People across the West Midlands are being urged to take part in a ten-week public consultation exercise launched this week by West Midlands Fire Service.  

The Service is asking communities, businesses and other partners to answer five questions about its work. Their responses will help shape plans for making the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier. 

The questions cover how WMFS organises itself to reduce the risk of you being harmed and how technology could be used to keep its communities safe. A further question asks whether WMFS should focus on tackling the underlying reasons for someone being at greater risk of having a fire and two other questions cover how they should deal with false alarms from automatic fire systems, and its financial planning. Chief Fire Officer, Phil Loach, said:

“It is very important to us that as many people and organisations as possible share their views during our consultation. Their valuable input will help to shape how we plan for the future and deliver our services, which will be outlined in Our Plan 2021-24.

“It’s our job as a fire and rescue service to understand and manage the things that are likely to cause harm, now and in the future, and to focus on what will have significant consequence for those most at risk. 

“We continually assess those risks to work out where we need our staff and resources, like fire stations and fire engines, so we can respond to high-risk emergency incidents in just five minutes. The same information enables us to plan how to deliver our vital prevention and protection work.

“West Midlands Fire Service is rated as ‘outstanding’ for our emergency response work by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. We are, however, facing an uncertain financial outlook which could impact on our future plans.” 

The ongoing pandemic means that WMFS is adopting a mainly digital approach to its consultation, to ensure that its staff can stay healthy and continue to deliver critical services. CFO Loach added:

“I couldn’t be more proud or inspired by how our staff have responded to the pandemic. They have ensured that delivery of our critical services has continued, and have been ready, willing and able to volunteer to deliver thousands of vital food and medical supplies across the West Midlands.”

Under the National Fire and Rescue Framework, West Midlands Fire Service has committed to consult on its Integrated Risk Management Plan every three years, or when there is a significant change to its assessment of risk in the West Midlands. 

A link to the consultation survey can be found on the homepage of the service’s website until 16 December 2020.