The Parish Council have received the following update:
It’s been four months since the Home Office confirmed that Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner would take responsibility for governance of the fire and rescue service. Those new arrangements start tomorrow.
This communication clarifies what it means in practice and, importantly, what it doesn’t mean. It will be business as usual, as far as fire operations are concerned and it’s also important to understand this is not, and never has been, a merger of the two. Staffordshire Police and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service will remain separate entities with separate budgets and staff.
The only area where that will change significantly is developing a shared approach, as set out in the business case, to some support and administrative functions. Work is also underway to take forward initial ideas from the two services around how police and fire can work better together generally.
The principles around this work are to find ways of ensuring more of the money available overall is allocated to both services for work in the heart of communities across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
On a final note, it would be appropriate to thank all top tier authority councillors for their work over many years as members of the Fire and Rescue Authority.
The PCC will be known as Staffordshire Commissioner for Police, Fire and Rescue and Crime.
Matthew Ellis
Police & Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire
Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner
Weston Road
Stafford
ST18 0YY
Tel: 01785 232270
Twitter: @StaffsPCC
OPCC Website: http://www.staffordshire-pcc.gov.uk