Recommendation 20

In recent years the Department has improved the quality of the five service level agreements (SLAs) that it has with the Council, which set out what the armed forces and Department require the RFCAs to deliver each year. The Department reviews progress against the SLAs three times a year, and it told us that this has provided discipline and focus that was previously lacking and which was starting to change behaviour.29 However, the system relies on the Council and RFCA officials’ shared aims and values, and it lacks clear and well-understood escalation processes when issues cannot be 27 Q 2 28 Qq 9 and 10; C&AG’s Report, para 1.18 29 Qq 9, 10, and 21 to 23; C&AG’s Report, para 2.5 14 resolved locally. The Department said that it would not be easy to establish a ‘consequence culture’, where officials are truly accountable for poor performance, without establishing an NDPB.30 The volunteer estate