Release date: 3 December 2025
West Sussex County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the Fire and Rescue Service Strategic Performance Report and the Quarterly Performance and Resources Report on Friday 28 November.
The committee heard how the service performed in the second quarter of 2025/2026 and were presented with a six-monthly progress update on the Community Risk Management Plan 2022-2026.
Of the 30 performance measures that WSFRS is benchmarked against, 25 had a green status, three were amber, and two were red. Of the two measures that were red last quarter, the percentage of Very High Risk Safe and Well Referrals contacted within one working day had returned to green status while on-call availability remained in red status.
Strong performance has been demonstrated in emergency call handling times and response times to critical incidents this quarter with the targets being exceeded for both core measures.
The committee were also presented with the service’s quarterly performance and resources report which sets out the corporate performance, finance, workforce, risk and capital programme positions as at the end of September 2025.
The report highlighted that all four performance measures are reporting as green status and the fire and rescue service is currently projecting a balanced budget. It also referenced Platinum House receiving a ‘Highly Commended’ award by the Sussex Heritage Trust, the arrival of two new 18-tonne water carriers at Petworth and Shoreham Fire Stations, and the successful fire station open days held across the county this summer.
A new Emergency Response Standard core measure was introduced in July measuring the response times of the first fire engine at critical incidents. Quarter two has seen strong performance against this core measure which has supported the proactive management of risk in the community.
The Community Risk Management Plan update highlighted the progress made against the five strategic priorities in the plan over the last six months. During quarter one there was a focus on the completion of the HMICFRS inspection followed by a demonstration of the progress made against the recommendations in quarter two.
Councillor Jacky Pendleton, Vice-Chairman of the scrutiny committee, said: “We were pleased to see the continued progress and strong performance delivered by West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service.
“These results reflect the dedication of the teams who work hard to keep our communities safe. We will continue to provide robust scrutiny to ensure that challenges such as retained firefighter availability are addressed and that the service remains responsive to the needs of residents."
You can watch the meeting back here.
