Make best use of our resources and being open and accessible

Make best use of our resources

The investment in fire and rescue provision in Essex has been outlined in the authority’s accounts. With a total budget of £82.18m, Essex County Fire & Rescue Service looks to spend its funds economically, efficiently and effectively. The Draft Statement of Accounts for the financial year that ended on March 31 was published in June. A total of 60 per cent of the funding is from council tax collections, with the rest provided by central government through a share of non-domestic rates, revenue support and other specific grants. Among the spending for the year was –

• a £1.16m investment in property, including fire stations and training facilities, to provide modern, fit for purpose spaces to promote inclusive working. The programme includes the £0.9m redevelopment of Shoeburyness fire station and the £1.7m refurbishment and modernisation of breathing apparatus training facilities.
• ten new fire appliances at a cost of £2.3m.
• a new 999 mobilising system, to go live in April 2023, and a new workforce management system to enable better planning and use of resources. Broadband is also being upgraded at all fire stations.
• £59.31m on core employment costs.
• the transformation of the procurement department, upskilling the team to ensure value for money.

Be transparent, open and accessible

Essex residents keen to find out how the fire and rescue service is performing are being given direct access to information online. Essex County Fire and Rescue Service developed a performance framework to monitor its performance against the Fire and Rescue Plan and Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP). The framework includes a continuous improvement board which meets regularly to discuss progress. Highlight and exception reports are published and available to the public each month; monitoring and analysis reports every three months; as well as an end-of-year performance report. The Service also monitors the effectiveness of its work to reduce the number of incidents which happen as a way of saving lives and reducing injuries and other losses. The prevention activities are tracked and the results reported to the public. The communication, marketing and brand team works with colleagues, the public and partners to deliver campaigns to make a difference to the communities and people of Essex. Communication is used to raise awareness, correct inaccurate information or “fake news”, campaign for behaviour change and support positive action recruitment. Polls and surveys are carried out with the public and employees to ensure communication is accessible. When the public has its own questions for the service, they are asked under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), Environmental Information Regulations and Data Protection Act. ECFRS’ Information Governance (IG) team publish responses to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 on the service’s Transparency page. Responses demonstrate how the service has made decisions, spent public money or used resources.

You can read more in the annual report.