Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) respond to the positive outcome following the re-inspection of the service from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service’s (HMICFRS).

Chief Fire Officer, John Beard, said:

“I am very pleased that both causes for concern raised during the inspection have now officially been discharged.

“Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service work exceptionally hard to provide the best service possible for the county’s residents through prevention, protection, and intervention.

“In my time as Chief Fire Officer, I have always strived to create an efficient and effective service, whilst supporting all my staff to continue to improve and develop their skillset, to create a safer CFRS that can provide a better service in the future.

“A lot of work from a range of people has gone into developing their teams, our processes, and policies to ensure both causes for concerns were acknowledged and improved upon.

“The team from HMICFRS also commended the staff they interviewed as part of the re-inspection with particular praise for the positive way in which they engaged with the process.

“We continually work to be the best service we can be, and there is always room to improve. I look forward to CFRS persisting to become a more efficient and effective service.

“I am particularly pleased that the inspectorate has removed the overall inadequate grading for efficiency as this accurately reflects our position as we have now transferred our governance arrangements to the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.”

Cumbria’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Peter McCall, said:

“I am pleased to note that HMICFRS have recognised the improvement in CFRS to the extent that they have lifted the Cause for Concern on the financial management of the service.

“I am, of course, delighted that after only a couple of months we have been able to make significant improvements and I intend to continue to work with CFRS to ensure the service is as well-resourced for the future as possible.

“This is as a result of a great deal of difficult work by the leadership team together with my office, who have now put together a very tightly controlled budget which seeks to control cost, deliver good value but most importantly enable us to sustain an effective Fire and Rescue Service to the Public of Cumbria.  We have now secured a significant £2M boost to our funding from government and we will be investing this into improving the service for the future.

“I am confident that CFRS is now in a more stable position than it has been for some time, and I will continue to monitor progress closely. There are of course still many recommendations made by HMICFRS to be addressed and the leadership team are working to deal with these. The public can be reassured that the staff of CFRS are committed to delivering the best service possible and we will continue to do everything possible to both sustain and improve the service for the future.

“We must continue the work to enable it to become a more robust and efficient service for both staff and the public.”