Evaluation of police and fire reform year 4: international perspectives

8 The fire service and the local community

Key findings: relationships with local communities

• All fire services in the international case study areas felt their community service role and being based and living in the communities they serve enabled them to have a good relationship with local communities.
• All four international case studies recognised the strategic importance of working in partnership with local communities. Factors identified for building good community relations included having community-focused leadership and embedding community work in the role of the firefighter.
• Challenges experienced by fire services included balancing national and local needs and priorities, and recruiting and retaining firefighters. 
• Some fire services found the widening role of firefighters had made it harder to build trust with communities because of the increased enforcement element to their role associated with, for example, checking buildings comply with fire safety legislation. 
• In contrast, other fire services found their widened role gave them greater access to, and awareness of, vulnerable groups in the community which was strengthening their relationship with local communities and partners.

All the fire services collected routine monitoring data on targets and performance. In all the international areas, there was an appetite to develop more meaningful indicators and evaluation to evidence the impact of the wider work firefighters undertake on outcomes that aren’t captured by routine monitoring data.

This chapter will explore the relationship between the fire service and the local community. This includes key factors in building good community relationships, changes to the relationship with the local community and challenges and opportunities in developing positive community relations.

8.1 What are the key factors in building good relationships with local communities?

All the fire services that were interviewed reported having a good relationship with the local communities they serve.

8.1.1 ‘In the community for the community’

Interviewees from all services believed the positive relationship they had with local communities stemmed from the fact that firefighters were often from the communities they worked in which built a sense of trust. This was particularly true in small rural communities. In addition, the view is that the public see firefighters as playing a community service role, being there to help the community which contributes to the positive relationship they have with the community. 

“So our brigades are our communities, they represent a large part of the community, they tend to be the hub of the community also. So if it’s a civil defence emergency people will gather to that point, sometimes it’s the only significant building in the town. So it’s certainly a place of comfort…I think there’s good relationships.” (Interviewee: New Zealand)

In the Netherlands local communities pay for 85% of the fire service and have boards which oversee local policy and delivery plans which mean they feel they are directly accountable to their local communities.

“We have about 85% of the Fire Service is financed by local communities, and 15% is financed by national level. That's for the special groups and tasks…we make policy plans, and those policy plans we make every 4 years, and the policy plans go to the Boards of the local communities, and they have to approve our policy plans…the local Boards, approve our policy plans, and approve our financial system so we are, by law, bound to each other. And that’s a good relationship. We don’t have a national Fire Service. We have a, by law, a Fire Service responsible…it’s in the communities.” (Interviewee: Netherlands)

8.1.2 The importance of leadership

The importance of leadership was also highlighted as a factor in maintaining good community relationships. As one interviewee explained, having a positive relationship with local communities is not guaranteed, and the relationship firefighters have with them can vary depending on the approach of the local brigade leader. Having a leader who is proactive in building partnerships locally is seen as critical in developing and maintaining good community relations and it helps to encourage a community-focused culture within the fire service. 

“I think it’s fair to say that relationships are key, and the ability to create and maintain relationships are very reflective of the leader of the day, and so if you’ve got a Chief that is very proactive, community based minded, doesn’t mind getting out and interacting with some of the partners in policing or other agencies, then that particular municipality is going to have very good community relationships both with the community as well as with the partners.” (Interviewee: Alberta)

8.1.3 Embedding community work in the role of the firefighter

Ensuring that community work is part of the role of the local firefighter was also seen as key to building good community relationships. In Alberta, developing and maintaining a positive relationship with local communities is seen as a priority and this message is frequently communicated to firefighters. This message is backed up with action, with firefighters being encouraged to take part in community engagement activities to help build and maintain positive connections with the community; for example, opening the fire station to schools or community tours.

“So, strategically, we do a number of business planning sessions with all of our staff …we always take probably half an hour out of each one of those business sessions to talk about the importance of relationships with the community, and how our very future depends on that solid good working relationship…” (Interviewee: Alberta)

Actively engaging with communities in events to improve community connections is an approach that the other fire services also adopt. For example, one interviewee from the West Midlands described engaging with local schools and in New Zealand being part of community events is seen as a key part of the role of the firefighter.

“We have open days. We engage regularly with the younger community through schools, at key stages, so certain years within those schools. So I perceive that engagement to the community to be very positive.” (Interviewee: West Midlands)

In addition to engaging directly with members of the public there was evidence from Alberta that engaging with those who represent communities was also seen as important, for example elected officials and senior bureaucrats. In Alberta, one way that they do this is to invite them to take part in a half-day event where they can experience first-hand what it is like to be part of a live fire event.

“We run what we call the Fire Ops 101 opportunity on an annual basis, and really this is about a half day set aside where we invite elected officials, senior bureaucrats, public personalities from the media to come out and experience what it's like to be a firefighter in an actual live fire, and we spend about 4 hours with them, put them through a live fire event, very carefully familiarise them with the way we're staffed and deployed, and why it's essential for us to have the staffing levels that we have, how that translates in to an effective service delivery model, and that has really worked well for us as well.” (Interviewee: Alberta) 

8.2 Is improving the connection with local communities a key strategic priority?

Developing a good connection with local communities was mentioned as a key strategic priority by several interviewees, though not all of the four services in the international case studies had this written into a strategic plan. However, interviewees were able to demonstrate that it was a strategic priority in the ways they work with local communities.

All four case studies recognised the strategic importance of working in partnership with local communities, as this was essential in identifying local needs and developing solutions together. Through their fire prevention work, the Netherlands and New Zealand identified that maintaining a good connection with local communities was an important part of this work. 

In New Zealand, firefighters see part of their role is to empower local communities to prepare themselves for major incidents. At the time of interview, the New Zealand fire service was in the process of developing a strategic plan with the focus being on a community driven emergency service. In the past all fire services were equipped in the same way, regardless of local needs but a significant change in this approach is planned.

Instead of deciding what communities need, communities themselves will be asked to identify their needs to ensure that it is tailored to each community. This would be done through setting up Local Area Committees, made up of local community representatives to inform the fire service about local risks and needs so they can respond. 

“The change that we're trying to make, is changing from being, thinking we know what the community needs, because we often are volunteers from the community, to actually asking the community what they want…what they want from the emergency services, and what resilience, community resilience looks like to them, and how we can support that. (Interviewee: New Zealand)

Having new Local Area Committees in New Zealand was perceived as a good idea in theory as it would give the community a voice in the fire service. However, there was a view that implementation could be difficult because the areas the committees cover are very large, so there would be a range of diverse needs. Expectations of what the fire service can achieve within available resources would also have to be managed.

8.3 What are the challenges and opportunities for developing strong community relations?

Each fire service acknowledged experiencing some challenges in developing good relationships with local populations. However, alongside these challenges, opportunities have also been identified.

8.3.1 National versus local needs and priorities

As experienced by a number of the police services, being organised at a national level has the potential to create a distance between the fire service and the communities they serve. In the Netherlands, this challenge has been recognised and the fire service work hard to continue engaging with local communities and partners.

“Challenge is that if you are organised on a bigger scale than your communities, then you have to maintain the relationship okay. It's very easy to get separated because we are not a part of the community any more. We are organised on a different level. Then the connection between the communities and our Fire Service is very important because they are accountable for the Fire Service, so we have to put a lot of effort in going to the local communities, talk with the mayors, talk with the Boards about what we are doing.” (Interviewee: Netherlands)

Another challenge identified by interviewees in New Zealand and Alberta is the potential for tension between local areas and the national body. There can be challenges for the fire service at a national level when perceived local needs are prioritised over national needs. For example, in New Zealand there have been instances of tension when communities fundraise to buy equipment they think they need for their local fire brigade without consulting the wider organisation.

8.3.2 Recruiting and maintaining firefighters

In the Netherlands, a challenge faced in maintaining good relationships with local communities was recruiting volunteers to the fire service, particularly in rural areas. Interviewees thought that recruitment was challenging because of people moving out of villages to look for work.

One interviewee believed that the time investment required for training to be a firefighter was another barrier to recruiting people to the fire service especially for those with busy lives. Training firefighters is costly, particularly when people do not complete the training and go on to become a firefighter.

“The people are very busy…especially when you see people from 25-45 they are starting a family, they have their own career, they have the social things, they have the private things, and then also to have a sort of, education for 27 months to be a firefighter…that’s getting more and more of a problem to keep the firefighters with you…” (Interviewee: Netherlands)

Recruiting senior staff was seen as being particularly challenging, particularly in more rural locations. Interviewees recognised that the fire service was competing with a number of other sectors for more senior positions. 

In contrast, having an image as a trustworthy and reliable service is seen as having a positive impact on recruitment which is required for continuation of the service.

“Firefighters in general are, you know, one o' the most trusted groups of people…it doesn’t matter what it is, you call us, we’ll come quickly. We’ll deal with it…It's what drives people to join the organisation, and it gives them their standing.” (Interviewee: New Zealand)

8.3.3 Balancing the needs of diverse communities

In the Netherlands, the role of the firefighter has changed as a result of structural reform. The fire service was reorganised into 25 regions each consisting of around 20-30 geographical communities. This has created challenges for firefighter relationships with local communities because they have to balance the needs of many communities, not just one, which can cause tension.

“I think the biggest impact has been our regionalisation in 2014…relation management between our regional organisation and our local mayors for instance is…has become a real part of our job…because it's still difficult for the Local Authorities that they are obliged to be responsible for the fire brigade, but have to do that together with all other communities, which means…if a single community wants a change within the Fire Department, it's very difficult.…that has had a big impact on our relationship with them, so we have to work between being a regional Fire Department and being there for the local community with the local wishes of how we should be present, or how we would interact with prevention or even our reaction to incidents.” (Interviewee: Netherlands)

8.3.4 Building trust through changing roles

In the West Midlands the positive relationship the fire service has with the local community is perceived to be related to the changing and widening role of the firefighter. In comparison with other services, where the view was that the widening role had presented some challenges, interviewees in the West Midlands thought that offering other services, in addition to fighting fires, is enabling the fire service to increase trust with local communities (see Section 7.2).

“Our relationship with the local community is really positive...in enabling us to be able to deliver those wider services, we have a trusted brand of the ‘Fire Service’. We are able to get through people’s front doors and over the threshold, and then, when we do we're able to build that relationship…We still get the rhetoric of, “We didn’t think that you did this type of work. Isn't it great?”! So in being able to broaden the activity that we have done, albeit that they are still a bit restricted at the moment …I think the evidence is there, and it can only improve our relationship with the communities. (Interviewee: West Midlands)

In New Zealand, the structural changes to the fire service have had some perceived benefits. One interviewee thought service reform has provided a more direct link to volunteers at the local level, which wasn’t there before.

“With our new organisation and legislation, we have a direct linkage with volunteers now. That didn’t happen before, we had…they fed directly into our Board and so there was a lot of lobbying with um…politicians to…and there still is to be fair but now they come direct to local management who can have a greater influence on working through things with the brigade, without getting too political too quickly.” (Interviewee: New Zealand)

This research found that having a trusted relationship with local communities was perceived by the fire services as helping the fire service gain access to communities in ways that other public services might struggle to achieve. This then enables firefighters to carry out vital prevention work in and with local communities they serve.

“I think, in its very broadest sense, we are a trusted brand…We're a humanitarian service in today, so we find it easy to, or ‘easier’ I would say, than other public services to engage – particularly from the police perhaps – to engage with local communities, and we do use that brand to promote our prevention work and engage effectively where we can, so I think we're quite accepted by our local communities…” (Interviewee: West Midlands)

8.3.5 Enforcement and public trust

As discussed in Chapter 7, the role of the firefighter has widened over recent years to include other activities such as medical first response and working more closely with other public services, such as, the police and local authorities to prevent fires (e.g. checking buildings comply with fire safety laws).

With firefighters taking on this more diverse role, including enforcement tasks, there is concern that the fire service is being perceived by some communities as an enforcement agency which leads to mistrust, particularly in the most vulnerable areas. 

“We did do a study in one area with our vulnerable communities, and in the most vulnerable areas of our communities, this research showed that we are still seen as an enforcement agency. And as soon as we’re seen like that, then the level of trust disappears and goes…We have got evidence to show that actually in the most vulnerable areas as soon as we are linked to agencies such as the police, and other agencies, then that trust starts to disappear.” (Interviewee: West Midlands)

8.3.6 Building relationships with communities

While all fire services stated they generally had good relationships with local communities, many also acknowledged that there were some groups within the community where relationships could be improved.

The general challenge of trying to maintain and build trust is experienced by all the case study fire services and they are trying to address it in a number of ways. One way in which two of the fire services, Alberta and the West Midlands, are trying to improve relationships with groups within their local communities is by trying to develop a fire service which is more reflective of the communities they serve in terms of staffing.

“Primarily our service is probably for the most part… I would say at least 95% are white Anglo-Saxon male and so…it’s tough for some of these communities to relate to us when they can’t relate to their own culture being within there. So that’s a challenge…some of that messaging and things we’re doing around recruitment um…will…could take a while to do.” (Interviewee: Alberta)

In the West Midlands, there is a view that the widening role of firefighters has already helped attract a more diverse group of people to the fire service. This in turn is perceived to be helpful with building positive relationships with local communities, as if communities can see themselves reflected in the service, they are more likely to trust it. This is something that the other fire services have also identified and are trying to address. 

“We're seeing an increase in the diversity of our workforce…30 to 35% of them are women, and about 30% o' them are from BME communities…part of that is absolutely this broadening of a role of a firefighter around a prevention, protection and response...the new entrants are, you know, see the real value in delivering that type of work.” (Interviewee: West Midlands)

In addition, fire services have identified groups within their communities that they need to improve and strengthen relationships with. In New Zealand specific ethnic minority groups were identified as communities where relationships were weaker. They set up forums with these minority groups to better understand the needs of those communities and build stronger relationships.

“We have set up a Pacific Island Forum in Auckland, and a Māori forum, and these are local leaders of those two ethnic communities, and they again are both in Auckland, help us to access people that we wouldn't necessarily get access to in any other way, and we've found that really effective. So they become kind of twofold: first, they become our advocates out in the community, but, secondly, they take us in to communities that we just, we wouldn't probably, through our normal network, get access to.” (Interviewee: New Zealand)

In Alberta, to improve relationships with communities, the fire service is working with minority communities to develop training for firefighters to improve how they interact with these communities. This has included engaging with indigenous communities, LGBTQ communities and religious communities.

“One of our big goals in our business plan for this cycle was about diversity and inclusion and engagement with some of our cultural groups. So we have been reaching out to different cultural groups. We’ve been incorporating bringing in guest speakers to our Leadership Teams, putting out training…different training, so for example, the Fire Inspectors had a course on how to properly enter, dress and act inside a mosque…Some of our fire crews recently received some training on autism, and some dementia training, to better be able to understand and relate to some of the communities, especially with some of those growing trends of dementia.” (Interviewee: Alberta)

8.3.7 The responsible use of resources

One interviewee from Alberta stressed that, in a time of austerity, it was particularly important to maintain a good and trusted relationship with local communities, so the fire service is still viewed as a good investment of resources at a time when other services are struggling. Another interviewee from Alberta saw this as a product of increasingly becoming a professionalised fire service. Once firefighters are being paid for their role, a level of expectation comes into play. 

In the West Midlands the fire service are utilising resources, such as fire stations, in new ways which help to serve the local communities they are located in. In addition to opening up the rooms in fire stations to be used by community groups, fire stations are providing a safe place for vulnerable members of the local community to come to. 

“So we have definitely tried to use our fire stations differently now, it’s just a garage for our resources, but for the community it’s something different. So…we are using fire stations as safe houses, safe rooms, so if a vulnerable person is finding they’ve got problems then they can come to any community fire station and they are…their construction, and the way we look at them now, they offer that safe house for them. So we’re trying to change the way we utilise our stations, and they’ve all got community rooms on them and they’re actively used by our communities as well.” (Interviewee: West Midlands)

8.4 Measures to assess performance

8.4.1 Type of performance measures

Across the case study locations, the fire services commonly collected routine monitoring data on targets and performance such as the number of fires, injuries and casualties, the fire service response time, whether the fire had been contained to the room of origin, and the monetary value of damage caused by fire.

In the Netherlands, each of the 25 safety regions report their performance in a different way, making it difficult to draw a cohesive overview of the performance of the fire service at a national level. 

“There have been some experiences in the Netherlands just trying to get to common key factors on which to report our performance, but they've never been really successful, so what we see is 25 different ways of telling to the local authorities on how we do our job.” (Interviewee: Netherlands)

Some interviewees mentioned that they monitor public opinion using surveys. However, they acknowledge that there are limitations to this, as most people do not have contact with the fire service in any given year.

“…the public overall if you ask them, when we have done through surveys, will say that the Fire and Rescue Service is well thought of. However, we engage with such a small number of our community it is hard to evidence what they really think about us…we probably have 60,000-70,000 interventions in to our community. We have a population of 2.7…2.8 million people in our area. So the reality is most people in our area will not engage with the Fire Service on a yearly basis.” (Interviewee: West Midlands)

8.4.2 The challenge of measuring impact

One of the challenges in evaluating prevention and community work which was most commonly identified by the case study areas was the intangible nature of the outcomes and difficulties in capturing them in a meaningful way. In New Zealand, community engagement work was identified as an important facet of prevention work, but it was difficult to measure.

“…the community engagement work that they do is very hard to measure. But actually it’s probably the most valuable part of their job. The turning up and putting the fire out is important but the relationships that they have with those communities, it’s really hard to kind of measure that.” (Interviewee: New Zealand)

In all the international areas, there was a feeling that numerical performance measures and statistics which are gathered as routine performance measures did not give a full picture of the impact of the work done by the fire service.

“It's always been problematic to me that our measurement of the effectiveness of the Fire Service is typically measured backwards, and I'm not sure that there's a good way to measure it forward that would have any impact on anyone…So we've... we typically record the numbers of fires, the types of fires, the dollars lost, the injuries, the fatalities etc. as a measure of what didn’t go well…but we don’t really have some sort of normative baseline to say either what is good or what is normal or what is stasis. All we record is the bad, so can we, with any degree of confidence, say that doing fire prevention inspections will reduce our fire loss statistics in any way, shape or form?” (Interviewee: Alberta)

Two specific examples of activities, which were felt to be difficult to measure their impact, were outreach work, in the West Midlands, and prevention activities, mentioned by an interviewee in Alberta. One suggested solution was to monitor changes in knowledge or behaviour in young people following a prevention activity.

“Yeah you know it’s been a little lax in the past, you know going to an event and then say there was 2,000 people at the event, so we engaged 2,000 people. Well not really you didn’t. How many did you actually make contact with and then how do we know that there’s a behaviour change? So for example, with our community safety trailer that I spoke of what we do is the staff do a pre-test with the children, and then they do a post-test with the children. And then we compare the results and we see a knowledge enhancement, or a behaviour change and we’re recording that as the result of that as opposed to just the number of people that were engaged.” (Interviewee: Alberta)

A final challenge in evaluating and evidencing impact which was unique to New Zealand was the reliance on volunteer firefighters to complete the paperwork necessary for their data to be processed.

“I think when you’ve got 14,000 personnel that use it um…the amount of times that they use it varies, you can’t train 14,000 people individually. The…the buy in of some people that are volunteers to utilise the system is low and they’d prefer not to because they’re volunteers doing a whole heap of paperwork.” (Interviewee: New Zealand)

8.4.3 Linking performance and budgets

Another common challenge identified by interviewees in the West Midlands and New Zealand was the way in which funding and budgets were reliant on the figures gathered by traditional numerical performance measures. Interviewees in the West Midlands highlighted that the national measures required by the UK Government and the method for determining funding for fire services is focused on outputs rather than outcomes and does not take into account the impact of prevention work.

“So we have found, as a whole, our prevention work hard to evaluate, and I would say not the short term “How did you find it?” and “What impact has it made now?”, but the impacts later on down the line so you can draw a stronger correlation to the reduction in incidents for example…And that has been to our disadvantage really, particularly through the spending review period…Whilst we have had some success, it is hard to create the story really to evidence that story.” (Interviewee: West Midlands)

8.4.4 Developing meaningful performance indicators

There was an appetite across the case studies to develop more meaningful indicators and evaluation methodologies which can be used to evidence the impact and outcomes of the work of fire officers, alongside an understanding that these impacts were often intangible and difficult to capture.

Two of the case study areas had developed their own research approaches as a solution to some of the challenges associated with evidencing the impact of their activities. The New Zealand fire and emergency service operates a dedicated research programme which explores aspects of the fire and emergency service, including the impact of work in communities and research on volunteer retention over the life course of the volunteer, using routine and secondary data, combined with qualitative data. 

The Alberta fire service has worked in partnership with the University of Alberta to develop a way of assessing the value-added by the work of the fire service.

“We've just completed a study on the positive economic impacts of firefighting where, rather than look at a dollar loss, we actually worked with our University of Alberta School of Business and we've developed a model to measure ... put a monetary measurement on property and business that was saved, and that’s been very exciting and very positive actually. There's a real story to be told about the cost benefit of having a well-structured, well-run, well-resourced Fire Service. There's a tremendous value, return on investment in doing so, and we've been able to show that.” (Interviewee: Alberta)