Clients Needs

The modernisation agenda of the National Fire and Rescue Service had increased the pace of change and the range of initiatives to be introduced in many regional services. Simultaneous with this, a new executive management team was introduced into the Shropshire service. Other internal changes, coupled with the demands of the national agenda, meant that teams were focusing on simply getting the job done, sometimes to the at the expense of other departments and their equally important but sometimes competing priorities.

The Solution

In partnership with the senior leadership team, the Colour Works developed and delivered learning programmes and one-to-one coaching with staff from supervisory to senior level over a 12-month period. The programmes improved understanding of individual differences, enhanced interpersonal relationships and people management techniques, and broke down barriers between the company’s different directorates. Further workshops were run with operational support staff to cascade the learning further within the organisation.

The Results

12 months after initiating the programme, follow-up workshops were held with the senior team, which helped consolidate what they had learnt and to further develop techniques for effectively managing change in the future.  In the recent Audit Commission performance assessment of all Fire and Rescue Services, Shropshire FRS was rated as ‘good’ and ‘improving well’ and stood amongst the top Fire and Rescue Services in the country.