Introduction
The purpose of this strategy is to set out how we, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (NYFRS), provide our emergency response function to the communities of York and North Yorkshire.
Our emergency response is influenced by, and aligned to, key legislation including the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, the Fire and Rescue National Framework for England, Civil Contingencies Act and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. We are also committed to achieving national best practice and alignment to National Operational Guidance (N.O.G) and the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP).
This Response Strategy details how emergency response resources (crewed appliances and specialist vehicles) will be aligned to risk and deployed when required. Emergency response is an essential component of our Risk and Resource Model (RRM) and forms one of the suite of interventions we employ, alongside Prevention and Protection. View the Prevention and Protection strategies.
Our Community Risk Profile (CRP) demonstrates a data led strategic view of risk in North Yorkshire and York, primarily focusing on fire, road and water. To compliment the Community Risk Profile, we have undertaken a comprehensive review of fire cover using an independent consultancy, ORH[1]. This has provided detailed evidence to inform our current and predicted future needs and challenges in emergency response. Collectively, the CRP, RRM and fire cover review form the basis for understanding where to best place our emergency response assets and how to deploy a safe, proportionate and effective response to emergencies.
Reducing risks and preventing incidents is a critical part of the service we deliver. However, being prepared to respond to emergencies safely and effectively when they occur is a core function. We seek to deliver high standards of emergency response by continuously planning, preparing, and training for emergencies, so that we can respond with the correct resources, skills, and equipment when they do occur.
Alignment to the NYFRS Strategic Framework 2023-25
The Response Strategy has been designed to achieve the key aims of our Strategic Framework and contribute to our overall mission of helping our communities be safe and feel safe.
We have five pillars of strategic focus, and all five are key drivers for improvements for our emergency response function. The following improvements will be developed during the lifespan of this response strategy.
Digital and Data
Comprehensive Fire Cover Review
We commissioned an independent consultancy to produce our latest fire cover review. They used sophisticated analysis and the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) methodologies for dwelling fires and road traffic collisions. The fire cover review will inform effective decision making for the future of our emergency response including station locations, appliance types, equipment, and duty systems.
On Call Station Footprint Assessments
On-call firefighters respond to the fire station from their home or place of wok when emergencies occur so must be within 5 minutes of the fire station during the times they are available to respond. We have undertaken detailed analysis of our on-call station footprints to helps us understand the demographics and numbers of people who live in these areas. This analysis will enable long-term decision making about the best achievable fire cover arrangements in rural areas and supports the rationale to explore expansion of on-call areas where required on a station-by-station basis. This will potentially grow the pool of available people who can be on-all firefighters in some areas.
Dynamic Cover Tool (DCT)
During the period of this Response Strategy, we will implement a DCT. Given the nature of On-call firefighting, operational incidents and training events, we dynamically react throughout the day to changes in fire cover, as a standard operating procedure. The DCT will enable live time analysis enabling available appliances to be positioned in the best locations for risk and response times.
Continuous Improvement and Sustainability
Organisational Effectiveness Board (OEB)
The OEB was created to bring together key stakeholders from across the Service to deliver continuous improvement of our emergency response function. OEB reviews both external and internal sources including National Operational Learning and Joint Organisational Learning notes, debrief returns and training feedback to develop improvements and disseminate learning.
Response Times Improvement Plan
North Yorkshire is a geographically large county with significant areas of sparse population. Funding and a relatively low risk profile also means that most of our more rural fire appliances (those which day Crewed between 6pm and 8am, and On-call all the time) also incur a five-minute turn in time of crews, prior to mobilising on a fire appliance. It is therefore challenging to benchmark our response times against predominantly wholetime, densely populated fire and rescue services. We have though, developed a response time improvement plan to ensure we effectively manage all areas within our control and provide the best possible response time to our communities.
Operational Staffing Reserve (OSR) Review
The Operational Staffing Reserve is a pool of firefighters who provide flexible cover and different locations to improve the availability of fire engines daily. A review of the historic OSR arrangements has been undertaken. The recommendations in this review will be progressed during the lifespan of this response strategy to ensure our emergency response arrangements are efficient and sustainable.
Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Culture
Framework for Change Project
We have entered a collaboration with the University of Huddersfield to develop a framework for cultural change and behavioural improvement. The University will work with us for over 12 months, using academic frameworks to drive our understanding of all the factors which influence our behaviours. The outcomes will include a behavioural and leadership charter, alongside a core understanding of our ethical health and where we need to improve, with a toolkit to deliver the proposed change. This will form the basis for our cultural change journey over the coming years.
Equality Impact Assessments
We assess the impact of decisions and changes through equality impact assessments. As an employer of choice, we want to appeal to all our communities and will conduct positive action to encourage those from underrepresented groups to apply. Improving the use of Equality Impact Assessments in Emergency Response will ensure our buildings, equipment and teams are inclusive for all.
EDI Training Program
An ambitious program of EDI training has been undertaken to ensure all our emergency response staff understand the varying needs of all our communities and workforce. This multi module training has been a significant investment in the cultural improvement of our emergency response function and staff.
People and Inclusive Leadership
Workforce Planning and Resourcing Board
We have created and embedded a workforce planning and resourcing board. The board has helped improve our workforce planning processes and progress from a reactive to a proactive approach. The board meets monthly to ensure data and feedback informs our promotion boards, transfers, and recruitment activity. The board has been pivotal for resolving issues raised in the 2021/22 HMICFRS report of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Leadership Development Programmes
We have developed and delivered leadership programmes to all levels of the organisation, improving the knowledge and skills of managers to lead their teams and improve our performance and culture. The First Line Leaders program will see all our Crew and Watch Managers attend modules alongside North Yorkshire Police colleagues, sharing good leadership practice between the two organisations.
Competency Development Programmes and Personal Development
To support efficient and effective progress towards a competent workforce, development programmes will be redesigned during the life of this strategy. The new programmes will be more evidence based and suitable for all learning styles. They will reduce unnecessary administration time of candidates and assessors. The PDPR process has also been reviewed and updated to ensure a more regular and consistent approach to managing performance.
Collaboration
Regional Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP) Collaboration
A tri-service regional approach has been developed to improve the way emergency services in Yorkshire and the Humber work together. This approach includes strategic and tactical groups meeting regularly and aligning ways of working. This approach also includes an ambitious roll out of joint JESIP training to personnel from all responding agencies.
Joint Estates Plan with North Yorkshire Police (NYP)
Where beneficial and suitable, a joint approach to our estate will be developed with NYP leading to efficiencies and improved collaboration between the two services. This approach will be scalable and utilised to improve the condition of our estate.
Coaching and Mentoring Academy
A joint coaching and mentoring academy has been developed with North Yorkshire Police. The academy has seen investment in developing a portfolio of coaches and mentors for all staff to access. The academy aims to support the development of all staff and improve the skills and expertise of our workforce.
Operational Preparedness
Operational incidents can present an elevated level of risk to our workforce and communities. As such, the following arrangements have been developed to ensure we are prepared to provide the most effective, proportionate, and safe response to our communities during incidents.
Operational License
To ensure that all operational staff have the essential skills and capabilities to respond to operational incidents, an operational license has been developed. This ensures that all operational staff on the run are ‘in ticket’ for the most essential skills such as Breathing Apparatus (BA) and Incident Command. The operational license is robustly managed and assured through dashboards. The operational license is supplemented by mandatory eLearning packages and the development of a maintenance of competence program.
Station Performance Audits
To ensure our response crews and officers are best prepared to respond to emergencies, we have developed a new programme of station performance audits. This programme will see all our watches audited and assessed both quantitively and qualitatively to ensure they are suitably prepared for the operational environment. The audit program will identify any trends and lead to improvement plans where required.
Incident Monitoring and Operational Assurance
To ensure we have high operational standards, an incident monitoring process has been designed and implemented. This process sees incident monitoring officers mobilised to incidents to carry out incident audits to ensure both good practice and any areas for improvement are recorded. Any trends are fed into the Organisational Effectiveness Board.
Fire Standards Implementation and Assurance
The Fire Standards Board has now developed several Fire Standards for the sector. Many of the Fire Standards relate to emergency response and our preparedness to respond to incidents effectively and safely. We are committed to meeting the standards and have developed implementation plans and assurance processes.
National Operational Learning (NOL) and Joint Organisational Learning (JOL)
We will assess all action and information notes from both JOL and NOL and implement in service where appropriate. We will also share any pertinent learning points we identify through JOL and NOL. These systems will help ensure that we are continually learning and improving.
National Operational Guidance (N.O.G)
We will develop operational guidance and information notes aligned to National Operational Guidance. N.O.G is robustly reviewed on a regular basis to ensure, where possible, we are aligned to and adopt national operational guidance. This will help us train and respond in ways which improve our emergency response within our area and with neighbouring fire and rescue services.
Site Specific Risk Information (SSRI)
The gathering of and reviewing operational risk information is a key activity for our operational crews. Understanding sites and their hazards prior to any operational incident is an essential component of providing a safe and effective response. Risk information is made accessible to operational crews both before and during incidents.
Response Arrangements
We operate wholetime (shift), day crewed and on-call duty systems, which collectively provide an efficient and effective emergency response across North Yorkshire. We also have two volunteer units. The different duty systems are based on the risk levels in that area with proportionate resources assigned.
Fire Stations and Fire Appliances
To ensure we are resilient and can respond appropriately to large scale and protracted incidents, a data led number of fire appliances will be maintained.
Environmental changes have shown that large incidents such as wildfires and flooding events could become more common place in the future. Such spate conditions require significant resource levels to provide a proportionate response. This was evident during the wildfires and hot weather of June 2022.
We cover the largest area of any single county fire and rescue service in the country (6% of England), with a comparatively low budget per square mile. This presents challenges around geographical cover and response times in remote rural areas.
As per our Risk and Resource Model assessment, the following appliance provision allows us to provide a resilient response to foreseeable emergencies in North Yorkshire and York.
Fire Station |
Appliance type |
| Acomb | Appliance |
| Acomb | Appliance |
| Bedale | Appliance |
| Bentham | Appliance |
| Boroughbridge | Appliance |
| Colburn | Appliance |
| Danby | 4×4 Appliance |
| Easingwold | Appliance |
| Filey | Appliance |
| Goathland | Volunteer Land Rover |
| Grassington | 4×4 Appliance |
| Harrogate | Tactical Response Vehicle |
| Harrogate | Appliance |
| Hawes | Appliance |
| Helmsley | Tactical Response Vehicle / Light Response Pump |
| Huntington | Appliance |
| Kirkbymoorside | Appliance |
| Knaresborough | Appliance |
| Leyburn | Appliance |
| Lofthouse | Volunteer Land Rover |
| Lythe | Appliance |
| Malton | Appliance |
| Malton | Appliance |
| Masham | Appliance |
| Northallerton | Appliance |
| Northallerton | Appliance |
| Pickering | 4×4 Appliance |
| Reeth | 4×4 Appliance |
| Richmond | Appliance |
| Ripon | Appliance |
| Ripon | Appliance |
| Robin Hood’s Bay | Appliance |
| Scarborough | Tactical Response Vehicle |
| Scarborough | Appliance |
| Selby | Appliance |
| Selby | Appliance |
| Settle | Appliance |
| Sherburn | Tactical Response Vehicle / Light Response Pump |
| Skipton | Appliance |
| Skipton | Appliance |
| Stokesley | Appliance |
| Summerbridge | Tactical Response Vehicle / Light Response Pump |
| Tadcaster | Appliance |
| Tadcaster | Appliance |
| Thirsk | Appliance |
| Whitby | Appliance |
| York | Appliance |
Specialist Appliances
Alongside our front-line fire appliances, we also have several specialist appliances such as Aerial Ladder Platforms (ALPs), Incident Support Units (ISUs) and Water Bowsers. To ensure we provide an effective and efficient fleet of specialist appliances, the fire cover review has led to an extensive assessment of our current and future needs. A capability review will be undertaken during the lifespan of this response strategy and culminate in recommendations on our future provisions.
Station |
Specialist Appliance |
| Malton | Incident Support Unit |
| Malton | Swift Water Rescue Unit (MOD3) |
| Northallerton | Incident Command Unit |
| Thirsk | Welfare Unit |
| Boroughbridge | Water Bowser |
| Harrogate | Aerial Ladder Platform |
| Harrogate | High Volume Pump (Vehicle) |
| Harrogate | High Volume Pump (Vehicle) |
| Ripon | Incident Support Unit |
| Ripon | Swift Water Rescue Unit (MOD3) |
| Richmond | Swift Water Rescue Unit (MOD3) |
| Richmond | High Volume Pump (Vehicle) |
| Richmond | High Volume Pump (Vehicle) |
| Skipton | Swift Water Rescue Unit (MOD3) |
| Scarborough | Aerial Ladder Platform |
| Whitby | Swift Water Rescue Unit (MOD3) |
| Acomb | Aerial Ladder Platform |
| Acomb | Mass Decontamination |
| Huntington | Aerial Ladder Platform |
| Selby | Boat |
| Selby | Swift Water Rescue Unit (MOD4) |
| Tadcaster | Incident Support Unit |
| Tadcaster | Animal Rescue |
| Tadcaster | Water Bowser |
| York | Boat |
| Kirkbymoorside | Wildfire Unit |
| Skipton | Wildfire Unit |
| Leyburn | Wildfire Unit |
The On Call Challenge
*32 of our appliances are On-call appliances. As per national arrangements, On-call fire cover does not provide any guarantee of fire cover and is heavily dependent on the number of staff able to provide cover from that location and the hours of cover they can provide. Recent research from both the fire cover review and station footprint assessments has highlighted the growing challenge of maintaining the On-call staffing model. This challenge is being felt nationally and was recently highlighted in the 2024 HMICFRS State of Fire Report. For most On-call firefighters, being a firefighter is their secondary employment and providing cover especially during daytime hours is increasingly challenging. Inevitably, there are periods where staff whose primary employment is outside of the fire and rescue service are unable to provide fire cover.
The station footprint assessments have shown that there are declining numbers of people of a working age living and/or working in our rural communities. This impacts the pool of people we can recruit and retain as On-call firefighters. The on-call futures project and support team are undertaking an ambitious number of projects aimed at improving the recruitment and retention of our on-call duty system. However, despite the significant work undertaken to improve this and make the crewing model more sustainable, it is foreseeable that On-call availability will continue to be a challenge, especially during the daytime periods. We will therefore seek to adopt a more dynamic approach to fire cover during the day enabling us to improve our response times despite the on-call challenge.
Response Time Standards
To ensure we provide the most effective and efficient emergency response to the communities of North Yorkshire and York, the primary focuses of our emergency response function will become risk and response times. To enable us to achieve the best possible response times to operational incidents, we have created a response time improvement plan and will commit to the following response standards which we public consulted on during 2024.This forms the basis of our offer to our communities,
All incidents: The average attendance time of the first fire engine will be within 13 minutes.
Dwelling Fires: The average attendance time of the first fire engine will be within 11 minutes.
Our response time standards have been set from the findings of the fire cover review. The fire cover review modelled the projected response times we can achieve based on predicated appliance availability and location.
These standards will be achieved by providing the efficient resourcing of appliances daily. The appropriate level of resources will be provided and from the right locations. The dynamic cover tool will be used to prioritise resources and provide assurances that we have a proportionate level of response. The individual component parts of our response times have been added to internal plans and monitored through key performance indicators. These include turn it times for On-call and day crewed stations, call handling times for control and turn out times for whole time crews.
The recent fire cover review used five years of incident data and has helped develop the new fire cover model. The review highlights the range of contributions each appliance makes on our response time based on its demand profile and availability of neighbouring appliances. The data shows a significant range of demand, ranging from our highest, York which averages 3.1 mobilisations per day compared to our lowest, Reeth which averages 0.05 mobilisations per day.
Demand Profile
The recent fire cover review has helped us exactly understand our demand profile. Despite our vast geographical area, North Yorkshire is a very safe county and the demand on our emergency response services is relatively low compared to other fire and rescue services. On average we respond to 21 incidents per day (24-hour period). Of those 21 incidents, on average 9 are false alarms and 4 are to assist other agencies such as supporting the ambulance service with medical emergencies. This means that we respond to, on average, approximately 8 fire and rescue incidents per day.
Our response standards are based on the first appliance in attendance because data shows that most incidents in North Yorkshire (approximately 82%) require the attendance of just one fire appliance. The data also shows that less than 4% of incidents require 3 or more appliances to attend.
Our time in attendance has also been reviewed to understand the potential for simultaneous incidents. The data shows that our average time in attendance at an incident is approximately 24 minutes. Collectively this analysis has concluded that our demand profile is predominantly one appliance attendances in our more urban and higher risk areas for relatively short periods of time. Our day-to-day fire cover model will therefore reflect this profile. Additional arrangements will be put in place to ensure we are resilient and able to respond to rarer large scale or protracted incidents or spate conditions.
Control Staffing
Our emergency response to incidents begins with Fire Control. This critical function ensures we provide a timely and accurate response to emergency calls and mobilise the correct level of resources. Control also plays a pivotal role in the ongoing coordination of incidents. The importance of this function has been highlighted during the reviews into the Grenfell Tower Fire and the Manchester Arena Inquiry. There is now also a devoted Fire Standard for Fire Control. A project will be commissioned during the lifespan of this Response Strategy to ensure that our staffing levels and arrangements in Control are aligned to the risks and demands on the function.
Flexi Duty and Gold Officers
To support the command and coordination of larger or more complex incidents, we have a cadre of Flexi Duty System (FDS) and Gold Officers. Collectively these rotas include multiple specialist skills such as Fire Investigation and Hazardous Materials Advisors. Both the FDS and Gold Rota will be reviewed during the lifespan of this response strategy to ensure the right number of people with the right skills and capabilities are available to respond to our risk profile.
Resilience Arrangements
Our response arrangements are designed to be able to respond effectively to foreseeable risk and demand in North Yorkshire and York. However, to ensure we have a resilient emergency response function, additional resilience arrangements are in place.
Section 13 and 16 Arrangements
Sections 13 and 16 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 place an obligation on fire and rescue services to work together, where practicable, to enable mutual assistance in the execution of their functions. We have agreements in place with all our regional and neighbouring FRSs to ensure cross border incidents are attended in a timely manner and mutual aid is provided at times of need. The recent fire cover review assessed that these arrangements are working well with our neighbours and have regularly been utilised providing mutual benefit.
National Resilience
For large scale incidents such as major wildfires or flooding, national resilience arrangements are in place. Several national assets are strategically placed around the country to ensure mutual aid can be requested and accessed in a timely and coordinated manner. We have statutory duties as outlined in the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, in relation to National Resilience assets, to ensure they are being satisfactorily discharged.
We host a number of national resilience assets which can be deployed nationally when required, these are set out below.
| Location | National Asset |
| Acomb | Mass Decontamination |
| Harrogate | High Volume Pump Support Vehicle (Van) |
| Harrogate | High Volume Pump (Vehicle) |
| Harrogate | High Volume Pump (Vehicle) |
| Harrogate | High Volume Pump Equipment |
| Harrogate | High Volume Pump Equipment |
| Richmond | High Volume Pump Support Vehicle (Van) |
| Richmond | High Volume Pump (Vehicle) |
| Richmond | High Volume Pump (Vehicle) |
| Richmond | High Volume Pump Equipment |
| Richmond | High Volume Pump Equipment |
| Selby | Boat |
| Selby | Swift Water Rescue Unit (MOD4) |
| York | Boat |
In the rare event that we would require national assistance; we have a policy and training to ensure timely requests can be made and assistance provided from other Fire and Rescue Services.
Assurance of our national assets is provided from the National Resilience Assurance Team (NRAT). NRAT visit NYFRS to undertake an assurance process over a 3-year cycle: year 1, self-assessment – year 2, capability assurance visit – year 3, national exercise. This is to ensure, as hosts for national resilience assets, the achievement and maintenance of an effective operational capability to respond to national and major emergencies.
Local Resilience Forum (LRF)
North Yorkshire has a well-established and effective Local Resilience Forum (LRF). The LRF has multiple working groups comprised of multiple agencies and ensures we meet the requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004. The CCA provides responsibilities for responding agencies to assess risk, plan for, respond to and recover from emergencies in a coordinated manner. We are well embedded in the LRF and play a key role in ensuring all the responding agencies in the county are prepared for emergencies.
Business Continuity
Our ability to provide an emergency response can be impacted by many foreseeable risks. These include power outages, fuel shortages and loss of IT systems. For this reason, the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 requires category 1 responders (such as fire services) to maintain plans to ensure that they can continue to exercise their functions in the event of an emergency so far as is reasonably practicable. The duty relates to all functions, not just emergency response functions.
We assess the risk of business continuity events using business impact assessments. Risk critical systems and roles are identified, and contingency plans are then created to ensure resilience arrangements are put in place. This enables us to pre plan for disruptive events and adopt a proactive approach rather than reactive.
Business Continuity plans are regularly tested to ensure they are fit for purpose and any learning points or resource requirements are built into future planning. This is the business continuity lifecycle.
During the lifespan of this strategy, business continuity plans will be reviewed and tested regularly, with training provided to responsible staff.
For any likely incident which has the potential to cause business disruption, a business continuity management plan will be developed to ensure we can meet the needs of the incident whilst also delivering effective business as usual.
Measuring Performance
To ensure the response strategy is effective and delivers the desired outcomes, a series of quantitative and qualitative performance measures have been implemented. The following scrutiny and assurance processes have been put in place to ensure the performance of our emergency response directorate.
Online Public Meetings (OPM)
To ensure our communities have full visibility of our performance, regular online public meetings are Chaired by the York and North Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime. The online public meetings include a presentation of our key performance data and allow the opportunity for the public to submit questions. The online public meetings also include thematic presentations aimed at improving engagement and awareness of what we do. The aim of this process is to provide full transparency in what we do and how we are performing.
Service Delivery Performance Group
Regular service delivery performance meetings are held internally which provide scrutiny of department heads and district managers and the performance of their teams and functions. A quarterly performance report is provided to ensure our suite of key performance indicators are regularly reviewed. These performance indicators include response times, control call handling times and productivity levels of our teams.
Station Plan on a Page
To ensure a coordinated approach and alignment to the Risk and Resource Model and Strategic Framework, station specific plans have been introduced. They provide clear prioritisation and performance levels for stations and watches.
Tactical Dashboards
To provide live time performance data in key areas, tactical dashboards have been created. The new dashboards provide effective oversight of key work streams and performance indicators such as response times, prevention visits and Site-Specific Risk Information visits. The dashboards are aligned to the station plans and act as a work schedule for watches. This will improve the efficiency and productivity of our teams.
[1] ORH (Operational Research in Health) are an independent consultancy who specialise in analysis of Emergency Services. ORH have worked with multiple FRSs in England, USA and Australia
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