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Corporate services
By Nick Collins
Overview
More and more, the areas covered by the ‘Corporate Services’ reference within CFOA have risen in their importance. This reflects an increasing level of interaction between the Fire and Rescue Service and partners, both within the traditional fire industry and outside it. In particular there are changing expectations about the way performance is regarded in the Service. I would summarise this as moving from an externally applied expectation of compliance and the resultant application of assurance models toward a more self critical culture of continuous improvement, the development of more qualitative models and use of support. These changes are, in themselves, a journey and we are some distance away from complete maturity. We need to stop worrying about what we ‘score’ in assessment processes and be more engaged in the areas for improvement that such processes identify, particularly in relation to delivery of service outcomes.
The Comprehensive Area Assessment process is taking shape. We now have a basic understanding of how it looks, as many of you will have seen from the publication of the CAA consultation document issued by the Audit Commission this summer. The CFOA response to that consultation is outlined in more detail below. The Fire and Rescue Service Expenditure Group, made up of key Fire and Rescue Service stakeholders, continue to discuss the Spending Review 2009/11 and again, more detail on the discussions can be found later in the article. Our main concern is that the Service’s profile remains relatively low on the government agenda and we are making efforts to raise that through a variety of means outlined below.
External Assessment
Background
The next few paragraphs give a brief strategic outline of the on-going work between the key stakeholders within the Service including the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA), Local Government Association (LGA), Audit Commission (AC) and central government through both Communities and Local Government (CLG) and the Chief Fire and Rescue Advisers Unit (CFRAU), in relation to the proposed new external assessment and improvement processes.
We have been completely clear that CFOA is supportive of the principles behind the move towards area-based assessment and the intent to ensure that local services work effectively in partnership to address local issues. As well as high quality local, regional and national response services, the FRS has a huge amount to offer to improve local communities in a way that is completely consistent with the services we deliver. Often our potential contribution is not known or understood by other organisations, prospective partners or the public. The development of an external assessment process that includes an analysis of local partnership working alongside operational service delivery and organisational effectiveness gives an opportunity to the FRS to both demonstrate the contribution it can make and have that contribution recognised. Our potential local contribution is something that we will seek to market to potential partners more strongly over upcoming months, working with the LGA.
CFOA is committed to the development of a credible ongoing assessment process which enjoys broad professional and stakeholder support, providing assurance to the public and local communities about the quality of our services, our organisational arrangements and our work in partnership with others. Our view is that the FRS should seek to continuously improve in every aspect of our service, engaging with these processes to support the achievement of this goal. We are therefore working to try to ensure that assessment processes: Reflect a desire for constructive self awareness through self assessment that identifies both strengths and weaknesses
• Are broadly similar to those which are applied in other parts of local government
• Are as effective and as simple as possible, minimising repetition, bureaucracy and be accessible and helpful to all fire and rescue authorities
• Recognises the broad contribution that the FRS can make to wider partnership outcomes
• Are integrated, so that the component elements work together in a way that is tailored for the FRS
• Provide a sound basis for performance benchmarking and continuous improvement.
The proposed new assessment process
The new process comprises three main components:
• Operational Assessment (formerly described as ‘Service Assessment’) – how well the operational, technical and service-specific aspects of each fire and rescue authority are being delivered, highlighting any improvements needed
• Organisational Assessment – how well resources are being managed in each FRS and how the Authority seeks continuous improvement and value for money
• Area Assessment – how well engaged is the Authority in the local ‘place shaping’ agenda.
The Audit Commission is presenting the interaction between these components like this:
Operational Assessment (OpA)
The 2006 White Paper Strong and Prosperous Communities and the National Improvement and Efficiency Strategy both make commitments to encourage service improvements to be sector-led. Discussions are ongoing about the best way to deliver this and about the ownership and accountability of different stakeholders.
The Fire and Rescue Service has a unique technical and operational role that, in CFOA’s view needs to be assessed through a bespoke process. This assessment should result in an improvement plan that is considered within the ‘organisational assessment’ element of CAA. CFOA believes strongly that the Audit Commission role should be to look at how we are managing our own performance in service delivery within CAA, not to move into the examination of operational services themselves. To deliver a credible and robust assessment, CFOA believe that Operational Assessment should be:
• Planned to take place in one of every three years, with 2009/10 being the first year
• Based on self assessment against a toolkit that has been developed by the sector
• Peer-assessed by teams of accredited assessors from within the Service and scored 1-4 against each key line of enquiry and overall
• Capable of generating an improvement plan that will be integral to the Audit Commission’s annual CAA process
• Verifiable and have appeal processes designed and built in. A revised toolkit, based on the 2006 OASD, is being developed by a stakeholder working group.
The Audit Commission has been consulted on this toolkit to ensure it aligns appropriately with the planned organisational assessment for fire and rescue services. This will be circulated for consultation this winter and a final version will be available for use from April 2009.
This means each FRA will be able to assess its own operational service delivery during 2009, in a similar way to the Operational Assessment of Service Delivery (OASD) which took place in 2006. The self assessment will then be the subject of the ‘peer review’ which will seek to verify it. CFOA will offer to undertake the role of coordinating the assessment and improvement work within the Service. Details about how CFOA would carry out this work and how it will be resourced are being further discussed.
Organisational Assessment (OA)
The Audit Commission has proposed that the OA combine the current direction of travel assessment with the use of resources assessment for FRAs from 2009 onwards. The AC proposal is to carry out an annual OA using sector specific key lines of enquiry.
Ownership
Ownership remains with the Audit Commission and the process will be run by them, in cooperation with each FRA.
Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs)
The KLOEs encompass four main areas, three under the ‘Use of Resources’ judgement and one under ‘Managing Performance’:
• Managing finances. How effectively does the organisation manage its finances to deliver value for money?
• Governing the business. How well does the organisation govern itself and commission services that provide value for money and deliver better outcomes for local people?
• Managing resources. How well does the organisation manage its natural resources, physical assets and people to meet current and future needs and deliver value for money?
• Managing Performance. How well is the organisation delivering its priority services, outcomes and improvements that are important to local people? Does the organisation have the leadership, capacity and capability it needs to deliver future improvements? Progress on delivery of the improvement plan developed from the Operational Assessment will be of key importance in this area.
Reporting
The outputs from the OA will be:
• A 1-4 score/rating for the use of resources element
• A 1-4 score/rating for the managing performance question
• A short focused narrative that: – Indicates how effectively the FRA is managing its finances and resources against the KLOE – Captures key messages about current performance with regard to local priorities, the Fire and Rescue Service National Framework, and operational performance – Highlights strengths and areas where improvement could be made.
Discussion continues over whether to have a combined score/rating for both elements (managing resources and managing performance) and is included in the round of CAA consultation that is currently underway.
Trials
OA trials have just finished in four FRAs – Manchester, Essex, Gloucestershire and Hampshire. The results are currently being discussed.
Area Assessment (AA)
CFOA is working with the Audit Commission to develop the AA in a way that works for the FRS by looking at the FRS contribution to the Local Area Agreements (LAAs) as well as other wider community work. Largely, AC judgements will be based on the success of partnerships in addressing local priorities. Much of this will be based on performance against the agreed selection of 35 national indicators from the suite of 198, pulled together in LAAs.
The Audit Commission will be assessing FRS performance at area level through ongoing observation and information gathering by Comprehensive Area Assessment Leads (CAALs). Feedback will be given through a ‘tags and flags’ system identifying both weaknesses (including whether weaknesses have been addressed) and good practice.
The CFOA focus has been on how FRAs will maintain an influential role in local areas while many indicators may not be directly relevant to us. We are strongly promoting the position that a number of other national indicators lie at the heart of wider social agenda and have an indirect, but strong, link to Fire and Rescue Service work (such as work to reduce anti-social behaviour). One of the main strategic issues facing the sector is how it can hold greater sway in local place-shaping in areas that indirectly contribute to the FRS agenda in this way. Recently CFOA jointly held a practitioner’s workshop with the AC that comprised a number of different FRAs – Mets, Counties and Combinations – to highlight the variety of partnership working that occurs within the FRS. This included initiatives that operate within the Local Area Agreement (LAA) and those successful partnerships that benefit the local community but sit outside of the LAA. The principal purpose of this was to identify what strong performance in partnership ‘looks like’ from an FRS perspective. This was to make it clear that it will certainly not always be as simple as performance within a single area LAA.
The Audit Commission’s paper to the last CAA steering group indicated that they understood that the FRS needs to be seen in the context of all its partnership working, not just those within (LAAs). However, they still see LAAs as the key element in local place shaping. It is still not completely clear exactly how area assessments will be made and how these will interrelate with the organisational assessment. Further work will be done following the current consultation, but it is likely to be that the application of the area assessment process can only be developed after some practical experience in applying it.
The Audit Commission are very open about the need to continuously improve the approach and are keen to involve stakeholders, including CFOA, in that development.
Improvement
CFOA is clear that the predominant purpose of the entire assessment regime is to enable each FRA to identify how it should continuously improve its operational services, its use of public money and its performance both as an organisation and through partnerships with others. Assessment and scoring regimes are simply a means to achieve that goal. Helping identify how services can be improved and assist in delivery of that improvement are the key deliverables.
CFOA will work with the LGA to identify the best way to provide help with improvement within FRAs when necessary, from a menu of options, including further peer support and assistance with access into the regional improvement and efficiency partnerships (RIEPs). Further information on this will follow when these discussions are further advanced.
CFOA Position on the CAA Consultation
During the summer, the Audit Commission published two consultation documents, one regarding the new assessment framework for the FRS and one regarding the
Use of Resources scoring. In line with our understanding outlined above, CFOA will be raising specific points on each, as follows:
Broad Messages:
• CFOA broadly agrees with the overall CAA framework as a way forward, in partnership with a peer/service assessment, to improve the FRS delivered to the communities.
• The link between organisational assessment and area assessment is clear and CFOA welcomes the comment that the KLOEs will look at contributions to local priorities and national indicators that may sit outside LAAs.
• There is a need to understand that political focus in some areas may be on issues that the FRS simply can not be involved in (like education), yet the service may be playing a significant role within an area, at different levels, just off the LAA radar.
• There should be an understanding that the question in the Area Assessment ‘How well do local priorities express community needs and aspirations’ – with the underlying issue being ‘To what extent do local people feel their contributions make a difference to decisions about setting local priorities and are they involved in reviewing progress against them?’ – could lead to a variety of responses that may not necessarily imply a negative ‘score’. A political/operational decision may still be taken that goes fundamentally against a communities view, leading to the feeling from the local populace that their views are not being heard. A clear example of this is a fire station closure.
• CFOA agree with the green and red flag approaches with the clarification in paragraph 65 that: ‘(The AC) recognises… there may be some issues such as community cohesion and counter terrorism, where the risk associated with publically reporting a red flag means the AC may have to find other ways of communicating assessment’.
• The red and green flag approach will enable good practice within the Fire and Rescue Service to be highlighted, while understanding that areas in need of improvement should be noted.
• The National Framework is obviously important for the fire and rescue services, but there needs to be an understanding that it is a starting point rather than finishing point for performance within fire and rescue authorities.
• There needs to be more clarification on how the AC will be able to ‘score’ whether the appropriate resilience and civil contingency arrangements are in place. The most appropriate place for this would be within the Operational Assessment process. The AC should focus on whether any issues arising from that assessment are being worked upon.
• Further clarification is needed on how the AC will use area assessments when a FRA covers a broad range of areas. Will the marks be amalgamated, a median score or a professional opinion?
• It is important that the CAA evolves. The operational assessment process will evolve and the CAA needs to adapt to meet the evolution of that assessment to ensure a reduction of assessment if successfully implemented.
• CFOA welcomes the Audit Commission’s intentions to reduce the need for duplication by using the results from a mature and effective self/peer assessment.
Use of resources at councils and FRAs – consultation on scoring proposals
• CFOA is supportive of the movement away from a ‘capping effect’ which would have increased the complexity and reduce the transparency of the organisational assessment.
• Averaging the KLOE scores is an understandable way forward.
• Though CFOA is supportive of making it harder to achieve top scores, it is noted that to achieve a score of four would involve a majority of fours in each KLOE.
• CFOA is supportive of using the ‘Use of Information’ as the specific KLOE that will decide if a score is rounded up or down.
Fire Expenditure Group
Work is on-going within the Fire and Rescue Services Expenditure Group in anticipation of a spending review in 2009. At the moment there is no word from the government on the details of this, however, if there is to be one, it will need to be compiled over the next few months. CFOA is supporting the LGA in raising the profile of the Service in its bid for government revenue funding.
If there is to be a spending review, our submission will be structured around the current improvement agenda, the story as described in my last article in FIRE (July 2008) and the policy framework we are working within.
In particular this will accent:
• The level of efficiency savings already delivered
• The expansion of the range of services provided by the FRS, absorbed within existing resources
• The changing context in which the Service operates.
In order to get the information against these planned lines, a survey was sent round to all fire and rescue authorities through the LGA Finance Network and CFOA. It is important that these surveys are completed and returned as they will be the foundation of our submission.
The Expenditure Group’s focus is to try and obtain the largest sum for the Fire and Rescue Service possible (the overall size of the FRS ‘cake’). CFOA will not involve itself in the distribution formula (how that cake is cut up). We want to represent and unify all our members – not be the spark for the periodic internal battle on which authorities need more!
Once we get further news on the spending review we will expand upon it in a further issue. |
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