The Fire and Rescue Scrutiny Committee were scheduled to meet on 18 July 2025 to discuss the roles and responsibilities of Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service (GFRS) and the Community Safety Directorate, as well as the current GFRS and Community Safety budget. Councillors were also scheduled to receive updates on the Improvement Board's progress and GFRS performance data. The committee was also expected to review its work plan for the year.

Firefighter Shift Patterns

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the review of firefighter shift patterns.

In December 2024, the cabinet approved changes to wholetime firefighter shifts, moving from 9-hour days and 15-hour nights to 11-hour days and 13-hour nights for wholetime community fire stations¹.

The Fire and Rescue Scrutiny Committee (FRSC) reviewed this decision and recommended that the cabinet abandon the changes. Cllr Paul Hodgkinson, Cabinet Member for Public Health, Communities & Fire, suggested referring the dispute to third party arbitration. A conciliation meeting was scheduled to take place in August 2025.

The FRSC was expected to hear that the proposed changes would:

• Increase opportunities to engage with the public.
• Increase community prevention activities, such as Safe and Well visits².
• Enhance firefighter safety.
• Future-proof the service.

Improvement Board Progress

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the GFRS Improvement Board.

Following an inspection in November 2023, His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) identified three causes of concern:

• Public safety through fire regulation.
• Promoting values and culture.
• Promoting fairness and diversity.

A revisit in January 2025 resulted in the dismissal of the first two causes of concern, with the third partially dismissed. HMICFRS was scheduled to conduct another service revisit in July 2025 to assess progress against the remaining cause of concern.

The Improvement Board supports and advises the GFRS Strategic Leadership Team, holding them to account for delivering transformation within the organisation.

GFRS and Community Safety Directorate

Mark Preece, Chief Fire Officer (CFO), was scheduled to provide an overview of the roles, responsibilities, pressures and priorities of GFRS and the Community Safety Directorate.

The presentation that Mark Preece, Chief Fire Officer, was scheduled to give included the following points:

• Gloucestershire Coroner's Service is on course to conduct 850-1000 inquests in 2025, compared to 500 the previous year.
• Trading Standards enforces over 100 Acts of Parliament.
• Priority areas for Trading Standards in 2025/26 include animal health, doorstep crime, financial fraud, food standards, product safety, and tobacco and vapes.
• 64% of Trading Standards staff are over 50, and there is a nationwide shortage of fully trained officers.

Budget Overview

The committee was scheduled to receive an overview of the Community Safety Directorate's revenue and capital budgets for 2025/26.

The net revenue budget totals £27.781m, split across the following departments:

• Fire & Rescue: £25.109m
• Coroners: £1.549m
• Trading Standards: £1.123m
• Local Resilience Forum: £0

The directorate anticipated utilising £936k of reserve funding.

Most costs within GFRS relate to direct employee expenditure (73%). GFRS has a £201k vacancy management target to achieve, but is unlikely to reach this amount.

Most costs within the Coroner's service relate to employee costs, medical supplies, post mortems and pathologist fees.

The Trading Standards Service has budgeted an income target of £72k from fees and fines.

Capital schemes for 2025/26 relate to GFRS and include:

• Decontamination system (£125k)
• Response systems upgrade - Mobile Data Terminals (£180k)
• Integrated command and control system (£300k)
• Water rescue replacement vehicles (£192k)
• Emergency response cars (£418k)
• Appliances and equipment (£4.363m)
• Stroud Fire Station access (£216k)
• Station trickle charging systems (£55k)
• Thermal imaging cameras (£130k)
• National operational guidance equipment (£16k)

Performance Data

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on GFRS performance data for Quarter 4 2024/25.