Fire brigade ‘will never be free of culture issues’, chief admits

Greater Manchester’s fire service will ‘never be free of culture issues’, its chief has admitted, but insists it is improving.

Dave Russel, who joined the fire brigade four years ago, and previously hit the headlines when he banned staff from calling firefighters 'firemen', has since been instrumental in turning the service around.

But now, the Chief Fire Officer has admitted problems will always be present in the 1,800-strong workforce, but insists things will continue to move in the right direction.

“We’re never going to be a service that is free of issues but we are, and we will become, a service where perhaps the volume of issues that we’ve been dealing with [has] the trajectory [going] downwards,” he said.

The last inspectors’ report on Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS), conducted in 2023/24, rated its ‘promotion of the right values and culture’ as ‘good’; a significant upgrade on the ‘requires improvement’ seen two years previously. But Mr Russel said it’s up to every staff member to keep up the work.

“It’s not our policies or procedures that regulate the system," he said.

“It’s human beings and employees. It’s their interactions that regulate the system, and people having the confidence to call it out, intervene and try and prevent things from escalating by dealing with things early on.”

He was speaking as the police and fire minister, Dame Diana Johnson, visited the brigade’s training HQ on Thursday (September 26). During her visit she spoke to staff, who told her they want to see women and people with a faith treated fairly.

“[They] are particularly concerned at ensuring that the services are treating women fairly, particularly making sure that women have access to what they need in the workplace. The religious and faith groups [want to] make sure, for example, there are prayer rooms available within fire stations, things like that, that make people want to come to work and feel proud to be at work and feel that they are seen and heard.”