Who we are
Every minute of every day, we are here to save lives and make our county even safer. We are a forward-thinking, modern fire and rescue service with a long and proud history. Together with our customers we are creating a safer future for Kent and Medway Towns.
Helping to keep people safe in their homes, where they work and in places of education. We are there for our customers when needed – whether it is a fire, a road crash, or a water rescue.
The service is formed of over 1,610 members of our team. We have 55 fire stations, a training centre, control centre and service headquarters all within Kent and Medway Towns. We also have around 50 volunteers available to support customers.
Prevention from harm is a big part of what we do. We have 21 Safe and Well officers who give a reassuring service to both the public and any member of our teams who may have encountered someone identified either through operational incidents or home fire safety visits as being 'at risk.' The team works closely with other agencies such as social services, mental health teams, local
authorities, housing associations and the police. Together they put high risk intervention measures in place, often at very short notice.
12,206 safe and well visits and 15,298 home fire safety visits were made in Kent and Medway Towns throughout 23/24. Customer facing colleagues involved in prevention, protection and response activities (such as safe and well visits or regulatory audits) follow established processes to report concerns, including those that may be related to modern slavery, to dedicated safeguarding teams.
We also have 16 designated safeguarding officers (DSOs) with 7 of these out-of-hours supported by a Safeguarding Lead and Safeguarding Case Manager. Our internal and external safeguarding processes make sure the service helps to protect the safety and welfare of children and adults at risk as our teams meet them during their work. We have a safeguarding policy and guidance that includes activities that are undertaken to protect specific children, young people and adults who are suffering, or likely to suffer, abuse harm or neglect. Our teams raised 468 safeguarding cases between April 2024 and March 2025.
Our customer promise sets out our commitment to all customers. Working with them we aim to create a safer future for Kent and Medway Towns. We promise to provide excellent, personalised and accessible services. We also promise to maintain our customers’ trust and to work with our customers to keep improving. Our promise, in many ways, is in line with our ambition included within this statement.
We are committed to a culture of listening and understanding to encourage everyone to be curious and compassionate. We have internal and external whistleblowing routes for colleagues to raise concerns to prevent and identify harm. This culture and practice not only help us all to value differences and be kind it means we are able to identify when someone is at risk of harm.
We don’t just comply with the relevant laws and practices on how we should treat colleagues, customers and anyone who comes into contact with our organisation. We extend our role beyond compliance by making sure we do not tolerate discrimination in our business practices, or the behaviours of anyone within our organisation or networks.
You can find out more information on who we are and what we do elsewhere on this website.