Why we have this plan

Put very simply, our job is to save lives. You provide the funding for us to do that, and it is our moral and legal duty to ensure we make the best use of your money to make you safer.

Best Value Performance Planning is one of the tools we use to test ourselves against that aim. The Government requires that all fire and rescue authorities ensure that we meet current demands and demonstrate that we are providing these services and supporting activities in an effective and efficient way.  This means that we must continually:

• Consult with and understand the needs and expectations of all our key stakeholders
  
• Monitor our past and current performance
  
• Review the way we manage the various aspects of our work

To do this we will:

• Challenge the reasons why a service is provided in the first place
  
• Consult with service users and providers, inside and outside the organisation, as well as the wider community of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes
  
• Compare the service with the best providers of similar services
  
• Question the quality and cost of the service and explore the range of ways in which the service could be provided to ensure that it is competitive
  
• Explore opportunities to collaborate with public and private providers in delivering our services

This is more than an imposed duty that we are forced to comply with – we work hard to be a learning organisation, and we welcome the opportunity to take stock and challenge ourselves, to make sure we are doing our level best to save the most lives we can with the resources available to us.

About us

Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire and Rescue Authority (BMKFRA) serves a population of just over 700,000 in the South East of England. It comprises the four districts of Buckinghamshire – Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks and Wycombe and the unitary borough of Milton Keynes. The major centres of population are the designated new city area of Milton Keynes, which occupies much of the south of the borough (172,033 in the 2001 Census), High Wycombe (77,178), Aylesbury (69,021), Chesham (20,343) and Amersham (17,719).

The area which the Fire and Rescue Authority serves is expanding extensively; Milton Keynes, for example, has more than trebled its population in the last 30 years from 67,000 to around 220,000. Current government plans for housing and commercial development in the region could see an additional 100,000 new homes built in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes over the next 25 years. Other expansion of the urban infrastructure, including education, health care and other public services, will also be required with evident implications for the Fire and Rescue Authority in terms of the increasing demand for fire safety education and community safety partnerships, as well as emergency operational response provision.

Although many parts of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes enjoy the affluence associated with the Home Counties, there are pockets of deprivation in all four districts and the borough of Milton Keynes. The area served by the Fire and Rescue Authority includes stretches of the M1, M25, M4 and M40 motorways - working in partnership to improve road safety is a clear priority of the Fire and Rescue Authority.

The Fire and Rescue Authority is a combined body, with membership drawn from Buckinghamshire County Council (12 members) and Milton Keynes Council (five members). This year, we will spend £25 million (£35.77 per head of population) on providing services. The Fire and Rescue Authority employs approximately 680 staff, with 562 firefighters operating from 20 fire stations – 6 whole-time, 4 day-crewed and 10 retained. The Fire and Rescue Authority operates 42 frontline and specialist vehicles. In 2005/06, the service attended 9,724 incidents (9,829). Of this total, 1,947 (2,030) were primary fires, 1,935 (2,025) were secondary fires, and 1,545 (1,568) were calls for special services such as road traffic accidents. Figures in brackets are the 2004-05 equivalents.

Our vision

Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority has a vision for what it wants to achieve for the people of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes. It is:

     Making you safer, by working together to reduce death, injury and  
     damage to property, the environment and our heritage from fire and
     other emergencies. This will be achieved by balancing the provision of
     prevention, protection and response services.

For simplicity we have shortened our key message to Making You Safer.

Our priorities

Underpinning the vision we have a clear set of priorities – the things that we need to concentrate our efforts on doing in order to deliver our vision.

• Working in partnership with key agencies to promote awareness, and build responsible communities through education to reduce risk to life, property, our heritage and the environment.
  
• Having a healthy, flexible, diverse, skilled and motivated workforce.
  
• Reviewing and continuously improving performance.
  
• Delivering these priorities cost effectively.
  
• Maintaining a continuing professional response to all operational emergencies.

Our values

Our values are focussed on:

• Service to the community
  
• People
  
• Diversity
  
• Improvement

Service to the community

We serve our community by:

• Working with all groups to reduce risk
  
• Treating everyone fairly and with respect
  
• Striving for excellence in all we do
  
• Being answerable to those we serve

People

Our values will be demonstrated by everyone practising and promoting:

• Fairness and respect
  
• Recognition of commitment and the achievement of excellent service
  
• Honesty and trust
  
• Opportunities to develop and learn
  
• Co-operation and inclusive working

Diversity

We value diversity in our service and in the community by:

• Treating everyone fairly and with respect
  
• Challenging prejudice and discrimination
  
• Creating opportunities to meet the different needs of people and the communities
  
• Promoting equal opportunities in terms of recruitment, promotion and retention.

Improvement

We value improvement at all levels of the service by:

• Accepting responsibility for our performance and actions
  
• Being open-minded and receptive to alternative approaches
  
• Learning from our experiences
  
• Supporting others to enable them to achieve their goals
  
• Encouraging innovation and creativity

NEXT SECTION
PREVIOUS SECTION