Community Risk Management Plan 2025 to 2030

Foreword

Welcome to our Community Risk Management Plan 2025-2030.

This plan sets out who we are as a service, how we work, the risks facing our communities and what we're going to be focusing on throughout the next five years. We are a team of dedicated professionals who are committed to serving our communities, underpinned by teamwork, mutual respect and an inclusive working environment. Our ultimate aims are to prevent emergencies and protect Surrey, whilst ensuring we have the right resources in place to respond to incidents, should we need to.

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) plays a crucial role in protecting people who live, work, travel through, visit and do business in the county. In an ever-changing world of new technology and evolving environmental factors, it is important that we assess and reshape how we deliver our services to suit our communities needs. This allows us to respond appropriately to current and emerging risks in Surrey.

Our Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) will continue to build upon the work that has been carried out throughout the last few years. Since 2020, we've worked together to drive efficiency and productivity of our teams, strengthened our plan to address high-risk areas, and worked with East and West Sussex Fire and Rescue Services in our control room. Additionally, through our prevention activities detailed below, we are supporting Surrey communities to reduce emergencies from happening in the first place, by working with landowners to prevent wildfires and delivering Safe and Well Visits to our most vulnerable communities.

We are committed to aligning to the Fire and Rescue National Framework for England (2018) which sets out the Governments priorities and objectives for Fire and Rescue Authorities and the Government's fire and rescue reform agenda. This includes the inspection regime by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service (HMICFRS) and responding to the outcomes of the White Paper – Reforming our Fire and Rescue Service. Our goal is to provide an efficient, effective, accountable and transparent service that reflects the diverse needs of the communities we serve but also fosters an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and respected.

Through data analysis, community and our own staff input, we have identified the key risks we face and what people are most concerned about. This has helped us develop this plan for 2025-2030. The insights provided by Surrey communities and our workforce have been invaluable in shaping the direction of our initiatives. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the development of our CRMP. Your support has been instrumental in building safer and more resilient communities.

Dan Quin, Chief Fire Officer

I am honoured to be Cabinet Member for SFRS and I thoroughly support the service in ensuring that it plays a vital role in safeguarding our communities and supporting Surrey County Council's (SCC) vision of No One Left Behind.

SCC is an ambitious organisation, always looking to improve. As an integral part of SCC, SFRS is dedicated to ensuring that we keep people safe and to empower residents, visitors and businesses in the county to lead safer, more resilient lives. Following thorough consultation with our communities, staff, partners and stakeholders, this CRMP outlines our service's path for the next five years.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has taken the time to respond to the consultation and taken part in engagement activities – you have all helped to shape our fire and rescue service. This plan outlines our whole-service approach and commitment to protecting lives, minimising risks and enhancing community resilience through the service's strategic objectives and commitments.

Kevin Deanus, Cabinet Member for Surrey Fire and Rescue Service

What is a Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP)?

Fire and Rescue National Framework for England

The Fire and Rescue National Framework for England on the Government's website sets out the government's priorities and objectives for fire and rescue authorities.

A CRMP should be produced in consultation with the public, staff, local partners and Trade Union/representative bodies. We have involved both the community and staff in the development of our plan through engagement and subsequently formal consultation. In addition, we used the risk information from our Community Risk Profile and various other documents, existing plans, and evidence to shape our CRMP for 2025-2030.

Community Risk Profile (CRP)

We take a data-driven approach in understanding what risks exist and could impact Surrey residents and communities. We collect this information as part of our CRP. We review our risk and demand data within our CRP every year to make sure it stays up to date. If required we can change or adjust our services accordingly to match the changing risk, this could result in a further review of the CRMP within the 2025-2030 period.

Within the CRP document you will see a detailed breakdown of the four categories of risks (people, places, premises, products) identified in Surrey and the data to support these.

The CRP includes data on the types of emergencies we respond to and other factors, including understanding where the most vulnerable people are. The CRP includes a mixture of historical incident data and data about other factors that contribute to risk. We use this information together with national and local statistics to help us identify risks. These include information from the National Risk Register and the Surrey Local Resilience Forum Community Risk Register.

An overview of our CRP findings can be found later in this document.

Statement of Assurance

We must provide assurance on financial, governance and operational matters and show how they have had due regard to the expectations set out in their community risk management plan and the requirements included in the Fire and Rescue National Framework. To provide these assurances, we publish an annual Statement of Assurance.

Productivity and Efficiency Plan

Our Productivity and Efficiency Plan provides information on how we manage our budget, look for efficiencies and monitor staff productivity.

Surrey Risk Register

The Surrey Risk Register gives information about the hazards that exist in the county and the measures in place to reduce their impact.

National Risk Register

The Government's National Risk Register aims to build an understanding of risks facing the UK.

The county of Surrey

1,203,108 population
481,818 households
89 high rises (7 stories or more, or 18 metres or more in height)
65,000 non-domestic premises
105 grade one listed buildings
352 grade two listed buildings
84 train stations
1,660k m2 in size
Most spoken languages after English are: Polish, Romanian, Portuguese
Ethnicity breakdown is: 76.6% white, 8.9% white other, 7.7% Asian, 1.7% black, 3.4% mixed and 1.7% other
One in every five people in Surrey are over the age of 65
Rivers: Wey, Mole and Thames

Data based on the 2021 Census shown in Surrey-i, SFRS's 2024 CRP and SCC and SFRS data.

About Surrey Fire and Rescue Service

25 fire stations (whilst we conduct an extensive review for an alternative site for Banstead)
778 staff members
14 volunteers
444 wholetime operational staff
138 on-call operational staff
50 staff in Joint Fire Control
146 specialist support staff
206 vehicles
6 boats
30 frontline fire engines
14 other fire engines (used for training and more)
4 animal/heavy rescue vehicles
2 environmental protection vehicles
3 prime movers
2 welfare support vehicles
2 control units
6 fire investigation vans
44 officer response cars
20 wildfire vehicles
8 water rescue/flood response vehicles
2 working at height vehicles
3 water carriers
66 support vehicles

During 2023/24

10,171 incidents attended. 19% fires, 38% non-fire incidents (this includes road traffic collisions, water rescues and more),
43% false alarms.*
17,253 999 calls answered for SFRS, plus a further 28,698 for West and East Sussex Fire and Rescue Services.
5,727 Safe and Well Visits undertaken.
395 educational visits conducted by the specialist team, teaching about fire and water safety.
462 fire investigations.
1,682 Business Safe and Well Visits undertaken.
1,143 Fire Safety Audits.
1,250 training courses delivered by our in-house Learning and Development team.
7,999 fleet maintenance jobs completed by the Workshop Team and 1,614 hours in callouts for our on-call technicians.
Three new fire engines have been rolled out to stations with a further 13 scheduled to be delivered plus a refurbishment of four existing fire engines planned in the next year.
1,448 wildfire personal protective equipment items, issued to firefighters.
Our Fire Investigation team have attended 15 domestic abuse call outs to support the person with advice and equipment to help keep them safe, like fireproof letter boxes and door jams.

*A new automatic fire alarms policy has been introduced during this timeframe to reduce the number of false alarms attended.

Our Core Code of Ethics

We have adopted the National Fire Chief Council's (NFCC) Core Code of Ethics. These are embedded throughout SFRS. They are absolutely vital to underpinning our culture and outlining the expected behaviours of everyone in our service, these help ensure that communities are supported equally and in the best way.

Our Fire and Rescue Authority and Governance

SCC is the Fire and Rescue Authority for SFRS and provides assurance on financial, governance and operational matters and evidence how they have shown due regard to the expectations set out in their CRMP.

In Surrey there are 81 Councillors. The Cabinet is the part of the Council which is responsible for most day-to-day decisions as set out in the Council Constitution. It is made up of a Leader, Deputy Leader and up to nine other elected councillors. A Cabinet lead member oversees a portfolio of services and SFRS's Cabinet Member oversees Fire & Rescue and Resilience. Decisions are undertaken in accordance with the Council Constitution and the procedures followed ensures decisions are open, transparent and accountable to the residents and communities we serve.

The County Council Select Committee provides scrutiny of the services by SFRS in the Communities, Environment and Highways Select Committee. This is chaired by a county councillor and its membership consists of county councillors representing all political parties in Surrey. The Select Committee reviews the priorities, performance and inspection reports that the service provides to HMICFRS.

Additional oversight and assurance is provided by SFRS and SCC's leadership teams on a monthly basis and prior to a decision being taken to cabinet. The decision making process, which can be found on Surrey County Council's website, is detailed in the council's constitution.

In our CRMP, we assure and monitor our activities using specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to maintain our high standards of safety and effectiveness. These KPIs, which include response times to emergencies, prevention and community engagement levels, our protection activities, health and safety, wellbeing, organisational culture and our training provision, providing measurable and objective data to evaluate our performance.

Regular monitoring and analysis of these indicators allow us to identify trends, assess the impact of our strategies, and make informed decisions for continuous improvement. By maintaining transparency and accountability through KPIs, and reporting to our Cabinet Member, we can effectively manage risks and enhance the safety and wellbeing of our community.

The Surrey Way

The Surrey Way explains the way we do things at SCC. It defines our purpose and our mission to tackle inequality and make sure that no one is left behind. The three components of The Surrey Way are: Our Purpose, Our Organisation, Our People.

Our purpose, represents what we are trying to achieve:

Growing a sustainable economy so everyone can benefit.
Tackling health inequality.
Enabling a greener future.
Empowered and thriving communities.

Each of these purposes, are encompassed within this plan within our strategic aims and commitments (below section).

This purpose also flows from the Community Vision for Surrey 2030. Created with residents, communities and partners, it sets out how we all want Surrey to be by 2030 and places focus on prevention, supporting our most vulnerable residents and the need for greater collaboration with partners.

Our organisation aims to be one that is outcome driven, working collaboratively for the best outcomes. We aim to help people and communities to help themselves. We maximise the potential of digital and data to transform the way we work and improve accessibility. We seek our preventative, commercial and efficient approaches to help us be financially sustainable.

Our people and culture is inclusive, passionate and values diversity. SCC is a collaborative and inviting place, with trust at its heart, whilst being ambitious and passionate. We are inventive and dynamic, promoting a learning mindset, adaptable to new insights and opportunities.

The Surrey Way, transforms how SCC runs and the culture and behaviours our staff embody, enabling us to add more value, make a greater impact and improve services. This will support in delivering the best possible long-term outcomes for residents while balancing our budget and better managing demand.

We recognise our role in delivering this vision with prevention and protection activities forming a core part of what we do. This plan set out how we will do this.

Our strategic aims, commitments and activities

Our five strategic aims and supporting commitments outline how we will align and deliver our service to the Surrey Way.

Strategic aim 1: Support communities to be safe, thriving and resilient through prevention and protection activities.

Focus on prevention and protection activities.
Work with partner agencies to ensure we are focused on people, helping vulnerable residents get extra help when it's needed.
Prioritise the highest-risk buildings for fire safety inspections.

Prevention

Karen, Prevention Team: "Our Prevention Team identify and protect vulnerable people, making them safe in their own homes. We educate children, young adults and other members of our communities on fire, water, road and wildfire safety, which is supported by our brilliant volunteers. We address the behaviours of children and adults on fire setting, in addition to supporting young adults who are at risk of entering the criminal justice system. We also work closely with our operational crews and key external stakeholders on establishing the cause of a fire."

Dee, Community Intelligence team: "Our Data and Digital team manage SFRS' digital tools and analyse data to support the service on their day-to-day activities and future planning. We provide insights on where risk lies within Surrey to ensure our infrastructure, equipment, and staff are on hand to keep our community safe. Efficient use of resources is vital to ensuring we have the capability to tackle fire and flood prevention, protect our residents and businesses and respond to incidents."

Preventing fires and other emergencies is at the core of our service. We do this in a number of ways and target it towards the most vulnerable people in our communities.

Our approach uses data and risk information whilst working closely with partners to ensure every contact counts. Our specialist prevention teams, firefighters, volunteers and partners maximise opportunities and gain further local information, so we can identify and support people who are most at risk.

How we support those who need most care and attention

By carrying out Safe and Well Visits (SAWV) in people's homes, we can not only give advice but also fit fire detection equipment (such as smoke alarms).

In addition to this, we can facilitate the supply of equipment such as oil filled radiators and gloves during the cold weather. Our teams are also called to homes to provide advice, support and equipment for people experiencing domestic abuse.

We know that we are a pivotal player in public safety and as such, our contact with residents can help them in more ways that fire prevention. Our teams regularly signpost residents to our partners for other needs – such as Trading Standards for scam victims or Adult Social Care for needs such as meals on wheels and many more.

The number of SAWV's completed from referrals into the Partnership Team from other agencies has doubled in the 12 months between 2022/23 and 2023/24 (approximately 1,200 to 2,400 referrals). The total number of SAWV delivered increased by 52% when compared to 2022/23 with 85% of those visits being made to vulnerable people.

We will continue to develop and nurture partnerships with the aim of widening our reach to those most at risk of fire. During this CRMP, we are dedicated to aligning our work with SCC's health agenda, exploring how we can work closely with hospitals and other health professionals to keep people safe.

Working with children and young people

Educating our younger residents on fire and water safety is vital to developing the future minds of Surrey.

We have a range of targeted activities to educate young people and as trusted role models in the community, our teams are able to join classrooms as well as invite people into our workplaces.

Our aim is to continually improve our offer to supporting young people by working with other partnership organisations such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and our own SCC departments such as schools and Children's Social Care.

We are committed to increasing the number of young people we help. This includes delivering resilience qualifications accredited by The Prince's Trust and working with other youth teams to deliver our specialist advice and information.

Road safety

There are major road networks within Surrey that pose significant risks for communities and therefore road safety is a big priority for the service.

We are part of the Surrey Road Safety Partnership, known as RoadSafe, and we will continue to support the aims of this initiative. As part of that partnership, we are an integral part of the Vision Zero approach to prevent road fatalities and severe injuries on our roads.

In partnership with national organisations, researchers and educationalists we have adopted the DriveFit programme in 2023/24. This is the next step of what was previously known as Safe Drive Stay Alive. The aim of this programme is to significantly improve road safety education for young drivers. We are excited to roll out DriveFit 2.0 during the course of this CRMP.

Health and wellbeing in the community

Being part of and promoting compassionate communities is important to us. So far, this includes safety recommendations, work with
care partners in the community and support with homelessness and other vulnerable groups.

Our teams work with partners such as One Surrey (smoking cessation) and Bridging the Gap (multiple disadvantage outreach service) to promote healthy lifestyles.

We are committed to working with health partners to ensure that patients can return to their homes after a hospital stay as part of the care they receive from the NHS.

Key to this ambition is working with occupational therapy teams, care providers and local community teams. During the course of this CRMP, SFRS will also embed staff in Surrey hospitals, ensuring every contact counts.

Fire Investigation

Our Fire Investigation team plays a critical role in understanding the cause of fires which can help us to prevent future emergencies occurring through education and behaviour change.

They also work collaboratively with other agencies, such as with Surrey Police and Surrey's Coroner on investigations, as well as Trading Standards and the Office for Product Safety and Standards to keep the public safe from emerging risks such as lithium-ion battery fires.

In addition to this, the team are skilled drone pilots supporting operational incidents. Our Fire Investigation Officers are part of the SFRS safeguarding team which delivers a 24/7 response to keeping those experiencing domestic abuse safe in their homes.

Volunteers

SFRS volunteers support the service with delivering SAWV, hard of hearing visits and community events.

This group also includes our four-legged canine volunteers who are out in the community, with their owners, spotting the signs of wildfires whilst on walks.

The unique selling point of volunteers, is that they are the eyes and ears of the community in which they serve, adding value where they live. Going forward, our volunteers will become a more integrated part of a localised community response to prevention.

If you're interested, you can find more information about joining our service as a volunteer.

Seasonal safety

Surrey is no stranger to seasonal demand – whether that be flooding or wildfires.

Therefore, working with a range of partners, we will continue to educate landowners and communities on how to prevent these incidents, including how they can better help themselves in an emergency.

Our specialist teams already work closely with land managers/owners to educate them on safety and offer support where possible.

A great deal of investment has gone into signage around 'hot spot areas' and equipment for our crews to tackle wildfire areas.

Protection

Craig, Business Fire Safety team: "Our Business Fire Safety teams carry out numerous engagement visits with various businesses throughout the year to enforce the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This can involve us working with local building control bodies during building design and construction phase to give advice on fire safety matters. We also carry out formal inspections to enforce the fire safety order, ensuring businesses are compliant, which will in turn keep employees and customers safe. Our aims are to help businesses thrive through education, advice and enforcement."

Our protection activities support the businesses we have in Surrey and how we can work closely with owners and those responsible for the buildings in order to keep goods, customers and employees safe.

Our priority is to address immediate risks, whilst proactively working towards preventing fires.

Business Safe and Well Visits (BSAWV)

Similarly to SAWV aimed at keeping residents safe in their homes, BSAWV are delivered by SFRS staff to businesses.

The visits are tailored to lower risk businesses across Surrey and provide advice and guidance on safety and legislative requirements.

Between April 2021 and March 2024, 5,969 BSAWV have been delivered.

We will continue to work closely with those responsible for buildings to have the most up-to-date information about that building so that if they were to experience a fire, our operational teams have as much knowledge on that building as possible.

Risk Based Inspection Programme

Our Risk Based Inspection Programme (RBIP) enables our team to prioritise buildings and businesses, ensuring that those most at risk are the focus for our protection initiatives.

It also allows us to respond to the changing needs and the risk of our premises in Surrey.

Automatic Fire Alarms

We attend a great deal of automatic fire alarms to properties, where there is no fire – these are false alarms.

Therefore in 2022, we reviewed when we will attend automatic fire alarms to non-domestic businesses (EG: those that people do not sleep in) and since then we have seen a reduction in attending false alarms to non-residential premises initially by 75%.

This allows our operational crews to be available for emergency incidents, training and importantly more prevention and protection activities to help reduce risk in our communities.

Since March 2024 this approach has been extended to cover all premises types including domestic and residential premises and will continue to review this phase throughout this CRMP.

High rise residential buildings

Following the tragic events of Grenfell Tower, we continue to work with the Responsible Person of high rise residential buildings to ensure compliance with the Building Safety Act 2022 and Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 to guarantee that we are provided with all relevant information about a building by the owners.

We are committed to ensuring that our staff remain highly trained with a full understanding of how different buildings can react in a fire. Our focus is on the learning and development of our staff to ensure the best outcomes for Surrey.

Our protection teams support the Building Safety Regulator with specialist staff working with partners to assess high rise compliance and ensure these buildings are safe from fire as part of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022.

Strategic aim 2: Be a great place to work, and our people feel valued, supported and highly trained.

Create a fully inclusive culture that prides itself on making a difference to our residents.
Prioritise the health and wellbeing of our staff.
Build upon our adopted Core Code of Ethics (from the National Fire Chief Council).
Provide opportunities for all to develop through learning and development.

Sue, People and Organisational Development (OD) team: "Our aim is to enable teams and all of our people to thrive and to develop so that together, we can achieve our strategic aims. Our overarching objective is to ensure that SFRS is a great place to work throughout all stages of employment from recruitment, through to development and retention."

Matt, Business, Projects and Administration Support team: "Our role is to support the organisation with of all their business and administration needs. This can range from being the first point of contact on SFRS's reception, through to specialist tasks such as Freedom of Information requests. We also support on a wide variety of projects and events. The team is a crucial part of the day-to-day running of the service and we pride ourselves on our professionalism and our can do attitude."

Adrian, Learning and Development team: "We are committed to not only training, but also upskilling all staff. Whether that's core competency training for operational staff through to specialist, role specific training for non-operational personnel. Our aim is to make sure that our colleagues throughout all levels of the service are in the best possible place in terms of skills to keep Surrey safe."

Billy, Health, Fitness and Wellbeing team: "We take a proactive approach to both physical and mental wellbeing of all of our colleagues. Our mission is to empower SFRS staff to maintain their health, fitness and wellbeing and putting their best self forward."

People are our greatest asset, and we want to ensure that they are at the heart of what we do as a service.

Health, fitness and wellbeing (HFW)

A healthy workforce is fundamental to our success. By empowering our staff, we aim to foster an understanding culture and a healthy and resilient workforce.

We've focused on Critical Incident Stress Debrief (CISD) training to include more staff, notably those in Joint Fire Control. CISDs provide 24/7 proactive intervention for our own colleagues, crucial for addressing the aftermath of traumatic incidents. We now have 24 members of our staff trained in CISD, enhancing our capacity to support our team continuously.

Additionally, 2023 marked the launch of a Multi-Faith Chaplaincy service, developed in collaboration with our Surrey Police partners, to offer spiritual and emotional support to our personnel as part of our established peer support network.

We have also trained 31 Wellbeing Champions and 17 Mental Health First Aiders within SFRS. These individuals are equipped to provide immediate support and foster a positive work environment, reinforcing our commitment to the overall wellbeing of our team.

With increasing information and research into the dangers of contaminants, we are committed to working with others to support staff wellbeing within this area. This includes, but isn't limited to, ensuring that the fire stations we're rebuilding or redeveloping have a focus on contaminant

Culture

Cultural improvement is a huge priority of ours, and we are dedicated to fostering a 'one team' ethic based on trust, where every employee feels empowered and valued.

Our journey so far has seen our cultural improvement journey begin in spring of 2022, with the help of an independent agency specialising in this area who assessed our service, spoke to staff to gain input and provided a range of meaningful recommendations and actions for us to undertake as one team.

In the autumn of 2023, the same agency reviewed our progress and reported positive changes. Their findings showed that we are increasingly upholding our ethical principles, and that our organisational culture has improved.

We have made significant strides in our cultural improvement including:

Adopting the national Core Code of Ethics as our own values informing everything we do.
Increasing meaningful engagement between our Service Leadership Team
and wider staff.
Establishing staff networks where employees can discuss subjects important to them and be a part of making improvements.
Creating robust channels for everyone to feedback, ask questions and get a response.
Robust mechanisms in place for reporting poor behaviour.
Confidential 'Speak Up' service put in place for all employees.
All staff received appropriate level of Disclosure and Barring Service checks.

Our activity has been recognised by HMICFRS's 2023-2025 report on SFRS which stated: "There is an improving culture, with positive behaviours and values understood and demonstrated."
Our focus for the next five years will be to continue to build upon this work. To do so, we need to undertake another assessment of our current progress and steps required to move forward. We will learn from national news, guidance and best practice to do this and are committed to doing it as one service, together.
We will continue our current engagement and look for ways to enhance open, honest and transparent two-way conversations.

Organisational Development

Continual professional development and clear management support is vital to staff being able to have long and successful careers.

We want to ensure that we are supporting our staff to develop their careers and therefore will continue to embed career pathways by ensuring all staff get the opportunity to discuss with their managers their development within their performance conversations.

Learning and development

We pride ourselves in being able to offer all staff opportunities for continual learning and development – no matter their chosen specialism or career pathway.

Our learning offer is a key component in ensuring that our workforce is skilled, confident in their abilities and motivated at work.

Our key priorities include the use of apprenticeships at all levels of the service, supporting our workforce to learn and thrive through offering a suite of learning experiences and workplace adjustments if required.

Recruitment

Our ambition is to have a workforce that represents the diverse needs of our communities – enabling us to be able to understand more and ultimately, keep people safe.

This will also enable us to address the recommendations made by the HMICFRS in our recent inspection.

Our recruitment is based around values and behaviours, ensuring the best candidate experience possible. We have adapted our recruitment assessments to ensure equal opportunities to all as well as assessing against our Core Code of Ethics.

We will ensure that we are recruiting people with the right values and behaviours, ensuring that we can train high-level skills to be able to carry out their role and putting communities first.

Specialist support teams

We have several specialist support teams who are crucial to the day-to-day running and planning of SFRS.

This includes business support, data and digital, project management and many more. These teams are full of people with a wide range of skills, undertaking behind the scenes work to see improvement projects through and ensure our service can thrive.

We are committed to ensuring a workplace culture where everyone can be themselves, get support or adjustments where needed and where everyone knows that they play an equal role in keeping people safe.

Find out more information about joining our service.

Strategic aim 3: Build an inclusive workplace, act with integrity and challenge prejudice.

Create an inclusive workplace where all feel respected and that they belong.
Build a workforce that is truly reflective of the communities we serve.
Highlight the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion, with no form of bullying and discrimination tolerated.

Rizwan, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team: "We champion equality, diversity, and inclusion across our service. Our role spans from driving inclusive recruitment practices to ensuring a safe and supportive environment for all staff. We provide guidance, promote awareness, and foster a culture where everyone feels valued and respected. Our commitment is to reflect the diverse community we serve and to enhance the wellbeing and effectiveness of our workforce."

Our workforce

We're building an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and supported, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, or any other point of difference.

Promoting open communication, teamwork and mutual respect amongst all of our staff is crucial to this.

As a service, we are already delivering regular training programmes to raise awareness about diversity, challenging behaviours and inclusive practices. These programmes equip our staff with the knowledge and skills necessary to create
a harmonious and inclusive environment.

At the time of writing this plan, 453 employees across 78 teams throughout our service have received banter training sessions enhancing their understanding of EDI and promoting appropriate workplace behaviours.

SFRS has already worked with Vivida, an innovative external training provider, on their 'In Their Shoes' experiential learning programme. This partnership allowed SFRS to be at the forefront of branching this cultural improvement and EDI advancing programme out and into the fire and rescue industry. An initial successful trail with managers has completed and the next stage is training all staff.

During this CRMP, we want to better embed EDI within everyone's role at the start of their career with us.

Our communities

We actively engage with all of the communities we serve, embracing diversity and understanding their needs.

This involves us collaborating with community groups, organisations, and individuals to promote equality, celebrate diversity, and foster inclusion. This ensures that we can create programmes and initiatives that address community concerns and promote social cohesion.

We advocate for inclusive policies and practices within our organisation and in the wider community.

During our last CRMP, we formed a group of community leaders and key stakeholders from a range of different groups. We will now join forces with this group, more regularly, when launching campaigns or projects at differing target audiences in the future.

The aim of this is to ensure positive action or behaviour change is reaching and appealing to them.

We will also work with this group to develop plans and initiatives to attract individuals from underrepresented groups to consider joining SFRS.

Strategic aim 4: Respond to emergencies swiftly, with a highly professional and agile workforce, focused on saving life and reducing harm.

We will work with staff to align working patterns to meet the risk and incident demand of our county, without impacting our offer to communities.
Use data and intelligence to inform our decision making and lessen risks before they escalate.
Give education and advice as part of our prevention and protection activities, and when responding to emergencies.
Provide our staff with the right information and equipment to keep them safe when responding to emergencies.
We will ensure we have a modern, efficient and effective on-call response, encouraging future participation in the fire and rescue service.

Cameron, wholetime firefighter: "Firefighters are at the forefront of emergencies as well as preparing for them to ensure we are in the best possible position to respond. We also carry out important prevention and protection work by educating people
and businesses about how to avoid emergencies at home or in the workplace and what to do if, unfortunately, this does happen. In addition, we often run station events to support charities like The Fire Fighters Charity, whereby we raise tens of thousands of pounds every year."

Tom, On-Call Support team: "On-call firefighters are local heroes who support Surrey communities. We could be delivering day-to-day activities like primary employment or school runs, whilst being ready to respond to an emergency via pager at any moment. We feel a great amount of pride in supporting Surrey as an on-call firefighter and keeping your local fire engines 'on the run'."

Lorraine, Joint Fire Control: "Our team work in Joint Fire Control take a diverse range of emergency calls and mobilise to incidents on behalf of Surrey, West Sussex and East Sussex Fire and Rescue Services. In Surrey, we proactively call challenge to ensure that our teams are only sent to emergencies, rather than false alarms. Our highly skilled control operators have extensive knowledge and understand the counties well in order to deliver the best possible service."

Response teams

We currently have 18* wholetime fire stations, seven on-call fire stations/units and other workplaces around the county (including our headquarters and training centre in Reigate).

Each of the fire stations are made up of different crewing types and shift patterns (please see the glossary for more information on this). Our response model sets out where we've located fire engines and crews and when they're available for emergencies. Our fire stations use different crewing and shift patterns depending on the need of the community, risks they face and the balance of fire and rescue cover across Surrey. However, the way in which we work ensures that the nearest, quickest and most appropriate fire engine will be sent to an emergency.

Our response teams are also a big part of ensuring that we can deliver prevention and protection to our communities, working alongside other specialist teams (such as our Fire Investigation Team, Business Fire Safety Team and many more).

* During the course of this CRMP we will be conducting an extensive review to find a site for Banstead Fire Station.

Response times

While there are no national 'response targets' for fire and rescue services, we consistently meet or exceed our own targets (which we refer to as the Surrey Standard).

Within our most recent inspection by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), they highlighted that our response times are well within the typical national range.

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service response targets:

First fire engine to critical incidents in less than 10 minutes.
Second fire engine to critical incidents in less than 15 minutes.
First fire engine to other emergencies in less than 16 minutes.

Joint Fire Control

Our Joint Fire Control (JFC) team members are a crucial part in our operations.

Their knowledge and expertise ensure intelligence-led mobilising and response to each emergency using the skills, knowledge and technology available within this team.

Later that year, in November 2021, our JFC began mobilising for East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, as well as ourselves and West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service.

In 2021 we enhanced our resilience with a state-of-the-art secondary control room, providing business continuity and additional training facilities for all three counties.

Our operational staff work on various shift systems. They crew fire engines and other specialist vehicles capable of tasks beyond
a fire engine's scope, such as water rescues.

We will continue to work closely with our JFC partners to increase collaboration among our three services, in terms of adopting national guidance and ways of working to ensure delivering best service on behalf of communities.

Our colleagues within this team have become one team over the last few years, focusing on continuous improvement. Following welcoming East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service to Joint Fire Control, we conducted a review of the effectiveness and efficiency of JFC and value for money. This next stage will see us working closely as a partnership to deliver these recommendations.

We will continue to lead from the forefront with our technology. The mapping programme we use to mobilise crews and equipment was made available to all crews in 2024, allowing them to see the wider county picture in terms of crewing. Our mobilising system is due for renewal during this CRMP, we will look to enhance our software available to ensure that our dynamic crewing nature can continue to function in the best way possible.

Kit and equipment

A key part of responding to risk is the development and maintenance of a state-of-the-art equipment and specialist assets.

This is done through the continuous evaluation and enhancement of firefighting tactics and equipment innovation, for example our new drone technology, wildfire and flooding equipment, needed to meet evolving challenges and emerging risks.

Our workshops team work hard behind the scenes to ensure that the response teams are well equipped to deal with a range of emergency incidents.

Keeping up with the latest developments in firefighting technology and techniques is essential in maintaining a cutting-edge approach to our operational response. This is maintained through planning, understanding risk and regular training exercises, to ensure that the team is well-equipped to handle diverse emergency scenarios.

Some examples of the new kit and equipment we are looking to introduce are:

Emergency cut-off plugs and fire blankets for electric vehicles,
Enhanced cutting and spreading tools for Road Traffic Collisions (RTC)
Ancillary RTC equipment such as casualty sheets, reciprocating saw blades, sharps covers and new disc cutting equipment.

Additionally, we also collaborate with other blue light partners, agencies and stakeholders, creating partnerships that strengthen the overall emergency response to Surrey.

Strategic aim 5: Make best use of our resources and deliver a service that provides value for money.

Embrace our environmental responsibilities.
We will ensure our fire engines and equipment are fit for purpose, sustainable and support our environmental responsibilities.
Ensure that our workplaces are appropriate and fit for the future.
Embrace technology and data to enable improved, intelligence-led outcomes.

We are committed to integrating environmental considerations into our operations.

This means not only complying with regulations but actively seeking ways to reduce our carbon footprint, working within the SCC Net Zero strategy and reviewing impact on the environment.

All of our work is considered with sustainability in mind, making sure we are utilising the best technologies and practices to meet this need, whilst maintaining effectiveness.

Ensuring fit-for-purpose and sustainable fire engines and equipment

We will continue to prioritise the selection of fire engines and equipment that meets our operational needs and also aligns with our sustainability goals.

This could include exploring innovations such as electric or hybrid vehicles and using extinguishing materials with lower environmental impacts (such as the use of foam).

Since our last CRMP, we are in the process of introducing 20 new Advanced Technology fire engines to our service. We have specified a large proportion of the equipment on the new appliances to standardise across our whole fleet, which means we can re-use existing equipment from the replaced vehicles and reduce the variation of stock levels held for our fleet such as delivery branches, battery operated tools (with a single battery type), battery powered fans for smoke clearance.

The vehicles themselves are also fitted with the latest Euro 6 engines, the bodywork is mostly aluminium (which can be recycled) and the appliances carry more water than our older vehicles, which can reduce the number of appliances required to attend an incident.

Creating appropriate and future-ready workplaces

Our workplaces play a vital role in our ability to deliver an effective service.

We will continue to invest in our fire stations to ensure that they are not only functional and safe but also adaptable to the evolving needs of our communities and our own working practices. This involves energy-efficient building designs, renewable energy integration, and flexible layouts that continue to promote collaboration and efficiency in working practices and shared spaces.

Sustainability and environmental responsibilities are a key focus for each of our fire station redevelopments projects. For example, we are currently exploring air source heat pumps (which transfer heat from the outside air to water to heat the property) and photo voltaic panels on roofs (similar to solar panels, but instead of converting solar radiation to heat, they convert thermal energy to electricity), with the aim of improving our carbon footprint.

Three new fire stations will also be opened (replacing the current Reigate, Chobham and Lingfield stations). These developments will improve workplaces for our teams, and in turn, support us to keep our communities safe.

In addition, during this CRMP, our new £14.5million training facility will be up and running – keeping SFRS up to date with the most modern facilities, contaminant management and further improve upon our statutory training requirements. These upgrades will allow us to drive forth our standards, with an aim to lead the way in fire and rescue service training. We will also be aiming to create income opportunities through the delivery of domestic and international training.

The facility, which will be located in Reigate, will include an air capture and scrubbing plant, which could potentially remove 95% of particles and dangerous gases created by the burning of carbonaceous materials, as part of firefighter training, produced by the facility.

All of our building works are in line with Surrey County Council's Climate Change strategy. We are working closely with our Land and Property colleagues to ensure that we are considering the whole building lifecycle, reducing our carbon footprint
and improving circumstances for local residents and staff working here.

Embracing technology and data for improved outcomes

Technology and data underpins everything that we do, ensuring that we have evidence and insights aiding our decision-making.

We will continue to review IT systems for the delivery of prevention and protection activities as well as in our emergency response. Some examples include:

investment in our mobilising system used within JFC,
devices to support more flexible working on the fire ground in order to support and enable firefighters in their role,
body-worn cameras for some staff members to support not only operations and evidence gathering, but also learning and development – such as in fire investigation, to aid evidence gathering and the safety of our crews,
enhanced risk information available to firefighters and to inform our CRP.

As one of the first fire and rescue service in the country to use the new nationally designed Multi-Agency Incident Transfer system, allowing the transfer of critical information between emergency response agencies. We look forward to seeing others join this programme to provide even greater response capabilities at our incidents.

We aim to be at the cutting edge of technology in the fire service sector, with a focus on intelligence-led decision-making.

By harnessing the power of data, we can make informed decisions that not only reduce risk but also enhance the safety of our firefighters.

We're looking into more integrated technology, aligning with some of our neighbouring fire and rescue services, to enhance operations and communications on the fire ground.

Community Risk Profile insights

During the planning of our proposals and consultation in 2024, we utilised our CRP (2023) as that was the most up-to-date data at that time. As our CRP is updated annually, we have now also reviewed our CRP 2024 data to ensure that our changes set out in
this document are still appropriate.

Our CRP (2024) showed us similar risk and incident demand data as the previous version. We will continue to update on an annual basis to ensure that our organisation aligns to risk.

We've placed some key highlights from our most recent CRP over the next few pages.

People vulnerable to fire:

The following factors affect a person's vulnerability to fire to the risk of injury or death.

Smokers in their home.
Is 65 or older.
Lives alone.
Has limited mobility, a hearing impairment or is blind or partially sighted.
Would have difficulty responding to, or escaping from, a fire.
Has had a fire previously or shows signs of burns or scorching in the home.
Has learning disabilities.
Is supported by family, carers and friends.
Shows signs of neglect or abuse by others.
Has a mental health condition such as dementia or depression.
Has drug or alcohol dependencies.
Doesn't have an alarm in all areas where a fire might start.
Collects or hoards in their home.
Shares a home with a child or young person who sets fires.

SFRS considers these to be indicators of vulnerability to fire and will target these individuals working to the NFCC Person Centred Framework on the NFCC's website. These vulnerabilities are risk rated so that SFRS can provide directed support.

Smoking:

Smoking materials accounted for only 8% of all accidental dwelling fires but were involved in 35% of fire fatalities.

The biggest cause of fires starting in England was cooking appliances, which caused 44% of accidental dwelling fires.

The increasing number of elderly residents and residents with health issues means the number of people likely to have accidental dwelling fires and be more impacted by those fires is growing.

Road traffic collisions (RTCs):

Though numbers of RTCs have reduced in the last few years Surrey has more RTCs than average in the country and younger drivers are over-represented in the casualties. Surrey's roads carry almost double the national average amount of traffic and the county has more cars per mile of road than any other non-metropolitan counties.

Flooding:

Surrey is vulnerable to flooding in many areas, by river water and surface water (local flooding of the drainage networks when overwhelmed by intense rainstorms). Looking further ahead climate change is likely to have an impact on flooding by increasing intensity and frequency of rainfall.

Risk of wildfires:

Around 15,500 hectares of land have been identified as a wildfire risk, this is equivalent to 155 square kilometres or almost 60 square miles. While numbers of wildfires have remained fairly consistent, their severity has increased in the last five years. Looking further ahead climate change is likely to have an impact on wildfire by increasing intensity and frequency of hotter and drier summers.

Rescues from water:

Between 2010 and 2022, SFRS responded to 4317 water-related incidents and 502 rescues took place. Sadly, this resulted in 62 fatalities across all those incidents. For context, there were 71 fire deaths in the same period.

Commercial premises:

Data shows us the location of commercial premises that are most likely to have a fire, or where the consequences of a fire will be most serious or require special firefighting strategies. Having detailed information about the location and layout of particular buildings, such as heritage buildings and high-rise buildings, helps us plan to mitigate the effects of fire.

Our analysis of historic incidents and data enables us to identify types of premises that might be at an increased risk of fire. We take this into consideration when we are planning our business safety activities aimed at preventing fires in commercial premises.

The fact that the proportion of fires in higher-risk premises where we focus our business safety and inspection activity is less than in medium to low-risk premises suggests that our activity is succeeding in reducing the number of fires.

For small businesses or less complex premises, we offer a simple Business Safe and Well Visit (BSAWV). During the visit, we will discuss existing fire safety arrangements and if required, of if there are any concerns we will direct you to further sources of help and support, which may include a specialist fire safety officer to contact you and arrange a second visit. Specialist officers will provide further support and where necessary enforce the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

A significant proportion of all incidents to which the service is called to are fire false alarms due to equipment. The actual number of fire false alarms has remained fairly consistent over the last five years but continues to decline.

Products that cause fires:

Understanding which products have caused fires enables the service to educate and inform residents about their safe use and to get dangerous products withdrawn from sale.

The following factors are identified as the cause of accidental dwelling fires:

29% due to misuse of equipment or appliances (safe products, but unsafe use).
15% due to placing articles too close to heat (safe products, but unsafe use).
5% due to chip/fat pan fires (safe products, but unsafe use).
14% due to faulty appliances and leads (unsafe products).
10% due to faulty fuel supplies (unsafe products).

Emerging risks:

We are aware of new products and technologies that we expect to have a significant impact on the service in future, these include alternative fuels, automated carparks, modern building techniques, battery storage facilities, electricity generation and electric vehicles.

Broader risks:

Aside from the four P's described above we also use the CRP to monitor broader risks. These are summarised in the CRP but briefly consist of national and local risk registers and major development within Surrey. More information on this can be found in our CRP.

Community and staff input into this plan

As a service, we were really keen to ensure that communities, partners and our own staff were involved in the development of this plan.

There were a number of ways that we encouraged them to share their ideas and views. This included:

Community and staff survey:
This helped shape our proposals for change. We understood what residents were most concerned about and how they felt about our service.
We received 1,114 responses to our survey. A full report of the findings from our Community Survey is available on our website: www.surreycc.gov.uk/CRMP.
Focus groups with residents:
These groups enabled us to gather valuable research and insights.
We welcomed people from a range of underrepresented communities across Surrey. This ensured that we captured the unique perspectives and insights from diverse segments of our community, providing greater detail by utilising respondents' own words and experiences. These shared experiences helped us develop the CRMP proposals with community concerns in mind and built a relationship with these communities moving forward.
Staff engagement and feedback survey:
This enabled our staff to provide feedback, ask any questions they may have and better understand the proposals.
Stakeholder engagement sessions:
We met with a number of groups to understand how our proposals could impact the communities that they represented. This included groups with protected characteristics as well as Trade Unions and more.
Consultation and roadshow events:
Around 35 events took place across the county during our consultation period to ensure we could answer questions from residents and encourage them to take part in the consultation.
You can find a full analysis report of our consultation responses by visiting SCC's website.

Ensuring you can trust our process

We've involved external organisations to examine our information and confirm that our consultation process is good and thorough.

Nottingham Trent University: During the pre-consultation phase we worked with Nottingham Trent University (NTU), leaders in the field of public research and who have already led on the National Fire Chiefs Council's (NFCC) National Risk Methodologies, which helps to meet requirements for developing a CRMP. NTU reviewed our data and evidence used to develop the strategic aims and proposals for our CRMP. They said: "Surrey Fire and Rescue Service has undertaken a robust process...We are assured that the process undertaken has not only reflected the requirements of the Community Risk Profile but also goes further to ensure it fits within the wider strategic objectives of Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, Surrey and partners for Surrey.

We've included the feedback from NTU in our latest CRP 2024.

The Consultation Institute (tCI): We also worked with tCI, to achieve a Certificate of Consultation Readiness. This offers assurance that we have met certain quality requirements which align with the tCI Consultation Charter and are in a position to proceed to public consultation.

Services changes for 2025-2030

1. Balance our prevention, protection, and response resources to ensure that Surrey is a safe place to live,
work and do business.

1.1: We will be relocating the current Banstead fire engine and crew to Godstone Fire Station, following an updated and extensive review of any options within the Whyteleafe area. This will be delivered in stage 1 (of 3 stages) during this process.

Whyteleafe has been identified as the most appropriate location for relocation of resources however a previous review showed that there was not an appropriate site within this area.
SCC and SFRS will be conducting an updated, extensive review of this area in case any possible locations become available that are appropriate and affordable.
Alease extension to 2026 has been agreed with the owners of Banstead Fire Station to allow this to take place. However, the site will be sold after this and therefore we must vacate the site at the end of 2026.
Godstone Fire Station is the most appropriate alternative providing a good balance of cover county-wide. Therefore, refurbishments to Godstone Fire Station will take place whilst the review is undertaken.
SFRS will ensure that a programme of prevention and protection activity will continue to take place following this relocation, in addition to an ambition to continue supporting community events where possible.

1.2: We will review the capability and locations of specialist vehicles and equipment to ensure they match the current and potential risks effectively. This will be delivered in stage 1 (of 3 stages) during this process.

This will include a review of all specialist vehicles and equipment, also considering those utilised for climate-related incidents such as wildfires and water rescue.
Creating 'fire stations of specialism' aligned to risk, will be considered as part of this review.

1.3: We will review current resources at Camberley Fire Station and consider relocation options within the boroughs of Spelthorne, Elmbridge and Runnymede. This will be delivered in stage 2 (of 3 stages) during this process.

Due to updated-risk within the north of the county and our resources already in place, we will be considering Runnymede in this review, alongside Spelthorne and Elmbridge, for the relocated staff providing night-time cover.
Consultation feedback supported the risk-based inclusion of Runnymede as an option.
Any final decision on the station gaining night-time cover will be aligned to risk.

2. Ensure we have the right resources in the right place and at the right time by better understanding risks that face our communities.

2.1: We will develop a response model which responds to changing risk and seasonal demand (such as heightened periods when we see incidents as a result of summer or winter-specific emergencies). This will be delivered in stage 1 (of 3 stages) during this process.

This additional response support will not be aligned to specific months, it will be formed as a model that can be 'stood up' in addition to usual response arrangements, should it be required.
The aim of this is that it will not be assigned to specific months and will provide additional layered resilience when its needed (EG: November-January for flooding and June-August for wildfires).
We will work with staff and other stakeholders on what this looks like.

2.2: We will adapt our on-call weekend plan to better respond to risk. This will be delivered in stage 1 (of 3 stages) during this process.

This change means that Chobham, Lingfield, Dunsfold, Guildford and Gomshall's on-call fire engines will no longer be required to be made available at weekends during the day.
The crews here will be required to dedicate their contracted hours into evenings, when they are most needed to align to risk.
This will not change our fire engine availability targets of 20 in the day and 16 at night.
This change has close links to changes 2.4 and 1.2 and therefore will run in tandem with them.

2.3: We will adapt existing prevention, protection and response arrangements in Haslemere to ensure the most appropriate resources. This will be delivered in stage 3 (of 3 stages) during this process.

Haslemere currently has a day-time fire engine (7am-7pm) seven days a week and an on-call fire engine which can be made available nights and weekends.
This will ensure that Haslemere Fire Station remains open, with 24/7 availability, however being mindful that the current level of risk and demand is much lower than other fire stations with this resource.
We will work with staff and other stakeholders on what this looks like.

3. Identify and develop more opportunities to keep our communities safe through prevention, protection and partnership activities.

3.1: We will work with our health partners to respond to those who are most vulnerable in Surrey. This will begin to be delivered in stage 1 (of 3 stages) during this process.

Whilst national conversations and negotiations continue surrounding co-responding, SFRS will continue to develop relationships and scope opportunities for partnership working.
This will be much broader than co-responding and therefore require a whole-service approach. It could include, but is not limited to, supporting with non-emergency calls such as falls, supporting with hospital discharges and more.

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