FIREFIGHTERS from across the borough have been praised for their response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a report published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), the fire service were recognised for adapting to the pandemic.
Barnsley firefighters carried on delivering its core services and provided additional support to the community during the first phase of the pandemic.
Inspectors also found that staff wellbeing was made a clear priority for the service and praised senior leaders for actively promoting wellbeing services.
Alex Johnson, chief fire officer, said: “I’m so incredibly proud of the way staff from right across the service have responded to a really difficult situation and I’m pleased that so much of their hard work has been recognised by inspectors.
“Right at the start of the pandemic, I asked my staff to stand up and be counted at a time of enormous national need.
“Whether it was delivering food and medicine to isolated, vulnerable people, delivering PPE to frontline health workers or volunteering to drive ambulances and fit face masks, they stepped up in a really big way.
“Whilst the pandemic has presented us with some obvious challenges and taken a terrible toll on our communities, like so many organisations it has also helped us to make massive leaps forward in terms of modernising our ways of working and planning for and responding to disruptive events such as this in the future.
“Our next task is to ensure all that learning and all those improvements are adopted longer term,” said Alex.
