Commissioned by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), a new study has been published which examines the sustainability of the on-call firefighter duty system across the UK.

The report confirms that the on-call system remains a cornerstone of fire and rescue provision across the UK, delivering a highly cost-effective and flexible means of ensuring fire cover, particularly in rural and lower-risk areas.

Unsurprisingly, the study has identified that the system faces significant and growing challenges which, if not addressed, will undermine its ability to protect communities in the future.

The challenges are not new. Issues such as falling numbers of on-call firefighters, difficulties in recruitment and retention, declining appliance availability, and increasing training and competence requirements have been recognised for decades. Some Fire and Rescue Services have taken positive action and reversed the downward trend (Mid and West Wales, Shropshire, Humberside to name a few), however, some senior leaders remain content to do nothing and accept managed decline, preferring the easier option of throwing more public money at the problem by increasing the wholetime establishment rather than take a blended approach of duty systems.

Key Issues Identified

• • • Recruitment and retention remain fragile, with socio-demographic changes, high personal commitment, and limited employer support reducing the available pool.
    • Training and competence requirements are increasingly onerous and inflexible, designed around wholetime standards and poorly adapted to the needs of an on-call workforce. Rigid role maps, limited flexibility and poor work-life balance deter potential recruits, and stifle change.
    • Cultural barriers persist, a wide perception of a ‘two-tier system’ between wholetime and on-call staff undermines morale, with many on-call firefighters reporting feeling under-valued or treated as “second class”.
    • The system is fragmented, with multiple different approaches to managing on-call firefighters in the retained duty system across the UK, leading to duplication, inefficiency, and missed opportunities for sharing learning and good practice.
    • Variations in local governance, limited operational independence for Chief Fire Officers have created inconsistency and inefficiency across the system. Shortcomings on funding, and national direction hinder reform and prevent innovation from developing beyond local short-term projects.
    • Current measures of performance, particularly availability, do not effectively reflect community risk. Inconsistent data quality and fragmented approaches make benchmarking and workforce planning difficult.

The FRSA welcomes the report which gives an up-to-date analysis of the issues, providing a wealth of evidence to present to local and national governments that action on a national stage is needed now.

In the coming weeks/months we will support the NFCC in producing a national strategy to act on the recommendations and deliver much needed improvement on this historic problem.