Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service 2024 Inspection Report

Suffolk Fire and Rescue has been rated Good for its effectiveness and how well it delivers our Prevention and Protection activities, and that we respond to incidents and manage risk well, ensuring we are keeping members of our communities and the most vulnerable safe.

The principal findings from the inspection:

• SFRS is good at identifying risk in the communities it serves
• The service has made good progress and is effectively implementing its prevention strategy.
• The service needs to improve our communication, governance and our IT infrastructure.
• The HMICFRS recognised there had been improvements in some areas with further work to do around diversity, people and culture.

The service was issued one cause of concern focusing on culture & values with senior leaders not managing effectively; providing poor scrutiny and oversight and are disengaged from the issues raised by managers and the wider workforce.

The inspection was a pivotal moment, confirming areas of strength but also revealing vulnerabilities in our governance framework, IT confidence, communication and our culture and values.

A structured action plan that now guides our improvement journey. Our focus is centred not just on completing actions, but on building the deep cultural change required to sustain trust, confidence and strategic effectiveness across the service