Moving Forward: Developing a Framework for Change

About the Project

Moving Forward: Developing a Framework for Change is a collaborative research and organisational development project between the University of Huddersfield and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (NYFRS).

The project was established to develop a deeper, evidence-based understanding of organisational culture and the experiences of people working across NYFRS, while also moving beyond traditional approaches to cultural review. Rather than simply identifying challenges, the project placed staff at the centre of developing practical solutions for change.

Funded through the University of Huddersfield’s ESRC and AHRC Impact Acceleration Accounts, alongside support from NYFRS, the project brought together organisational research, psychological measurement, qualitative enquiry and large-scale co-production to create a framework for sustainable cultural development.

Project Overview

Fire and Rescue Services across the UK have faced increasing scrutiny around organisational culture, leadership, wellbeing, inclusion and workplace behaviour. Against this wider sector context, NYFRS sought to take a proactive and research-led approach to understanding its organisational culture and supporting long-term improvement.

Working in partnership with the University of Huddersfield, NYFRS adopted an approach that moved beyond a short-term organisational review. The project treated the Service as an active research partner and its workforce as participants in shaping the direction of cultural change. 

Research took place between November 2023 and May 2025, followed by further analysis, co-production and development of the resulting organisational frameworks and resources. The work examined the interactions between people, behaviours, leadership, organisational systems and the working environment, recognising that organisational culture is produced through the relationship between each of these elements. 

Aims and Objectives

The overarching aim of the project was to support NYFRS in developing an organisational culture that is inclusive, resilient and supportive of employee wellbeing, while strengthening its capacity to deliver effective and equitable services to the communities it serves.

The project had two central objectives:

• Understand the lived experience of staff across NYFRS, using quantitative and qualitative research to explore organisational culture, leadership, wellbeing, inclusion, belonging and organisational systems.
• Co-develop a research-informed framework for cultural development, translating research findings into practical resources and actions that could support leaders, teams and the wider organisation. 

A further objective was to establish an independent evidence baseline through which cultural change could be monitored over time and to generate learning capable of informing cultural development across the wider Fire and Rescue sector. 

Our Approach

The project used an extensive mixed-methods and co-production methodology, combining organisational psychology with in-depth qualitative research and staff-led solution development.

The first phase focused on understanding organisational culture and employee experience. A bespoke Fire Culture Monitor survey was developed using established psychological and organisational measures covering three interconnected areas:

Stress and Wellbeing; Leadership and Engagement; and Culture, Belonging and Equity.

A total of 285 employees submitted survey responses. This was complemented by 23 semi-structured interviews and nine focus groups involving colleagues from different roles, functions, seniority levels and locations across the Service. 

The second phase moved from understanding culture to co-producing change. Across 28 workshops involving 243 staff, employees worked through a structured Define, Develop, Refine process to explore organisational challenges, develop solutions and establish shared expectations about behaviour and leadership.

Rather than treating quantitative data, qualitative accounts and co-production as separate activities, the project integrated them into a cycle of understanding, co-design and implementation. 

Impact

A central achievement of Moving Forward has been translating organisational research into practical tools for change.

Working directly with staff, the project produced three major outputs:

• a Behavioural Framework, establishing shared expectations about values and everyday behaviours;
• a Leadership Charter, defining the principles and behaviours expected of leaders across NYFRS; and
• a programme of staff-led recommendations for change, developed through the project’s Solution Labs.

The project also established the Fire Culture Monitor as an evidence-based mechanism for understanding and tracking organisational culture, providing NYFRS with a baseline against which future changes in wellbeing, leadership, engagement, inclusion and employee experience can be assessed. 

Importantly, the project demonstrated an alternative model for organisational culture development within the Fire and Rescue sector: one based on independent research, sustained engagement and co-production rather than a one-off process of organisational review.

Looking Ahead

Moving Forward was designed as the beginning of a longer programme of cultural development rather than a standalone review.

The next stage is focused on embedding the Leadership Charter and Behavioural Framework across organisational practice, supporting implementation of the co-produced recommendations, and continuing to monitor cultural change through the Fire Culture Monitor.

The University of Huddersfield and NYFRS are continuing their partnership to support organisational learning, evaluate progress and develop further evidence about how culture, leadership and workforce wellbeing can be strengthened within Fire and Rescue Services.

The longer-term ambition is to translate learning from NYFRS into approaches and resources that can support evidence-informed cultural development across the wider UK Fire and Rescue sector.