Essex Fire and Rescue Service - Case Study Example

Topic: Financial Reporting and Performance Undertake a critical review of the financial performance of Essex Fire and Rescue Service and benchmark that performance against Leicestershire. Essex Fire and Rescue Service provide its services to the Essex County Council Area and the two unitary authorities of Southend and Thurrock. Leicestershire brigade, on the other hand, caters to different communities of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. The budget of Essex Fire Authority for the year 2004-05 shows a gross expenditure of £66,023,000. Essex net expenditure touches £62,069,000 after deducting specific transitional grant of £821,000 and income of £3,133,000. Further, due to increase of £2,100,000 as contribution to general balance, Essex budgetary needs have reached a total of £64,169,000. Budget is funded by a revenue support grant of £13,884,000, income from business rates amounting to £15,713,000 and council tax £34,572,000 to equal its expenditure with income. On the other hand, the budget of Leicestershire for the year 2004-05 is half in numerical figures. Leicester’s expenditure is to the tune of £29,081,000 although its net operating expenditure is £38,679,000. Contribution of government grants and local taxes is £28,367,000. Revenue support grant of Leicestershire is £7,331,000 in comparison to Essex revenue support grant of £13,884,000, which is not much less than double of Leicestershire revenue support grant. Income from national non-domestic rates of Leicestershire is £9,043,000 in comparison to Essex income from business rates, which is £15,713,000. Transitional funding (ODPM) of Leicestershire is £438,000 in comparison to Essex transitional cost reaching £821,000, which is almost double of Leicestershire. So, we see a big difference of ratios of budgetary figures between the two service providing brigades of UK. Major contribution of Essex and Leicestershire fire brigades comes through council tax. It is imposed on residential property, which includes county, police, fire, district and community. The basis of accounting council tax is set at one of the eight bands according to the value of the property. Essex Authority imposed band D for council tax for the year 2004-05 accounting period to collect £64.169m at the value of £56.43. The valuation of band D was in the range of £68,001 to £88,000. The number of properties qualifying for band D in Essex for the period 2004-05 was 612,655. To collect the needed precept of £34.572m in council tax, Essex Fire Service imposed band D of £56.43. Leicestershire council tax is collected from its seven districts and two unitary authorities. Combined Fire Authority (CFA) of Leicestershire fixed its council tax as on 16th February 2005 out of the choices presented for a band D property at £43.11. Leicestershire Combined Fire Authority costs are 6.5% below the average per person costs of the country in general. Thus, due to poor government support, council imposes 5% more tax to meet its expenses. The council tax in the Brigade’s budget for 2004 was set for band D at £60.21m, but as per government order it was changed to 56.48. Cost wise, Leicestershire is the most economical fire service provider costing less than £1.10 per week. Thus, in comparison to Essex and all other CFAs, Leicestershire charges the minimum per person and follows a financial pattern of medium term. If we compare the D band property rate of Essex and Leicestershire, we find that Leicestershire is charging £43.11 while Essex Fire rate of D band is £56.43. It goes in favour of Leicestershire council tax that it is people friendly and on average in the coming two years, it won’t increase more than 5%.“If there are excessive increases, we will take capping action – as we have done over the last two years”, is the minister’s remark. As all the fire brigades have to follow the directives given by the Office of the Deputy Prime minister (ODPM), Essex plans for the year 2004-05 named as Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) targets to minimize the death rate in fires and accidents, minimizing the number and acuteness of injuries and protecting the environment and country’s heritage and most important to offer people value for their money. After the introduction of the notion of ‘best value’ through the Local Government Act 1999 legislation, fire brigades are duty bound to provide the best of services. Essex has integrated its three different plans – Strategic Plan, Best Value Performance Plan and IRMP into single public performance plan as it is going to be a precepting authority to impose an exclusive council tax for the year 2004-05. Leicestershire also has its strategic objectives that are carried out by the Combined Fire Authority (CFA). It lays special role to protect most susceptible people and help in creating risk-free communities. According to the guidelines provided by the Fire and Rescue Services National Framework document, Leicestershire has taken the cudgel to act according to the new Civil Contingencies Act 2004 to work in collaboration with other leading agencies and services to tackle situations from local emergency to national catastrophes. Best Value: It is the parameter of providing the best of services through the Local Government Act 1999 comparing a brigade’s performance with other services as well as with its own past performances. Essex has combined its BVPP with its Strategic Plan and Integrated Risk Management Plan to provide better results. Essex has brought some changes in its performance indicators. Performance indicators related with ‘A, B, C, D risks’, have been coalesced together into a single indicator. Some new indicators have come to gauge the performance of brigades as single entity. Let’s have a look at some of the BVPI’s of Essex against the BVPI’s of Leicestershire. Essex BVPIs 142ii meant for record on the fire damage is 23.5% for the year 2004-05 taking into consideration a population of 10,000. Target was 27.0% for the same period, which couldn’t be met. On the other hand, Leicestershire’s recorded number of fires on the fire damage report for the same period is 23.9% actual while target was 29%, which was realized, coming on 5th position. It shows Leicestershire performance in comparison to Essex was better. BVPI’s 143iii showing the number of accidental fires in homes of Leicestershire brigade has reported 482 fires, achieving its target of 14.1% while coming 2nd amongst its related group in comparison to Essex target of 12.3%, which was also reached by Essex. BVPIs 143i showing deaths arising from accidental fires per 100,000 population in Essex was 0.86 while target was 0.15 for the year 2004-05. Similarly, Leicestershire target was 0.60 but actual was 0.75, which was not realized. Although targets couldn’t be realized but performance of Leicestershire was better than that of Essex taking the values of Essex 0.86 to Leicestershire 0.75 into consideration. Regarding the percentage of number of injuries in accidental fires per 100,000 people, BVPI’s 143ii figures show that it could not meet the target of 10.00 percent, recording actual 11.39% injuries. Essex also didn’t meet its target of 9.4%, recording injuries 11.5%. Although both brigades didn’t meet their targets but comparison of realised percentages puts Leicestershire 11.39% in a better position to Essex 11.5%. BVPIs 144 concerning the percentage of accident place fires limiting to room of origin of Essex was 78.9% while the target was 88.9%. On the other hand, Leicestershire attained 90.1 percent although target was 95.7 %. Both brigades couldn’t achieve their targets but difference in their actual performance and targets shows Leicestershire in a quite better position to Essex. Now, we come to BVPI 146 set for number of hoax false calls per 1000 population. Essex achieved its target of 0.9 percent for 2004-05 periods. Leicestershire also achieve its target of 0.6 by realizing 0.5 percent false fire calls. It has become possible due to community safety activities aimed at minimizing false fire alarms. BVPI 149 stipulated for false signals diagnosed by Automatic Fire Detection Apparatus per 1,000 non-domestic properties tells that Essex performance for 2004-05 was 96.7 % while the target was 103.0%, which shows that it attained its set ratio while Leicestershire couldn’t reach its target of 133.0, recording 139.3 in actual performance. Thus, Essex performed better than Leicestershire in diagnosing false signals. Let’s have a look at Essex performance for BVPI 206 for number of deliberate FDRI fires per 10,000 population. It recorded a percentage of 10.9 against a target of 11.5. So, Essex was well within the limit, as we all know that “Low values are good”. BVPI 150 indicating the cost of running the services per person of population for Leicestershire community for 2004-05 was 29.93pound, which was the target itself -- a compliment to Leicestershire fire and rescue services. Essex county fire has given certain figures regarding cost-effectiveness in key areas of community safety of establishing life safety center as a strategic intention, the cost of which is to be met by community safety budget, eliminating savings and net costs. Community Safety Foundation Plan of installing smoke detectors cost 62,000pounds, out of which 15,000pounds come from sponsors leaving the net cost to 47,000pounds. Friends of ECFRS costing 7,000 pounds with no saving resulting in net cost of 7,000pounds. Another community related Young FF schemes costing 15,000pounds with 0 saving, costing net 15,000pounds. Thus, we can see that both brigades are striving hard to achieve their best value performance indicators set by the authority. Works cited list: Internet resources http://www.leicestershire-fire.gov.uk/fireservice/governance.shtml http://www.essex-fire.gov.uk/pages/index.asp?area http://www.leicestershire-fire.gov.uk/fireservice/documents/AnnualReport2004to2005_AmendedFeb2006_.pdf http://www.essex-fire.gov.uk/images/pics/bvpp05062.pdf Read More