Fire service steps up on-call recruitment bid
A FIRE service whose budget rose by 17% last April has recruited more retained firefighters after concerns were repeatedly raised about a shortage of younger recruits.
Roger Thomas, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service’s chief fire officer, had warned prior to the budget hike that not enough older retained – or on-call - firefighters were being replaced. These are trained, part-time volunteers who are paid for each incident they respond to.
Fire services have a mix of retained and full-time – or whole-time – firefighters, and in November 2022 Mr Thomas said the availability of retained firefighters in Mid and West Wales had dropped from 90-95% a few years ago to 83%. “That is a real area of concern for me,” he said. “In my view, it’s unsustainable.”
Something had to be done about this trend, which is not unique to Mid and West Wales – hence a significant budget rise from £53.8m to £63.2 million at the beginning of 2023-24.
But the hike caused consternation among the six councils in the Mid and West Wales area which fund the service through a levy, and there were calls for a new system of direct central government funding for what is an emergency service.
Those calls have not abated after the fire service’s budget was increased to £68.5 million ahead of the 2024-25 financial year.
In answer to questions from the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mid and West Wales Fire Service said it now had 673 retained firefighters compared to 659 when the budget was approved last year. The actual cover these retained firefighters provided was the equivalent of 566 fulltimers compared to 563 full-timers last year. The lower increase in the full-time equivalent figure is because retained firefighters can commit to varying hours of service each month.
Meanwhile, whole-time firefighter numbers have increased from 409 last year to 416 in March this year.
Assistant chief fire officer Craig Flannery said just over 10% of the retained firefighter workforce was still above the retirement age of 55, highlighting its ageing profile.
“It is still early days as we set out to address a generational issue around the staffing of our on-call stations, and some of our improvements will take 12 to 36 months to embed,” he said.
Pay for retained and whole-time firefighters is set at a national level. It went up by 7% in July 2022 and by 5% in July 2023. This accounts for a chunk of the budget rise.
Mr Flannery said Mid and West Wales Fire Service had introduced incentives of its own: extra pay for retained firefighters for training days, as sometimes they might have to take a pay cut by missing a day at their main job outside of firefighting; and a payment recognising every five years of service. Mr Flannery said the early feedback from retained firefighters was positive. The work being carried out is primarily to halt the decline in firefighter availability, while stabilising the duty system. The next aim is to improve the service to the public with increased response capability.
Fire service budgets aren’t set by fire services themselves but a fire authority comprising councillors from the constituent local authorities. The Mid and West Wales Fire Authority has 25 councillors from Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Powys and Pembrokeshire.