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Welcome to the Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service Annual Delivery Plan for 2025-2026. This document outlines our strategic priorities, key objectives, and the initiatives we will undertake to help ensure the safety and well-being of our community. Our commitment to excellence in fire prevention, emergency response, and community engagement remains steadfast as we navigate the challenges and opportunities of the coming year.
This year’s plan is guided by our new Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP), which identifies and addresses the specific risks and needs of our community. The CRMP highlights our strategies for reducing risk, protecting people in the built environment, and responding effectively to emergencies. It also emphasises our dedication to fostering an inclusive, healthy, and engaged workforce, optimising our financial and physical resources, and leveraging technology and data to enhance our service delivery.
We strive to be an excellent, modern and agile fire and rescue service. Our professionalism is reflected in our commitment to continuous improvement and innovation, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of the fire and rescue sector. Inclusivity is at the heart of our workforce and community engagement efforts, as we aim to create a service that reflects and respects the diversity of our community. Agility is demonstrated through our ability to adapt to changing circumstances and emerging risks, ensuring that we can respond effectively and efficiently to any situation.
We encourage you to explore this plan and join us in our mission to protect and serve the people of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.
We serve over 800,000 people across diverse rural and city settings which includes the River Thames, the M1, M25 and M40 motorways, as well as rail infrastructure. This demands the expertise of nearly 500 highly skilled firefighters and support teams.
We currently operate 19 fire stations across our community, housing 30 fire engines (known as pumps) along with a range of specialist and support vehicles. We also host 1 of the 19 Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams that are strategically located across England.
Our pumps are deployed to meet daily demands and provide resilience and capacity to handle occasional large-scale incidents or multiple, smaller incidents simultaneously.
Map A displays our fire station locations and pump types.
Map A: Station locations and Pump Types
Our CRMP details how we aim to mitigate identified risks and improve community safety by aligning available resources with our key objectives set in this Annual Delivery Plan. As a high-level strategic document, the CRMP informs the specific actions and initiatives in the Annual Delivery Plan, ensuring we focus on the most critical risks while using resources efficiently.
The Annual Delivery Plan converts these broad goals into specific, actionable steps for the year ahead, with detailed actions reflected in station and team-specific plans.
Informed by a comprehensive understanding of current and future risks, our CRMP ensures that the Annual Delivery Plan is responsive to the evolving needs of our community.
A review of our previous vision and values led to the development of a new promise to the public and a redefined set of our core values; Compassion, Integrity and Respect. These values underpin our commitment to providing an excellent, modern, and agile fire service that is both responsive to community needs and dedicated to continuous improvement.
Our promise is not only to the communities we serve but also to our staff. We strive to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive environment that inspires pride in our people. This is achieved through transparent communication and a culture where every staff member feels safe and confident in offering feedback, sharing ideas, and speaking up when things are not right.
The combination of our promise, values, and behaviours drives the direction of our culture, shaping how we engage with our communities and one another. These principles empower our staff to make the right decisions and deliver on the commitments of this Annual Delivery Plan over the coming year—and into the future.
The risks we face are evolving due to factors such as climate change, new technologies, and changing legislation. In response to these challenges, our 2025-2026 Annual Delivery Plan reflects the strategic direction set out in our CRMP and prioritises three key objectives: Prevention, Protection, and Response. These objectives are supported by three enablers: Workforce, Finance and Assets, and Digital, Data and Technology.
For each objective and enabler, we have identified clear actions and performance indicators that will guide our work throughout the year. These initiatives are directly aligned with the strategic priorities outlined in the CRMP but are tailored to ensure effective delivery for 2025-2026.
The successful implementation of these objectives relies on collaboration across the functional areas of prevention, protection, and response. We will continue to monitor progress against key performance indicators to ensure that we are making measurable progress in each of these areas. Further detail on these priorities and initiatives can be found on pages 11-16.
At the core of everything we do is Our Promise to the Public, which shapes our approach and is the foundation upon which all of our actions are built.
This promise guides the development of our CRMP, a high-level strategic document that translates our promise into actionable strategies and goals.
The CRMP informs our Annual Delivery Plan (outlined in this document), detailing the specific actions we will take to achieve our goals over the year.
This Annual Delivery Plan is then used to build Station and Team Plans, ensuring every part of the service is aligned.
Every action we take is tied to our Service behaviours, ensuring a cohesive approach that reflects our promise to the public in everything we do.
Prevention |
· Define our 5-year Safety Centre partnership plan · Deliver a safeguarding review and implement agreed findings · Develop our youth inclusion capability · Optimise Online Home Fire Safety Checks with our partners and the public · Embed the NFCC FireSense and Staywise education platforms · Embed the new NFCC Prevention Quality Assurance process and Evaluation framework |
Protection |
· Embed and evaluate our business engagement programme · Continue to support the Thames Valley Forensic Fire Investigation Project · Strengthen partnership arrangements to effectively manage, resolve and enforce within multi-occupied residential buildings · Develop Protection team resilience through succession planning · Trial the use of operational station-based staff resolving fire safety complaints · Review of the PRMS system and associated processes to identify opportunities to enhance productivity and efficiencies |
Response & Resilience |
· Define and deliver year one of our On-Call Improvement Programme · Ensure operational preparedness for infrastructure developments including High Speed 2 · Launch, embed and evaluate new SSRI process and system · Develop a collaborative plan to implement new Firefighting national guidance · Complete a specialist vehicle capability review · Optimise the productivity and capacity of operational core working hours |
People |
· Enhance our reward and recognition framework · Review our health and wellbeing proposition · Empower our leaders, with training and support, to performance manage · Embed our talent management programme · Develop our coaching and mentoring programme · Provide training and toolkits on our people management processes to give staff the confidence to challenge unacceptable behaviour |
Finance & Assets |
· Launch new workwear offering · Deliver year 1 of the property standards programme by investing £500k in station facilities · Start build on local training facility (subject to agreement) · Evaluate options for fleet and specialist vehicle investment · Scope options for improving High Wycombe Fire Station · Investigate housing options across the service |
Digital & Data |
· Introduce a new maintenance of competency system · Implement the updated Home Office Incident Recording System · Enhance technology on our fire engines · Develop and implement comprehensive branding standards, including digital and physical assets and integration into cross-departmental operating practices · Develop and embed a corporate communications framework, including a social media policy and events/engagement strategy · Deliver comprehensive system security and cyber awareness training programmes for all staff |
Our goal is to enhance the health, safety and wellbeing of our community. Our focus is on preventing fires and other incidents in homes, neighbourhoods, on roads and in the environment. To achieve this, we work closely with our partners to identify, safeguard and support those most at risk. Together, through community engagement and education, we aim to create a safer and more resilient environment for everyone.
Our goal is to enhance the safety and wellbeing of our community by reducing risks and incidents in the built environment. Fire safety legislation applies to around 30,000 buildings within Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes. We are committed to providing fire safety education to those responsible for keeping these buildings safe and, where required, taking proportionate and robust intervention. To achieve this, we will deliver efficient and effective protection activity ensuring our services are accessible to all members of the community.
Develop our PRMS system and associated processes to identify opportunities to enhance productivity and efficiencies
Our goal is to respond to emergencies in the most effective and safe way, prioritising the protection of, and limiting damage to, life, property and the environment. To achieve this, we are dedicated to ensuring operational preparedness as we respond safely and efficiently to all incidents. This includes acting independently as a single Service, collaborating seamlessly with local or regional Services and other partners, and actively engaging with the National Resilience Capabilities.
Our goal is to optimise the contribution and wellbeing of everyone at BFRS. To achieve this, we are committed to being connected with our staff, ensuring wellbeing is prioritised and empowering all to be professional and ambitious in serving the community. This commitment starts from the moment someone expresses an interest in joining our Service. It continues throughout their working life with us, and even after they have left.
Establish a structured coaching and mentoring system to support the professional growth of all staff members
Our goal is to make sure that we deliver the best possible service and value for money with the finances and assets that we have been trusted with. To achieve this, we are committed to upholding the highest professional standards in financial management and ensuring the provision of top-tier facilities and equipment essential for our staff to deliver our duties to our community effectively and safely.
Our goal is to increase our use of data and business intelligence tools, through secure and resilient systems, to help us better understand and respond appropriately to the risks we, and our community, face. To achieve this, we will use technology to balance the need for security and resilience with the desire to innovate and introduce new, efficient ways of working.
As a public service we are committed to ensuring taxpayers’ money is spent efficiently. We work hard to ensure we deliver efficiencies without compromising on the quality of the services we deliver to the communities of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.
Our funding comes from a combination of council tax, central government grants, and business rates. Our total net budget for the Service is £42.7 million. To manage this budget, we produce a Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP), which outlines how we plan to manage our finances and respond to future financial challenges.
Our MTFP recognises the financial pressures that we face, including uncertainty around future funding levels, and the impact of increased costs e.g. National Insurance and inflation. Additionally, potential future costs are not yet fully accounted for, such as high court pension rulings and further operational requirements arising from the Manchester Arena Inquiry, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, and the Building Safety Act 2022, not already factored into the budget.
In 2024-2025 we successfully achieved our savings target of £238k (2.2% of our non-payroll budget) and will continue to meet the target of 2% efficiencies against non-payroll costs in 2025/26. We remain committed to investing in our Service with £8.5 million allocated for capital investment in our buildings, vehicles, and equipment.
How we spend our money | ||
Total Budget (£000) | £ | 42, 715 |
Employees | £ | 31,863 |
Premises | £ | 2,368 |
Transport | £ | 1,337 |
Supplies and Services | £ | 6,410 |
Income | -£ | 1,650 |
Capital Financing | £ | 2,387 |
Effective communication and engagement are essential for ensuring our plans and objectives are understood, supported, and acted upon. Clear, transparent communication fosters trust and strengthens relationships with staff, stakeholders, and the community.
Our Key Communication Principles ensure that all our messages are clear, consistent, and empathetic, guiding how we engage with both internal and external audiences. These principles are aligned with our core values of Integrity, Compassion, and Respect:
These principles will guide our communication efforts and will be embedded into our branding standards to ensure consistent messaging across all channels.
Our goal is to enhance communication both internally and externally, ensuring alignment with Service objectives. We aim to foster trust, encourage active engagement, and ensure that feedback is captured and used effectively to guide planning and decision making and support the delivery of our CRMP.
These actions provide the structure and tools to engage meaningfully with our staff, stakeholders, and the public. They also ensure that feedback is captured and incorporated, creating a two-way communication process that fosters collaboration and transparency.
It is important that management, strategic oversight and governance is in place to ensure that we deliver on our promises made within this plan. We have realigned our internal governance structure to support delivery of the objectives and enablers contained with this CRMP.
The Service Delivery Group will ensure delivery against all our objectives, while the people, and finance and assets delivery groups will ensure the enabling functions are working effectively to support delivery of the objectives. The delivery groups will all report into the CRMP Performance and Programme Boards to maintain strategic oversight of directorate plans and to ensure performance and risk is co-ordinated across all departments.
Ongoing analysis of performance data supports decision-making across the service. Management teams review and monitor data and information regularly. The CRMP Performance Board monitors performance across the Objectives and Enablers on a monthly basis.
The Programme Board is established to drive and support the change required to deliver our Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) and Annual Delivery Plan, by providing strategic direction, monitoring progress, and addressing any issues that may arise during the execution of projects.
Strategic oversight will be provided by the Strategic Leadership Board and ultimately the Fire Authority (and its committees). The Fire Authority consists of elected Members and is responsible for making decisions on policy, finance, and resources.
Corporate Risk Management is integral to our daily operations and service management, ensuring the protection of assets and reputation while supporting strategic priorities. Our Risk Management Framework outlines how we manage risks at all levels within the service, linking into broader processes for consistency.
Achievement of our objectives is influenced by various internal and external factors, creating uncertainty and risk. To address this, we have developed a comprehensive Risk Management Policy and framework for monitoring and managing risks. Each risk is scored on a Matrix (1-25) and recorded on the Risk Register. Strategic risks and high-scoring project or service plan risks are escalated to the Corporate Risk Register, monitored monthly by the Senior Leadership Team, and reported quarterly to the Audit and Governance Committee. Treatments are identified to minimise the likelihood or impact of risks, with regular reviews to monitor progress. Health and safety risks and community risks are managed separately through occupational health and safety management and the CRMP Programme.
To ensure high-quality services and cost-effective spending, we undertake a number of assurance activities.
1) Statement of Assurance
Our statement of Assurance is an annual document that confirms that we have effective arrangements for managing operational, financial and governance matters. It provides assurance to the Government, stakeholders, and the community that the service meets the requirements of the Fire and Rescue National Framework for England. This includes details on how the service ensures high standards in areas like prevention, protection, response, and resilience. This can be found on our website.
2) Audit Plan
Audits are an important part of providing the Fire Authority and the public with the assurance that the Service is run properly and in ways that have been agreed by our Officers and Members. They demonstrate that the business is conducted in accordance with relevant legislation, Government expectations, good practice and organisational policy. The audits contribute towards the annual Statement of Assurance. Our Internal Annual Audit Plan is developed in collaboration with our auditors, Director of Finance & Assets, and approved by the Overview and Audit Committee. Each audit is linked to a risk on our Corporate Risk Register. In addition, a number of audits are performed on an annual basis to provide assurance around the effectiveness of internal controls.
3) His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS)
Independent assurance is provided by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS). HMICFRS inspects each fire and rescue service (FRS) approximately every two years, assessing 11 key areas that can be categorised into Effectiveness, Efficiency and People. We were first inspected in 2021 and again in 2023. Progress on the remaining cause of concern and areas for improvements identified by HMICFRS in the 2023 report have been incorporated into our plans and we continue to work to deliver the necessary changes.
We will be inspected again during 2025. The Inspection report will highlight any areas for improvement and potentially, causes for concern. Until HMICFRS have completed their inspection and published the report, these are unknown and so action plans to work on these will need to be scheduled into our planning and may affect our priorities and delivery of our Annual Plan. For more information on the inspection of Fire and Rescue Services, please visit the HMICFRS website.
4) Fire Standards
The Fire Standards Board was established to create and uphold professional standards for fire and rescue services across England. To date, 19 standards have been released, detailing the necessary measures that services could implement to achieve the desired outcome, as well as the expected benefits of meeting the standard.
To ensure a thorough understanding of our performance against the delivery plan, we produce monthly and quarterly reports that track our progress. These reports analyse data from various sources, supplemented by local intelligence, to identify areas for improvement and implement necessary actions.
Our Quarterly Performance Report is reviewed through our governance framework, providing four opportunities annually to scrutinise progress, implement actions, and ensure results. We will continue to measure success through KPIs and internal metrics like staff satisfaction surveys. Progress towards our priorities will be regularly monitored by the Programme Board and the Strategic Leadership Board and reported biannually to our governing fire and rescue service.
We will continue to embed our approach to evaluating our work, ensuring our services are evidence based.
The Building Safety Act (BSA) 2022 is a law that regulates the design, construction, and management of higher-risk residential buildings in England. The BSA was introduced in response to the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017.
A plan focusing on managing contaminants that firefighters may be exposed to, particularly in relation to vehicles, buildings, and equipment.
A strategic document used to assess and manage the risks faced by a community, focusing on reducing incidents and improving safety.
The Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is a cross- government, multi-agency programme that will deliver a new communication system to the emergency services and other public safety users throughout Great Britain.
Online training sessions for people who work with or support people across Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes to help them identify and reduce the risk of fire.
The Fire and Rescue National Framework for England is a strategic plan for managing risks that are too large or complex for local resources to handle. The framework is part of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004.
The Fire Standards Board has been set up to oversee the identification, organisation, development and maintenance of professional Standards for fire and rescue services in England.
A high-speed railway project in the UK that may pose new infrastructure challenges and risks for emergency services.
A service provided by fire services to assess and improve fire safety in homes, particularly for vulnerable individuals.
A set of guidelines developed for fire and rescue services to ensure consistent and safe operational practices across the country.
Refers to a country’s ability to withstand, adapt to, and recover from major disruptions like natural disasters, terrorist attacks, or economic crises, by maintaining essential functions and systems across its social, economic, environmental, and infrastructure sectors.
National Fire Chiefs Council is the professional voice of the UK fire and rescue service. NFCC drives improvement and development throughout the UK FRS, while supporting strong leadership.
A program focused on reviewing our On-Call provision to ensure the right resources are in place to meet 2025 – 2030 response standards.
A system we use to identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with various properties and locations within a community.
A process developed by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) that prioritises fire safety inspections of premises based on risk. It is part of the NFCC’s Community Risk Programme (CRP), which aims to reduce community risk and vulnerability.
A structured approach for identifying, assessing, and managing risks that could affect the performance and objectives of the fire service.
A review process aimed at ensuring the safety and well-being of vulnerable individuals in the community, particularly those at risk of harm.
A system for providing firefighters with specific information about the risks associated with a particular site or building.
A ‘one-stop shop’ of applied learning resources for teachers and community safety practitioners to call upon, when delivering key messages.
A program designed to develop and nurture talent within the fire service, focusing on career development and succession planning.
A collaborative unit between fire services and Police in the Thames Valley region dedicated to investigating fire incidents and their causes.
A system for managing emergency response operations within the Thames Valley area, specifically the dispatch of resources during incidents.
A program or function designed to engage and support young people within the community, particularly in relation to fire safety and prevention initiatives.
