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

Targeting various socio-demographic groups

Staffordshire are currently developing and exploring how the principles used in targeted work to identify risk can be used to understand how to communicate with various groups.

Engagement, attraction, and communication officers

South Wales have employed two Engagement, Attraction and Communications Officers to explore and enhance public engagement. They did articulate how these officers are working, for example running public facing events alongside partners to establish engagement channels and internally chairing a group which has oversight of all consultation and engagement activity discussion, planning and evaluation.

Communication with crews

Leicester, Devon, South Wales and Somerset all referenced that they think through their communication of the RMP process to crews. This was a relatively little referenced area in the submissions. Most FRSs referred to providing crews with information for local professional judgement, but there was little in the submissions about how this is done in an effective way.

Co-developed RMPs

London’s risk Safety Plan is an example of a plan written with the public as the target audience. Frequently we gained the impression that risk plans on the websites of FRSs were constructed with political stakeholders in mind and did not seem to use language accessible to the public. We recommend that public facing documentation such as these are written to the public as a first priority.