The Welsh Government have recently come under enormous pressure concerning fire and rescue services in Wales. Essentially, it’s been found that the culture of both South and North Wales services have been one that fails to properly address instances of sexual harassment, bullying, sexism, intimidation and nepotism.
A damning report published in January uncovered systematic failure in South Wales Fire Service to discipline staff appropriately, and the problem appears to stem from close-knit relationships between senior management and some of the firefighters. It appears that this issue is also prevalent in North Wales where firefighters recently had to resort to whistleblowing to ITV News just to get their grievances even acknowledged.
Not only is it very concerning that hard-working and dedicated firefighters are having to live with such poor working conditions, but many are deeply worried that the poor public image this has created is further damaging firefighter recruitment in Wales, something that has been a problem for many years.
The fact is, the Welsh Government and those they appoint are simply not listening to the concerns of firefighters. Immediately after publication of the report, four commissioners were appointed to take over the running of South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, and unbelievably they appointed an interim chief fire officer, who himself is facing a tribunal to answer bullying allegations. This quite rightly sparked a furious backlash from the Fire Brigades Union who refused to accept him.
The situation is dire and since January, I have been calling for an all-Wales review. It took however, over two months before the Deputy Minister responsible listened and announced further independent reviews for North Wales and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue.
Having met with a commissioner and firefighter communities, it is clear a major overhaul of the Welsh Fire Service is needed. As Shadow Minister for Social Partnership, I will continue to call out the Welsh Government on their delayed and inadequate responses and fight for current and former fire and rescue employees who believe they aren’t being heard. It is wholly unacceptable that our fire and rescue services should have been allowed to get to this state and I will be working my hardest to make sure that the Welsh Government do not just sweep this under the table.
ENDS
