Durham and Darlington 2021/22

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service is good at making best use of its resources.

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service was good in its 2018/19 assessment.

Fire and rescue services should manage their resources properly and appropriately, aligning them with the services’ risks and statutory responsibilities. Services should make best possible use of resources to achieve the best results for the public.

The service’s budget for 2022/23 is £30.202m. This is a 2.94 percent increase from the previous financial year.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

The service has a clear rationale for its allocation of resources and targets them where needed

We identified in our last inspection that the service needs to show a clear rationale for the resources allocated between prevention, protection and response activities. We are encouraged to see the improvements made. The service’s financial and workforce plans, including allocating staff to prevention, protection and response reflect and are consistent with the risks and priorities identified in the community risk management plan (CRMP). For example, the number of deliberate and primary fires in the service area, and throughout the north-east of England, is much higher compared to most other services. The service has focused resources on prevention activities that may reduce this.

Plans are built on sound scenarios. They help make sure the service is sustainable and are underpinned by financial controls that reduce the risk of misusing public money. Budget management and external audit arrangements are satisfactory. Department heads are involved in the budget-setting process to give them greater understanding of their finances.

Staff are extremely productive and have impressive rates for fire safety audits and fire safety home visits

We are impressed with the service’s productivity rates. It doesn’t have large prevention or protection teams and a large proportion of activities is completed by the operational workforce. We are pleased to see that the service’s arrangements for managing performance clearly link resource use to the CRMP and service’s strategic priorities. As of 31 March 2021, the service completed:

• 1 fire safety audits per 100 known premises (England rate is 1.7); and
• 6 home fire safety visits per 1,000 population (England rate is 4.5).

We also found that all SSRI records (over 1,000) were in date. In addition, all the training records we sampled were in date.

Most staff that we spoke to were aware of their targets for prevention, protection and response activities.

The service has considered the contribution it will make towards the national productivity target (using an extra 3 percent of national wholetime firefighter capacity to carry out additional prevention and protection work). At the time of the inspection, the service has set up a project to review where it could enhance productivity further and assess how the service can contribute to the national target.

New ways of working have been introduced

The service is implementing new ways of working. For example, since our previous inspection, the service has removed a layer of management resulting in watch managers having more authority and responsibility to manage their own teams rather than be directed by others. Watch managers told us this is a positive step that helps them to directly manage day and night activities to make sure their teams are productive.

We were pleased to see that when firefighters are called to a different area to cover crews attending an emergency, they can access and complete home fire safety visits, regardless of their location. This makes sure staff are productive.

The service had to adapt its working practices because of the pandemic, and these are still part of its day-to-day activity. They include corporate staff having the option of hybrid working, which allows them to work flexibly.

The service has improved the way it monitors and evaluates its collaboration with other organisations

We are pleased to see the service meets its statutory duty to collaborate, and routinely considers opportunities to collaborate with other emergency responders. Collaborative work is aligned to the priorities in the service’s CRMP. For example:

• several properties are used by other emergency services including a quad emergency service station housing fire, police, ambulance and mountain rescue units;
• there are formal arrangements with other fire and rescue services, including the use of incident command support units and sharing of a data protection officer and occupational health services with Cleveland Fire Brigade; and
• two community safety responder posts have been established, which combine the roles of an on-call firefighter, a police community support officer and a first responder.

In our previous inspection, we identified as an area for improvement that the service should ensure that it is reviewing, monitoring and evaluating all collaborative work. We are encouraged to see the improvements the service has made. For example, it has evaluated its estates and details the financial benefits the service has received. The evaluation also includes the benefits of sharing information locally on arson risks.

The service has effective business continuity arrangements

An area for improvement we raised in our last inspection was that the service should ensure it has good business continuity arrangements that take account of all foreseeable threats and risks. We are encouraged to see the improvements the service has made.

The service has appointed a new business continuity officer and there are good arrangements in place for areas where threats and risks are considered high. These are regularly reviewed and tested so that staff are aware of the arrangements and their associated responsibilities. For example, the power supply in a fire station and its local area was disrupted for four days during Storm Arwen, but business continuity plans were successfully executed.

Business continuity arrangements to support the service during significant events that may cause a staffing shortage were activated during the pandemic when there was a rise in COVID-19 cases.

Operational cover contracts address staff shortages by offering staff the opportunity to undertake additional work over their contracted hours. They are also used to support community events and specialist training. Staff are paid their standard hourly rate plus 10 percent. This efficient use of resources has resulted in the service’s use of overtime being lower than the England rate.

The service continually reviews its costs and makes regular savings without affecting its service to the public

There are regular reviews to consider all the service’s expenditure, including its non‑pay costs. And this scrutiny makes sure the service gets value for money. For example, the service’s incident command support unit needed to be replaced at an estimated cost of £500,000. After a review, the service opted to have a formal arrangement with other services to use their incident command support unit when required. We are pleased that the service continually reviews its non-pay costs and ensures value for money without affecting its operational performance and the service it provides to the public.

The service’s successful apprenticeship programme has been in place since 2017. The service anticipates saving £1m on overall training costs over the next 5 years by using the programme effectively and the apprenticeship levy to its full potential.

The service is taking steps to make sure important areas, including estates, fleet, and procurement, are well placed to achieve efficiency gains through sound financial management and best working practices. The service uses the county council’s contracts for day-to-day purchasing and uses the national procurement contracts to achieve greater efficiencies.

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service is good at making the service affordable now and in the future.

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service was good in its 2018/19 assessment.

Fire and rescue services should continuously look for ways to improve their effectiveness and efficiency. This includes transforming how they work and improving their value for money. Services should have robust spending plans that reflect future financial challenges and efficiency opportunities and should invest in better services for the public.

Fire and rescue services should continuously look for ways to improve their effectiveness and efficiency. This includes transforming how they work and improving their value for money. Services should have robust spending plans that reflect future financial challenges and efficiency opportunities, and they should invest in better services for the public.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the service’s performance in this area.

The service has a good understanding of future financial challenges

The service has a sound understanding of future financial challenges. It plans to mitigate its main or significant financial risks. At the time of our inspection, the service was closely monitoring the dispute over the current pay offer and had plans in place for any increases beyond what is forecasted in the medium-term financial plan. The service anticipates a budget shortfall of approximately £1m from 2023/24 onwards, but it has identified savings that can be made to address this deficit.

The underpinning assumptions are relatively robust, realistic, and prudent, and take account of the wider external environment and some scenario planning for future spending reductions. This includes putting control measures in place due to rising costs, particularly for fuel and energy.

We are pleased to see that the service has identified savings and investment opportunities to improve the service to the public or generate further savings. Following our last inspection, the service has restructured its leadership team, which resulted in savings of £250,000.

The service uses its reserves well

The service has a sensible and sustainable plan for using its reserves. This plan includes the use of reserves for the modernisation of its estates and other projects. There is a reserve to meet any unforeseen pension costs due to changes to pension schemes, or any increase in the number of ill-health retirements.

Fleet and estates are aligned to the community risk management plan

The service’s estate and fleet strategies have clear links to the CRMP. The service has historically invested in its estate and fleet. We were told that 50 percent of the estate was built less than 10 years ago. We visited many fire stations and found they were in good condition and there were appropriate facilities for staff. Both the fleet and estate strategies exploit opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness. For example, the service is reviewing whether to continue leasing some sites and whether it provides value for money.

The strategies are regularly reviewed so the service can properly assess the impact any changes in estate and fleet provision or future innovation have on risk.

Transformation is well managed and the service invests in technology

The service actively considers how changes in technology and future innovation may affect risk. The service has introduced iPads, which assist staff in completing risk information records and home fire safety visits. It also seeks to exploit opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness presented by changes in technology. For example, the service has purchased new mobile data terminals, which were due to be installed shortly after our inspection.

The service has put in place the capacity and capability needed to achieve sustainable transformation, and it routinely seeks opportunities to work with others to improve efficiency and provide better services in the future. The service has recruited a project manager who manages the change programme. We were told it is one of the first emergency services to connect the Emergency Services Network on some of its fire engines.

The service regularly generates extra income

The service actively considers and exploits opportunities for generating extra income. Its estates, which are shared with partner organisations, generate additional income. Other work, such as providing fleet maintenance to other fire and rescue services and the charging process for automatic fire alarms, recovers costs. Where appropriate, it has generated income to invest in improvements to the service provided to the public. This includes having a trading arm, Vital Fire Solutions. The service has established clear roles and responsibilities for the board of directors and has controls to safeguard against conflicts of interest. This allows better scrutiny of the company. The performance of Vital Fire Solutions is subject to annual reviews. We were pleased that despite the challenges of the pandemic, in 2021/22 the authority received £100,000 income from the company.