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Priority four - looking forward

To continue exploring how we can collectively use our estates and resources with other services, which will promote enhanced communication among the services and lead to greater efficiency and effectiveness.

With the help of our training strategy, we will continue to build on a more sustainable training delivery programme, which includes live fire training facilities, training hubs, and a more tailored approach to firefighting training. Additional Dignity at Works initiatives will extend to station renovations and improve the Service’s facilities from a welfare and pollutants perspective.

Finance

Our medium-term financial planning shows we still have considerable financial challenges ahead if our share of central funding, council tax and business rates does not improve. We forecast a gap of £3.2m for 2026-27, ramping up to £5.8m in 2027-28.

Through a review of the shift patterns, payment methods, unnecessary attendance at automatic fire alarms and reviewing our pre-determined attendance to incidents, coupled with thorough financial management, we are working hard to deal with these challenges so we can deliver on our priorities.

Our capital investment (building and vehicles) for 2025-26 is £8.5m. This includes spending £3.8m on property and £4.78m on vehicles. New buildings and upgrades will be designed with the environmental and sustainability agenda in mind to match our ambition to be carbon neutral by 2030.

More information about our financial planning and performance, including our Productivity and Efficiency statement, can be found on the ‘What we spend’ section of our website.

There are also financial reserves which help pay for specific projects, including capital schemes. These are built up from using any previous year’s budget underspends. Over 65% of our reserves are set aside to fund the capital programme, reducing the requirement to fund using borrowing. The balance will be used to fund initiatives such as the change and improvement programme, as agreed by the Fire Authority.

Technology

The Service’s new information and data strategy will be published at the beginning of 2025, and will be in alignment with the NFCC’s Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) function, and a new digital roadmap and digital principles will also be released. The new information and data strategy will provide a framework for our data collection to support operational response, improve the performance of our services to the community, and promote sustainability.

To increase our efficacy and make sure we are flexible and responsive to new threats, we will continue to invest in technology to support our decision-making.

Standards

•    Continue to integrate NFCC Fire Standards into our Service’s operations.
•    Fully integrate the NFCC Core Code of Ethics into all our Service’s practices.
•    Improve the awareness to how the standards contribute to the Service’s operational effectiveness.