CFOA Sustainability Conference What have we been finding? 13th September 2010 Steven Frank

Government priorities for sustainability aiming to be 'The Greenest Government Ever' tackle climate change increase EU emission reduction targets to 30% by 2020 renewable energy schemes, including community-owned incentives for GPs and PCTs to improve public health supporting elderly to live at home & community support Big Society - support for expansion of charities, social enterprises, volunteering, self help etc community resilience (see Cabinet Office work on this) A reminder… Sustainability has not dropped off the government’s radar

Headlines from assessments Use of Resources not completed in FRAs Looked at use of natural resources through the lens of value for money Better understanding of the issues – but some way to go to deal with them FRAs have a strong desire to learn - but not enough learning outside FRS Some FRAs showing strong leadership in their FRA and of the FRS Good local solutions to issues e.g. Isles of Scilly use of water, Hampshire FRS station approach More data available than many FRAs thought they had access to e.g. water use, fuel consumption, pollution Local Government doing slightly better on reduction of use of natural resources, police very similar to fire We have not been looking at this as a morale issue – it is a VFM issue

Positive findings Audit has helped raise the profile of the issues Greater understanding by members When staff and members are engaged, more progress is made Natural competitiveness between FRAs and between stations – can be a good thing Some good work done collaboratively New technology available that can reduce energy and water consumption e.g. CoBRA Starting to see inclusion in performance management frameworks More sustainable procurement practices

Areas in need of improvement Understanding of sustainability – its not just about carbon reduction Use of natural resources in many FRAs is higher than expected – and big variations in consumption Transparency and understanding of data Inconsistency of baseline assumptions Measures of success - outcome? Sharing of knowledge Evaluation of initiatives

Challenges for you Financial resilience and priorities? Keeping the focus on the sustainability agenda? Will FRAs be more sustainable? Mainstreaming – should we defer to experts? Finding local solutions in absence of national policy? When you talk to staff and members are you making them feel good or bad about sustainability? Should we give incentives to staff to reduce natural resources?

Implications for audit and inspection Our assessment role will be changing Audit continues to support local accountability: Opinion on accounts Probity and governance Value for money focus on financial resilience and productivity Questions and objections from local people Clear and accessible annual audit letter Lower audit fees Consideration of productivity We will consider the effective use of natural resources No separate audit of council fire and rescue services Inspection is last resort Service failure Needed when public reporting Doncaster Place based budgets/community budgets and possible / very tentative views about what area vfm / accountability might need to consider. Stressing we know how difficult this territory is but have some experience from area assessment etc to build on