'The public are being short-changed': Concern over 'unsettling' double change to Staffordshire's fire governance
Concerns have been raised that a double change to governance could impact on Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Staffordshire Commissioner Ben Adams currently oversees the fire service as well as acting as its employer, but the Government has announced that commissioners will be abolished in 2028.
Governance of the county’s police and fire services will initially transfer to a new board made up of councillors and independent members. But this board may only be in place for a few years, with its functions likely to be transferred again to a new elected mayor for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
Mr Adams has raised concerns that this double transition will create extra disruption for Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service – and potentially hit it financially if the transition costs are not covered by central government.
Elected police and crime commissioners were set up in 2012, and Mr Adams is one of four around the country who are also responsible for fire services. Northamptonshire is the only other county which is set to face the double transition, with Essex and Cumbria moving directly to the mayoral model.
Mr Adams discussed the issue with Chief Fire Officer Rob Barber during his latest public performance meeting.
He said: “In two and a half years we’ll transfer to the board. I understand it will be chaired by the leaders of the new authorities, and will also include independent people, who won’t be accountable to the public and can’t be voted out. I don’t even know how the decisions will be made by the board with that type of balance. And then a few years later it will transfer again to new governance.
“We’ve got to consider the transfer of all the service’s staff to a new entity. At the moment, the commissioner is the employer. And then we’re going to have to do it again, three or four years down the line.
“I am absolutely making it clear, nationally, that the costs of that need to be covered. The reserves of the fire and rescue service cannot be used to cover the costs of transition.
“We’re not going anywhere for two and a half years, and we will make sure the transition has as soft a landing as possible. But I don’t agree with the model, I don’t agree with the two transitions, and I think the public are being short-changed.”
Mr Barber agreed that the situation facing the fire and rescue service is ‘unsettling’. He said: “We’ve put our side forward and highlighted all of the risks, all of the uncertainty that it’s going to create, and there’s a lot of costs associated with it. Those costs aren’t included in our medium-term financial strategy at all. So if we’re expected to pick up those costs it will have a detrimental impact upon the service here in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
“My biggest concern is that there’s been no discussion on whether fire and rescue service budgets will be ring-fenced under the new model. This could create some conflicts of interest and some concerns.
“We’re putting our case forward to government but it is very unsettling.”
Elected police and crime commissioners were introduced under the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition, with the aim of making governance more transparent and democratic than it had been under the old police authorities.
But the current Labour Government says that the introduction of commissioners has been a ‘failed experiment’, with public understanding and engagement with the role remaining very low. Ministers claim that abolishing commissioners will save taxpayers £100 million.
