Community Right to Challenge

The Community Right to Challenge allows voluntary and community groups, charities and parish councils to bid to run our services where they believe they can do it differently and better. 

Bids may also be received from Fire and Rescue authority staff, from two or more council employees or from other bodies specified by the Secretary of State in regulations.

Eligible bodies may express an interest in running the whole of a service or just part of a service.

We must then consider properly made expressions of interest we receive and, where such expressions of interest are accepted, run a fair and open procurement exercise. The Right to Challenge is essentially a right to compete in that procurement exercise.

We have agreed a Community Right to Challenge Policy, which sets out when expressions of interest will be accepted and gives an indication of the timescales that we will stick to when making a decision on whether the expression of interest will be accepted and a full procurement process started.