Independent Culture Review Publication

Chief Fire Officer Huw Jakeway QFSM chose to commission an Independent Culture Review into South Wales Fire and Rescue Service in December 2022, amidst media reports around abusive behaviour from current and ex-colleagues of the Service.  

The Independent Culture Review covers the culture within the Service, our disciplinary processes and procedures, and seven years of historic cases. Fenella Morris KC was appointed to lead the independent review in February 2023 and ran a series of location visits, one-to-one interviews with anyone volunteering to share their experiences, focus groups, an online survey and desktop research. Today, 3rd January 2024, we officially receive and publish the complete Independent Culture Review. 

This is an exhaustive Independent Culture Review, going further than many others. It covers the culture within the Service via a survey which 450+ staff completed, plus 60 exit interviews, 128 disciplinary cases over seven years and 81 processes and procedures. The Review team dealt with confidential emails from 200 current and former staff and others, held 150 interviews, went on 15 site visits including 11 stations and held five focus groups for 45 people in total. These are just some of the headline statistics in Fenella Morris KC’s report.   

The report received today, and an open letter from Chief Fire Officer Huw Jakeway QFSM, are now published on 3rd January 2024. Welsh language versions will follow, at a later date.  

Please click the links for the following: 

Report from Fenella Morris KC

Open letter from CFO Huw Jakeway QFSM

If you have any feedback on the report, please email it to hys@southwales-fire.gov.uk