Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service

Our work in suicide prevention

We have resolved to do everything in our power to reduce the risk of deaths in our fire service and to progress the conversation with other Fire and Rescue Services across the country. Given the complexity of suicide, we consider prevention and promoting wellbeing to be the most important approach.

We are focused on extensively exploring and sharing our wellbeing and suicide prevention work; our work will be driven by best practice and the most up to date research, embedded in the lived experience of our teams and co-designed by them, and unequivocally prioritised by our leadership. We are supported by an external advisory panel.

Our current priorities

Our priorities have been defined based on our organisational context and underpinned by evidence from the Fire Fighters Charity and Nottingham Trent University, led by Professor Rowena Hill. These include building pride and purpose by ensuring all our people are proud to work for NFRS and feel valued and appreciated for the important work they do for their communities.

We aim to foster a culture where speaking up and sharing experiences is commonplace, psychological safety exists, and people are encouraged to share their problems and build resilience. Additionally, we strive to offer help proactively through initiatives designed to help people cope with emerging issues and provide targeted intervention through tailored support programmes and clinical interventions where needed.

Our current challenges

Fire and rescue staff are typically a harder to reach workforce, due to the majority being on-call fire fighters and working in other jobs as their primary employment.

Challenging ‘traditional’ views and encouraging staff to talk about their problems and/or seek mental health support.  Inclusion of all staff is key.