Government home improvement grant

The Kent public service agreement, the result of a contract between Kent County Council and the government to deliver innovation and improvement in local services, was one of the first in the country to incorporate a fire-related target.

Involvement in early discussions about tar get setting meant officers from Kent Fire and Rescue Service were able to suggest a five-year objective for reducing fire-related deaths and injuries.

At the start, only 20 public service agreement pilot schemes were negotiated nationally. Since then they have been rolled out to include all local authorities. Authorities were invited to put together a package of 12 'stretch' targets to meet the government's aim to include central and locally based objectives. In return, it promised additional funding and "new flexibilities and freedoms".

Stretch means that the targets were tougher than those already set out in best value or specific service plans. Authorities also needed to include a wide spread of services and targets and the involvement of partner agencies such as fire, police and health.

Chairman of Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority Derek Dolding explained: "It is a true partnership which has worked really well for both our organisation and Kent County Council. As well as a target that has had a real impact on the lives of the people in the area we serve, the agreement has provided much needed resources and support."

A challenging target was set that would mean reducing the accidental fire related deaths and casualties in the home by a massive 20 per cent. This meant reducing the number from 185, the average number from 1995 to 1999, to 148. Success has exceeded all expectations and a range of new community fire safety initiatives has resulted in a total of just 55. The estimate tot 2003/4--at 31--is even better.

Mr Dolding added: "We have worked hard on delivering safety messages to the public in a variety of ways and worked with a number of different agencies to make Kent safer. We are all delighted with the results which are better than we could ever have hoped for."

VITAL FUNDS

The public service agreement provided much-needed funds to kick stall the work to achieve this target. In total, Kent Fire and Rescue Service received 116,000 [pounds sterling] to buy smoke alarms for home fire safety checks and to pay for high profile advertising campaigns to promote fire safety.

Since 2002, two years after the start of the agreement, more than 7,000 smoke alarms have been fitted by firefighters in high-risk areas of the county. Fire safety advice and smoke alarms have also been given to particularly vulnerable pensioners, thanks to Help the Aged's and Kent County Council's HandyVan scheme.

Money was also spent on a carefully engineered publicity drive which included Kent Fire and Rescue Service's first ever TV advertising campaign, with a focus on safer cooking, statistics soon showed a significant drop in oil and fat fires.

Since the start of the agreement, community fire safety work has expanded even further to include:

* More high-profile safety campaigns;

* Support for more partnership work, such as the HandyVan scheme;

* Creating a dedicated team of community fire safety officers;

* Extending the education programme to secondary schools;

* Building on work with the police and local authorities to target resources at young people and increase the number of specialist youth courses; and,

* Promoting the use of sprinkler systems in domestic and commercial premises.

Chief Fire officer Peter Coombs said: "It was an ambitious target and so, before making a commitment, we had to ask ourselves some hard questions, For example, we had to look at how much effort we were prepared to invest in this targeted approach and how tar we could direct our resources into this work A key point for us was that the target needed to be a core objective for the service and involve every member of staff."

BENEFITS

Taking part in the Kent Public Service Agreement has brought many benefits to Kent Fire and Rescue Service, such as:

* Funding specifically allocated to achieve the targets, which would not have been available otherwise;

* Building better relationships with many agencies and getting the Fire Service recognised as a key partner by local authorities;

* Developing partnerships which have led to other vital work, such as supporting local activity to reduce deliberate car fires; and

* Providing links to housing and youth offending teams as well as opportunities to bid for joint funds in other areas

Another tangible benefit is the financial incentive for achieving the targets. Kent County Council will receive a 'reward grant', based on its budget, to reinvest in the services that have generated the improvement. This could mean a substantial sum will become available to develop community safely initiatives and build on the huge success achieved over the last few years. Kent Fire and Rescue is currently discussing proposals on how this money might be spent.

This project is due to be completed in March 2004 and Kent County Council has put Kent forward as a pilot for a further public service agreement with the aim of building upon the targets achieved over the last few years. The details are still being discussed on the second PSA.

Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority Chairman Mr Dolding added: "We now have the lowest number of accidental fire deaths and casualties pet bead of population, nationally. The fact is that many more people would have been killed or injured without our efforts to expand our community fire safety work. We would welcome the opportunity to build on this success by taking part in the second public service agreement."