What we do and why
We are your fire and rescue service, here to save lives and help make our county even safer 24 hours a day - every day.
What we do
Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) provide a variety of services ranging from attending fires and road crashes, to water and animal rescues. We help prevent fires by visiting people in their homes, schools and colleges, our water rescue units help people who are struggling in water, and our crews are there to help rescue anyone involved in road traffic crashes.
We visit and advise businesses on how to ensure their premises are safe for themselves and their customers. We work with other organisations such as the ambulance service, local authorities and the National Fire Chiefs Council, and undertake research to help everyone live safer lives.
Read about what we do and how below....
The services we provide
As well as responding to emergencies across the county, Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) work together with the people of Kent and Medway to help them stay safe in their homes, businesses and on the road.
We provide home safety advice and visits, as well as family-friendly open days and events.
For businesses, we have a responsibility to carry out fire safety inspections, ensure businesses have carried out a fire risk assessment and meet fire safety standards. We are also here to help businesses understand what they need to do and offer friendly and helpful advice.
On the road and inland water, KFRS respond to emergencies, provide safety information and education, and training for road users.
For schools and colleges we provide learning programmes as well as fire safety interventions.
Our customer promise
Our customers lie at the heart of everything we do. Everyone at Kent Fire and Rescue Service works together as one team to keep the people of Kent and Medway safe. Our commitment to our customers is set out in our Customer Promise which details our commitment to:
- provide excellent services
- keep improving by working with our customers
- provide personalised and accessible services
- maintain your trust
Our vision, aim and objectives
Our vision, aim and objectives
Our vision
A future where no one is killed or seriously injured by a fire or other emergency.
Our aim and objectives:
We provide a wide range of services to our customers, in their homes, on the roads or across our community. These services are grouped together under our four objectives:
- Responding effectively in times of need.
- Promoting behaviours to help everyone stay safe and well in their home.
- Encouraging safer behaviours on the roads and near inland water.
- Supporting businesses to keep their buildings safe and comply with legislation
Our performance
The Authority works in four-year strategy periods when developing its plans. This helps us to understand current and emerging risks and issues and identify what we need to focus on to reduce these and improve our services.
We monitor our performance against our plans and publish information annually to show how we are performing. You can find further information on our performance page.
In addition to monitoring our performance, we also constantly evaluate our work and projects in a mid and end stage learning review, debriefing at all levels to evaluate performance.
We have evaluated our last strategy period through a series of workshops and reviews to learn and improve, allocate resources, and provide accountability and transparency.
Learn more in our 'Delivery plan - evaluation of progress' information.
Values and culture
In March 2023, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services published their report ‘Values and culture in fire and rescue services’ containing 35 recommendations, 20 of which were directed at Fire and Rescue Services. You can read that report here.
Kent Fire and Rescue Service are proud to have completed all 20 of these recommendations assigned to us, together with one national recommendation.
To read more please go to our 'Progress so far - March 2024' Report and our Standards of Behaviour - the handling of misconduct in the fire and rescue services report.