NFCC welcomes publication of Protection Fire Standard

Gavin Tomlinson, chair of the NFCC’s Protection and Business Safety Committee, said: “I’m pleased to welcome the introduction of the Protection Fire Standard which is designed to assist Fire and Rescue Services to improve the safety and well-being of their communities by reducing risks and incidents. It will ensure Fire and Rescue Services can adopt a co-ordinated approach to their protection activities, collaboratively and innovatively, thereby resulting in safer communities. I would like to thank all those individuals and Fire and Rescue Services who’ve contributed to the continued development of our protection work at the national level.”

The Protection Fire Standard has been developed through work carried out by the NFCC’s Protection, Policy and Reform Unit in parallel with the development of the recently introduced Prevention Fire Standard.  

The desired outcome of the Protection Fire Standard is that it will enable a Fire and Rescue Service to improve the safety of the built environment and well-being of its community by complying with its statutory responsibilities.  

The Protection Fire Standard aims to enable a Fire and Rescue Service to target its resources, using data and intelligence to proactively plan, respond and adapt to the changing needs of the local community.

Additionally, the Protection Fire Standard aims to evoke a learning and sharing culture among Fire and Rescue Services in order to both improve and innovate fire protection activities and work collaboratively with other regulators, partners and stakeholders.  

Dan Daly, head of the NFCC’s Protection Policy and Reform Unit, noted: “We welcome the launch of the Protection Fire Standard for our protection-based staff at a time of great reform for the sector in this area. Fire and Rescue Services are committed to do everything they can to make the built environment safer for the communities they serve. This document complements the huge amount of protection work delivered both locally and nationally, in turn ensuring that we can continue to meet the challenges presented.”

Alongside the publication of the Protection Fire Standard is the launch of a Fire Standards Implementation Tool. The latter has been designed to support Fire and Rescue Services in assessing how well they meet the Protection Fire Standard and will enable them to build an action plan for resolving those areas where there may be gaps.