Kent Fire and Rescue Service
Audited annual statement of accounts 2020-21

The Authority is required to undertake an annual review of its governance processes and to publish a Statement setting out the results of the review. The Statement, which is available on the Authority’s website, shows how the Authority demonstrates good governance in its actions and also how it meets the requirements of the National Framework for Fire and Rescue Services.  This Governance Statement also includes an assessment on Operational Assurance.

The Authority publishes extensive performance and financial information on its website including transparency data on all spending over £250, all expenditure incurred on purchasing cards, a register of contracts and the pay of senior managers. This allows the public to see how well the Authority is performing and provides evidence of value for money.

In July 2017 Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) extended its remit to include inspections of England’s fire and rescue services. The inspection focuses on how well the Service prevents, protects against and responds to fires and other emergencies, and also how well the service looks after its staff. 

On 20 June 2019 HMICFRS published the results of our first inspection. This rated Kent Fire and Rescue Service as ‘Good’ across the three inspection pillars of Effectiveness, Efficiency and People.  Of the 45 Fire and Rescue Services inspected during 2018/19, the Authority is one of only 16 to have been awarded ‘Good’ in all three pillars.

The second round of inspections was due to take place for KFRS in late September / October 2020. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the planned inspection activity was postponed and instead a Covid-19 themed inspection took place in early September. This differed from a normal inspection by being run remotely and was not scored or rated. Key members of the Authority were interviewed online and Covid-19 specific data was gathered and submitted, as well as a self-assessment of our plans and response to the pandemic.  The results of this themed inspection were published on Friday 22 January 2021 in the form of a letter as opposed to the usual detailed and scored report, a copy of the letter can be found on the HMICFRS website. The letter confirmed that the Authority had adapted well in responding to impact of the pandemic and that there was a constructive relationship across the service which enabled the service to move quickly to provide a new range of support outside of core activities.

The Asset and Fleet strategy is one of eight strategies agreed by the Authority in support of its Customer and Corporate Plan 2018-22. It sets out how the Authority aims to protect the environment of Kent and Medway in terms of buildings and the vehicles that are used in delivering the service.  Environmental improvements have been made across the estate, including the installation of new energy efficient boilers and heating systems, as well as photovoltaic (PV) panels on 37 buildings including Headquarters. Other improvements to buildings have been made through better insulation, double-glazing and heating controls have also contributed to the reduction in energy use and improved efficiencies.

New buildings have been designed to meet current standards for energy efficiency and include building management systems and controls, insulation, LED lighting, and natural ventilation rather than using air conditioning. In addition, there is an ongoing programme to re-roof buildings, replace windows and appliance bay doors, all of which will improve insulation. 

As part of our commitment to reducing our CO2 emissions we recently committed to developing a climate action plan, as part of a drive to be carbon neutral by 2030. As an example, we have undertaken a biodiversity audit across the estate and introduced 12 hybrid vehicles into our diverse fleet. All of these vehicles are pool cars and their hybrid system combines the use of a petrol engine and an electric motor, improving fuel efficiency and reducing exhaust emissions. Being conscious of the environmental impact caused by cars, these hybrid pool vehicles allow us to make our journeys more sustainably. 

We have installed CCTV in all of our fire engines and blue light response vehicles alongside telematics in the majority of our vehicles.  This has resulted in a number of benefits, including a saving of £60k on our vehicle insurance premiums as well as a more effective insurance claims process. Better management information is now being obtained about our fleet, including improving driving styles in order to reduce fuel consumption and the associated environmental impact and to enable us to make informed decisions about the size of our fleet, based upon overall usage data.

The Authority has a comprehensive set of performance indicators some of which are considered to be strategic due to their importance in monitoring the performance of the Authority. Members approve the targets that are set for all the strategic indicators and regular reports are provided to Members to keep them updated of performance against these indicators. 

The Authority attended 4,439 fires in 2020/21 (4,141 in 2019/20) which was higher than the performance in 2019/20, however it was consistent with the level in the previous two years. The three-year average outturn for the 2018-21 period is 4,326 fires, which is higher than the target of 4,091. The higher levels of fires can be attributed to outdoor fires and rubbish fires, both of which were high as a result of the prolonged period of dry weather and significantly lower levels of rainfall.
Accidental dwelling fires (ADFs) accounted for 20% of all the accidental fires attended in 2020/21. Historically, the Authority has performed very well in this area and has been amongst the top performers nationally for more than ten consecutive years. In 2020/21 545 incidents were attended which is higher than the levels seen in the previous two years (+20) but was still lower than the target. The three year average performance for the medium term period (2018-21) was 531 which is 2.9% better than the target of 547.

Reducing the number of road traffic collisions (RTCs) across Kent and Medway and the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) as a result continues to be a priority for the Authority. In 2020/21 the Authority attended 673 RTCs which is 291 fewer than in 2019/20. A reduction in RTCs was seen in each month in 2020/21 compared to the previous year which includes a large reduction during the lockdown periods; the months of April and May had only a third of the expected levels of activity for those months and November and January had half the expected levels. The Authority continues to work with its partners to promote road safety across the county. 

A large number of on-call stations and some officers respond to immediately life-threatening medical emergency calls, such as suspected heart attacks, in support of the ambulance service. Under this arrangement, the Authority’s staff are sent to a medical incident as the quickest resource and are always backed up by the ambulance service. During 2020/21 the Authority attended 2,266 of these incidents which is lower than the amount attended in the previous year (4,496). 

The Authority’s response times to life-threatening incidents has not changed significantly compared to previous years. In 2020/21 72.7% of life-threatening incidents were reached within 10 minutes and 83.9% within 12 minutes. Overall performance is higher than the targets set for these indicators; 71% and 82% respectively.

In addition to responding to emergency calls, the Authority carries out a number of activities to support our customers and business safety. Despite Covid-19 restrictions in 2020/21, the Authority’s Customer Safety teams have still delivered 8,412 Safe and Well Visits to customers across the County. In addition to these visits some 1,287 telephone assessments have been carried out. Our business safety teams audited 1,653 buildings in 2020/21. In addition the Authority has carried out 1,254 building regulation consultations in the last year.

The detail of the progress against all of the Authority’s key performance indicators is reported regularly to Members of the Authority, and a copy of the report is available on the Authority’s website.

Results of a recent survey completed by 268 Kent and Medway residents and conducted by the Institute of Customer Service, revealed that the Authority is providing an exceptional level of customer service across the board, including emergency response, safe and well home visits and building fire safety inspections.  When benchmarked against other local public services in the institute’s UK Customer Satisfaction Index, the Authority scores compare exceptionally well across the areas measured; experience, customer ethos, emotional connection, ethics and complaint handling.  The Authority also compared well against the all sector UK Customer Satisfaction Index average, which includes private sector organisations. For overall customer satisfaction, we achieved a score of 95.3 out of 100 in the survey of its customers, compared to the public service UK Customer Satisfaction Index average of 75.3 and the all sector average of 77.

An internal survey was completed by Authority staff to understand how customer focused the organisation is and it was positive to see that the results of this survey showed that the Authority is better on average that its local public sector benchmark group. An application has now been submitted for Service Mark, a highly sought after accreditation by the Institute of Customer Service in recognition of our excellent customer service.