Police and Fire Consultation
Hello,
You may remember that I wrote to you a little while ago to let you know about the upcoming Police and Fire consultation.
I’m delighted to tell you that today I’ve launched the formal consultation on the proposed changes to the governance arrangements for Police and the Fire and Rescue Service in Staffordshire.
I’m consulting on the independent business case for eight weeks from July 10 until September 4. Many of you have already shown a great interest in this subject and have asked if you can discuss it formally at parish council meetings. You are welcome to do this if time allows in the eight week period and respond together as a council. But you are also more than welcome to respond individually with your views.
A copy of the business case is attached and for more information including a video message from myself and FAQs please click here.
You may also receive a link from the company carrying out the consultation on my behalf, feel free to use either link, the important thing is that we get your views.
Thank you very much indeed.
All the best,
Matthew Ellis
Police & Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire
Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner
Weston Road
Stafford
ST18 0YY
Tel: 01785 232270
Message from the Police and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire:
This letter is about our police service and our fire service, here in Staffordshire. It is about how we can build on their good work and make sure both services are financially sound for the future with extra investment available to keep us all safe and secure.
It is important that our police can adapt to changing crime in an ever more complex world and that our fire and rescue service expands the expertise and specialisms they have developed around the prevention of harm in addition to their core responsibilities.
From a practical point of view, I want more of the overall budget both services have to go towards frontline operations in local areas across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
Part of achieving that would be to bring the support and administration functions that each service currently has into a combined function both would use. It would free up at least £3 million every year to support frontline services and provide helpful consistency in order to work better together.
The primary focus of this letter is governance and how it can help to shape public services’ ability to work together, adapt to change and spend our taxes effectively. I am consulting the public, organisations and staff across Staffordshire about bringing the governance of our fire and rescue service alongside the governance of our police service in here.
At present 21 councillors from Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire carry out the governance of the fire service, on a part time basis, through what is called the Fire and Rescue Authority.
Local police services used to be governed in a similar way until 2013 when locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) took over responsibility. It has been evidenced widely that this has been effective and so Government have now asked each Commissioner to consider bringing the governance of their area’s fire and rescue service alongside that of policing.
An Independent Report about doing this in Staffordshire suggests it would improve the way the two services work together, speed up delivery of new ideas, be better value for money and provide the room for investment in the two services.
The report concludes that bringing the governance of the fire and rescue service alongside policing here is sensible and pragmatic. Doing that here would also save £2 million on the current costs of Fire governance over the ten years of the business case set out.
I broadly agree with the independent report’s findings and also think aligning governance will bring certainty and stability for the longer term for both services. I would be grateful of the parish council’s thoughts and if you would like to receive the full report and a link to the survey please email FirePolconsult@staffordshire.pcc.gov.uk. Could you please share this letter with all parish council members.
If you would like more information in general please email Samantha.harris@staffordshire.pcc.pnn.gov.uk
Thank you
Matthew Ellis
Police and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire