Case Study: Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service achieves 75% reduction in meeting administration time with Civica Modern.Gov

Modern.Gov helps Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service automate time consuming processes

Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service, the largest non‑metropolitan fire and rescue service in England, faced growing administrative pressure managing a traditional committee system with around 50 meetings a year. Committee papers ran to 200+ pages and last‑minute changes required manual pagination and costly printing, straining a two‑person democratic services team. To address this, they selected Civica and its Modern.Gov governance solution.

Civica implemented Modern.Gov to automate meeting pack creation, pagination and attendance reporting, accepting Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files and offering one‑click reporting. The Modern.Gov solution cut administration time per meeting by 75% (reducing pack preparation from about a day to 1–2 hours), enabled single‑click attendance reports and supported the service’s move toward paperless meetings, with Civica continuing to provide ongoing support and enhancements.

Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service

Steve Yates

Democratic Services and Corporate Support Manager