‘Too many words and not enough action’: Councillors rail against Shropshire fire service jargon
Councillors are pushing back against Shropshire fire service ‘copy-and-paste’ reports that are pages long, filled with acronyms and short of action.
The way that the Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority is run is being shaken up in the wake of a critical inspection report, with councillors taking on a greater scrutiny role.
A meeting in Shrewsbury this week heard that reports the fire authority receives are currently “transposed” from management reports to “to prevent duplication of effort”.
Councillors opened fire on the issue right from the start of a meeting of the standards, audit and performance committee on Tuesday (September 30).
Shropshire councillor Susan Coleman wanted much more information on what fire service leaders were doing to engage with frontline staff.
The Conservative councillor for Severn Valley said: “There is so many words in these documents and I find it difficult sometimes to pull out actions.
“I would like to know because for a very long time things were going on as they were until this inspection brought these things up.
“We need to be sure that what you’re doing is going to be effective this time. What are you doing, actually, in staff engagement forums?”
Later in the meeting Councillor Coleman said she was “stunned from what I found here”.
“It’s so far behind the times from the way the public sector has moved on.”
Councillor Coleman added that she believes the “language used everywhere” is “formal”.
Telford councillor Stephen Handley (Labour, St Georges), chairing the meeting, said: “These reports are very lengthy, very daunting with a lot of abbreviations.
“Some find it very hard to understand some of the quotes, so is there anything we can do to simplify it?”
Councillor Handley held up a four-page A4 list of acronyms used by the fire authority, including using FF for firefighter, CFO for chief fire officer, and COC for cause of concern.
“It’s mind-boggling really,” said Councillor Handley.
The fire service also uses BT&W to refer to the borough of Telford and Wrekin.
Councillor Handley said: “In Telford & Wrekin Council it’s TWC, here it’s BT&W.
“It’s a pity we don’t do the same so you don’t have to learn two languages.”
Chief fire officer Simon Hardiman said: “It will be no surprise that service management team reports are very similar to these and we transpose into a fire authority paper to prevent that duplication of effort.”
Mr Hardiman said they now have a member of the team who is from a business background where reports are action-focused.
“Next week, there’s a proposal coming – I’m not going to say get rid of these types of reports but almost turning that into a snappy presentation to focus on what’s really critical.”
Mr Hardiman said he would take issues into discussions with Telford & Wrekin Council which provides two days a week of admin support to the fire authority.
