Bedfordians are being asked for their views on how Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (BFRS) can better measure its incident response performance.
A public consultation launched this week looks at BFRS response standards, which are the service’s promise to the public on how it measures things like how quickly it gets to an incident.
The number of fire engines sent to different incident types will not change, but existing standards that set the number of firefighters riding a fire engine could be removed.
This may then give BFRS more freedom to use firefighters on a shift in a smarter way to maximise the number of fire engines available across Bedfordshire.
The Service is also proposing to simplify the way it measures incident response performance, known as response standards, to make reporting clearer and to match how the Government reports it.
How call handling and response are measured may change too, with both being measured together rather than separately.
These could then become one standard that describes the life cycle of the emergency call, from when a 999 call is received until the time the first fire engine arrives at the incident.
Area commander Stuart Auger, head of response at BFRS, said: “Our response times matter and we want this to be clear to you.
“That is why we are proposing these changes to make it clear that the clock starts from when we receive a 999 call, to simplify the language we use so we can easily compare with other fire services and to remove standards that restrict ourselves from maximising our availability.
“We are adapting to keep pace with the changing communities of Bedfordshire, so proposing these standards is our way of updating our promise to the public and to keep striving forward, working together to keep Bedfordshire safe.”
The survey and consultation runs until 16 February 2024 and can be found here.
