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Purpose Values and Priorities

Our Purpose, Values and Priorities are at the centre of everything we do.

Whether responding to emergencies, working to prevent them happening in the first place or providing support, our firefighters, officers, Fire Safety and Community Safety teams, support staff and volunteers all play their part. 

We are proud to serve East Sussex and Brighton and Hove City. 

Our Values

Our Purpose

Reducing Risk, Savings Lives - Together

Our Values  

  • We willingly accept ACCOUNTABILITY, taking responsibility for our actions and decisions.
  • We have PRIDE in the service we provide, striving to meet the needs of our communities.
  • We demonstrate PERSEVERANCE in the face of challenges, staying committed and resilient in everything we do.
  • We RESPECT our colleagues and members of the community.
  • We embrace ADAPTABILITY, responding positively to change and continuously seek to improve the way we work.
  • We show INTEGRITY in our work, being open and honest.
  • We act with SELFLESSNESS, recognising we are here to protect and support our communities. We foster a positive and inclusive culture where teamwork, mutual respect and a shared commitment to service are at the heart of everything we do.
  • We show EMPATHY to the community and our colleagues, treating everyone with kindness, compassion and understanding.

Our Priorities   

Delivering our Community Offer

Our prevention, protection and response services are at the heart for what we offer to our community.

  • Strategic intentions 2025/2026
    • Understanding the risks of fire and other emergencies
    • Preventing fires and other risks
    • Protecting the public through fire regulation
    • Responding effectively to fire and other emergencies
    • Responding to major and multi-agency incidents

Refining our Enabling Offer

It is critical we align our enabling services (such as People Services, Information Technology, Estates and Fleet Management) to our community offer to ensure we have the right people, processes and equipment.

  • Strategic intentions 2025/2026
    • Getting the right people with the right skills.

Achieving Financial Sustainability

We will set out, through our Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP), how we will balance our budget over the next 5 years, achieve financial sustainability and manage financial risks to maintain our community offer as far as is possible within the available funding.

We will seek to continue to invest in people, estate and equipment, exploring new funding opportunities where this cannot be achieved within our own budgets.

  • Strategic intentions 2025/2026
    • Making the best use of resources and making the fire and rescue service affordable now and in the future.

Sustaining a High Performing Workforce

We want our Service to be a place where people enjoy and feel valued in their work, where they are treated with dignity and respect.

Our people are multi-skilled professionals, who support multiple agencies in both response and during risk reduction activities.

The professional standards we aspire to increase our effectiveness, protect everyone involved and ensure a reliable service for the public.

  • Strategic intentions 2025/2026
    • Promoting the right values and culture, and developing leaders

Improving our Service Performance

With a modernised performance framework, we will evidence how we deliver our purpose of reducing risk and saving lives – together.

This will be delivered through implementing a refreshed intelligence led, performance management system, to deliver improved decision making, enhanced outcomes, improved performance, and reduced effort and waste.

  • Strategic Intentions 2025/26
    • Managing performance

We are committed to the national Core Code of Ethics 

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