Our Statutory Duties

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (NYFRS) plays a crucial role in making our communities safer. We do this by preventing and protecting people from fire and other risks, and by responding effectively to emergencies when they occur.

We fulfil the Government’s priorities in the Fire and Rescue National Framework (2018) which requires fire and rescue authorities to:

• make appropriate provision for fire prevention and protection activities and response to fire and rescue related incidents;
• identify and assess the full range of foreseeable fire and rescue related risks their areas face;
• collaborate with emergency services and other local and national partners to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the service they provide;
• be accountable to communities for the service they provide; and,
• develop and maintain a workforce that is professional, resilient, skilled, flexible and diverse.

We must ensure that we make provision for:

• extinguishing fires;
• protecting life and property in the event of fires;
• rescuing and protecting people in the event of a road traffic collision; and
• rescuing and protecting people in the event of other emergencies.

Integrated Risk Management Plan

For each Fire and Rescue Service in England, these statutory duties are built into an Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) that is developed and owned by each Service.

“Every Fire and Rescue Authority must assess all foreseeable fire and rescue related risks that could affect their communities, whether they are local, cross-border, multi-authority and/or national in nature from fires to terrorist attacks. Regard must be had to Community Risk Registers produced by Local Resilience Forums and any other local risk analyses as appropriate.” Fire and Rescue National Framework for England 2018

The Chief Fire Officer produces an IRMP covering at least a 3-year period. This is known locally in North Yorkshire as our Risk and Resource Model (RRM). We’ve called it the RRM because its aim is to improve community safety by reducing risk through making the best use of our resources, such as our fire engines and our people. We need to provide communities with a service that is ‘value for money’ whilst also making sure we provide a safe working environment for our firefighters.

Our RRM planning framework is aligned to the national framework produced by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC).

Community Risk Profile

The resources that we put in place will be based on an assessment of risk across the Service area. We call our assessment of risk the Community Risk Profile (CRP). Our research and understanding of the factors that create risk have been considered, based on a wide range of information from a variety of sources. This has helped us to prioritise the risks we need to focus on: accidental dwelling fires leading to death and serious injury, road and water.

Information is also included about social, environmental, technological and infrastructural changes so that we have a good understanding of the issues which are likely to affect our communities and our Service in future years.

The data and information we have used is:

• relevant;
• reliable;
• based on a suitable sample size;
• validated; and,
• sustainable.

This analysis helps us to understand the needs of our communities so that we can shape our prevention, protection, and emergency response interventions and bolster community resilience. Based on all this information we now have a better view of what, where and why risk exists in our county. We have a deeper understanding of the risk factors and hazards that increase the likelihood of our services being needed. More importantly, it allows us to understand how and where we can intervene early to reduce the need for our emergency response.

To ensure we keep abreast of changes to our existing risks, as well as emerging or future projected risks, we will regularly update our Community Risk Profile.

Our understanding of risk has improved through the development of this Community Risk Profile which helps us to shape our services for the future to help our communities be safe and feel safe.