The service should make sure that it has robust strategic oversight arrangements, and an effective quality assurance process, so that staff consistently carry out home fire safety visits to the required standard.
Effectiveness, efficiency and people 2025–2027: Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service
Published 12 June 2026Fire & Rescue Inspection0 recommendations28 areas for improvement
Coverage
The organisations covered are not linked in this record. Check the original report for its scope and addressees.
Areas for improvement
The service should make sure its strategic oversight arrangements in place are robust to make sure that its HFSV records are accurate
The service should make sure it gathers and records relevant and up-to-date risk information to help protect firefighters, the public and property during an emergency.
The service should assure itself it has procedures in place to record important operational decisions made at incidents, and that staff understand these procedures well.
The service should make sure it has an effective system to learn from operational incidents.
The service should make sure it understands how to adopt national operational guidance, including joint and national learning, and put in place a plan to implement this.
The service should improve the way it identifies, gathers and maintains risk information
The service needs to do better at making sure its risk information about people, places and threats is accurate and up to date.
The service needs to improve its procedures to record important operational decisions made at incidents
The service should make sure it is well prepared to form part of a multi-agency response to a terrorist incident, and that all staff understand its procedures for responding.
The service needs to do more to help operational staff understand their roles in a marauding terrorist attack
The service should assure itself that its IT applications are resilient, reliable, accurate and accessible.
The service should have a sustainable plan in place to resource its protection function if protection grant funding is reduced or withdrawn.
The service should do more to maintain availability of its on-call crews.
The service needs to make sure its IT applications are resilient, reliable, accurate and accessible
The service should proactively monitor working hours to make sure staff (including those on dual and secondary contracts) don’t work excessive hours.
The service should make sure that it has appropriate strategic oversight arrangements in place for fitness tests and medicals and that operational staff complete them in line with policy.
The service should make sure it has a workforce plan that takes full account of the necessary skills and capabilities to carry out the community risk management plan.
The service should make sure it addresses barriers to recruiting people with protected characteristics or from under-represented groups, to better reflect the communities it serves.
The service should put in place effective systems, with the aim of diversifying the pool of future and current leaders.
The service should make sure it has robust processes in place to carry out equality impact assessments and review any actions agreed as a result.
The service needs to do more to make sure its recruitment policies are fair and accessible to applicants from a range of backgrounds.
The service should make sure there are appropriate strategic oversight arrangements in place for all senior leaders to manage and scrutinise all functions across the service to make sure they are effective.
The service should assure itself that all leaders at all levels are acting as role models to promote a positive culture.
The service should do more to make sure staff see promotion processes as transparent and fair.
The service should improve the way staff and leaders at all levels understand and follow the performance development review process.
The service needs to do more to make sure the promotions process is fair and transparent
The service needs to develop its performance management systems so that leaders can effectively assess and develop the individual performance of all staff members.