Why governance matters

T

ia an dM ed

Why governance matters

Lt d

FIRE Correspondent Catherine Levin surveys the police and crime commissioner landscape and discovers a ‘patchy mishmash’ and only pockets of enthusiasm for the governance model

Pa

vil io

nP ub

lis

hin g

he Policing and Crime Act 2017 had a profound effect on the Fire and Rescue Service. With provisions for a fire inspectorate, a new duty to collaborate and a mechanism for police and crime commissioners to take on fire governance, these impacts are already being keenly felt.

No more so than in the area of governance. It is a crowded space with many different models. A fire and rescue authority can be a function of a county council; it can be a combined authority, answering to political masters from more than one local authority; or it can be a metropolitan authority, a creature of the big cities like Newcastle and Leeds with their respective local areas.

Added to that complexity, elected mayors can now take on fire – as we now see in Greater Manchester and soon will in London. And then there is the PCC. So, what to make of all of this? Well, first of all, it is important: it is not a minority interest. It is a distinct policy change and one that links closely with the desire of this government to see collaboration between the emergency services. Fire sits in the Home Office now; it no longer languishes in the Department for Communities and Local Government. The language has changed: it is not about the fire sector sorting itself out, it is much more directional and about services collaborating to reduce costs and improve outcomes.

The focus of the inspectorate reflects this approach with its focus on improvement.

One obvious question is why on earth would a PCC want to add to an already full workload with police and take on a completely separate organisation? What is in it for them?

The answer to that fundamental question lies in the business cases of the dozen or so PCCs that have spent considerable funds on the likes of PA Consulting, KPMG and Grant Thornton to work it out.

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner A look at the business case put forward by PCC John Campion in West Mercia provides some insight.

Remembering that in West Mercia, the PCC would be taking on the role of two fire and rescue authorities, Shropshire and Hereford and Worcester. There is no discussion in the business case about merging the two fire and rescue services and each would remain separate entities with their own Chief Fire Officer. Interestingly, the business case does not include the option for the PCC to sit on the two fire and rescue authorities.

“The argument presented is rather that there is an opportunity for more to be achieved on the same resource base by working together under joint governance and a co-developed plan than by working separately,” says John Campion.

“Joint working and collaboration will encourage the redesign of services and challenge the organisations to develop transformative ways of working” West Mercia PCC John Campion

16 | November 2017 | www.fire–magazine.com

Government & Politics

Lt d

“This is a bizarre concept that one person can take on the function of an authority that in many cases comprises dozens of local councillors”

an dM ed

ia

Essex Police and Crime Commissioner Essex PCC Roger Hirst won the race and became the first Police Fire and Crime Commissioner on October 1. He spent £100,000 on PA Consulting to develop the business case and a further £40,000 on his consultation exercise. He got the support of his tier one local authorities and local MPs and received over 1,700 consultation responses. In the middle of all this, Essex Fire and Rescue Authority dismissed the long absent Chief Fire Officer. Before taking over on October 1, the fire authority confirmed Acting Chief Fire Officer Adam Eckley as the permanent Chief and a new era has begun.

Now the PCC in Essex is the fire and rescue authority.

This is a bizarre concept that one person can take on the function of an authority that in many cases comprises dozens of local councillors. It is not that different in terms of functions and means, in the case of Essex at least, that the PCC must: • Set a budget and calculate the council tax requirement • Maintain an efficient and effective fire and rescue service • Approve an integrated risk management plan • Develop a Fire and Rescue Plan and Fire and Rescue Statement • Scrutinise, support and challenge performance against the plan • Appoint a Chief Fire Officer to lead and manage the service.

It is early days for Essex and in some ways it was easy for Roger Hirst as there was no public dissent from the local authorities and the PCC area aligned with the fire area.

Given the cultural review of Essex Fire and Rescue Service and the subsequent work of the Expert Advisory Panel appointed to help Essex improve, this was an opportunity to fundamentally change the organisation. The work to do this will be keenly watched by many.

It is funny how the east of the country has been the most keen to look at fire governance. Neighbours in Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire have all been through the business case consultation phase and are now waiting for the Secretary of State to confirm whether they can go ahead and take on fire in their respective areas. PCC John Campion in West Mercia completes this group of front-runners.

Pa

vil io

nP ub

lis

hin g

The business case is littered with references to collaboration, public safety and resilience that would be achieved through joint leadership strategic planning, sharing back office functions and the enhancement of front line operations. All of which, it argues, will lead to efficiency gains of £4m per annum. The business case concludes that it will simplify decision making and provide clear accountability to the public.

“Joint working and collaboration will encourage the redesign of services and challenge the organisations to develop transformative ways of working to deliver the same services on a lower cost base and obviate the need for service reductions,” Campion continues.

This is not dissimilar to other business cases; they all pretty much major on collaboration and sharing and using efficiencies from this to plough back into the front line. The reference to ‘transformative ways of working’ is particularly interesting and relevant to all fire and rescue services.

Sharing examples of what that means in practice in West Mercia would be hugely helpful to others considering governance changes.

The governance change of course only applies to 36 PCCs in England. Greater Manchester and London are excluded because their mayoral model works differently.

The rest of the PCCs are in Wales.

Some PCCs were quick off the mark to look at fire governance and have been working through the process since the beginning of this year. Some have gone a long way; others have fallen along the wayside and decided against change. A small group have decided on a halfway house and joined the fire and rescue authority itself, sometimes with voting rights, sometimes not. Many are not considering fire at all. One thing is for sure: they are all watching each other.

Suffolk, Sussex and Thames Valley Refusals Another neighbour, Suffolk, did commission a business case but decided not to pursue a change. PCC Tim Passmore said: “From the outset I said I would only consider taking over the governance of Suffolk’s fire service if it provided clear benefit to the county’s tax-payers.

Following an extensive options appraisal process, it is clear www.fire–magazine.com | November 2017 | 17

hin g

Lt d

an dM ed

Gloucestershire Hesitation Martin Surl is the PCC for Gloucestershire, a lone independent in the group that has considered governance changes. Like David Lloyd in Hertfordshire and Julia Mulligan in North Yorkshire, Martin Surl faced considerable opposition from local authority leaders to the changes that could be made. Unlike his Conservative peers, he, for now has backed down and has put governance changes on ice. He has made it clear that if collaboration between police and fire does not improve he will revisit the business case, so this may only be a pause in the process.

With Surrey and Norfolk at the early stages of developing business cases, this completes the list of PCCs considering fire governance.

Both PCC Dr Alan Billings in South Yorkshire and PCC Jane Kennedy in Merseyside are now members of their respective fire and rescue authorities and have full voting rights.

The Chair of the fire authority in Merseyside said at the time of the announcement: “Effective collaboration is one of the cornerstones of our work and the addition of Jane’s voice to the authority can only serve to further and enhance our joint efforts to protect people across Merseyside.”

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority made the radical decision to slim down the size of the authority and it is now a lean ten-member authority. The fire authority agreed to the PCC becoming a member of the authority but the PCC has not yet asked to be a member. If he does, then Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority will have to amend its Combination Order. It is sitting with the Secretary of State for sign-off and it will only be used if he makes the request.

The bureaucracy associated with governance changes relating to PCCs is incredibly high and the money spent on it equally so. The Home Office sought to alleviate some of the financial pain by giving out just under £1m in Transformation funds. Nine PCCs received a tranche of this funding. Seven recipients are still pursuing the change in governance with the other two, Gloucestershire and Sussex, no longer in the running.

ia

that the benefit from a change of governance is unlikely to be significant, so I feel it is sensible not to take this any further for the foreseeable future.”

Suffolk is not alone in deciding not to pursue fire governance. PCC Alison Hernandez in Devon and Cornwall now sits on Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority and has avoided the nightmare scenario of a governance change in the South West. Along with her neighbouring PCC, Sue Mountstevens in Avon, they both face complexities in governance that neither is willing to deal with just yet.

Sussex and Thames Valley PCCs both bowed out after an initial phase of work. The latter faced the possibility of taking on governance of three separate fire and rescue services and the former just two. These are all Conservative PCCs and they are not pursuing this particular policy for now.

Pa

vil io

nP ub

lis

Joining the Fire Authority There is a small group of PCCs that have decided to join the fire and rescue authority in their area. There are variations on this theme. Some, like PCC Dame Vera Baird in Northumbria, have become full members of a fire authority and have voting rights. She now sits on Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Authority. The other fire and rescue service in her area is Northumberland where it is part of the council.

PCC David Lloyd said when he was looking at options in Hertfordshire that being a member of a council committee with oversight for fire was not a good option.

He had his own experience of being a councillor on Hertfordshire County Council and realised that a PCC sitting on a committee that dealt with fire would not give him the leverage and influence to change things. He and Hertfordshire County Council disagree on the way forward for fire governance in his area. His business case to take on fire governance will be the first to be subject to an independent assessment before the Secretary of State makes a decision.

Low Take Up Unless some of the PCCs, particularly the Labour ones, start reconsidering their positions in light of what they observe from their peers, the number of PCCs seeking fire governance is going to remain pretty low. If all those currently somewhere in the process are successful, that will result in just nine PCCs taking on fire. That is nine out of a possible 36.

Whether one quarter of PCCs making the change will be enough to drive out the efficiencies and force the collaboration that the government would like to see is hard to imagine. That idea of transformative change that PCC John Campion’s business case refers to is a great ambition, but unless it is achieved and replicated across the entire Service, the result will be a patchy mishmash and not what the policy was meant to deliver.

Which leaves collaboration. Can fire and rescue services under current governance arrangements prove that collaboration will result in better value for money and better outcomes? The inspectorate may help here and provide a valuable evidence base from which to answer these questions. It will take a few years for the evidence to stack up, but where it does, the incentive (and business case) for PCCs to take on governance of fire is likely to be less attractive and as a result only a small number of fire and rescue services in England will end up being governed by PCCs.

“It is clear that the benefit from a change of governance is unlikely to be significant, so I feel it is sensible not to take this any further for the foreseeable future” Suffolk PCC Tim Passmore

18 | November 2017 | www.fire–magazine.com