Nottinghamshire service picks up prestigious 'emergency service of the year' award

The ceremony took place in London in December 2024 and was attended by fire services from across the country.

This marks the first time the service has won this prestigious award, having been shortlisted the previous year but not securing a win.

Additionally, the service was shortlisted in three other categories: the corporate communication team was nominated for ‘team of the year’, the training centre was in contention for ‘training provider of the year’, and fire protection inspector Sophie Winterbottom was nominated for ‘most influential LGBTQIA+ individual in fire’.

Chief fire officer, Craig Parkin, said: “This is the culmination of several years’ worth of hard work from every single individual in the service.

“Whilst we have had a fantastic year, being rated GOOD by our HMICFRS inspectors this summer, I can’t stress enough, this has been many years in the making, and I want to thank every member of my team who has been involved.

“First, we will celebrate our success, and I will be joining everyone across the service in this.

“However, our focus will very quickly turn back to looking at what is next, and how we can do even more and work harder to make Nottinghamshire a safer place to work, live and visit.”

On Friday, December 6, the service received another national award, as the corporate communications team was named ‘small communications team of the year’ at the comms2point0 UnAwards, a well-established and highly respected industry awards ceremony.

Jack Grasby, senior communications manager, said: “As a team we are really proud to have picked up this award, against some really tough competition and after a very busy year, but we couldn’t have done it without our colleagues across the service – and this too is an award for us all.

“Our communications work seeks to inspire people to consider careers with us, make people safer, and support a range of other service aims.

“We also strive to keep people informed during large-scale incidents.

“This award gives us confidence that we are doing the right things, but we will of course continue to strive to be the best we can be and improve even further.”