HMICFRS Inspection Reports
“I am immensely pleased to see that the Inspectorate has recognised the improvements we have made across the Service and the incredible work that all our staff do every day.”
Jonathon Pryce KFSM, Chief Fire Officer
What does a HMICFRS Inspection involve?
Since 2017, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) have undertaken inspections of England’s fire and rescue services on a 2-year cycle.
These inspections involve a 10-week process during which HMICFRS carry out their assessment on a service’s effectiveness, efficiency and how well it looks after its people.
In preparation for these inspections the service submits a host of policies, plans and procedures. This is then followed by a fieldwork phase, which is the ‘hands on’ part of the inspection in which inspectors visit wholetime and on-call fire stations, hold several focus groups with members of staff and conduct interviews and desktop exercises with staff and senior managers.
HMICFRS Inspection 2026
In 2026, over 150 staff engaged with the inspection team throughout the course of the inspection. HMICFRS staff fed back that the experience was positive without exception.
This report clearly shows that Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (HWFRS) is delivering high-quality services to the communities across all 10 of the judgement areas. HWFRS has been graded ‘Good’ in nine and ‘Adequate’ in only one area. This is an improvement on the previous report in 2023 and major improvement from the report published in 2021. This report also shows a significant reduction in the number of Areas for Improvement highlighted by the inspectorate, with only three areas noted.
However, HWFRS will carefully evaluate the entire contents of the report and seek to find all learning which can be taken from the Inspectors report. HWFRS now aims to maintain and build on the high standards they have set for themselves.
This report highlights many areas of good performance, such as how we protect the public through fire regulation, how we are good at preventing fires and other risks, our response to a wide range of emergency incidents, to how we train and develop and lead people and how we ensure fairness and diversity across the organisation.