National fire report podcast

I’m here with John Baillie, chair of the Accounts Commission, to talk about the national overview report of best value in fire and rescue services in Scotland.
John, can you tell me what this report is about – is it a blueprint for the single Scottish Fire and Rescue Service next year?
No, it is not  a blueprint. The future arrangements for the new service are matters for the Scottish Government and, of course, the new service.  What this report does is to draw together the wider issues from the audits we have done on the existing eight fire and rescue services.  And so we hope that there are some valuable pointers that  will be helpful  to those planning the single service 
What’s wrong with the service currently provided by the eight fire and rescue services in Scotland?
In general these services perform well and provide an effective service. There are many areas of strong performance across the country.  And that’s all good. 
However, there are wide variations across Scotland on some pretty fundamental issues such as like crewing levels, shift patterns or how preventative work is targeted
They are also relatively expensive compared with their counterparts in England and Wales and the difference cannot be explained solely by historic and external factors such as higher levels of urban deprivation or the additional costs of serving remote and rural communities. 
What do you want to see happen next?
There are improvements that can be made, whatever the structure of fire and rescue services in Scotland. But the creation of a new national service provides the opportunity to apply best practice throughout the country.
We have highlighted some variations across Scotland. But that variation also means that there are some very innovative ideas around. If the new service can extend this good practice across the country, it has the potential to further reduce the numbers of fires and possibly save even more lives. 
So what are going to be the toughest nuts for the national service to crack?
Well, it’s not going to be short of challenges …...
Apart from identifying best local practice and introducing it across Scotland, there is  the question of how you deploy existing fire stations and firefighters. That pattern has scarcely changed in a decade, despite all the new demands placed on the service.  Fire boards have found it difficult to drive necessary changes in the face of concerns from local communities and staff.  Reducing resources in one area to help increase them elsewhere has always been very difficult. This is unlikely to be any easier for a national service. 
And finally, even though a national service is being created, the Scottish Government has indicated that local councillors will continue to have some say on the provision of local fire rescue services. A number of pilots are currently underway, but it isn’t yet clear how this blend of national and local oversight will work in practice.
The report says Scotland can create a world class fire service. Do you think this will happen?
Well, there is certainly the potential there to create a world class service, despite all the challenges. 
But we really have to wait and see. It is too early to comment on the arrangements for the new national service, but we are encouraged by the preparatory work being carried out between the existing eight services. 
It will be some years before we can assess the success of a national service in achieving the Scottish Government’s predicted savings and in continuing to reduce the number of fires and casualties.
John, thank you very much.