Gloucestershire fire service put into special measures

Gloucestershire’s fire service has been put into special measures by a watchdog.

It joins the county’s police force in facing extra scrutiny under an “enhanced level of monitoring” called Engage – known as special measures – by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) after concerns were raised about its performance.

The watchdog said the fire service had not done enough since its last inspection to “promote a positive workplace culture” and “improve levels of understanding and awareness of the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion”.

A report detailing the problems is expected to be published later this month.

Inspector of fire and rescue services Wendy William said: “We move fire and rescue services into our enhanced level of monitoring, known as Engage, when we believe a service is not responding to a cause of concern, or if it is not succeeding in managing, mitigating or eradicating the cause of concern. The engage process provides additional scrutiny and support.

“Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service was asked to urgently produce an improvement plan and will meet regularly with our inspectors. We will work closely with the service to monitor its progress against these important and necessary changes.”

Gloucestershire Constabulary was put into special measures last year for failing to record domestic abuse, problems with some investigations and concerns over management of demand, call-taking capacity and vulnerability risk assessments carried out by call handlers.