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Fire Conference 2009

Date of speech	13 May 2009
Location	The NEC, Birmingham

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Draft text of the speech - may differ from the delivered version.

I'm delighted to be here today.

Hazel was disappointed not to be able to attend, however when she asked for me to attend in her place. I hear last year's was an eye opener for Hazel. From rescue dog demonstrations, to equipment fairs, to 'the world's toughest firefighter', and I am sorry to have missed it.

So I want to thank the man who invited me today, Charlie Hendry. Charlie, as you come to the end of your presidency, I know I am not the only one who has been impressed by your dedication, your leadership, your vision and your advocacy for the service. You leave John Bonney a strong foundation to build on.

Last week I was with the Prime Minister and Hazel Blears in Number 10. We were there to meet the nominees for the Spirit of Fire Awards, and heard extraordinary stories of courage of all different kinds.

Including hearing about seven-year old Josh Barrett (Norfolk), who safely got his family out of the house - by keeping calm enough to sign to his deaf father - when he smelt a gas leak. Tommy Thom, (W Lothian & Borders FRS) who has spent 40 years working with the Fire Fighters Charity, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds. And Steve Morris (Bolton, Gtr Manchester FRS), who suffered severe burns as he saved a young woman's life. At the Awards Steve received an ovation that lasted 10 minutes.

Steve's story is one example of the outstanding dedication that members of the services show every day: there are of course many more. Alex Sugden (Gtr Manchester), Jason Mayhew (Evesham, Hereford and Worcester FRS), Steve Perks (Kidderminster, Hereford and Worcester FRS), Dave Iles (Hereford, Hereford and Worcester FRS), Ian Tape and Grant Baugh (both from Rotherham, Sth Yorkshire FRS) were also celebrated last week. Kevin Williams from Gtr Manchester was nominated for the Pride of Britain awards.

I also want to mention one other extraordinary person: Richard Reid, a firefighter from Herne Hill. He's one of the role models for our REACH programme, inspiring young Black men to aim high for their future. In his own time, and without pay, Richard tells his story to schoolchildren and community groups. The respect in which he is held, and the impact he has on those young men, speaks volumes about the power of the firefighter's uniform: and your ability not just to save lives, but to change lives.

In celebrating these individual successes, we celebrate the much wider success of the services as a whole.

As Charlie mentioned, it's not just about the brave but also the two million home fire safety checks and the work with young adults; the statistics tell their own story. In England, there were 376 accidental dwelling fire deaths in 1997. A decade later, there were 193. There have been falls in the number of injuries from fire, and in cases of arson. Of course one death is one too many and one fire is one fire too many. But your actions have saved thousands of families and communities from untold misery. You can be hugely proud of the difference you make. So I begin this by saying a big Thank You for all you do.

However, we all know how fast the world is changing. Last year Hazel spoke about climate change and terrorism, the need to make the most of new technology. Those challenges are as relevant as they ever were.

And even since last August, global economic problems have deepened. Sadly this brings new risks - including the possibility of more deliberate fires and fires in non-domestic properties, along with the chance of increases attempts in insurance fraud.

Some argue that difficult circumstances militate against change. They say that when the going gets tough you should keep your head down and stick with the status quo.

I argue the opposite. Difficult times make change more important, the case for reform stronger and the case for investment stronger.

I know how hard services are working in many areas, and in many different ways, to reform and adapt to changing circumstances. Today, I want to touch on 3 of the areas where further progress is vital in the months to come.

Efficiency

The first is efficiency.

The Budget made clear that making resources go further is going to be the reality for public services across the board. It set out the need for an extra £5bn of efficiencies per year by 2010-11, on top of existing ambitious targets.

No-one serving our communities can escape the reality that budgets are getting tighter while expectations continue to grow. But Fire and Rescue Authorities and Services have already shown they are ready to innovate and make tough decisions.

The Audit Commission's Report Rising to the Challenge recognised that they not only met but exceeded efficiency targets from the last spending review. That's worth celebrating. But the report also made clear that there is further to go.

It highlighted, in particular, that while some places have made great strides, other, very similar places, lag behind.

That all services - no matter what their size, structure or location - should be aspiring to excellent value for taxpayers' money.

And that regional and local collaboration offers the scope to improve service and reduce costs.

FiReControl project

The second area of change is FiReControl, part of the £1bn investment we are making in the Service through the Fire and Resilience Programme.

For me, FiReControl matters because it is not reform for reform's sake, but reform to protect the public better. It will make it easier to handle large volumes of calls, and enable services to track people and equipment more effectively. That can help services deal effectively both with large incidents such as flooding or Buncefield, and everyday incidents such as road accidents or house fires.

Change is rarely easy or comfortable. And making the move to FiReControl is challenging and complex but I do not apologise for making our Fire and Rescue Service the best in the world.

What's important is to get it right. I announced last year that the project was being rescheduled. That was a tough call. But it was the right one, to ensure that we put all the pieces in place.

We are now aiming for the first three Regional Control Centres to be working in the North East, East Midlands and South West in summer 2010, with the full system expected to be in place by spring 2012.

Last week we published the Business Case for the project - delivering on the promise we made last year. And we developed this business case with the fire and rescue service community - we consulted widely, and we listened to what you said.

We listened to your concerns - and plugged the final gaps in the analysis; indeed I have met with a number of you in the last 7-8 months.

We listened to your worries on current costs - and we have now visited each and every FRS directly to discuss these figures face-to-face.

We listened to your arguments - and we changed key policy.

You said that there should be payments to individual FRAs where the commitment was to no region making a loss. We analysed this in detail, tested it with the FRS community and we were persuaded that the move to individual FRA level payments was right. And make no mistake - this represents a great deal for the fire and rescue service.

We have shown that 21 FRAs will make a saving by the move to the FiReControl network - and they will be able to keep these to reinvest in frontline services; 24 are forecast to bear a cost and we will meet that cost directly through a FiReControl payment. That's £8.2m a year when the system is up-and-running. Investment over cuts.

We can say with confidence that no FRA will be out of pocket because of the move to FiReControl.

The business case confirms that the costs of delivering FiReControl have stabilised, that the greater capability and back up network will be delivered at no additional cost to the fire and rescue service.

I want to thank everyone who is working so hard to get us there. Charlie, I want to thank you and your CFOA team for your help in shaping and delivering this project. Members of your team work on the national project team directly and provide valuable user insight - and Chief Fire Officers across the country are providing the leadership to make this a success locally.

I want to ensure that the Service is closely involved, operating in partnership with my department, and as we move closer to getting the new centres up and running, it's vital to get the people who are going to be using the new system are intimately involved in designing and testing it.

Equality and diversity

The third area I want to touch on is equality and diversity. This isn't a luxury or an add-on. It's vital.

First, because it's only when you appeal to the widest pool of people that you can be sure of getting the most talented.

Second, making a connection with people of different backgrounds is the key to giving everyone the advice and support they need.

There has been huge progress in recent years - from the adoption of a new 10 year equality and diversity strategy, to the LGA's charter, to the successes on the ground celebrated yesterday: such as Martin Trevillion's reaching out to Gypsy and Traveller communities in Essex, or Chesire Fire and Rescue Service's improving the lives of older people by making links with local social care and health services.

But there are some areas where progress is slower: some areas where the status quo is not good enough.

It's not good enough that the ethnicity of over 3,000 staff goes unreported.  It's only by having clear information that you can understand whether there's a job to be done. History tells us this.

And it's disappointing that seven in ten authorities fall short of Level 3 of the Equality Standard for local government.

My message here is clear. When there is such good practice in many places, there is no excuse for anyone to put equality and diversity on the back burner.  The same message goes for efficiency and for leadership - take charge.

Some of you will have heard from Sir Ken yesterday that those Authorities which went the extra mile in setting higher recruitment targets for minority ethnic staff and women firefighters have qualified for a payment of capital grant in recognition of that commitment.

However, as Sir Ken reminded everyone yesterday I will need to be satisfied that Authorities who receive capital grant allocation for this financial year are making progress before I authorise release of the second instalment.

I've mentioned three challenges today. Efficiency, making a successful switch to new technology, and diversity.

I believe we can already see that the appetite to rise to all three is out there, in the Service. And I know this from the various meetings I have had.

But before I conclude, I want to leave you with one further challenge. As you already recognise we will go faster and further not when change is imposed from the outside, but when it is driven and led from within the Service. And both Sir Michael Bichard's report to the Chancellor and the recent Cabinet Office paper on public service reform emphasise that where responsibility and power are devolved to and exercised at the front line, public services operate more effectively. It will be of increasing importance that we deliver more for less.

And when I look at issues such as efficiency or equality, I see how much services can learn from each other: by sharing lessons, by inspiring each other, and perhaps even by spurring each other on through a little bit of healthy competition.

I look forward to hearing your proposals.

There is and always will be a role for central government, supporting and challenging where needed. But there are many activities for which central government are currently responsible that would be better dealt with by the service as a whole.

Fire and Rescue Services have come a long way in the last few years and we can take pride in this. But if you want to sustain that improvement the Service will need to be ever more efficient and find new and innovative approaches to drive delivery.

Central and local government are partners in delivering, but I know that you want to be able to take ownership of key activities which directly support the quality of the service that is delivered locally. As Charlie has said we need to find a way of closing the gap in the delivery model so that there are effective mechanisms at national level to allow this to happen.

The real prize here will be the service feeling empowered and taking ownership, having the confidence to innovate, and showing collective leadership to seize the new opportunities.

If the service can come forward with ideas and innovations  over the next year it will be in a better position not only to deal with today's challenges, but also to develop and shape its own future, for the good of those who work within it, and the communities they serve.

As Charlie has indicated, stakeholders are already actively engaging on this and want more responsibility, by enhancing their national leadership capacity.  I look forward to hearing more as your thinking develops.

I began today by celebrating the successes of the year gone by. I want to end by looking forward.

With changing circumstances, it is hard to predict what the coming year holds. But I have no doubt whatsoever about the commitment and professionalism that each one of you will bring to the task.

And I have no doubt that you will continue to make all the difference in the world to the communities you serve. I passionately believe we have the best Fire and Rescue Service in the world but we can go further.

When I was at the Staffordshire Memorial Service recently, I heard about the lack of equipment in previous decades and I can now hand-on-heart say that the Fire and Rescue Service has the best equipment to meet the challenges of the 21st century and empower you to do your job.

Thank you for listening.