Internal Governance and Assurance

To achieve this Fire Standard, a fire and rescue service must:

1. Provide strategic oversight and accountability for internal governance and assurance, which enables it to:
   1. develop and monitor relevant functional delivery plans in line with the vision and strategic objectives of the service, agreed by its governing body and senior leadership;
   2. identify those who are responsible and accountable for strategic priorities and the business planning process across the service;
   3. co-ordinate all work designed to drive change, and which contributes to organisational development including managing and mitigating associated risks;
   4. remain agile and able to adapt plans in response to changing demands;
   5. continuously evaluate its performance through internal audit or self-assessment;
   6. consider all forms of feedback to measure progress and inform forward plans and new projects or initiatives, to ensure they remain efficient, effective and compliant with legislation;
   7. appropriately consider business cases for new work, projects or initiatives ensuring that any associated costs and resources have been forecast accurately and remain monitored, if agreed; and
   8. identify and coordinate the management of risks associated with delivering its activities.
2. Have a clear internal structure with appropriate governance arrangements that ensure:
   1. a framework is in place that identifies who can make decisions and has the authority to act on behalf of the service with accountability for how its people behave and perform;
   2. all internal decision-making boards, groups, or regular meetings have clear terms of reference which are regularly reviewed and include agreed levels of delegated authority to enable effective decision making;
   3. progress against deliverables is monitored, scrutinised and challenged to ensure objectives are being achieved within agreed timescales and budgets, and, if necessary, pausing work; and
   4. the service can provide its Annual statement of assurance evidencing its compliance with the Fire and Rescue National Framework, providing information about its performance against its strategic plan, community risk management plan, finance, governance and operational matters.
   5. internal assurance activities are provided with an appropriate level of independence to provide objective insight into the activities of the service.
3. Ensure that organisational decisions and the measures implemented support equality, diversity, and inclusivity, are non-discriminatory and that appropriate impact assessments are undertaken.
4. Utilise good communication and engagement to build trusting relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
5. Have arrangements in place to enable it to receive and act on feedback about its processes through proactive staff and stakeholder engagement.

To achieve this Fire Standard, a fire and rescue service should:

6. Utilise recognised processes, controls and change management methodologies to ensure impact of actions are understood, intended outcomes are delivered, and benefits are realised. This incorporates, but is not limited to, managing the following aspects:
   1. risks, issues, and dependencies;
   2. finance and budgets;
   3. post-deliverable lessons learnt and evaluation of results.
7. Support organisational development using identified learning to tailor and improve what it delivers to the community by:
   1. identifying, capturing, evaluating, and sharing learning which could benefit the service and others, engaging with national learning arrangements where they exist; and
   2. collaborating with, and learning from, other services to benchmark performance.
8. Recognise when it may need support and draw on the appropriate networks, national guidance, and tools to support its own organisational development.
9. Maximise opportunities gained from supporting the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) network by sharing learning and experiences, collaborating with others, and contributing to the continual improvement of the service.

This Fire Standard will contribute to the following benefits:

1. Improved quality of service provided to the public.
2. Effective leadership and management of the service evidenced by transparent ways of working and increased accountability.
3. Improved governance and internal culture of the organisation.
4. Increased clarity in decision making resulting in more efficient and transparent use of resources.
5. A diverse workforce that feels confident in the workplace.

This Fire Standard reflects only the most appropriate legislation to this topic. We recognise that fire and rescue services must comply with a broader list of legislation to undertake their duties, which would be applicable to all standards. View the legislation which applies to all Fire Standards.

• Policing and Crime Act 2017
• Statutory Auditors Regulations 2017
• The Accounts and Audits Regulations 2015
• The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
• Local Government Finance Act 1992

Other Fire Standards:

• Code of Ethics
• Community Risk Management Planning
• Communication And Engagement
• Data Management
• Emergency Planning and Resilience
• Leading The Service
• Leading and Developing People
• Procurement and Commercial

• • NFCC Organisational Learning
  • NFCC Learning Tools
  • CIPFA Public Sector Internal Audit Standards
  • CIPFA Delivering Good Governance in Local Government: Framework
  • ISO 31000:2018 Risk management Guidelines
  • ISO 19011:2018 Guidelines for auditing management systems
  • Statements of assurance for fire and rescue authorities in England – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
  • Leading the fire sector – Governance Support
  • Leading the Fire Sector: oversight of fire and rescue service performance
    • Fire Authority Members’ Guide
    • The Role of Fire and Rescue Authority Members
  • Political Oversight of Fire and Rescue Service Performance
    • Effective FRA Governance in Times of Crisis
  • Overview and scrutiny: statutory guidance for councils and combined authorities
    • The Good Scrutiny Guide
    • A Councillor’s Workbook on Scrutiny
    • Diverse by Design Guide
  • Orange Book Management of risk – Principles and Concepts (HMG)
  • Local Government Association Improvement and Assurance