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External audits  

The Audit Commission carries out a number of important audits, assessments and reviews and, wherever practically possible, we put the findings and recommendations of these on our website for all our stakeholders to see. Many of these audits result in action plans for improving the way we deliver and manage the service. Here you will find the key documentation relating to the latest major review of the Authority:

Comprehensive performance assessment (CPA)

Self-assessment summary - submitted 10 January 2005. We prepared this in January 2005 in preparation for CPA and it provides a useful top-level view of how we feel we are performing. The document was the end result of a most thorough exercise of self-assessment involving a wide range of managers and Members of the Authority. Download self-assessment summary ( 530 kb) (upload and add link)

Self-assessment - results of comprehensive exercise undertaken in November 2004. A major piece of work carried out to provide a thorough review of what four teams of managers and Members felt about our own performance using the Audit Commission's self-assessment 'questionnaire' as a structure for comments and evidence gathering.  Download self-assessment results ( 380 kb) (upload and add link)

Peer Review Report ( 223 kb) (upload and add link) organised by the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE) was conducted at our request in December 2004 as part of our preparation for CPA. A Summary of Findings was also given as a PowerPoint presentation ( 161 kb).(upload and add link) A Peer Review Improvement Plan MS Word 40Kb was produced in response to the findings of this very useful peer assessment in January 2005.

Fire and Rescue Performance Framework

2006/07 sees the next round of assessment – still on the lines of CPA, but called the ‘Fire & Rescue Performance Assessment’.  We have produced a series of bulletins which explain the assessment (which will be carried out by the Department for Communities & Local Government and the Audit Commission) in more detail.

Bulletin 1 - an overall summary of the Fire & Rescue Performance Framework

Bulletin 2 - Service Assessment

Bulletin 3 - Use of Resources

Verification study - pay and conditions

The Government published the White Paper 'Our Fire and Rescue Service' (30 June 2003). This confirmed the direction of travel for modernising the service. The national pay agreement set out a five stage award over the period from 2002 to 2006. A number of conditions were placed on the agreement these includes: "the pay award at stages 2 and 3 are subject to .... verification by the Audit Commission .... that the intended benefits (including savings) of the various national changes are being delivered locally." The study was carried out in two phases:

Annual audit letters

These important documents set out the findings of the annual audit of the Authority's governance, financial and performance management arrangements. Since its inception in 1997, the Authority is proud that it has never received a 'qualified' opinion from its external auditors. Here are the most recent letters: