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26
Nov
North Yorkshire fire service finally sets response time targets
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has finally introduced response time targets after government inspectors criticised them for not being in place.
His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services said the county's service required ‘urgent improvements’ in its most recent assessment in 2023, which you can read here.
Its rating for responding to fires was downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.
The service’s lack of response standards was identified as an area for improvement in the report, which said:
There are no national response standards of performance for the public. And unlike many services, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service hasn’t defined or published its own. This was an area for improvement we highlighted in our 2019 inspection report.
The service should publish its expected response standards so the public can compare expected performance against actual performance.
At an online public meeting last week, area manager Ben Illsley said it had introduced two targets: one of 13 minutes for all incidents and another of 11 minutes for house fires. The time includes the call handling time and the time it takes crews to arrive at an incident.
Mr Illsley said the response standards had been agreed following a six-week public consultation.
He added:
It’s very important for us. We were criticised by HMICFRS two years ago for not having one and basically it’s setting a standard for how quickly we should respond to emergencies in North Yorkshire.
That’s the standard that we wish to be held to account on. Our response times did go over 13 minutes two years ago and we understand and appreciate the challenge and scrutiny of that. We have set a standard now that aims to be a balance between ambitious and achievable for us as a service.
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Mr Illsley said the reason for having a separate, specific target for house fires was because they were regarded as “significant life incidents” and were
He added:
They are typically more addressable so it’s easier for control to process them and they typically happen more in locations where we have fire cover as well.
Jo Coles, the Labour deputy mayor for York and North Yorkshire, described the targets as "really welcome".
They were revealed during her latest online public meeting. The online meetings are held part of her remit to scrutinise the performance of the county's police and fire services on behalf of the public.
You can watch the meeting here. Other topics include the availability of on-call firefighters.
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