The fire and rescue service promotion process is naked without technical qualifications

‘THE PROCESS for promotion is dead, long live the process’, were the calls and cries of the Human Remains departments throughout the land. ‘Bring out your qualifications so that they can be buried’, we were told. ‘There is no need for qualifications under the bright new arrangements. Two legs bad, four legs good; we are all equal, and those of you that were more equal are no longer more equal than the rest of us who were not as equal because we had no qualifications but you did’. What an absolute nonsense!

To dismiss years of study that people undertook in following the promotion trail and acquiring technical knowledge to implement the ‘new way’ was a disgrace, an utter disgrace, and we should be saying so. Tell the emperor he has no clothes on, the UK fire and rescue service will thank you for it in years to come!

Thankfully, at least some principal managers can see through the smoke and mirrors and are beginning to think about how they introduce technical competence into the selection process. They recognise that risk-critical managers, some of whom are now referred to as commanders, must have technical competencies appropriate to the level of command.

That does not mean, of course, that the integrated personal development system (IPDS), and what it represents, is wrong. Far from it. As a principle, it is absolutely correct. A principle that attempts to ensure that everyone at whatever level is competent and can demonstrate that competence must be correct.

But demonstrating competence cannot exclude the requirement to acquire and possess technical competence. And what better way to demonstrate acquired technical knowledge than by an examination of that knowledge. Oops, that’s two words I’ve used – commanders and examinations – that are supposed to be off the agenda, removed for the UK fire and rescue service thesaurus.

That does not mean we should go back to the old way of doing things. There were things wrong with the Statutory Examination process. But to say we should not recognise and encourage the acquisition of technical qualifications in the fire service is to ignore the naked emperor.

We need to be quite clear in what we as a service need. We need competence at all levels, and that competence must include technical competence.

IPDS and qualifications complement each other. A bit like the emperor and clothes or, more appropriately in our case, commanders and their uniforms.

Dave Beverley MIFireE

Taking stock after the Warwickshire warehouse tragedy – the challenges for the fire service

THE TRAGIC events at the warehouse blaze in Atherstone on Stour, Warwickshire, have rightly caused us to question the adequacy of existing construction and fire safety regulation and standards. However, much more needs to be considered in our quest to learn from such events and to reduce the risk of any such reoccurrence.

This event is unfortunately yet another in a depressingly increasing list of firefighter fatalities, which include occurrences in Hertfordshire, Sussex, Ireland and London in recent times.

Health and safety guidance (HSG65: Successful health and safety management, available from the Health and Safety Executive) states that safety events are failings in our safe systems of work. It steers us to objectively identify and address the underlying causes if we are to reduce the likelihood of further events occurring.

We, as a fire and rescue service, must challenge ourselves and look at the mechanisms in place to identify the what, how and why, and answer questions such as:

• are the selection and recruitment processes identifying the most suitable people for the service?

• are the development and promotion processes fit for purpose?

• are we providing adequate initial and continuation training?

• have we got the balance right among the demands placed upon us – that is, community safety vs. operational response?

• are we developing and maintaining our operational response to meet the challenges of existing and future construction technology?

The British fire service has been operating in a vortex of change which has become a permanent feature of the service, dealing with modernisation and the threat of terrorism, to name two of the key areas of activity. We need to answer the questions above to ensure firefighter safety and operational performance are not compromised in the future.

The chief fire and rescue adviser is taking a close interest in the event that occurred in Warwickshire. We hope that the findings are considered, together with the common underlying causes from the other events involving firefighter fatalities, and that positive action is taken to reduce the level of risk.

As a country, we continuously prove that the publication of new or revised legislation, on its own, is not enough to bring about desired change. We owe it to all our late colleagues to look further than simply revising Building Regulations.

R J Ryan and S McMillan