The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has dubbed County Durham & Darlington Fire & Rescue Service (CDDFRS) a national forerunner for implementing National Operational Guidance into its organisation.

CDDFRS seconded Station Manager Ian Moore to the NFCC during the development of National Operational Guidance. During this time, Moore worked closely with fire services from across the UK and gained a thorough understanding of how to implement and embed National Operational Guidance into his Service when he returned.

The department has been actively rooted into their Northeast regional working group which includes three other services and has worked to improve collaboration and ease the burdens of implementing National Operational Guidance on each of the respective organisations.

On a wider scale, it has directly engaged with around 28 other fire and rescue services from across the UK to share their experiences, documentation and strategic framework, ensuring that they are helping to drive the Fire Reform agenda across the sector and not just on a local level. 

Once CDDFRS completed its implementation, it put in place mechanisms to ensure the ongoing maintenance of risk assessments, procedures, and training packages as part of its business as usual. Since the project finished front line staff have commented that they find it easy to access the information needed to ensure an effective operational response to incidents.

The NFCC Implementation Team identified that the practice of sharing experience would help to move the fire and rescue sector forward and has now signposted other services to contact CDDFRS and share good practice nationally, hoping to establish a more efficient integration into many other services through shared experiential learning and National Operational Guidance good practice.

The NFCC Implementation Team said that the efforts of CDDFRS, in actively sharing their National Operational Guidance outcomes and their journey, has been instrumental in some fire and rescue services keeping pace with reforms across both operations and fire control, and that its willingness to help others is to be applauded.