Public consultation launched on response standards

The public is being asked for its views on changing the way Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (BFRS) measures incident response performance.  

A public consultation has launched today (Thursday 21 December) regarding 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. 

The survey is available here and the consultation runs until 16 February 2024.  

The Service is 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.  

Proposals recommend changing the way the Service reports response standards to combine both the call handling and response to make one standard that describes the life cycle of the emergency call. The new standard will start from when a 999 call is received, until the time the first fire engine arrives at the incident.  

The consultation also covers proposals to remove an existing standard about the number of firefighters riding a fire engine, which gives BFRS more freedom to use the firefighters on shift in a smarter way to maximise the number of fire engines available for the public of Bedfordshire, to increase public safety. 

Area Commander Stuart Auger, Head of Response at Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, 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.”  

Have your say in the public consultation here.