Inspection of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service West Service Delivery Area

1. This is the second report of a cycle of Service Delivery Area (SDA) Inspections of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).

2. Since the SFRS was established in 2013 until the introduction of this SDA approach, His Majesty’s Fire Service Inspectorate (HMFSI) had undertaken inspection of service delivery at a Local Authority (LA) level. From 2023, inspection of local service delivery has been at a combined regional level of the SFRS’s SDAs. The SFRS’s organisational structure has three SDAs: North; West; and East. The management of each SDA is overseen by a Deputy Assistant Chief Officer (DACO).

3. Several of the LA areas making up the West Service Delivery Area (WSDA) have previously been the subject of a local area inspection by HMFSI, namely, City of Glasgow, East Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Dumfries and Galloway and Argyll and Bute. In this SDA inspection, we have revisited these areas along with those local authority areas not previously visited; Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, East Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire.

Inspection Themes

Prevention & Protection - Protecting communities from fire and other emergencies

Response - Responding to incidents when they do occur

Partnership - Working in partnership with others to improve community safety outcomes

People - Managing and supporting the workforce

4. The format for reporting our cyclical inspection activity has also changed. Our findings and recommendations contained in this report are based on our inspection of service delivery at an LSO level and are aggregated at an SDA level to inform our judgements/grading; however, we still take cognisance of local authority area activity. We have adopted a sampling approach in conducting this inspection; as such, we cannot identify all potential areas for improvement or areas of good practice. We intend that it should be a proportionate activity that provides an overview of the WSDA.

5. Building on the process for the East SDA (ESDA), we undertook a short anonymous survey of all SFRS staff based within the WSDA. We are grateful to all those who took time to complete our questionnaire as it has helped to inform and reinforce our findings. There was a total of 590 responses, which equated to 24% of WSDA establishment compared to a 23% return for the ESDA. The breakdown of returns was 53% Wholetime staff, 16% Support Staff, 14% On-Call Staff, 12% Flexi Duty officer and 5% Directorate staff.

6. This report focuses on four key themes: Prevention and Protection; Response; Partnership; and People. In exploring these themes, we interviewed SFRS operational staff, management teams, functional staff and support staff as well as partners from local authorities, police and the third sector.

7. Our fieldwork took place between May 2023 and March 2024. During that period there were several significant events or issues that we accept may have impacted our analysis and fieldwork. In particular we noted;

• the SFRS introduced a revised Unwanted Fire Alarm Signal (UFAS) policy in July 2023, which altered call handling and mobilisation processes;
• the SFRS instigated a temporary Appliance Withdrawal Strategy in September 2023, which removed five pumping appliances (three from City of Glasgow, one from South Lanarkshire and one from Inverclyde) from the WSDA as part of a Strategic Service Review Programme (SSRP);
• the SFRS implemented a High Reach Appliance (HRA) Strategy in September 2023 which removed seven height appliances from the WSDA with a net reduction of fifteen down to eight;
• the SFRS changed the water rescue provision on the River Clyde in September 2023, which altered crewing for water rescue at Polmadie Fire Station from a dedicated to a dual-staffing model;
• HMFSI published a thematic report ‘Climate Change: managing the operational impact on fires and other weather-related emergencies’ in September 2023, which had a series of recommendations for the SFRS;
• following a consultation process, the SFRS Board approved the closure of Leadhills fire station in November 2023, and
• HMFSI published a thematic report ‘Mental Health and Wellbeing Support in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’ in December 2023, which had a series of recommendations for the SFRS.

What inspection judgments mean:

8. In making our assessment of how effective the SFRS is in the WSDA, we use the following gradings:

Opportunity for improvement - where we find important failings of policy, practice or performance which require improvement.

Satisfactory - where we find limited shortcomings in the area being considered.

Good - where we find important strengths in performance.

Outstanding - where we find performance which significantly exceeds Good.

9. The awarding of the Gradings is subjectively derived using the Inspectors’ professional judgement, skills and knowledge, and based on analysis, evidence, survey and observation.

10. Appendix A gives a synopsis of LSO area performance data, Appendix B contains information about HMFSI and Appendix C provides detail of how this inspection was carried out.