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Cambridgeshire Fire & Resue Service

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HMICFRS Standards of Behaviour: The Handling of Misconduct in Fire and Rescue Services

On August 1, 2024, HMICFRS published its Standards of Behaviour: The Handling of Misconduct in Fire and Rescue Services report. Here are the recommendations in that report and how CFRS is actioning them.

Recommendations completed

  • Chief fire officers should, as a priority, make sure their staff are aware of, and follow the Core Code of Ethics. Services should build the code into all relevant policies and practices.
  • Chief fire officers should make sure a policy for probationary staff is in place. This policy should make clear that services can immediately dismiss probationers who fail to meet the required standards of behaviours set out in the Core Code of Ethics and the Code of Ethics Fire Standard.
  • Chief fire officers should make sure their workforce plans allow staff to be moved from a wholetime watch to a different watch or station, within their contractual requirements, proactively and reactively as required.
  • With immediate effect, chief fire officers should make sure all staff are aware of the welfare support, including occupational health support, that is available to staff involved in misconduct processes. Chief fire officers should encourage all staff involved in misconduct processes to access this support, whether they are an alleged perpetrator, complainant, witness, investigator or decision-maker. Welfare personnel should be independent of the investigation and have been appropriately trained for this role.
  • Chief fire officers should make sure all staff understand how to raise a concern and use grievance and whistle-blowing processes. Chief fire officers should; Make sure staff know how services will handle responses and maintain confidentiality and anonymity; and explain how staff can access service's whistle-blowing capability and the difference between whistle-blowing and other processes for raising concerns.
  • Chief Fire Officers should make sure their services create or have access to a dedicated professional standards function to oversee the investigation of concerns raised within a service or from an external source. This should oversee cases to make sure they are investigated in a fair and transparent way, manage complex cases directly and act as a point of contact for all staff involved.
  • Chief fire officers should make sure their services have enough capacity to carry out their misconduct investigations. They should consider using external investigators or a similar independent resource to support the process if required.
  • Fire and rescue authorities and chief fire officers should consider varying the approach to hearing appeals so that appeals for complex or serious cases are heard by a panel rather than one person.
  • Chief fire officers should implement a process that makes sure they can oversee and scrutinise their services’ performance relating to misconduct issues. This process should provide: a strategic overview of performance and analysis of trends, including disproportionality; regular reporting of issues, outcomes and trends to the fire and rescue authority; and identification of learning outcomes and how they will be shared with fire and rescue service staff, to prevent repeat behaviours.
  • Chief fire officers should make sure all allegations of misconduct are handled in a consistent way and staff have confidence in misconduct processes. Chief fire officers should carry out a full review of the processes, from initial identification of a misconduct issue through to the resolution or outcome. This should include a review of how services:
    • monitor and manage investigations;
    • maintain accurate records; and
    • adhere to required timescales.
  • Chief Fire Officers should also make sure firefighters who are promoted are posted to a different watch or station, including when the promotion is temporary for two months or more. If this isn’t possible, chief fire officers should show how the risks of reinforcing a negative culture have been addressed.

Recommendations in progress

  • Chief fire officers should make sure a programme of training is in place for all supervisors and managers on how to manage staff performance and welfare and how to raise an issue. It should be supported by relevant policies and procedures. Training should include:
    • staff welfare and absence management;
    • the process for managing individual staff performance, addressing poor performance and potential misconduct issues;
    • how to handle difficult conversations and resolve issues informally, if appropriate, when a concern is identified; and
    • clarifying the role of HR services in helping managers to deal with staff concerns and misconduct issues.
  • Chief fire officers should make sure all managers and supervisors attend the training programme.
  • Chief fire officers should introduce a case management system if they don’t already have one. The case management system should allow data to be produced that will help them to better understand and oversee misconduct cases in their services.
  • Chief fire officers should review the training their services provide for supervisors and managers who investigate misconduct issues at all levels. Chief fire officers should make sure:
    • all staff who carry out investigations receive adequate training to carry out the task;
    • a programme of refresher training and ongoing support is available so that staff can maintain a level of competence; and
    • it is clear how services’ HR provision, staff associations and any trade union representative or fellow employee will support the investigation process.
  • Fire and rescue authorities and chief fire officers should make sure all service managers and members of fire and rescue authorities who hear appeals receive appropriate training. Chief fire officers should make sure services have a consistent approach to hearing appeals.

Recommendations require national action prior before we can complete

  • Chief fire officers should make sure the policies and processes for misconduct are consistent for all staff and are fairly applied within their respective conditions of employment. By August 2025, the National Joint Council for Local Authority Fire and Rescue Services and the National Joint Council for Local Government Services, supported by the National Fire Chiefs Council, should make misconduct processes consistent for all staff irrespective of the terms and conditions of their employment.
  • Chief fire officers should put in place a process for sharing learning from misconduct cases that have been resolved while preserving the confidentiality of all parties involved. Any learning should feed into the national system, when established. By May 2025, the National Fire Chiefs Council should establish a system for sharing learning from more serious cases of misconduct with fire and rescue service staff. The information shared should preserve the anonymity and confidentiality of all parties involved. The College of Fire and Rescue, once it is established, should take responsibility for maintaining this system.