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30 January 2008
Fire Authority performance still Good says Audit Commission.
Norfolk County Council continues to be recognised as a good fire authority, according to the Audit Commission.
The Commission today (Thursday 31) published its findings after assessing all fire and rescue authorities in England and once again found Norfolk County Council to be performing well.
In 2005 Norfolk Fire Authority’s underwent a full Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) and its performance was found to be Good.
In 2006 the authority underwent a full Operational Assessment of Service Delivery and the authority was again found to be Good.
This latest assessment saw the Audit Commission carrying out further monitoring of the authority and once again its overall performance score remained Good. It was also found to be 'Improving Adequately'.
Inspectors concluded that in exercising its duties as the fire authority for Norfolk, the County Council:
 demonstrated good value for money with a generally strong performance achieved at low cost
is performing well in most areas of service delivery
is particularly strong in call management and incident support
uses the latest technology to support the quickest attendance at incidents
The inspectors recognised that capacity within the fire and rescue service remained limited and that pressures on the County Council budget lead in turn to challenges for an already low-spending service.
Richard Rockcliffe, Cabinet Member for Fire and Community Protection, said: "Here in Norfolk we enjoy a top class fire and rescue service, something which the Audit Commission continues to recognise. While we can take a great deal of satisfaction from the assessors’ conclusions we also appreciate there is still work to be done.
In essence what the Audit Commission is saying is that our fire and rescue service is still performing well and our rate of improvement is adequate. Ideally we would like our rate of improvement to be better and it is something we will be addressing.”
Richard Elliott, Chief Fire Officer for Norfolk, said: "Norfolk is already a safe county and through the fire authority everyone at Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service continues working to make it even safer. It is good to see the efforts of staff recognised and I thank everyone for their effort and commitment.”
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