‘Falling to the lowest common denominator’ – how the Audit Commission got it wrong on the Fire Service
March 28, 2010 by admin
Filed under News, News - National
The FBU have published a report on how the Audit Commission made errors in their assessment of the U.K. Fire Service:
Download Falling to the lowest common denominator – how the Audit Commission got it wrong on the Fire Service as a PDF
Introduction
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Oscar Wilde
Our service is facing difficult times. The financial crisis which unfolded from 2008, has created huge uncertainty about the future of the UK (and the world) economy.
We are told that there is a huge gap in the public finances and that this must be filled by tax increases and major cuts in public spending. This mantra has been repeated so often that it appears to be the only option.
Regrettably, many politicians within our service seem to agree (however reluctantly) with the cuts agenda which is now developing. All too many Chief Fire Officers are simply asking how deep the cuts need to be.
To add to this the Audit Commission have unleashed their ‘report’ on the fire and rescue service. To the Audit Commission it is all very easy. You can churn out a few simple statistics and ‘prove’ that cuts can be made across the board, regardless of local circumstances and regardless of what has gone before.
The truth is that the Audit Commission has not thoroughly examined our service. It has completely ignored the professional concerns of firefighters about the quantity and quality of operational training being delivered or about the number of fatalities at operational incidents. They completely ignore the need for fire services to assess risk and then to plan for how it will deal with the operational incidents which will and do happen. The quality of the service provided is completely ignored.
Our report highlights these contradictions. I hope that others within the service will join with the FBU in challenging the simplistic ‘bean counter’ approach to running a fire and rescue service. The truth is that if this agenda is not challenged we face a very uncertain future.
There are two key things missing from the Audit Commission report: firstly any attempt to take on board the views of professional firefighters; and secondly any attempt to identify what the public want from their fire and rescue service.
The market-based approach which the Audit Commission advocate has been tried elsewhere in our public services.
Is the result greater public confidence and trust? Not in the slightest. Our service enjoys very high levels of confidence and trust. The agenda set by the Audit Commission poses a very serious threat – a threat to the very reputation of firefighters and the fire and rescue service. At the heart of our profession is a commitment to public service – that is something which is totally absent from the Audit Commission thinking and why they represent a very serious and very cynical attack on our service and our profession.
Matt Wrack
General Secretary
Related links:
Members Circular: GENERAL ELECTION – POLITICAL FUND DONATIONS
March 27, 2010 by admin
Filed under Members Circulars
CIRCULAR: 2010HOC0197MW 23 March 2010
TO: ALL MEMBERS
view this Circular in
Dear Brother/Sister
GENERAL ELECTION – POLITICAL FUND DONATIONS
In 2004 the Union disaffiliated from the Labour Party. Members will recall that this was in response to the appalling treatment our members received from the New Labour Government following our claim for a pay rise.
The issue of Labour Party re-affiliation has been raised at our Conference on a number of occasions since – and each time has been decisively rejected. This reflects continuing and justified anger at our treatment in 2002/3 and the anger and frustration our members feel at the cuts agenda we face under the so-called ‘modernisation’ initiated by this Government.
It is important to note that throughout this time there have been MPs who have consistently defended Firefighters, the FBU and the Fire Service. The FBU Parliamentary Group includes MPs who have:
•Challenged the Government over Control Regionalisation.
•Questioned Ministers and challenged Government over various attacks on our pensions (e.g. the attack on ill-health pensions).
•Supported our lobbying campaign over Firefighter Fatalities and for improved operational standards and guidance.
•Supported our members who have been forced to take industrial action in Merseyside, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, West Midlands and South Yorkshire.
•Challenged Government over the lack of resources for dealing with major floods.
•Assisted in our campaign for long-term investment in the Fire and Rescue Service.
Every decision affecting our Service is a political decision and it is essential that we are engaged in this process and that there are MPs supporting us in that work. In extremely difficult circumstances we have built our Parliamentary Group into a very effective lobbying and campaigning body.
It is on the basis of these facts that the Executive Council has agreed to support the election campaigns of thirty MPs. Donations have been or will be made to these candidates from the Union’s Political Fund. Nothing can be donated from the Union’s General Fund.
It is important to note that there will be no national donation to the Labour Party or to any other political party. Each MP was discussed in relation to their record on the issues outlined above and related trade union issues.
The FBU will be supporting MPs who have supported Firefighters and the Fire Service and who have stood by us in the most difficult of times: people who are prepared to stand up to defend the Fire Service, to oppose cuts and to defend our jobs pay and conditions.
A further bulletin on these issues will be issued shortly.
Best wishes.
Yours fraternally
MATT WRACK
GENERAL SECRETARY
Press release: Firefighters Back MP’S Call For Safer Cigarettes
March 27, 2010 by admin
Filed under Press Releases, Press releases - national
The Fire Brigades Union threw its weight behind the early day motion calling on the government to legislate for fire safety in cigarette design, which was tabled today by Andrew Dismore MP.
“This simple piece of legislation could save 100 lives every year” said FBU assistant general secretary Andy Dark. “Cigarette fires are the biggest cause of fire-related deaths in the home. In 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 82 deaths, 1,064 injuries and 3,000 fires per year in accidental home fires were caused by smoking materials, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government. Every three days someone dies in a fire caused by a cigarette. Safer cigarettes will not eliminate the danger, but will decrease it by ensuring that cigarettes go out if left burning.”
Mr Dismore’s Early Day Motion is:
“That this House welcomes the Finnish government’s call for the UK and the European Union to legislate for fire safety standards in cigarettes; remains concerned that every three days in the UK someone dies in a house fire caused by a cigarette; recalls that in the last year for which there are statistics, 2005, 82 deaths, 1,064 injuries and 3,000 fires were caused by smoking materials in the home; observes that reduced ignition propensity, or fire safer, cigarettes utilise ultra thin concentric bands in the cigarette paper to restrict oxygen to the burning end of the cigarette; regards fire safer cigarettes as an appropriate response to the persistent fire safety threat posed by conventional cigarettes; congratulates the RIP Coalition and the Fire Brigades Union for their existing work on fire safer cigarettes; and calls upon the government to take action to reduce the number of deaths, injuries and properties damaged from cigarettes through legislation on fire safety in cigarette design.”
***ENDS***
Contact:
Francis Beckett:- 020 8349 9194 – 07813 001372
Related links: