Fire authority warned £19.4m improvement plan may be unaffordable

Mark Mansfield

South Wales Fire and Rescue Authority has been warned it may not be able to afford a £19.4m transformation programme introduced following serious concerns over its culture, performance and governance.

Audit Wales says the authority has made progress since the Welsh Government took the extraordinary step of replacing its 24 councillors with four commissioners in February 2024, but has questioned whether its improvement plans are financially sustainable.

Its new report, Delivering change, measuring impact?, also found the authority is not yet able to demonstrate whether the changes it has made are improving services for communities or delivering value for money.

The intervention followed a series of critical external reports, including an Independent Culture Review published in January 2024.

When commissioners were appointed, then Deputy Minister for Social Partnership Hannah Blythyn said she did not have confidence the service had the “internal capacity or capability to oversee its own recovery”, adding that authority members could not be “both the problem and the solution”.

The authority has since developed a wide-ranging improvement programme in response to recommendations from a series of external reviews.

Audit Wales said significant action had been taken, with the authority reporting that it had completed 43% of recommendations covered by its improvement work at the point examined by auditors.

However, the watchdog raised concerns over how the programme will be paid for.

It said the authority had not clearly set out the cost of all its planned improvements and did not have a medium-term financial plan.

Auditors said strategic and financial planning were being carried out separately, while reserves had previously been used to fund additional spending that was not included in the budget.

They warned this risked “continued and potentially unsustainable use of its reserves”.

The authority has estimated that delivering its nine transformation aims could cost £19.4m.

That is more than the £17.6m it held in unrestricted usable reserves at the end of 2024-25, leading Audit Wales to conclude there was a “significant risk” that its plans could be undeliverable.

Questions were also raised about whether the authority can demonstrate that its reforms are actually making a difference.

Impact

Audit Wales found its reporting focused largely on actions taken and recommendations completed rather than the impact of those changes.

It said the authority had not set out how it would know when its improvement programme had succeeded, making it difficult to establish whether its actions were benefiting communities or providing value for money.

The watchdog also found the authority had multiple plans which did not clearly link together, creating a risk that resources could be directed towards the wrong priorities.

Its Strategic Improvement Plan, approved in March 2025, contains eight improvement themes covering a 15-year period, but auditors said it did not set out what the authority intended to deliver over the lifetime of the plan.

‘Encouraged’

Auditor General for Wales Catherine Mealing-Jones said: “I am encouraged that the Authority has taken action to tackle the concerns raised about its culture and performance.

“I also recognise that this has been a difficult period for staff working in the fire and rescue service, who deliver such a vital public service in often very challenging circumstances.

“The Authority has made a good start on its improvement journey, but it now needs to make sure this action results in real benefits for its local communities and provides value for taxpayers’ money.

“To do this, the Authority needs to be clear on its priorities, their cost, and if these are leading to improved outcomes for the people of south Wales. It needs to make sure that its finances match with its ambitions.”

Audit Wales has recommended that the authority simplify its strategic planning, establish the resources needed to deliver its improvements and ensure its ambitions are compatible with the money available.

It has also called for the authority to set out the intended impact of its improvement work, measure whether it is achieving that impact and regularly report publicly on its progress.

---

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.