County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service is led by a Chief Executive supported by four directors each responsible for a particular function.

Service Leadership Team

The Service Leadership Team (SLT) comprising of Chief Executive, Directors and Heads of Service provide the Senior Executive Officer function within the Service. The Combined Fire Authority delegates to the SLT the effective management of the organisation and its resources, the delivery of the primary corporate, operational and support services and the execution of statutory responsibilities.

Service Management Team

The Service Management Team (SMT) comprises Heads of Service and section heads. The SMT has two specific remits:

• Making policy and strategy recommendations to SLT
• Scrutinising performance and holding managers to account for section and station performance.

Community Safety

Protecting and re-vitalising our communities is crucial to achieving our vision of Safest People, Safest Places and we are prepared to challenge and change the way we do things in order to ensure we deliver value for money in delivering services to those who need it most. The development of community safety in general and our Community Safety Strategy in particular has focused the prevention work of the Service and is at the heart of our drive to add value to the social, economic and environmental well-being of the communities in County Durham and Darlington. The purpose of the strategy is to provide an effective framework which will enable the Service to focus on delivering a targeted, preventative and proactive approach to community fire safet and to ensure active contribution to the wider community safety and community well-being agenda.

Organisational and People Development

The Organisational and People Development (OPD) Directorate is responsible for ensuring we have skilled employees working in a safe environment. The Fire and Rescue Service use the Safe Person Concept, which covers;

• Selection and training of competent people
• Providing supervision and instruction
• Provision of equipment
• Safe procedures and systems of work
• Providing risk information
• Personal protective equipment

To help ensure we meet these objectives various parts of the Directorate take the lead with different aspects of the Concept.

Corporate Services

The Corporate Services department is responsible for providing professional support functions to the Fire Authority. The Department comprises of the following teams: Premises, Finance, Transport and Corporate Planning and Performance.

Operations

The Operations Directorate including Service Control, is responsible for saving life, protecting property and the environment and rendering humanitarian services to the people and businesses of County Durham and Darlington.