The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has launched the Economic and Social Value of Fire and Rescue Services Methodology.

The methodology, which was unveiled at their Autumn Conference on Friday 30^th September, was developed by the Community Risk Programme at NFCC who commissioned Nottingham Trent University to carry out the research. The research was informed by subject matter experts from across the UK FRS and by the Home Office.  

The methodology includes a report which sets out the value of Fire and Rescue Services activities using evidence-based methodologies which calculate the social return on investment and a tool into which the services can input their own data into.

A digital tool version of the tool, using the base methodologies, will be developed for release during 2023. 

The methodology will allow fire and rescue services to evaluate and understand the benefit and the financial impact of their response, prevention and protection activities.

This is designed to support fire and rescue services in their community risk management planning and help to inform their resource allocation. 

Project Executive, ACFO Dan Quinn from Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “This ground-breaking piece of work will allow fire and rescue services to show the extent of their contribution to their communities and also provide a clear picture of the value of the Fire Service to the UK economy.

“I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in this project including Dr. Florian Biermann, Dr. Michael Hewitt, Dr. Ian Greatbatch, all the subject matter experts and key stakeholders who have been involved, along with the CRP programme team at NFCC, the ESV project board and CRP programme executive CFO Phil Loach

“I’m sure it will deliver real benefits for fire and rescue services and their communities.”

To support the launch a video has been produced which provides information about how services can use the methodology:

The methodology is available on UKFRS.com