Our Ambition: Making West Yorkshire Safer

To improve community safety and wellbeing, reduce the risk to life, property and the environment from fire and other emergencies.

Our Guiding Principles

To achieve our ambition, we will:

• Focus on risk and vulnerability
• Be part of our communities
• Work in partnership
• Be at our best and strive to improve
• Make a positive difference in everything we do
• Promote diversity and create an inclusive workplace

Our Priorities

• This plan sets out how we aim to use our resources to manage the risks we face in West Yorkshire and keep you safe from fire and other emergencies
   Improve the safety and effectiveness of our firefighters.
• Promote the health, safety, and well-being of all our people.
• Encourage a learning environment in which we support, develop, and enable all our people to be at their best.
• Focus our prevention and protection activities on reducing risk and vulnerability.
• Provide ethical governance and value for money.
• Collaborate with partners to improve all of our services.
• Work in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.
• Achieve a more inclusive workforce, which reflects the diverse communities we serve.
• Continuously improve using digital and data platforms to innovate and work smarter.
• Plan and deploy our resources based on risk.

Delivering Our Priorities

Plan and deploy our resources based on risk:

• We will continue to manage and monitor the risk within Calderdale and ensure that our operational response is appropriate to the risks identified.
• We will ensure the availability of specialist equipment, vehicles, and personnel in areas where risk is identified as requiring a specialist response.
• Improve the safety and effectiveness of our firefighters.
• We will undertake training and exercising to ensure a safe response to risk identified in Calderdale.
• We will continue our training days with partner agencies including EA Flood Wardens, Local Authority Community Wardens, National Trust, Landowners and Emergency Planning to improve how we respond to Flood and Wildfire across Calderdale.

Promote health, safety, and wellbeing for all our people:

• We will continue to ensure our stations and workplaces are fit for purpose and have the appropriate risk assessments in place.
• We will continue to ensure that appropriate welfare arrangements are in place for our district team.
• We will further work with the departments in the development of contaminants and clean cab work streams across our district stations.
• Encourage a learning environment in which we support, develop, and enable our people to be at their best. 
• We will continue to nurture talent and provide support for those expressing an interest in developing and progressing within the service.
• We will continue to maintain the competence of all service delivery staff via quarterly themed development sessions.
• We will continue to work with partners to identify opportunities for multi partner development.

Focus our prevention and protection activities on reducing risk and vulnerability:

• We will continue to enhance our partnerships with social housing providers within Calderdale to ensure that high risk and vulnerable members of our communities are identified, and work is carried out to improve their safety and wellbeing.
• We will use a data led approach to target our most vulnerable residents through safe and well visits and community action days.
• We will work with Calderdale Council and multi-agency partners to identify vulnerable residents in areas prone to flooding and ensure a proactive approach.
• We will continue to work with and learn from our communities in response to engagement activities and incidents.

Provide ethical governance and value for money:

• We will continue to explore opportunities to be more efficient in how we operate.
• We will continue in the implementation of new ways of working at Todmorden Fire Station.
• We will ensure the best use of district resources in providing an efficient and value for money response to incidents.

Collaborate with partners to improve all of our services:

• We will carry out multi agency exercises based around our risk profiles within Calderdale.
• We will work with blue light and local authority partners to develop robust plans for our high-risk areas including North Bridge and our river and canal networks.

Work in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way:

• We will implement a recycling programme at all Calderdale stations.
•  We will continue to look at efficient ways of working to reduce travelling, paper and waste within Calderdale District.

Achieve a more inclusive workforce, which reflects the diverse communities we serve:

• We will continue to deliver positive recruitment messages during all service delivery contact.
• We will work with our blue light partners to develop community engagement and positive action opportunities.
• We will continue our successful recruitment campaign for Mytholmroyd.

Continuously improve using digital and data platforms to innovate and work smarter:

• We work with data to reduce unnecessary demand on our service to build capacity for other work.
• We apply risk modelling to identity the most vulnerable in our communities in order to deliver targeted interventions.