Staffordshire Fire Service recruiting new on-call firefighters for better emergency coverage

New on-call fire-fighters are being sought and retained appliance crew numbers are being changed from June 1 after statistics from the last year proved "on call" services were not being utilised properly.

Chief Fire Officer Rob Barber said that the availability of on-call services has “always been a concern” throughout his time in the county.

Figures between October 2022 and March 2023 retained service availability was just 51.09 per cent in Staffordshire.

CFO Barber said: “We’ve got to move away from traditional ways of crewing appliances and move to a more flexible way that means you will get some resource rather than getting no resource at all. Every on-call appliance that isn’t available means increased travel time from the next nearest available resource.

“I’m pleading to the communities that if people are interested in on-call fire-fighters please come and have a discussion with us. It’s becoming more and more difficult.

“Society has changed since the 1930/40s system we’re trying to operate in in 2023. The old village-type community where people lived and worked and stayed there generation after generation isn’t there any more, so we’re seeing a more transient workforce and we’re seeing younger people who don’t want to be tied down to being within five minutes of an on-call fire station.

The fire chief explained a new system reducing the minimum crew for a retained appliance from four to three fire-fighters was set to be trialled from June 1 in a bid to make them more available to respond to incidents. He said: “We’ve got to change the way we deliver our service.

“Currently if the appliance goes below four people available to ride it it’s taken off the run completely, so it wouldn’t be mobilised to a small fire such as a waste bin in the High Street for example. We are finding very often we’ve got three fully-qualified fire-fighters available that would be able to go out to certain incidents and to most incident types.

“Not on their own obviously, but if there is a whole-time appliance they can back up and add human resource to that incident, that will have a number of benefits to the organisation and to communities. Firstly the communities will get a response – the response might not be able to deal with everything in its entirety, but that’s true of an incident today as a whole-time appliance could go out and need to call in more backup when they get there.

“For the large proportion of our organisation it’s been received really well. A lot of our on-call fire-fighters are saying ‘let us do it, we can do something’.”

Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Ben Adams said: “This is largely welcomed. People who have signed up to be on-call fire-fighters are absolutely committed to it and they are so frustrated when they can’t be busy.

“This opportunity to be part of a team, maybe two or three appliances at a site, back up work and prep work supporting colleagues, is key to keeping them engaged and retained in the service. I think this is ‘riding in threes’ is really positive.”

A series of taster sessions are being held across Staffordshire for anyone interested in becoming an on-call fire-fighter in the coming weeks. They will take place at Cannock Community Fire Station on May 20, Ipstones Community Fire Station on May 27 and Abbots Bromley Community Fire Station on June 3.

For more information and to book a place visit https://www.staffordshirefire.gov.uk/careers/on-call-firefighters/.