Earlier this summer, HMICFRS were commissioned by the Home Secretary to undertake a thematic inspection of the handling of misconduct allegations in Fire and Rescue Services.

The Inspectorate will examine the extent to which services have taken steps to implement the recommendations they made in their spotlight report Values and culture in fire and rescue services.

This will include examining: 

• the extent to which services are identifying and investigating misconduct; 
• the effectiveness of misconduct processes and how consistently they are applied; 
• how confident fire and rescue service staff are in raising concerns and in misconduct processes; and
• the role of fire and rescue authorities and other organisations in handling misconduct. We will report our findings to the Home Secretary and publish them on our website.

The FRSA has already met with the Inspectorate to provide our views on the current criteria for the review and suggested some minor amendments. 

All 44 FRSs will be expected to take part in the review via data collection, staff surveys, 1-2-1 and group conversations. All unions will separately provide input at a local and national level. 

We welcome this review due to our experiences in recent years, which have identified poor practices, discrimination, protectionism and failure to follow agreed policies (local and national). 

Once the process has been concluded, further information will be made available via our social media platforms, e-bulletins and our website.