England’s fire brigades rife with ‘pockets of abhorrent behaviour’

Fire brigades across England are rife with “pockets of abhorrent behaviour” such as sexist, racist and homophobic language, an investigation has found.

The firefighting inspectorate discovered that almost a quarter of brigades were culpable with their behaviour excused as “old-school banter”, according to a report into allegations of a toxic culture.

It outlined how managers “failed to challenge behaviour so they could remain popular” and that staff spoken to in the investigation “felt they couldn’t report inappropriate behaviour for fear of reprisals”.

There were allegations of bullying in all services, with some being “far worse than others”, stated the report, which looked specifically at the handling of misconduct across 10 services chosen to be representative of all 44 fire services in England.

These were Cornwall, Dorset and Wiltshire, Greater Manchester, Humberside, Kent, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Tyne and Wear, and West Midlands.

His Majesty’s inspector of fire and rescue services, Roy Wilsher, labelled the toxic culture present in some fire services as “unacceptable” and said more needed to be done to tackle the underlying issues.

He said: “Since we began inspecting the fire and rescue sector in 2018, we have highlighted the urgent need for services to tackle misconduct and to improve their culture. I am pleased to see the beginnings of improvements.

“It’s clear that senior leaders are focused on improving values and culture. But there is still much more work to be done. We found some deeply troubling pockets of abhorrent behaviour, such as bullying, harassment and discrimination. This was most often found on watches. This is unacceptable and must be challenged.”

The issues were particularly acute among watches – teams of firefighters and service staff who work together on the same shift.

“Watches can be a source of strength when watch members support one another in dealing with their sometimes harrowing work. However, we found that cultures in tightly knit watches and some on-call stations can become toxic when they form ‘in groups’ and ‘out groups’,” the report said.

It added: “We found a wide variety of unacceptable behaviours on watches. These included sexist, racist and homophobic language, sometimes excused as ‘dark humour’ or ‘old-school banter’. But these behaviours are unacceptable, unprofessional and highly upsetting and alienating to colleagues.”

Some staff complained of a “boys’ club” and there were a number of allegations of sexual harassment and assault that were not dealt with decisively enough, the report found.

It said: “We examined one case in which a recruit was bullied on a team WhatsApp group, which escalated to allegations of sexual assault that were under investigation at the time of our inspection. In another service, we found a case in which a trainee firefighter sexually assaulted a colleague on the initial training course.”

When it came to experiences of racism, many staff believed it was “an ingrained problem”. “They said that in their opinion they were treated differently to their colleagues because of the way they look,” the report added.

In July 2023, Suella Braverman, the then home secretary, commissioned His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to undertake an inspection of the handling of misconduct in fire and rescue services in England after a report into London Fire Brigade found it was “ institutionally misogynist and racist ”.

The latest report outlined 15 recommendations to chief fire officers, fire and rescue authorities and others, including the need for each service to have access to a professional standards function to support fair and transparent misconduct investigations, and to introduce the right training and support for all staff investigating misconduct.

Mark Hardingham, the chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council, welcomed the report, saying it is “right to call for further action where abhorrent behaviour still exists”.

“Real and lasting change can only be achieved when we identify and promote good practice across fire and rescue services and work in collaboration with partners,” he added. “To realise the ambitions set out in the report and its recommendations … then fire and rescue services will need to be sustainably funded both now and in future years.”