Council and democracy

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service - High performing; low cost

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service has been officially rated as one of the highest performing services in England - and the best in the Eastern Region.

With only Lancashire scoring higher in the Audit Commission's latest Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) the service is rated as performing well overall.

The CAA report says: "It is managing its performance well, is operationally effective and is providing good value for money."

In an inspection of the Fire and Rescue Service’s ‘Use of resources’ and ‘Managing performance’ the authority scored three out of four in all areas with the inspectors saying: “It has the leadership, capacity and capability needed to deliver and sustain improvements and its staff are skilled and enthusiastic."

Chief Fire Officer Roy Wilsher said: “We are pleased with the outcome of this latest assessment, which is testament to the hard work and commitment of our staff to provide the people of Hertfordshire with an efficient, reliable and cost effective fire and rescue service.

“Together we have come through many challenges and have consistently improved in all areas of our work. The assessment did identify some small areas for improvement and we are certainly not complacent. We will continue to make improvements to ensure that we are giving the best possible service to the communities we serve.”

Areas of success highlighted in the assessment included the Service’s protection work, which has resulted in a decrease of ten per cent in fires in non-domestic properties compared to 2007/08.

Primary and secondary fires have also decreased significantly and targets to reduce arson have been exceeded. The Service was praised for its role in the successful conviction of two arsonists through joint working with the police.

The recent history of the Service was considered during assessments of performance and service delivery with the inspectors noting that "considerable improvements have been made in a short space of time", with management focussing on implementing cultural change to improve staff morale, training, budget management and planning.

Staff training was highlighted as a particular area of improvement, which has been enhanced by the introduction of a fixed and mobile gas fire training unit, which are providing the most realistic environments in which firefighters can develop their skills. Improvements were also recognised in performance planning, with performance results being used to support decision making.

The inspectors noted that the Service is a high performing, low cost organisation with a good understanding of external factors and allocates resources to key priorities to deliver results for communities. They were also pleased with the reduction in the number of road traffic collisions attended by the Service and the appointment of a new Road Traffic Collision Reduction Officer.

Keith Emsall, Executive Member for Community Safety and Culture said: “Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service has made continual improvements in all areas of work and this is reflected in the inspector’s comments.

“There is a strong, focussed leadership team in place and I am confident that over the coming years performance will continue to improve and more innovations in community safety, road safety and incident command will emerge.”

To view the full report please visit www.audit-commission.gov.uk