Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service ranked in top four in the country

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has released the final set of fire and rescue service inspection scores, confirming that Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is one of the best in the country.

The Inspectorate has spent the last 18 months assessing all fire and rescue services and has done so in three tranches. Cambridgeshire was one of the first to be visited and last December received its rating of ‘Good’ in each of the three assessment areas of efficiency, effectiveness and how it looks after its people.

Today HMICFRS has released the final set of results and Cambridgeshire is one of only four fire services to get Good across the board, not only in the three main assessment categories, but also in each of the eleven sub categories.

Chief Fire Officer Chris Strickland said: “We are absolutely delighted to know that we are up there with the best, with no assessment area receiving ‘requires improvement’. We are one of the smaller fire services and we have significantly fewer resources than many so this is tremendous news and a great achievement for us.

“Everyone in the Service, our firefighters, control staff and professional support teams, do their absolute best to continuously improve what we do. To be up there with the best is testament to their hard work and I am incredibly proud of our people.”

HMICFRS will begin a second round of inspections in the spring of 2020.

Chris continued: “During the assessment process the inspection team highlighted a number of areas where we could do even better. We have been working to improve these over the last year and look forward to discussing developments with the HMICFRS when they return. We know we will also have to prove that we have continued to deliver in all assessment areas if we want to maintain or better our position. But for now it’s good to have it independently confirmed that what we are doing is right and we are doing it well.”

Councillor Kevin Reynolds, Chairman of the Fire Authority added: “I echo Chris’s sentiments, it’s a fantastic achievement and we too are incredibly proud of the fire service. We are continually impressed by what the Service delivers and how it always looks to improve what it does to become more effective and efficient and it is great to see this recognised.”