Key strategic achievements - 2025 to 2026
In addition to the service priorities, the following key strategic achievements were also delivered during 2025 to 2026.
Response
Throughout 2025 to 2026, LFR has continued to maintain a resilient and effective response capability, ensuring resources remain aligned to:
- community risk
- operational demand
- the requirements of the community risk management plan
The service has continued to review its response arrangements through the assured level of response (ALOR) framework, ensuring that fire engines, specialist resources and operational personnel are positioned to provide an appropriate level of emergency response across the county.
Additional investment has been made to strengthen resilience and capacity within the joint fire control function. This has included the introduction of dedicated day staff roles to provide greater oversight and support for key areas of work, including crewing management, training coordination and assurance of compliance with National Operational Guidance (NOG). These arrangements provide increased capacity to support operational preparedness, maintain workforce competence and ensure that mobilising and operational procedures remain aligned to national standards and best practice.
The enhanced control function also supports improved governance and operational assurance by providing greater focus on:
- workforce planning
- training delivery
- policy review
- operational learning
This investment ensures that the service remains well positioned to respond effectively to incidents whilst maintaining compliance with national requirements and supporting continuous improvement across operational response activities.
From January 2026, twelve operational watch managers returned to frontline fire engines following consultation earlier in 2025. This change has provided LFR with more resilience and has reduced overtime pressure, whilst strengthening leadership and operational command at our wholetime stations. The next phase of the response review is now underway, and this will identify improvements which will enhance operational resilience, and further align LFR’s resources to community risks.
Prevention and protection
During 2025 to 2026, LFR continued to strengthen its partnership arrangements with local authority housing and building control teams to support the implementation of evolving fire safety legislation and improvements in building safety standards. Regular engagement and information sharing arrangements have been established to improve communication between organisations, enhance understanding of emerging risks and support early intervention where fire safety concerns are identified. This collaborative approach has enabled partners to work collectively to improve compliance, promote best practice and support responsible persons in meeting their legal obligations.
A notable achievement during the year has been the successful establishment of two new fire cadet units through external funding secured from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The units have been strategically located within communities identified through risk and vulnerability data, ensuring investment is directed towards areas where youth engagement and development can deliver the greatest social value. The expansion of the fire cadet programme provides young people with opportunities to develop:
- confidence
- resilience
- leadership skills
- community awareness, whilst supporting wider objectives relating to:
- social inclusion
- personal development
- future employability.
Robust quality assurance arrangements across both prevention and protection functions were maintained to ensure activities were delivered consistently, professionally and in accordance with legislative requirements, national standards and local policies. Outcomes from home fire safety visits, fire safety audits, inspections and business engagement activities were reviewed to ensure interventions are appropriately targeted, recorded accurately and achieving the intended outcomes. Findings from quality assurance activity are reported through established governance arrangements, enabling trends, learning opportunities and areas for improvement to be identified and acted upon.
Organisational support
The organisational support department continues to play a critical role in enabling LFR to deliver safe, effective and efficient services to the communities of Lincolnshire. This year the department has led several significant programmes of work focused on strengthening operational resilience, modernising infrastructure and supporting the long-term sustainability of the service.
A key achievement during the year has been securing and progressing capital investment for the replacement of frontline operational assets. Following approval of capital funding, work commenced on the next phase of the appliance replacement programme, ensuring the service continues to maintain a modern, reliable and fit-for-purpose fleet. The project has progressed through the initial planning and procurement stages, with significant stakeholder engagement undertaken to ensure future appliances meet operational requirements, support firefighter safety and remain aligned to emerging risks and technological developments.
The department has also overseen the implementation of a new control mobilising system, representing a significant investment in operational infrastructure and emergency response capability. The new system will enhance resilience, improve mobilising functionality and provide greater flexibility to support future developments in emergency call handling and resource mobilisation. The project forms part of a wider programme of investment in control room technology and station-end equipment, ensuring operational systems remain robust, reliable and aligned to national standards and best practice.
Supporting firefighter safety remains a key priority and significant progress has been made in delivering the service's contaminants project. Building on national learning and emerging evidence relating to firefighter exposure to contaminants, work has continued to develop and embed safe systems of work designed to minimise exposure to harmful substances. This has included the review of operational procedures, investment in equipment, improvements to decontamination processes and the development of station-based arrangements that support contamination control before, during and after operational incidents.
The project has also focused on strengthening awareness and behavioural change across the workforce, ensuring that contamination management becomes embedded within everyday operational practice. Through the development of enhanced facilities, procedures and training, the Service continues to improve the protection of firefighters and staff, whilst supporting compliance with national guidance and best practice.
People
Our wholetime firefighter recruitment campaign was successfully launched, attracting over 500 applications and demonstrating strong interest in a career with LFR. Alongside this, succession plans have been developed across all leadership roles to support long-term workforce sustainability.
All operational commanders are now qualified through accredited incident command programmes, strengthening operational capability and capacity across the service. In response to the Grenfell Inquiry, investment has been made in enhancing incident command training and strategy, ensuring leaders are well prepared to respond effectively and confidently to complex operational incidents.
The team has continued to embed leadership development programmes at supervisory, middle, and senior levels, supported by a significant increase in the uptake of leadership apprenticeships across the workforce. This has further strengthened leadership capability at every tier.
Central support
The function brings together business continuity, communications, continuous improvement, risk and intelligence, and corporate assurance activities, providing a coordinated approach to organisational governance, performance and service development.
A significant achievement during the year was the coordination and facilitation of LFR's most recent HMICFRS inspection. Throughout the inspection process the central support function played a pivotal role in:
- preparing evidence
- coordinating inspection activity
- managing internal assurance processes
- supporting departments
This work provided assurance regarding organisational performance, governance and service delivery whilst helping to embed a culture of continuous improvement and self-assessment.
The business continuity function played a key role in supporting organisational preparedness in response to emerging national and international events. Throughout the year, planning assumptions and resilience arrangements were reviewed in light of evolving global conflicts and associated national resilience considerations. This work included assessing potential impacts on:
- supply chains
- fuel availability
- telecommunications
- workforce resilience
- critical infrastructure
Ensuring that the service remained prepared for a range of potential scenarios.
The communications team has continued to play a critical role in supporting organisational culture, engagement and leadership visibility. During 2025 to 2026, significant progress has been made in embedding the service's communications strategy, ensuring communications are planned, coordinated and aligned to organisational priorities. The continued development of communication channels, leadership messaging and staff engagement initiatives has strengthened internal communication and improved the consistency of information shared across the service.
Emergency planning and business continuity
Over the past 12 months the team have been involved in the response to 26 multi-agency incidents ranging from severe weather to suspect devices. The most notable of which was the collision of two vessels in the North Sea between the MV Solong and the Stena Immaculate. This necessitated us working jointly with Humber and Norfolk Local Resilience Forum (LRF’s) and the Marine and Coastguard Agency during the response. It gave us the opportunity to implement some of our innovation projects most notably mapping and the development of applications for use by the general public to report areas of pollution on the beaches.
During the last period the team have facilitated training across 24 different emergency planning related areas with 896 people attending training. This includes officers and elected members of the county council and LRF partner agencies. Two new business continuity e-learning courses went live this year, one for all staff and one for managers. We are also developing several new courses for next year.
Working with Lead Local Flood Authority we have been able to secure Defra funding which has enabled us to employ a dedicated community resilience officer on a two-year fixed term contract to promote community resilience in the county. There are 570 parish, ward and town council boundaries within the county and at present around 30% of these have either enrolled in the programme or have completed plans. This is very much seen as the start of this project and the service will be seeking further funding in the future.
Exercise Pegasus was delivered over September and November involving over 200 staff across the county. The scenario was based on a pandemic and a transference of disease from animals to humans. Feedback from central government has suggested that Lincolnshire has performed to a high standard.
Our business continuity management system underwent an internal audit during last October to November and the final report gave a rating of satisfactory. Recommendations from this audit have all now been implemented by the team. This year is year three of the business continuity cycle and the team will be facilitating exercises to validate critical service plans across the organisation.
The team reviewed the departmental service plan, and this new plan lifespan is 2026 to 2028. The new plan has five strategic objectives and 33 actions designed to achieve each of them. Progress will be monitored and reported through LFR programme management board. All staff appraisals are linked into the new service plan.