County fire service improving but bullying still an issue

Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service has made progress after a number of concerns were identified during an official inspection in 2018 – but still needs to do more to tackle issues including workplace bullying and harassment.

Of the 24 areas where action needed to be taken, government inspectors have now said improvements have been made to all of them – and 20 had been fully resolved.

The service is now considered to be ‘good’ overall – the second highest score. Progress has been made in call handling, staff training and support and the safe handling of incidents and risks.

However, a number of points still need to be addressed, including its efficiency, which is rated as ‘requires improvement’ – the second lowest grading.

The inspector from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services said work was still needed to make sure the organisation’s budget is spent more efficiently.

Concerns were also raised over a backlog in inspections of homes referred to the service over fire risks, harassment of staff and staff working excessive hours.

Inspectors were told by 12 members of staff that they had been subject to harassment and 11 to discrimination in the preceeding year.

The report said: “More needs to be done to remove bullying and harassment in the workplace.

“The main reasons for those feeling harassed not reporting this behaviour were concerns about being victimised and labelled as a troublemaker.

“All of those who told us they feel discriminated against said it is from someone more senior to them.”

The service needs to do more to build trust and confidence around staff reporting, the inspector concluded. It was consulting on a new bullying, harassment and discipline policy at the time of the inspection in June.

The monitoring of overtime was described as “weak” and examples of staff working excessive overtime hours were found.

The service was told it should do more to ensure it effectively monitors and supports staff who work overtime.

Home inspections were referred to multiple times in the report as an area where insufficient progress had been made.

“At the start of our inspection, we found a backlog of 725 Home Safety Checks from partner referrals, rising to over 1,000 at the end of our inspection,” the report read.

“However, we found no plan to deal with the backlog or action to reduce the risk. The backlog concerns high-risk homes in the community.

“The team clearly can’t cope with the demand. We were also disappointed to find senior managers unaware of the backlog.”

Callum Faint, chief fire and rescue officer at Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “I would like to acknowledge the continued hard work of all of our staff and firefighters who have worked tirelessly since the last inspection to improve our service.

“We have made massive steps forward in many areas and the positive nature of the inspection report reflects this.

“Of course, there are further improvements to be made and we look forward to continuing our work to achieve these.

“I am proud of our service and believe that the people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland really benefit from all that our staff have achieved.”