Change of address: Fire Minister speaks out for first time: in his maiden speech to the Fire Service Minister Jim Fitzpatrick outlined his ideas at the LGA Forum on June 17. This is an extracted version of the speech

I WOULD LIKE TO START ON a personal note. Before I became an MP I was a firefighter and a senior official in the FBU for over 20 years. It is a record I am very proud of and I think you can safely assume I learnt a bit about the Service.

Let me say this,. I joined the Fire Service for the same reason every other firefighter does--a determination and commitment to save lives. The Service today is just as dedicated to that aim and I know it is one shared by everyone in this room. Your goal my goal and the goal of all firefighters is to reduce fire deaths and injuries.

As a Minister, one of my key aims is to move the Service forward so that it truly looks, feels and delivers what is needed for a 21st century Service. An important part of this is giving staff the skills they need.

The government has supported the introduction of the Integrated Personal Development System. This represents a complete change of attitude to training and development. It introduces a competence-based approach and sets clear national performance standards. Help with meeting those standards is built into the system. We have invested over 4 million [pounds sterling] to help develop this and to provide support and guidance to authorities as they implement it.

The workforce should also reflect the community it serves. This is not only about fairness and equality, it is also about effectiveness. If the Service reflects the community it serves it will understand and work better with that community. The process of cultural change has started, but we need to go much further. We need organisations which are truly inclusive and welcoming, where the core values have a real meaning for all members of staff and are demonstrated every day by all.

We also need to provide firefighters and control room staff with the best equipment and clothing available. This will enable them to do their jobs even more effectively and safely.

To deliver this 21st century Service we will need to work closely together. I hope we will have a mature and productive relationship. No doubt, as in any relationship, we will have our ups and downs. But as long as we focus on the overriding goal of saving lives, those tensions will be constructive and not lead to any loss of momentum in moving forward.

I believe one of our most important tasks is to firmly embed a culture of prevention. We must move on from just focussing on effective reaction. A prompt and efficient response will always be vital but prevention is where we can make real progress towards our goal.

The latest provisional figures are encouraging. They show accidental fire deaths in the home are down by 11 per cent and the number of fires by four per cent. Hopefully this is a trend but it is too early to say. We can--and must--do more to make sure it becomes one. That is still 265 accidental deaths in homes and 39,000 such fires a year. We all know that behind the figures lie stories of human tragedy as people affected recover from the trauma and rebuild their lives. The visible and invisible scars take a long time to heal, some never do. The effects on a whole neighbourhood can be devastating.

The government's aim is to build safer and stronger communities and the fire prevention agenda is an absolutely key part of that. Unfortunately the most deprived communities are often the hardest hit. Children from families on the lowest incomes are 16 times more likely to die as a result of a fire. Over half of all accidental fire deaths in homes occur in the 88 Neighbourhood Renewal Fund areas. In fact the rate of fires and deaths in these areas is almost twice the average.

I think it is worth just pausing and looking at the development of the legislative framework we have today. Going back to 1970 the Holroyd Committee recommended that there should be more resources focussed on fire safety education. The Fire Precautions Act in 1971 required certain premises such as hotels to have fire certificates. The same year the Cunningham Inquiry proposed that the rank structure in the Fire Service should be reviewed and jobs should be evaluated.

In 1974, under the Local Government Act of 1972, the number of Fire Authorities fell from 129 to 55 and the working hours of firefighters were reduced from 56 to 48. The annual figure for fire deaths at that time was 827. Moving forward nearly 30 years, we come to the Bain review and subsequent report which looked at the future organisation of the Service. The findings made it clear that a reform of the Fire and Rescue Service was due or perhaps overdue.

The White Paper in June 2003 Our Fire and Rescue Service set out the government's response--a clear vision for the service and a strategy for getting there. The National Framework set out in more detail how this vision could be delivered. We set the strategic direction but how fire and rescue authorities deliver for their area is for each to decide.

The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 moved the focus to prevention and provides statutory recognition for other roles that fire and rescue authorities undertake. These include the new responsibilities for responding to terrorist threats. It also gives legislative backing for the framework--a ground-breaking 'first' in many ways.

Last week I announced the final step in reforming fire safety legislation--the biggest single reform in over 30 years--which simplifies the law for thousands of businesses and again puts the focus on prevention.

In the last three years there has been substantial progress. We have set ambitious targets for the Fire and Rescue Service but we have also provided substantial investment. Last year fire and rescue authorities received an average 3.7 per cent increase in grant and no authority got less than 2.5 per cent. We have also distributed 61.68m [pounds sterling] in supported capital expenditure in 2005/06 and have recently invited you to bid for a share of up to 150m [pounds sterling] PFI credits. I understand my officials spoke to you about this PFI round this morning. We have generated a good deal of momentum for change and we must keep this going.

Let us look at some of the progress made since the White Paper was published. We have certainly made a good start.

We have achieved a great deal in our resilience work across government. The events of September 11, 2001 were a stark warning. Pre 9/11 the UK's resilience to major emergencies relied on a combination of old technology plus the commitment and creativity of the emergency services. More generally, 9/11 and the experience of other non-terrorist crises--such as flooding, the fuel crisis and foot and mouth--have helped shape the government's overall resilience agenda. Since 9/11, crisis management, including the contribution of the Fire and Rescue Service, has been transformed.

We have developed a new tier of regional resilience. It co-ordinates emergency planning on a regional basis in every part of England, as well as in Scotland and Wales. In any emergency situation, management, communication with the public, liaison with individual local authorities and the emergency services, needs to be handled at an appropriate level, within an overall strategy. Regional Resilience Teams are now operating in each of the Government Offices in the nine English regions and in Scotland and Wales. Regional Resilience Forums have been formed to bring together business, local authorities, central government agencies, the armed forces, and representatives of the emergency services. The forums meet regularly and are able to focus on the wider consequences of incidents as well as how to plan for a quick and effective return to normality.

So where are we with our resilience programme? The New Dimension programme continues to deliver capability into the Fire and Rescue Service, with the roll-out of urban search and rescue units, high volume pumps and further mass decontamination equipment. We have already announced investment in the programme of some 188 million [pounds sterling] with an additional 16 million [pounds sterling] to meet the crewing costs of the new equipment. Recent disasters such as the flooding in Boscastle, Cumbria and Hexham or the collapse of the Stockline Plastics factory in Glasgow have shown the value of this additional capability and investment.

The Firelink project is currently evaluating bids for a new wide area radio network for the fire and rescue services. This will be interoperable with the other emergency services. The Firelink and FireControl project teams are working together as part of our resilience programme to ensure we achieve integrated delivery. The regional control centre network combined with access to good communications will enable fire and rescue services to respond more effectively and efficiently to the range of possible incidents we face today.

You all now have integrated risk management plans--IRMPs. These identify particular 'at risk' groups and show how you intend to target resources in line with risk. In other words, it is a matter of putting resources where they are most needed. The IRMP also sets out how you are going to enforce fire safety legislation in your area. We fully recognise that there is no 'one size fits all.' You must assess and respond to the particular risks in your own area.

Another step has been the introduction of the fire CPA process. Your reports will provide a baseline for improvement. Every authority has a responsibility to build on the findings in the report and to produce a robust improvement plan. We will provide you with support. And I hope together we can learn from the innovative ideas and good practice that will I am sure, emerge from the reports. The challenge for every authority is to perform at the level of the best.

There is no doubt we are facing some difficult challenges and some difficult decisions. You face the challenge of keeping Council Tax increases to acceptable levels and repaying transitional funding. You need to continue improving the services you deliver, shift resources to better match the local distribution of risk and save more lives as a result. We believe that is achievable.

Across public services we expect efficiency gains, and, as the Bain review highlighted, there is scope for the Service to offer even better value for money, (not least by working together through Regional Management Boards). There are also complex issues to resolve in the negotiations on pensions and pay.

Major announcements are imminent--and I am sorry that the timing of this meeting means that I cannot make them today. They include details of the next phase of the FireControl project, the national procurement strategy, the Service's learning and development strategy, and the current round of PFI investment worth a total of 150 million [pounds sterling]. The pace and scope of change remains demanding--for all of us.

All this means we must win hearts and minds, both in the Fire and Rescue Service and among the people we serve. People need to understand why the modernisation agenda is so important, how it will save more lives and what the benefits are for them. We must share more widely our goal and our vision for building safer and stronger communities together.

This calls for strong leadership. We will play our part but it is vital that you and the service play yours. Modernisation and change is rarely the easy choice but it is nearly always the right choice. So I urge you to keep the momentum going and I look forward to talking to you soon about our shared agenda.

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