First key milestone reached in scheme to bring new leaders into Fire and Rescue Services

This development represents a key landmark in a rigorous three-year course that sees the entrants immersed in operational, leadership and strategic training.

Leaders have been entering the Fire and Rescue sector via direct entry for the last 20 years. Last year, the NFCC launched the first nationally accredited programme aimed at bringing consistency and assurance to direct entry in the sector. Five Fire and Rescue Services – namely East Sussex, Staffordshire, Oxfordshire, Avon and Leicestershire – are participating in the pilot.

Targeted instruction

The direct entry station managers began their training shortly before Christmas. They’ve been put through their paces for six weeks at the Fire Service College and received instructed in the use of pumps and ladders, the operation of breathing apparatus, managing hazardous materials, delivering fire response emergency care and more.

Following the ceremony, they returned to their respective Fire and Rescue Services to consolidate that learning in an operational environment. While developing operational competence, direct entry station managers are not in a position to make operational decisions.

According to the NFCC, direct entry could be one of many valuable tools in ensuring the Fire and Rescue sector can meet the complex challenges with which it’s faced and provide diversity in thought, skills and experience.

The direct entry scheme is purpose-designed to work alongside traditional routes to progression, in turn widening the pool of talent from which the Fire and Rescue Services can recruit.

Physical and mental strength

Chief fire officer Dawn Whittaker (project executive for the direct entry scheme) explained: “Having joined the Fire and Rescue Service through direct entry myself, I know full well that it requires you to be physically and mentally tough. This first phase of the training programme has given direct entry station managers their first proper taste of that challenge and they’ve risen to meet it.”

Also serving as a project executive for the scheme, chief fire officer Rob Barber added: “There are many myths around direct entry, one of them being that we’re ‘parachuting’ individuals into station manager roles. In reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth. We’re only at the very start of what is an intensive and tough three-year programme. These six weeks at the Fire Service College have set the pace for what’s to come and there’s still some way to travel.”

*Further information is available online at www.nfcc.org.uk