On-call landscape (re-visited)

How research, insights, and evidence-based solutions surmount the challenges ahead and make favourable outcomes more likely for recruitment, diversity, and On-call availability…

Over 18 years ago the government stated categorically that owing to Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) increasing reliance on On-Call Firefighters (OCFFs) 'There is immediate pressure on Fire Services because of the shortfall in retained personnel. Swift action must be taken to address the shortfall’ (Report on Fire Service, ODPM, 2005, p.19).

Fast forward almost two decades to 2022 and Office for National Statistics derived data demonstrates that the shortfall in OCFFs has grown with numbers plummeting from 14427 OCFFs in 2010 to 11562 in 2022 and now 8097 in 2023. This lamentable loss of 2865 OCFFs represents an overall 25% reduction in 11 years, and an average loss of 6 per Service per year. It highlights how OCFFs – serving circa 90% of the UK landmass – are a valuable, precious, ever diminishing asset.

Not only do high turnover rates reduce resilience, morale, and the skills upon which On-call availability is highly contingent; they are costly, erode experience and competence, compromise continuity, comradery, and community safety.

The question is, why, amidst a Meaning Crisis, are more people than ever leaving such a meaningful and rewarding role? Why are so many services struggling to recruit to a role otherwise held in such high esteem by society, and so historically prized by the public? In the context of the On-call workforce the answers to such questions are complex. Our research: the most comprehensive On-call research ever undertaken, answered many of these questions. Our On-call insights have generated evidence-based solutions to serve FRSs as they seek to surmount the challenges ahead; as they make favourable outcomes more likely for recruitment, diversity, and On-call availability.

The importance of On-call firefighters

As discussed in detail in the On-call landscape, the importance of OCFFs for FRSs in England is clear. Our deeper analysis of the data discussed recently by the NFCC On-call lead and the FRSA shows that of England’s 1390 fire stations, 736 (53%) are On-call stations (RDS), 231 (17%) are mixed (On-call and WDS) whilst 423 (31%) are wholetime with the number of wholetime stations having reduced significantly (by 64%) in the preceding 10 years from 663.

Our recent tweet

Data demonstrates the increasing imperative for research and evidence based solutions to abate dwindling numbers of OCFFs as part of a sector-wide spend-to-save approach repeatedly advocated by FRS reviews over the last 20 years.

With an average 275 OCFFs per service, at least 15 FRSs employing more OCFFs than their wholetime counterparts, and a historical trend towards an increased use of On-call stations and OCFFs, OCFFs are evidently a much relied upon yet rapidly reducing resource.

Prior to the release of this most recent data Sir Tom Winsor insisted in the latest State of Fire report this unfavourable backdrop does not augur well for the sustainability of the On-call model: ‘the on-call model needs attention to make sure it is more sustainable and works well’ especially considering ‘The Importance of On-Call Firefighters’ (HMICFRS, 2020). Evidently, he was drawing attention to the reality that retention, especially of those with the requisite skills as Incident Commanders and Emergency Response Drivers, is crucial if the On-call model is to remain sustainable.

Not only was he alluding to the scale of the challenge ahead, he highlighted the importance of spending to save on a workforce which Knight had already calculated costs circa 10% of they whole tine counterparts. Indeed, for all the preceding FRS reviews - conducted by Bain, Knight, and Thomas - spending on OCFFs to save money in the long term, and part of the solution to abate these high levels of resignations was a straightforward, uncontestable decision.

In an On-call context retention of this rare often irreplaceable resource, requisite for sustaining On-call fire engine availability, is even more essential now than when the Deputy Prime Minister issued his imperative, as our research has shown recruitment is increasingly costly, uncertain of success, and training attrition rates are on the increase.

The multifaceted perennial problem

Yet, as straightforward as some suggestions may first appear to attend to the availability of On-call fire engines and make them more sustainable – such as simply recruiting the requisite OCFFs, and reducing resignations using a spend to save approach – the problem has evidently endured as the causes that lay behind this perennial problem are myriad and often outside the direct control of the FRS.

They reflect fluctuating economic trends such as changes to employment, to pay, and variable levels and sources of funding, borne in part from financial crisis; they reflect societal changes including increased individualism which adversely affects opportunities for recruitment, and they reflect socioeconomic upheavals, precipitated by unprecedented pandemics, which cause geographic fluctuations of populations and hybrid ways of working.

Nevertheless, as Sir Tom Winsor contends, and as HMICFRS and the NFCC all concur, these further, recent challenges also offer opportunities for fire and rescue services, if only as Bain, Thomas, and Knight in between have all also acknowledged: the Retained Duty System within which OCFFs work is an incomparably cost-effective essential element of the FRS that already represents tremendous Economic & Social Value. The present political mandates, fiscal imperatives, recommendation from regulators and reviews all warrant investment in this element of the workforce; imperatives to spend-to-save smartly based on evidence-based outcomes and using research which can guide effective and cost-effective strategies, to achieve sustainable On-call availability for all have never been greater.

Sustainability solutions

Our research, based on our On-call insights, has already been successfully applied in practice, and draws upon numerous fire and rescue service case studies along with the most comprehensive literature review ever undertaken into the On-call workforce to establish ways by which to create and innovate solutions. This knowledge - including a finally analysis which brings tighter all the preceding reviews and research to identify primary reasons why OCFFs join, remain, and leave - is that which can not only inform evidence-based approaches to effective recruitment campaigns; it is that which can help fire and rescue services to engender retention in their irreplaceable and increasing rare yet most valuable resource: On-call firefighters.

Sharing the Foundation of Our Work

Thousands of hours reading and gathering an extensive collection of research materials, articles, and journals have been instrumental in shaping understanding of On-call contexts. Only capacity - being oversubscribed - has prevented us from sharing more of the content that forms the professional bedrock of this work. Until now.

In the next article we discuss whether or not 100% On-call fire engine availability is a good measure of success.

In the meantime, if you want to find out more about how we can help you and your Service, and use our On-call awareness training to support your teams, then get in touch.

We’d love to hear what you think the reasons are why, amidst a Meaning Crisis, more people than ever leaving such a meaningful and rewarding role? If you #ValueOCFFs or are a part of the #On-call landscape then please click below to share this article and to share your thoughts.

Thanks for reading!