Message from Mark

Hello and welcome to the Response and Resilience edition of Ever Forward. I would like to start by welcoming all the new starters across many different roles that have joined us over the last few months.

Yvette Greenhouse joined us at the beginning of October to manage our On-Call Recruitment and Retention, as well as new starters in the OD team to help us deliver our HMICFRS Action Plan, you can read more about them in our new people section on the intranet.

New starters joining us either on the apprenticeship model, duty transfer from on-call to Wholetime or direct transfer from another fire service, I trust that you have been made to feel welcome and look forward to a long and rewarding career with us

Everyone within GFRS no matter the role plays an important part in the emergency response we provide to the communities we serve!   From taking a 999 call, responding to an incident, maintaining a fire appliance, updating risk information and maintaining life-saving equipment. 

During this week, HMICFRS completed their follow up visit and I wanted to thank everyone for engaging with the process of being interviewed by the inspection team. We will update colleagues when we receive our feedback, which we anticipate will be in the New Year.

Regularly, I receive messages of support for the excellent work carried out in the community.  Most recently I have received a letter from a doctors surgery in Wotton-Under-Edge, thanking us for supporting them with the use of our community fire station and staff to deliver flu vaccinations.  This highly demonstrates to me the commitment of protecting our communities not just by fighting fires and how much this is appreciated by our community.  I am aware that this has been carried out at many fire stations across Gloucestershire and I thank you all for this additional work.

With the current cost of living crisis potential industrial dispute and everyday commitments it is really important to remember to keep talking.  Support is available through your line manager and the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). Speak to your line-manager or you can access EAP 24/7 365 days a year on 0800 030 5182. Sometimes a problem shared is a problem halved.  International Men’s Day on the 19^th November 2022 is a good time for all staff to talk over a cup of tea.

As we start to prepare for the Christmas period I would like to invite you all to the Christmas Carol service on the 15^th December 2022 at Tewkesbury Abbey. It would be lovely to see you and family at the service. Staff hub will be updated on how to book tickets.

Chief Fire Officer, Mark Preece

Watch and Crew Manager Technical Updates

To support watch and crew managers across the Service, many of whom are new to the role, we have worked closely with the Learning and Development Team to instigate regular update sessions for all of our on station managers.

Four sessions are run per quarter and every station and every watch will be represented. The first series of these technical update mornings has seen us concentrating on lessons learnt and feedback from exercises, incidents and competency assessments. This has provided the Operational Assurance Team with a valuable opportunity to inform and improve the operational effectiveness of all staff by picking up common themes from the incident and drill ground.

We will also be using these sessions to ensure that all managers are familiar with our specialist appliances and their capabilities. In this first round, staff have been provided with a detailed look around the Specialist Incident Support Unit (SISU).

With these sessions being held on a Saturday morning (the next one is Saturday 26 November), we are able to bring in the on duty resilience group which has sparked some interesting discussions but most importantly, allows those burning questions to be asked and hopefully actioned.

If there are any specific themes that you would like to see covered please contact SM Simon Robson.

Working too much?

A full review of the Working Time Policy is currently underway to ensure that staff are not working excessive hours and that their work-life balance is achievable with a recommendations paper shortly being taken to SLT for decision/direction. Please watch this space.

New team members

Yvette Greenhouse - On Call Recruitment and Retention (non-flexi station manager role). Yvette joins us from West Midlands Fire & Rescue Service, in October. She is already hard at work ensuring that our recruitment process for on-call firefighters continues to improve, so that we can ensure a safe, confident and competent emergency response to the community of Gloucestershire.

She will also support Tetbury, Dursley and Northleach Stations.

She will be supported by Danni Gane, who has recently been successful in a duty transfer to a whole- time firefighter role. She has covered various roles with the service for the past five years including on-call, SkillZONE, CSA, stores, logistics and communications & engagement.

Keep up to date with us!

We are back on Facebook, click the link to give our page a like and share amongst your communities!

https://www.facebook.com/GlosFireandRescueService

International Men’s Day

International Men’s Day takes place on the 19th November 2022.

The day focuses on that which unites humanity – giving everyone who wants to celebrate International Men’s Day the opportunity to help work towards shared objectives which are applied equally to men and boys irrespective of their age, ability, social background, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, religious belief, and relationship status.

At Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service we see it’s important to promote positive male role models; to celebrate men’s positive contributions to society; focus on men’s health and wellbeing; to highlight discrimination against men; in areas of social services, social attitudes and expectations, and law and create a safer, better world; where people can be safe and grow to reach their full potential.

We spoke to Watch Manager, Bryan Gregory, he said:

“As a Watch Manager in GFRS I ensure I have the tools to manage, support and understand the stress and strains we often see in everyday life.

As a manager I am here to influence, motivate and achieve however I am also here to ensure the health of my team by taking time to look that little deeper on a daily basis. Making sure I keep sight of myself.”

What's Next

In the coming weeks we will be continuing to cover the themes that were identified from our workplace conversations with you and what we have done or are planning to do to address any concerns or areas for improvement identified by you:

• Communications and Engagement - 28th November