that change is not happening fast enough or consistently enough. The year one review of our Culture Action Plan is an important opportunity for us all to take stock, review the progress made and – most importantly – to identify what more is needed to deliver the step change we are all committed to.
This report nevertheless shows that real progress has and is being made in delivering against the Culture Action Plan that NFCC developed jointly with national partners and fire and rescue services last year. We have rightly put significant resource into delivering the plan and have re-structured our NFCC team to ensure it has the priority focus it needs to further develop and embed the work underway. We have worked closely with leads in fire and rescue services to ensure we develop products that will have a positive impact in their services and, where needed, to tackle unacceptable behaviour to provide an inclusive workplace environment free from abuse and harm.
Alongside delivering against the plan, we have attended and given evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee and the Senedd’s Equality and Social Justice Committee as part of their scrutiny of the culture of fire and rescue services. We have worked closely with HMICFRS to support their ongoing inspections, including the thematic inspection of misconduct expected to be published soon. We have worked with government to support the reforms set out in the White Paper including work around the Code of Ethics, Fire Standards, safeguarding and wider culture and inclusion developments. We have worked with the national employers and trade unions through the Inclusive Fire Service Group and have engaged with other organisations who are responding to similar cultural challenges to share our learning. And we continue to work with our Independent Expert Advisory Panel who have been outstanding in providing us with the perspectives of their challenge and support that helps us to ensure we deliver on our collective intent.
Culture has been described as ‘an ocean fed by many rivers’. In the fire service context this means the causes, both positive and negative, are wide-ranging and, consequently, changing culture will take time. Whilst improvements are happening across the fire and rescue service, the experience of some who work in the sector still falls short of anyone’s expectations that all fire and rescue services must be safe, inclusive places for people to work. We continue to see independent reports into individual fire and rescue services that have provided a place where the voice of those who work in fire and rescue services is amplified and has laid bare disturbing examples of unacceptable behaviour.
Looking forward it is important that all those organisations with responsibility for fire and rescue services work together to deliver improvement. We should not seek to blame one another, as doing so will only let down those who most need the culture to improve, and who expect and demand for us to work together. Leaders across all parts of the sector own the responsibility for the culture in fire and rescue services and the same responsibility for making it better.
In 2022, as I approached the end of my first term as Chair of NFCC, I set out my vision for the fire and rescue service in the years ahead, and said…
this is a time for leaders to be learners – to learn by listening to the experiences of others, to learn by not having all the answers, to learn by not pretending this will be easy, to learn by being prepared to be vulnerable and to learn by being prepared to use the influence and leverage of leadership to create a better future.
This remains true and while poor behaviour is being challenged more than ever before, leaders in the sector need to do more to ensure that it stops – and stops now.
In closing, thank you to all those who have played their part in the hard work of the last twelve months. This will continue as we deliver on our collective commitments. We want to ensure the fire and rescue service, and all those who work within, remain proud of delivering an excellent public service that retains the trust and confidence of the communities we are all here to serve.
Progress Summary
The overarching outcomes set out in the plan are:
- Improved public trust and confidence.
- Improved trust and confidence of staff.
- More diverse workforce that is inclusive of underrepresented groups, and people of diverse backgrounds and experiences.
The outcome measures are strategic, high-level ambitions. They are also “partnership outcomes”, in that we will only be able to achieve progress by working across fire and rescue partners:
- Improved public trust and confidence: Individual FRSs have local measures of public confidence and trust.
- Improved staff trust and confidence: Individual FRSs survey their staff regularly in relation to culture, inclusion, trust and confidence. Because different FRSs use different surveys, it is not possible to aggregate them up to report nationally. However, we have commenced discussions with national partners including the Home Office, Local Government Association (LGA) and National Employers to explore options in relation to a national survey.
- Diversity of workforce: In 2023, we produced an EDI Sector Report of English FRS, drawing on data sets collected and reported to the Home Office. This is the baseline that we will measure progress against and will produce another EDI Sector report in 2025.
The section below provides an overview of progress to date against six of the plan’s key deliverables. A summary of progress on all the deliverables in the plan is set out at the end of this update.
Safeguarding
Development and promotion of guidance, tools, and training
In July 2023, Fire and Rescue Authorities were added to schedule 1 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) following campaign efforts from NFCC. This now enables FRSs to be eligible for a Standard level Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check for employees, including volunteers.
To support and assist FRS, we produced three pieces of guidance which underwent review, development and consultation with FRS and key stakeholders. The new pieces of guidance support existing guidance and toolkits, such as the NFCC Safeguarding self-assessment toolkit which provides the sector with a clear overview of safeguarding legal duties.
To advance NFCC Safeguarding Board’s strategic intent, “to safeguard our communities, our people, and our organisation through efficient and effective safeguarding practice”, NFCC and DBS collaborated to host webinars from July to December 2023 to support FRSs with the implementation of DBS checks. 96 per cent of the 50 FRSs in England, Wales, Isle of Man and Channel Islands attended the practitioner or strategic webinars and feedback demonstrated that they have improved understanding of the eligibility checks available to them.
The NFCC Safeguarding Board continues to make progress through 16 of the 35 recommendations that have an associated safeguarding theme within the HMICFRS Spotlight report on FRS values and culture. This includes amendments to the Safeguarding Fire Standard in accordance with recommendations 8,11 and 13 following legislative change, which is now concluded and available on the FSB website.
Professional Leadership Development
Development programmes linked to professional accreditation, including Supervisory Leadership Development Programme, Middle Leadership Development Programme and Executive Leadership Programme.
Through the NFCC People, Culture and Leadership (PCL) Programme, we have built on the success of previous tools and guidance, including:
- Supervisory Leadership Development Programme (SLDP) – offering supervisory leaders across FRS support for their day-to-day leadership and management activities, along with access to learning materials to address ongoing development needs.
- Executive Leadership Programme – long-standing programme delivered through Warwick Business School and with substantial support and attendance from FRSs.
- Coaching and Mentoring Portal – promoting a sector-wide approach to developing a coaching and mentoring culture that can be effective in developing employees. Coaching and mentoring can be transformative to developing people, the portal aims to connect them with the right coach or mentor in a central portal providing a consistent approach for the sector.
- The Middle Leadership Programme (MLP) launched in April 2024 which will support new, existing, and aspiring middle leaders across all areas of the UK fire and rescue service. The programme will provide a suite of resources that will both support leaders in every fire service role, contract type, and location and help to standardise approaches to middle leadership development in the sector.
- The Direct Entry Scheme provides an additional route of entry and progression in FRSs alongside existing routes. By bringing in individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives, the scheme is enhancing problem-solving and innovation within the five participating FRSs and the scheme enables those with proven leadership skills, from a variety of sectors, to apply for Station Manager roles. We have partnered with the Fire Service College to deliver the training programme. The six developing station managers “passed out” from their initial training in February 2024, which represented a key landmark in a rigorous three-year course that sees the entrants immersed in operational, leadership, and strategic training.
Educational and Behavioural Programmes
NFCC is supporting FRSs with sharing examples of good practice toolkits, supporting leaders and staff about appropriate behaviour, including becoming active bystanders and responding appropriately when they see inappropriate behaviour whether in leadership roles or otherwise.
The People, Culture and Leadership programme has, and continues to, develop educational toolkits that form part of the NFCC’s Culture and EDI hub. At present the programme is developing a Challenging Behaviour Toolkit. This Toolkit is a collation of positive practice that is presented in an accessible and easy to use format. It is designed to provide clear advice and guidance to any fire and rescue service on the best ways to develop approaches to improve leader and staff ability to challenge poor behaviour. Consultation on the Challenging Behaviour Toolkit is underway with publication due in July 2024.
The Programme has also produced three additional thematic EDI Toolkits on the following topics:
- Religion and Belief
- Disability
- Menopause
The Religion and Belief Toolkit was developed in partnership with the Asian Fire Service Association (AFSA) using a toolkit previously developed by them, that has now been brought up to date and enhanced. The Menopause Toolkit was developed with the support and assistance of Women in the Fire Service and the Menopause Champions Network.
Culture and EDI Data
Working with partners and through the Data Management Framework, we will support the development of nationally consistent culture and EDI data sets to enable benchmarking and the sharing of good practice to support improvement.
Everyone in the FRS shares responsibility for good data management. The NFCC Data Management Framework, which has been written by subject-matter experts from across the sector, outlines good practice. It is designed to help FRSs to implement the Data Management Fire Standard, comply with good data management practice and, where appropriate, legal obligations.
The framework includes guidance on data management, data competencies, associated resources, a set of document templates, and a reference library of established free national and regional data sets that an FRS might find useful. Its audience is everyone working within an FRS, not only those in data-related roles.
In March 2023, we produced our first EDI Data report for English FRSs, using previously available national data. A follow-up report is planned for March 2025 to continue tracking progress.
Culture Performance Dashboard
Development of an open-source cultural dashboard methodology that FRS can use to benchmark their cultural performance.
The Culture Dashboard Guidance provides a framework to help FRSs work through the creation, or further development, of their own dashboard. This comprehensive guide is designed to help FRSs understand the principles and components needed, to create an effective dashboard. The dashboard can provide valuable insight and analysis and drive actionable outcomes, by aligning with an FRS strategy, objectives and metrics. It is important to note that the guidance is not meant to be definitive – as strategies, objectives, cultures, and protocols will vary across different FRS.
The guidance highlights two specific workplace issues: building a culture of positive mental health and wellbeing and creating workplaces free from harassment and discrimination. By measuring and analysing data related to these issues, FRSs can identify risk factors, determine the effectiveness of interventions, and take appropriate action. The journey from strategy to metrics, data to information, and information to action is crucial in achieving positive outcomes.
The Culture Dashboard Guidance will be published at the NFCC Culture Conference in July 2024.
We are also in discussion with the Home Office and the national employers about national measures of culture performance – either through KPI as part of national data collection and reporting and/or a national culture survey of FRS, as carried out previously through the Inclusive Fire Service Group and reflected in some other sectors.
NFCC Implementation Support
The NFCC Implementation Support Team provides continual support to FRSs in utilising NFCC tools and products, to support cultural change. The team has worked with over 24 FRSs, delivering 50 Maturity Model workshops which provide a structured and focused way to objectively assess progress against established cross-sector benchmarks around several defined cultural, organisational and leadership themes.
Last year, the team began running Thematic Leadership Fire Standard Workshops, to support FRSs to embed the Leading the Service and Leading and Developing People Fire Standards. The sessions were initially delivered to three cohorts across the Northeast and Northwest regions in 2023 and are being rolled out in all other areas in 2024.
Every week, two members of the Implementation Support Team host a remote workshop focusing on a single Fire Standard and the NFCC products which support it. At each workshop an FRS delivers a case study sharing the approach that they have taken to implement and embed the standard. To date there have been over 50 workshops for over 600 participants.
Within four weeks of the release of each HMICFRS Inspection report, an Implementation Liaison Manager will write a gap analysis report and share it with the FRS Service Liaison Officer from the respective FRS. These reports provide an important lever to enable the team to demonstrate where they can add value by mapping specific standards, guidance and NFCC products to gaps in FRS delivery.
Voice of Lived Experience
Following discussions with our independent Challenge and Support panel, and recommendations coming out of recent independent culture review reports, we have commenced a new workstream on Lived Experience / Voice of victims.
This workstream will seek to:
- Establish a national lived experience advisory forum, comprising organisations representing those with lived experience (i.e. Women in the Fire Service; Asian Fire Services Association; LGBTQ+ networks and more widely to work with our People, Culture and Leadership Coordinating Committee and wider NFCC to bring the voice of those with lived experiences into our work. Whilst we already have positive relationships with these organisations, they are on more of an informal basis. This would put this on a more formal footing and give the organisations involved a stronger role and voice into our national work.
- Working with the new national advisory forum, develop support, guidance and good practice examples (drawn from FRSs and other organisations) for FRSs on how they can effectively engage and listen to the voices of those with lived experience in their services, and build this into their ways of working.
- Working with the NPCC and with national victims’ charities, provide support and guidance for FRSs on signposting victims within their service to local support services, including clear routes into local police where someone wants to report a criminal matter.
Governance and oversight
To ensure external oversight and scrutiny of the plan and its wider work around Culture and Inclusion, we established an independent Challenge and Support panel. The panel provides external challenge, advice, and support to the NFCC on its work around culture and inclusion. It is chaired by Anthea Sully, CEO of White Ribbon. Other panel members are:
- Sal Naseem – Former Director at IOPC; advisor and consultant on DEI; Assistant Director, Birmingham Council
- Sue Fish – Former Chief Constable Nottinghamshire Police; consultant on diversity, inclusion, transformation
- Baljit Ubhey – Director of Policy and Strategy, Crown Prosecution Service
- Professor Katrin Hohl – University of London, Prof of criminal justice and criminology
- Alex Johnson – Retired Chief Fire Officer; Vice chair, Women in the Fire Service
- Eimear Meredith-Jones – Deloitte partner; EDI lead
Their focus has been on key areas including:
- Voice of the victim / lived experience: Discussions on how NFCC can listen to and include the voices of victims / lived experience in our work, and support FRSs to do the same. This has led to the development of a new workstream (details in section 5 below).
- Leadership – including the importance of challenging ourselves; bringing in external voices / thinking; being ready to disrupt current ways of doing things to bring about transformation.
- Learning from other sectors: Including learning from NHS; policing; charitable sector etc.
- Providing feedback and advice on key products coming out of the Culture Action Plan.
- What research / evidence tells us – including learning from work around violence against women and girls.
The panel will continue to meet bi-monthly. It is an 18-month panel and will close at the end of 2024 at which point they will produce and publish a final report summarising their work and any further recommendations.
In addition, progress against the plan is reported into:
- Quarterly meetings of the NFCC Trustees (the independent Chair of the Trustees is Nick Ross CBE) and NFCC Council.
- Review meetings with the Home Office.
- Progress update reports into the LGA Fire Services Management Committee.
- Regular updates to Chief Fire Officers and NFCC members.
Next Steps
We recognise that there is still a significant amount of work needed to transform the culture of fire and rescue services. Recent culture reviews and HMICFRS reports are showing that the pace of change is not fast enough and too many people are still being let down. That said, we are also seeing areas of strong culture performance and other progress being made. London Fire Brigade has made positive progress with their culture transformation plan which was recognised by HMICFRS as they were recently taken out of the HMICFRS ‘engage’ process due to the positive progress being made. Other FRSs have received positive outcomes in inspections in relation to values and culture i.e. Greater Manchester, Kent, Lancashire, Merseyside and others as inspections continue.
In addition, building on our current People, Culture and Leadership programme, and drawing learning from wider sectors, we are establishing a dedicated People, Culture and Leadership Hub within NFCC to drive forward this work into the medium and longer term.
We also recognise that culture transformation can only be delivered in partnership, working alongside key partners such as the National Employers, LGA, Home Office, staff representative bodies, trade unions etc. NFCC also continues to be a member of the independently chaired Inclusive Fire Service Group, where we work together to take forward a wider programme of work.
The Culture and Inclusion Conference takes place on 15th and 16th July in Birmingham and will focus on progress made against the NFCC Culture Action Plan, wider sector developments and reflections over the past year. This is an NFCC-led, sector-wide event focusing on continuing the journey to enabling a truly inclusive UK Fire and Rescue Service. We would like every UK fire service to be represented at the conference, alongside key external partners and encourage attendance from senior leaders, EDI/culture leads and FRS colleagues who can bring different perspectives and thinking about Culture and Inclusion to the conference.
Confirmed speakers include the Fire Minister; Anthea Sully – CEO of White Ribbon and Chair of our Independent Challenge and Support Panel; HMICFRS who will update on The State of Fire report, misconduct thematic inspections, and spotlight recommendations progress; Day two will be Siobhan Melia, Chief Executive of the South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, who will focus on learning from the sector.
Further information on the conference and the full programme of speakers will be released soon and booking details will be available on the NFCC website.
Progress against 22 key deliverables in Culture Action Plan
Action | Detail | Progress | Next Steps |
---|---|---|---|
Embedding Fire Standards | Setting out what good looks like across fire and rescue services; driving forward continuous improvement across all areas. | 16 standards delivered to date through the Fire Standards Board, including Code of Ethics Standard and two leadership standards, Leading the Service and Leading and Developing People. NFCC Implementation Team has supported FRSs in embedding standards through regional / local workshops. | Ongoing support to FRSs in implementation of standards. The Fire Standards Board most recent consultation on the Procurement and Commercial Fire Standard closed on 26th April. Responses to the consultation are now being considered. The Internal Governance and Assurance Fire Standard will soon complete the quality assurance process and is due to be published shortly. |
Core Code of Ethics | Adoption, implementation and embedding support across fire and rescue services. | Core Code of Ethics in place and adopted by all FRSs. NFCC Implementation Team supporting FRSs in implementation. For example, in January the team had 19 engagements with FRS directly related to people, culture and leadership and an additional 50 interactions related to Fire Standards. | Home Office White Paper response, published in December 2023, confirmed putting the Core Code of Ethics on a statutory footing. NFCC will continue to work with partners to keep the Core Code updated and under regular review. Ongoing work from NFCC team to support FRSs in embedding the Core Code. |
Safeguarding | Development and promotion of guidance, tools, and training. | A detailed update on measures relating to safeguarding is set out in the progress section above. | Ongoing roll-out of support to FRS regarding the new legislation and standards. |
Organisational culture statement | Publication of statement that outlines the culture we expect and a zero-tolerance approach to how inappropriate language and behaviour will be addressed. | The statement was published in July 2023 and shared with all FRSs. The NFCC statement was referenced as good practice in recent Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue independent culture review and in section 4 of the NHS England Culture Review of Ambulance Trusts published in February 2024. | Ongoing support to services as they develop their own local statements. |
Independent reporting lines | Independent reporting lines established in every UK FRS. | All FRSs now have independent reporting lines in place. | Review of anonymised data back from reporting lines on themes, issues emerging to inform national learning. |
HMICFRS Spotlight report response | NFCC to respond to the recommendations in the Spotlight Report into Culture and Values in the Fire and Rescue Service. | NFCC had a specific recommendation in relation to the development of a national barred list in the HMICFRS Spotlight Report. NFCC has been working with HMICFRS and Home Office to identify an effective, legal approach to the list. | Ongoing work with Home Office, HMICFRS and partners on the national barred list. |
Support HMICFRS (Misconduct thematic) | Support the HMICFRS thematic inspection into misconduct in Fire and Rescue Services and respond to the recommendations when published. | HMICFRS is currently undertaking inspection visits at fire and rescue services and due to report on a misconduct thematic inspection this summer. | NFCC will support fire and rescue services with recommendations coming out of the HMICFRS thematic review. |
Professional Leadership development | Development programmes linked to professional accreditation, including Supervisory Leadership Development programme, Middle Leadership Development Programme and Executive Leadership Programme. | A detailed update on measures relating to professional leadership development is set out in the progress section above. | NFCC will review the content and delivery of the Executive Leadership Programme, to ensure that it is up to date and linked with the MLP and SLDP. NFCC is supporting the further implementation of the SLDP and MLP through the delivery of demonstration and sessions continuing to fund the provision of free licences to services. |
Online interactive career pathway | Creation of tool that will enable prospective and serving fire and rescue staff at all levels identify routes of progression and professional development. | This is being progressed through the development of an interactive tool. | Consultation on the tool is underway. |
Educational and behavioural programmes | NFCC to support fire and rescue services with sharing examples of good practice toolkits to support leaders and staff to become more active bystanders and to respond appropriately when they see inappropriate behaviour. We will provide educational tools and programmes to support employees and leaders to fully appreciate and understand issues of culture and inclusion. | A detailed update on measures relating to educational and behaviour programmes is set out in the progress section above. | NFCC will continue to develop educational materials and toolkits that will support the improvement of behaviours at in all level and roles within Services. NFCC will continue to produce a programme of Listen and Learns and Masterclasses as an accessible way of culturally upskilling the workforce. |
Support to College of Fire | NFCC to support the Home Office in the development of a proposed College of Fire as part of the Government’s reform programme for Fire and Rescue Services. | Home Office announced its intention to establish a College of Fire in its White Paper response published in December 2023. We are awaiting further details. | NFCC will continue to work closely with Home Office on next steps on the College of Fire and Rescue. |
Culture and EDI data | Working with partners and through the Data Management Framework, we will support the development of nationally consistent culture and EDI data sets to enable benchmarking and the sharing of good practice and support improvement. | The sector EDI report was published in March 2023. The next report will be published in 2024/25. The Programme is also developing a culture dashboard methodology to support services in creating their own culture dashboards that will include EDI and Culture Data. | The Programme is also developing a culture dashboard methodology to support services in creating their own culture dashboards that will include EDI and Culture Data. This will be published in July 2024. |
National Employee survey | We will work with partners and fire and rescue services to develop a National Fire and Rescue Culture Survey that will further enhance data sets and provide assured evidence of improvement and capture issues. This will inform the ongoing development of the NFCC Culture and EDI work. | Meetings held with partners (Home Office, Local Government Association, National Employers and others) to identify options for a national survey. | Work with and through Inclusive Fire Service Group to take this forward. |
Culture performance dashboard | Development of an open-source cultural dashboard methodology that fire and rescue services can use to benchmark their cultural performance. | A detailed update on measures relating to the dashboard is set out in the progress section above. | As above, the programme is developing a culture dashboard methodology to support services in creating their own culture dashboards that will include EDI and Culture Data. This will be published in July 2024. |
Positive practice portal | Identify, share and promote positive practice and innovation across FRS, to support continuous improvement and help keep communities safe. | 20 pieces of innovative or positive practice have been shared. The portal has received over 500 views online. Learning captured from recent positive HMICFRS inspection of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service and the re-inspection of London Fire Brigade, which was taken out of the ‘Engage’ phase of inspection. | Ongoing development of portal. The NFCC Implementation Team will support FRSs in utilising good practice examples and gathering further examples for shared learning. |
Direct Entry Scheme | Provide new routes to entry that can play a valuable part in diversifying leadership in fire and rescue services. | The first phase of the Direct Entry scheme is live with six recruits now in services, and half of the recruits are female. All completed foundation training with a pass-out parade in February. | Evaluation being undertaken to inform next steps and wider implementation. |
Implementation support | Supporting fire and rescue services in achieving the Fire Standards and utilising tools and products and deliver improvements. | The NFCC Implementation Team have undertaken 2,401 engagements since the team commenced in August 2021, of which over 1000 were taken since the Culture Conference in March 2023. Specifically, 411 engagements are directly related to People, Culture and Leadership and 617 indirectly through the Fire Standards. A detailed update on measures relating to implementation support is set out in the progress section above. | The Implementation team is continuing to develop its improvement offer to services, taking a consultancy approach to work with them to understand their needs and how NFCC products and the Fire Standards can help with their continuous improvement, benchmarking progress, supporting self- assurance strategies and using products to encourage self-monitoring and evaluation. |
Organisational learning | Embedding a learning culture supported through national Organisational Learning arrangements helping us move away from blame cultures and taking all opportunities to learn and improve what we do. | 41 organisational learning cases have been received from services. Analysis of learning underway and sharing across services. | Ongoing capture and sharing of learning. |
Academic research | Utilise the newly formed NFCC Academic Collaboration, Evaluation and Research Group (ACER) to undertake a literature review to help inform culture reform within fire and rescue services research. | Scoping work underway through the Academic Collaboration, Evaluation and Research (ACER) Group to identify research options and funding opportunities in relation to culture and inclusion research, to inform wider organisational learning. | ACER Chair Rowena Hill developing research opportunities alongside NFCC members. NFCC, alongside the Asian Fire Services Association and several fire services, is supporting a university partner in their application for funding to support academic research into FRS culture, and then information to support that research. |
Health and Wellbeing framework | Develop and support delivery of framework of tools and guidance that address the recommendations highlighted in the 2023 NFCC Health and Wellbeing report. | A health and wellbeing framework has been developed, with consultation undertaken in March. It will be published at the NFCC Culture Conference in July. | Launch of the framework will take place at the NFCC Culture Conference in July. Work will then continue to support FRS with delivery against the framework to support improved health and wellbeing. |
Coaching and mentoring | Roll out of a range of national external tools and guidance to support the adoption and enhancement of Coaching and Mentoring within fire and rescue services. | The NFCC coaching and mentoring portal sees a steady increase in users each quarter. There are 590 registered users of the portal, with over 120 users logging in during March and April 2024. 50 FRSs are registered including Devolved Administrations and wider British Isles. | Ongoing development of portal. |
Products and services | Working with services to provide the support, guidance, tools, training and development programmes to help them achieve national standards and deliver the best services possible to the public and its people. | All FRSs using NFCC products and programmes as determined by their own risk and context. | Ongoing development and dissemination of products, alongside support from the Implementation Team. |