London Fire Brigade praised by HMICFRS for “significant improvements”

HMICFRS has graded the London Fire Brigade’ performance across 11 areas. It found that the Brigade was ‘outstanding’ in one area, ‘good’ in five areas, ‘adequate’ in four areas and ‘requires improvement’ in one area.

HMICFRS said the Brigade continues to respond quickly to fires and has a good system in place to prioritise its home fire safety visits, such that those most at risk of fire or other emergencies are seen first. The Inspectorate also found that the Brigade is making good progress to improve culture, with well-defined values, and a plan to improve services that supports cultural change.

Inspectors particularly recognised the significant role played by the Brigade in the arena of counter-terrorism, not only across London, but also across the rest of the UK and internationally. For example, the Brigade has led on the design and implementation of the first Fire and Rescue counter-terrorism strategy.

However, inspectors found that the Brigade needs to improve in some areas in order to provide a consistently good service. It must make sure it has an effective system in place to review individual staff performance and development and improve the processes in place to respond to poor behaviour.

Recommendations implemented

Inspectors were told that all 29 recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report that were specific to the Brigade have now been implemented. They also found well-developed policies and procedures are in place across the Brigade for managing this type of incident.

HMICFRS’ spokesperson Lee Freeman said: “It was a pleasure to revisit the London Fire Brigade. I’m grateful for the positive and constructive way in which the Brigade engaged with our inspection staff. I’m pleased to find significant improvements in the performance of the London Fire Brigade since our last inspection.”

Freeman continued: “The Brigade has improved its understanding of risk and other emergencies through its community risk management plan, entitled ‘Your London Fire Brigade’, which it has communicated to the public. It also continues to respond quickly to fires and we’ve graded the Brigade as ‘outstanding’ in responding to major and multi-agency incidents.”

He added: “However, the Brigade still needs to improve how it identifies and develops high-potential staff and also how it manages individual performance and development reviews. While there’s still more to do, it’s evident that the Brigade understands where to make these further improvements and has achievable plans in place for them.”