Fire authorities score well in their first CPAs

28 Jul 05
The Audit Commission has published its first Comprehensive Performance Assessments of fire authorities and judged just under half of them to be high performers.

29 July 2005

The Audit Commission has published its first Comprehensive Performance Assessments of fire authorities and judged just under half of them to be high performers.

The rankings, published on July 28, reveal that two authorities – Kent & Medway and Merseyside – were deemed 'excellent', while 20 were 'good' and 17 were 'fair'.

But four out of the 45 examined were classed as 'weak' and two, Lincolnshire and the Isle of Wight, were labelled 'poor'.

Click here for full fire authority CPA results (this will open up a new browser window)

The inspections did not examine how well the authorities responded to emergencies, as the only agreed indicator for frontline performance in fire and rescue services is response time. The assessment concentrated instead on managerial performance, cost effectiveness and training.

Audit Commission chief executive Steve Bundred told Public Finance that the decision to subject fire authorities to CPAs followed the recommendations of the 2002 Bain Review, conducted in the wake of the industrial action by the Fire Brigades Union.

The fact that there are no performance indicators for frontline fire services 'reflects the extent to which the fire service has been in need of modernisation', he said.

The commission is working with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on performance indicators to assess frontline services and corporate performance. But it is uncertain whether they will be finalised in time for next year's inclusion of a 'fire service block' in local authorities' CPAs.

An FBU spokesman said that the union regretted the commission's decision to publish the ratings without indicators that 'really matter' to the public.

He said: 'It's hugely misleading to call this a "comprehensive" performance assessment. It's like assessing a football team by how good the pies are at half time.'

Despite the back-office focus of the assessments, the reports on the two 'poor' authorities reveal the extent to which poor management has implications for service quality.

The commission found that, although Lincolnshire had identified road traffic accidents as the biggest cause of accidental preventable deaths, it had failed to make these the focus of its service priorities. 'The inconsistent approach to formulating priorities risks undermining the fire authority's ability to deliver effectively targeted plans,' the watchdog said.

The commission also warned that the Isle of Wight's lack of permanent staff would limit its capacity to deliver services.

Fire authorities graded 'weak' and 'poor' in this round of CPAs will not be penalised. But ODPM minister Jim Fitzpatrick said that authorities achieving an 'excellent' rating would be given 'new freedoms and flexibilities'.

PFjul2005

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