Our Community Risk Management Plan 2025-2028
Our Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) is our four-year plan that sets out our priorities and our approach to ensuring local communities are protected. It outlines the key challenges and risks facing our communities and our strategies to address and reduce these risks over the coming years. We will use our resources in prevention, protection, and emergency response to target the most vulnerable and keep Staffordshire’s communities safe.
Our CRMP has been shaped by a consultation that we carried out from August to November 2024, for which we received over 1500 responses.
The plan is driven by our vision of “making Staffordshire the safest place to be” and is underpinned by our Core Code of Ethics, which are the values we apply to everything we do and expect our staff to uphold.
Our CRMP has been shaped by a consultation that we carried out from August to November 2024, for which we received over 1500 online responses and held five focus groups to help us gauge public perception, which were facilitated by an external company. A summary of the consultation findings can be found further down this page.
As part of our commitment to equality and diversity we carry our equality impact assessments (EqIAs) for all key projects to ensure that our plans do not have a detrimental impact on our communities. You can view our EqIA here.
Priorities: Our People
What we aim to do – Develop a diverse, healthy and highly professional workforce and support them so that they are motivated and empowered to improve the way we deliver our services.
We will do this by:
- Investing in our people by providing them with the equipment, training and skills to keep them safe, encourage innovation and inspire our future leaders
- Encouraging honesty and openness, inspiring individuals to express themselves and treat one another with kindness and respect
- Promoting a positive and supportive workplace culture committed to improving everyone’s health, fitness and wellbeing
- Engaging with our communities to improve the diversity of our workforce.
Plans and evidence to support this priority:
Priorities: Our Communities
What we aim to do – Reduce the risks to our local communities from fire and other emergencies through a combination of our prevention, protection, and response activities, helping to make Staffordshire a safer place to live, work, and visit.
We will do this by:
- Helping our communities to understand the risks from fire and other emergencies and how they can take measures to ensure their own safety and be more resilient
- Collaborating with our partners across the county to share information, develop a comprehensive understanding of community risks, and identify the individuals and properties most at risk
- Focusing on these risks to ensure our actions have the greatest positive effect on community safety
- Engaging and listening to all of our communities in order to understand their needs and use this knowledge to help improve the services we deliver.
Plans and evidence to support this priority:
Priorities: Our Environment
What we aim to do – Reduce our carbon footprint, therefore protecting our environment and contributing to building more resilient, healthy and sustainable local communities. And, we aim to ensure that the built environment across Staffordshire is as safe as possible for everyone and that our ways of working contribute to a cleaner, healthier and positive environment for our people and our communities.
We will do this by:
- Implementing initiatives and working practices which will minimise our environmental impact and help us make more efficient use of our resources
- Influencing partners and key stakeholders to ensure that all buildings in Staffordshire are safe for residents, workers, visitors and our firefighters
- Ensuring we are equipped to address new and emerging risks from incidents such as flooding and wildfires, and supporting other agencies and emergency services in responding to the impact of climate change.
Plans and evidence to support this priority:
Our funding and how we spend it
The Staffordshire Commissioner Fire and Rescue Authority is funded through a combination of income from business rates, central government grants and through its share of council tax, called the Precept. The Service also generates other smaller sources of income through rents, fees and charges, investments, and sharing sites with Staffordshire Police.
How we spend our money is scrutinised through the Staffordshire Commissioner and the robust governance arrangements established for the authority. This includes quarterly reporting through to the strategic governance board and also scrutiny by the finance panel which is part of the independent ethics, transparency and audit panel. External and internal audits are carried out to provide a further level of assurance for the communities of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
The net budget for 2024/25 was set at £50.1m and is forecast to increase to around £55m by 2028 as per the latest medium-term financial strategy (MTFS). We aim to put every penny of our budget to the best use possible, with the commissioner expecting every pound of taxpayers’ money invested in fire and rescue to be spent wisely and for the Service to continue to seek efficiencies. How this is spent is shown on the next page.
The MTFS will be reviewed and updated annually during the four-year period of this Community Risk Management Plan to ensure that the links are maintained to ensure delivery of our key service priorities.
Consultation findings
Our consultation was held over a 12 week period from 14 August to 5 November 2024. The consultation consisted of an online survey that was available for staff and the community to complete and an external company facilitated five focus groups across the county. A summary of the findings from the consultation can be found in the following documents:
Online survey consultation summary [PPTX, 1.1 MB]
Focus groups key findings
Our future plans
Your opinion matters to us. We invite all partners and stakeholders to share their views during our planning process, especially on new projects and changes to emergency response. Community involvement is crucial in shaping our plans effectively.
Your feedback helps us understand expectations and improve our services. It influences our planning, addressing future challenges and ensuring the best outcomes for Staffordshire.
We encourage individuals, partners, and local groups to contribute to the development of Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s future.
To participate in our consultation on future plans and projects, email us at: consultation@staffordshirefire.gov.uk