Fire chiefs must still do more to tackle bullying within the county's fire service and to encourage more women to join, inspectors have said.
Watchdogs said Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service had made improvements since previous inspections, including in five key areas, but that more needed to be done.
In a 2019 report - and again in 2022 - Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services raised concerns about bullying, harassment and discrimination within the service.
Inspector Lee Freeman said staff were now "more confident to challenge behaviours outside the service's values due to it taking action".
But he was concerned 20pc (41 out of 209) of respondents to a staff survey said they had been subject to harassment and 12pc (26 out of 209) to discrimination over the past 12 months.
He said: "Of those who said they felt bullied or harassed, the primary reason most respondents didn’t report the bullying or harassment was because they felt nothing would happen.
"And the primary reasons most respondents didn’t report the discrimination was because of concerns about confidentiality and feeling that nothing would happen.
"We hope to see the service continue to make improvements in these areas as a priority."
Inspectors also said, at 9.2pc, the service had the lowest proportion of women in its workforce of all of the county's fire services, below the 18.6pc average - and should do more to improve that.
The service is investing millions to modernise fire service buildings with purpose-built facilities for women, in a bid to attract more of them to become firefighters.
Inspectors rated the service's response to major incidents as 'good' and welcomed improvements in the way fatal fires are reviewed.
The service's response to fires and emergencies was rated adequate, but inspectors highlighted a need to improve the availability of on-call firefighters.
Inspectors found on-call fire engines were only available 76.2pc of the time in the year up to March 2023. Wholetime fire engine availability was 99.7pc.
Fire chiefs said availability in 2022/23 had been impacted by the spate of summer heatwave fires and it had now increased to 81pc.
The service was praised for understanding fire and risk, while sound financial management was highlighted.
Inspectors raised the rating for prevention of fire risks from inadequate to requires improvement but said the service needs to do more, such as through increased home fire safety risk checks on vulnerable people.
Ceri Sumner, chief fire officer, said: "I am very proud of the consistent hard work of everyone at Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service over the last two years to move us further forward on our journey of improvement – it has been a real team effort.
"This report recognises our good progress in a number of areas, but we know we still have more work to do, particularly in targeting our prevention activities, improving how we evaluate the quality of our work and attracting a more diverse workforce.
"We are fully committed to continuing to do the best for the people of Norfolk and are already making progress on our plans to address these areas."
She said the service was aware it needed to do more to address bullying concerns and had put a new team in place, including a professional standards officer and a culture and ethics manager.
She said: "The team has developed new policies on how we nurture and develop talented people and support them, as well as promoting the values and core code of ethics."
She added: "We’re supporting wellbeing through a range of initiatives including our wellbeing champions network and we now have 100 mental health first aiders across the service."
Unlike previous years, inspectors from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service did not give an overall rating for the service.
Inspectors spent eight weeks assessing the service in September and October last year.
Margaret Dewsbury, cabinet member for communities and partnerships at Norfolk County Council, which runs the fire service, said: "The improvements highlighted by inspectors clearly demonstrate how hard the service is working to make itself even more effective and efficient in responding to emergencies and protecting people from harm."
WHAT WERE THE RATINGS?
GOOD: Understanding the risk; responding the major incidents; future affordability
ADEQUATE: Public safety through fire regulation; responding to fires and emergencies; best use of resources; promoting values and culture; promoting fairness and diversity
REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT: Preventing fire and risk; right people, right skills; managing performance and developing leaders
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here