National review of community risk methodology across UK Fire and Rescue Service

While data are used to assess risk and identify those at risk, the use of evidence in decision making ensures that resources are used effectively and efficiently. In this section we evaluate the current use of evidence in community risk management, identify current areas of good practice, and conduct a gap analysis on the use of evidence. We consider evidence to be information resulting from research, governmental reports / guidance / publications, or evaluation work, which can be used to make effective, assumption-free decisions. This is distinct from data, which we consider as observations (e.g. information about socio-demographics, information about past incidents).

We advocate the principle of using both data and evidence to inform the development and implementation of prevention, protection, and response activities. This is because the effective use of evidence in prevention, protection, and response activities will enable the FRS to use resources effectively and efficiently, with maximum benefits to the community and minimising financial burden. It will also enable FRSs to effectively communicate the benefits of planned activities with key stakeholders.

We first evaluated the general use of research, the extent to which FRSs use academic or other public services’ research, before conducting a fine-grained analysis of the sources of evidence used in community risk management.