Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis says integration between police and fire could be key to maintaining frontline emergency services.
Progress has been made recently in closer collaboration between Staffordshire Police and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service but, with the financial challenges ahead, integration of support services is needed to create efficiencies to put money back to frontline services.
The future financial challenges and opportunities have been acknowledged by the Home Office with an announcement yesterday (Tues) on new legislation to support integration at a local level.
Mr Ellis said: “The core purpose of both the police and fire services is to protect people and prevent harm. It’s within the very corporate DNA of each organisation.
“These proposals are not about police officers carrying hoses and firefighters carrying truncheons. They’re about being sensible and exploring ways to combine back offices and support services to make sure all available money goes towards supporting frontline firefighters and frontline police officers.
“Duplication of support services which carry out the same functions in both police and fire is not an effective use of the available resources that could go towards frontline police and fire services.
“We need to crack on with work on a business case to understand the benefits and challenges of integration. This is about doing what is best to keep people safe in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent as well as spending public money more effectively than ever before.”
In May 2015, the PCC put forward proposals for integration between the police and fire services in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. Work has already taken place to integrate transport servicing and repair for Staffordshire Police and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service, which has already gone some way to proving the advantage of doing things differently.
In December, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Authority agreed to move forward with work looking at collaboration and integration between emergency services in the county.
