Watchdog criticises governance at fire and rescue authorities in Wales
Weaknesses must be rectified in the governance of Wales’ three fire and rescue authorities (FRA), the country’s Auditor General has found.
Authority members are councillors nominated by their authorities, a process that Adrian Crompton said brought a risk of FRAs being run by elected members who lacked the skills and knowledge needed for such a specialist sector.
He said that despite a high turnover of members, training and development activity was limited and understanding of key roles and responsibilities was not always demonstrated in practice.
The three authorities are North Wales, South Wales and Mid & West Wales. Members are drawn mainly from among backbench councillors and are paid £2,632 a year, with salaries for a chair of £11,965 and a deputy chair or committee chair of £6,372.
Mr Crompton said in his report the Welsh Government had not taken forward its proposals to reform the authorities’ governance structures made in a 2018 White Paper.
He found while the roles and responsibilities of members are clear these were not always reflected in practice, although members generally did act in accordance with expected values and behaviours.
Governance arrangements recognised the importance of community representation but did not reflect the specialist nature of the authorities and training was limited.
Mr Crompton said he heard “concerns that the governance model results in an inherent tension between members’ role as councillors and members of the FRA” with a focus on parochial considerations rather than the FRA as a whole.
Although members felt they possessed the required skills “we also heard concerns during fieldwork that collectively members do not always possess or demonstrate them”.
There was “a risk that members do not always possess sufficient relevant knowledge of fire and rescue services to be able to discharge their governance role effectively”, he added.
Only limited scrutiny and challenge existed, with the Auditor General’s staff having observed two meetings in different authorities that had “limited scrutiny of the strategic risk registers that were on respective agendas”.
The practice of appointing FRA members exclusively from councils resulted in a lack of member diversity, Mr Crompton said.
Among recommendations for improvement were that the Welsh Government should review the FRA’s governance model to ensure appropriate knowledge, expertise and diversity among members and to have clear accountability arrangements to regularly evaluate their contribution.
He also said training and development should be strengthened by regular assessments of members’ needs and evaluating the effectiveness of this activity.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said:”We welcome the Auditor General’s report. We are already looking at proposals to reform and strengthen the current arrangements to address the problems of governance and culture in the fire and rescue service in Wales.”
Mark Smulian
