Greater Manchester’s Fire and Rescue Service will ‘never be free of culture issues’, its Chief has admitted, but insists it is improving.

Dave Russel, who joined the fire brigade four years ago, and previously hit the headlines when he banned staff from calling firefighters ‘firemen’.

He has since been instrumental in turning the service around.

But now, the Chief Fire Officer has admitted problems will always be present in the 1,800-strong workforce, but insists that things will continue to move in the right direction.

READ MORE: Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service 'bans' use of fireman

“We’re never going to be a service that is free of issues but we are, and we will become, a service where perhaps the volume of issues that we’ve been dealing with [has] the trajectory [going] downwards,” he said.

The last inspectors’ report, conducted in 2023/24, into GMFRS rated its ‘promotion of the right values and culture’ as ‘good’, a significant upgrade on the ‘requires improvement’ seen two years previously.

But Mr Russel said it’s up to every staff member to keep up the work: “It’s not our policies or procedures that regulate the system. 

“It’s human beings and employees. It’s their interactions that regulate the system, and people having the confidence to call it out, intervene and try and prevent things from escalating by dealing with things early on.”

He was speaking as the police and fire Minister, Dame Diana Johnson, visited the brigade’s training HQ on Thursday (September 26).

During her visit who spoke to staff, who told her they want to see women and people with a faith treated fairly, she said.