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• Best Value Performance Indicators Commentary on the Indicators for 2002-03

Fire and resilience

Best Value Performance Indicators Commentary on the Indicators for 2002-03

Best Value Performance Indicators

Best Value has been applied to local authority services since 1 April 2000. There are a number of different categories of fire authorities in England and Wales. Essentially these divide into 34 single-purpose authorities (London and the metropolitan fire authorities and combined fire authorities) and 16 county fire authorities where fire is provided by the county council as one of a range of services. Single-purpose fire authorities are Best Value authorities in their own right. For county fire authorities the duty of Best Value applies at county council level.

The fire service BVPIs are described in the document 'Best Value Performance Indicators 2002/2003' which was published in February 2002. This can be accessed at the bottom of the page. They were developed in consultation with fire service interests and replaced the indicators published by the Audit Commission up to and including 2001-2002. There are two broad categories of indicators, service delivery and corporate health. Service delivery indicators tend to show how effectively fire authorities are providing services, for example in relation to the incidence of fires and fire-related casualties. Corporate health indicators provide information on how well fire authorities are running themselves.

The BVPI data for service delivery indicators give a direct brigade by brigade comparison under each heading. A relatively small number of corporate health indicators have been applied to single-purpose fire authorities, reflecting their limited range of functions. The tables for some of the corporate health indicators may not cover all fire authorities. Where it is considered important to have comparisons in the performance of all fire authorities against particular corporate health indicators, such as sick leave rates, data have been collected from all authorities.

The indicators serve to highlight variations in performance. Under the Best Value process, fire authorities will be required to compare their performance with that of the best and set targets for improvement. For the purpose of inter-brigade comparisons, the data are also presented separately under a number of family groups for brigades with similar characteristics.

For service delivery indicators much of the data used has been taken from information already collected from fire authorities for the purposes of the publication of national fire statistics. For corporate health indicators the general approach adopted is that the indicators are applied to single-purpose fire authorities where they are relevant.

The essence of Best Value is seeking continuous improvement in service delivery and outcomes. It is therefore vital that authorities are able to establish a comprehensive baseline of performance against which they and the people they serve can judge the progress they are making.

BVPI Family Groups

Each of the BVPI Indicator tables is mirrored by a set of tables in which the brigades are separated into 5 'family groups' to help them prepare best value performance plans.

Notes on the Tables

Decimal places

Generally, indicators are shown to one decimal place. However, for the purposes of sorting the tables a limit has not been put on the number of places.

Effect of Industrial Action

During the period covered, there was a total of 15 days of industrial action; this had an impact on some of the indicators.

For BV12 and BV145, brigades were asked to exclude data from strike days in their annual returns. To retain comparability with previous years, the raw data for these indicators have been scaled up by a factor of 365/350. Some brigades included strike days in their returns because they were unable to provide data that excluded strike days; their returns have not been factored up. The affected brigades are highlighted in the footnotes of the relevant tables.

Reporting of fires, casualties and false alarms was also disrupted by the industrial action. In those indicators affected (BVs 142, 143, 144, 146 and 149), estimates have been incorporated in the 2002/03 figures to account for the missing information. These have been produced using comparable data from the previous year.

Family groups

In April 2000, brigades were informed that their performance for the purposes of BVPIs 144 and 150 would be considered within 5 'family groups'. However, groupings for all the indicators will be found in this publication to assist in the best value process.

Sources of data

The Tables have been annotated with the data sources. These are clarified below:

• ODPM annual returns - All brigades submitted annual returns for 2002/03. The figures in the tables were taken from these returns, after having been checked and amended where appropriate.
• ODPM fire statistics - The figures used came from forms FDR 1 and 3 completed by brigades.
• CIPFA - The figures for the number of domestic properties (BVPI 142) and non-domestic properties (BVPI 149) were obtained from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.
• Registrar General's mid year estimates - Population figures were provided by the Office for National Statistics.
• RO5 returns to ODPM - BVPI 150 was calculated using information from Revenue Outturn Form 5 line 2 column 5.

Information on the make up of the BVPIs is contained in:

• Fire Service Circular 6/2000
• ODPM publication Best Value Performance Indicators 2002/2003.

If you have any queries on the indicators, the data, or their presentation, please contact Mark Jeavons on 020 7944 5480 (e-mail: mark.jeavons@odpm.gsi.gov.uk).