The Pink - Issue 33 - 22 - Friday 26 August 2022

Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service sent this bulletin at 26-08-2022 09:18 AM BST

View as a webpage / Share

The Pink - Issue 33 - 22 - Friday 26 August 2022

National Operational Guidance

National Operational Guidance (NOG) ‘Go Live Date’ is 5 October 2022.

This means SIPS and SOPS will be removed from MDTs and replaced with new NOG aligned Flashcards.

Following numerous communications and roadshows, you will be familiar with the Ops Guidance Site and its contents.

All Incident Commanders will be enrolled on a LEO course from 1 August, with a completion date of no later than 15 September in readiness to go live.

All teams will have access to a LEO Group presentation to help crews develop awareness.

New tablets are in testing with a view to these supporting the embedding process. In the interim, crews will utilise station issued tablets (4G) on appliances to access non-time critical guidance. MDTs will continue to provide essential guidance via the new suite of Flashcards.

We are planning to provide support via station visits and webinars through September and into October.

Some short videos have been produced to help understand key terminology and elements of the product packs.

Thank you for your continued support and professionalism as we make this essential improvement.

Should any stations have any questions, queries, or concerns please do not hesitate to contact SM Scott Bishop or a member of the NOG implementation team.

Adam Matthews | Head of Operations and Risk

60 Second Update - National Operational Guidance (NOG)

With the launch of NOG just around the corner, watch our 60 Second Update about how you can get involved and the areas of the Service the new Operational Guidance will impact.

Click the image or visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VlWhbNVBwM

National Operational Guidance ‘Go Live’ date is 5 October 2022.

For all NOG information, visit the dedicated page on the Portal: Operational Guidance - Operational Guidance Home (sharepoint.com)

Scott Bishop | Station Manager (Ops Guidance)

Shrewsbury Fire Station Open Day

Shrewsbury Fire Station Open Day – Sunday 4 September 2022.

Shrewsbury Fire Station will be opening the appliance bay doors to the public for a great day full of activities for all the family to enjoy:

Rope rescue demonstration
Refreshments
Recruitment
Fire safety advice
Aerial Ladder Platform
Chat to crews
See our fire engines/equipment

Join us from 11am – 3pm. Spread the word!

Laura Newsome | Communications Support Officer

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service Medal and Awards Ceremony - Monday 19 September 2022

Do you know somebody in the Service, who has made a significant difference to the community that they live or work in or who has made an outstanding contribution to charity? If so, then please consider nominating them for…

The High Sheriff Good Citizen Award

This award is given to Service employees who have made a substantial contribution to society and who, through their actions, have made a significant difference to the safety and well-being of those within the community in which they live or work. This individual through their outstanding efforts, loyalty, hard work and caring approach has made a very real difference to the well-being of others.

Stations, Departments or individuals are invited to nominate a person whom they feel fulfil this criteria and employees are actively encouraged to put forward those people who have made a real difference to our community and should be rewarded for their efforts.

The recipient(s) will be chosen from the applications submitted and will be presented with the Good Citizen Award at the ceremony in September 2022.

The Telent Charity Shield

The Telent Charity Shield is presented to a person or persons who have made an outstanding contribution to charity.

The award is open to any person or persons that the Service decides has fulfilled the Telent Charity Shield’s criteria. Stations, Departments or individuals are invited to nominate a person or persons whom they feel fulfil the criterion. Employees are actively encouraged to put forward those people who have made a charitable contribution, whether it is for a Service charity, national or local charity. It is the individual’s efforts that the Service wishes to reward.

The recipient(s) will be chosen from the applications submitted and will be presented with the Telent Charity Shield at the ceremony in September 2022.

Your nominations for both these awards should be submitted to Lynn Ince, Executive Support Officer (lynn.ince@shropshirefire.gov.uk ) by 5pm on Wednesday 31 August 2022.

Please include in your email the person’s name, their work location and a short explanation of why they are being nominated.

Lynn Ince | Executive Support Officer

Make Security a Habit

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service works hard to ensure the security of its people, equipment, vehicles, buildings and information by implementing high tech security solutions on our IT networks, in our buildings and on our vehicles. However, we must not underestimate the effects our everyday working habits have on the security of our environment.

The following measures are a few reminders of the things we can all do to ensure that we create a safe and secure place of work. By making these few things a habit, this will increase the security of the organisation as a whole and will help us to combat theft, protect our reputation, and deter any malicious intent.

Your computer

Not sharing your user ID/login details and passwords.
Not creating passwords that are easy to guess by other people – click here for how to set up a secure password.
Not writing your passwords down.
Locking your computer each time you walk away from the screen (Ctrl/Alt/Del).
For confidential video, audio, phone calls and Teams meetings, try and do these where others can’t hear you or use headphones if you have these.

Documents, equipment and information

Handling documents responsibly, including destruction – click here for the SFRS Information Retention Policy.
Handling equipment responsibly (when not in use lock it away).
Operating a clear desk and clear board policy.
Thinking about the information you post on your Facebook page (or other social media).
Follow the same security procedures at home as you would do in the office – click here for security tips for working from home.

If there is something or someone out of the usual - report it!

If you see something that is a security breach or a potential security breach - report it!

For more information about security at SFRS, please visit our Making Security a Habit page on the Portal: Make security a habit (sharepoint.com) or find this page on the Portal in Useful Links.

Information about reporting a breach is available here: Information Security Breach Procedure (sharepoint.com) or find this page on the Portal in the My Stuff tile and in the GDPR tile.

Emily Bray | Planning and Programmes Officer | Service Development

Suggestion Box

Due to popular demand the Suggestion Box is back after a few months’ absence and a little makeover 😊

As it ‘suggests’ above, if you have any ideas that you feel will benefit the Service in any way, big or small, then please submit via email using the lightbulb link, which can be found on Sharepoint by going to ‘useful links’, scrolling down a bit, and you’ll see the ‘lightbulb’. Just click on the link and submit - or if you prefer you can email the suggestion box direct.

Can’t wait to hear from you!

Michelle Townsend | Admin Support

Routine Medical Appointments

Occupational Health have now moved to an email system for all routine medical appointments.

You will now be contacted by email for the following medical appointments:

Three yearly medical.
Hot House medical.
Asbestos medical.

Line Managers will also be copied into these emails to ensure they are aware of routine medical appointments.

Non-routine appointments (referral and review) will continue to be sent via letter.

Zoe Gittins | HR Officer

Flu Vaccinations

The Service will be holding Flu Vaccination Clinics for current employees to access a free flu vaccination.

Please see below list of when and where these flu clinics will be held.

Flu clinics will be held at the following locations:

25 October Fir Meeting Room, Shrewsbury (12:30 – 14:30)

26 October Wellington Station (12:30 – 14:30)

31 October Shrewsbury Station (18:30 – 20:00)

9 November Church Stretton (18:30 – 20:00)

9 November Whitchurch (18:30 – 20:00)

10 November Bridgnorth (18:30 – 20:00)

10 November Wellington Station (18:30 – 20:00)

Staff will be required to book a relevant slot to attend for their vaccination. To book onto a slot please email adele.mottershead@nhs.net with your preferred date and you will be allocated the next available slot. Please note, appointments will be booked on the first come first served basis.

Due to the limited availability of appointments, and to ensure all staff have the opportunity to attend, we cannot accept block bookings and individuals will need to book individually.

We only have a limited number of flu vaccinations available and we would therefore ask that staff who are eligible for a free flu vaccination utilise that service to allow for employees who are not eligible to take up this opportunity provided by the SFRS.

Individuals who are eligible for a free flu vaccination are:

Are 50 and over (including those that will be 50 by 31 March 2023)
Have underlying health conditions (as determined by their GP)
Are pregnant
Are in long stay residential care
Receive a carer’s allowance, or are the main carer for an older or disabled person who may be at risk if you get sick
Live with someone who is more likely to get infections
Frontline health or social care workers

If you are unsure as to whether you are eligible for a free flu vaccination, please consult your GP in the first instance before booking onto one of the Service’s flu clinics.

If you have any questions or queries, please contact Zoe Gittins on Zoe.Gittins@shropshirefire.gov.uk

Recent Changes to OneDrive

Recently, IT rolled out a new policy for OneDrive with the aim of making it easier to organise your files, particularly if you use a shared computer.

It makes the following changes:

Automatically logs you into OneDrive when you login to any PC.
Synchronises your Documents, Desktop and Pictures folder with OneDrive.

Whenever you save a file to your Documents, Pictures or Desktop, they will be backed up automatically to OneDrive and you can access them on any computer.

This also means that whenever you log into any computer, any files that you have previously saved to your Desktop will appear on your Desktop.

If you find your Desktop becoming cluttered, or icons you didn’t have before and don’t need or want suddenly appearing, refer to the below guide which we have prepared to help.

More information on this can be found here: https://servicedesk.shropshirefire.gov.uk/support/solutions/articles/26000090031

Hugo Lee | ICT Technician

Want to be a School Advocate?

Are you free between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. during term time?

School advocates deliver key fire safety education to year 3 pupils across Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin.

Full training and resources provided.

You will be paid for each school you deliver at your current On-call rank.

If you are interested and want to find out more, contact:

Andrew Bradbury, Prevention Officer - Children and Young People

andrew.bradbury@shropshirefire.gov.uk

07967 465813

Andrew Bradbury | Prevention Officer - Children and Young People

Women in The Fire Service - Women's Development Programme - New Programme Announced!

The date of the next Women’s Development Programme, delivered by Women to Work, has been announced – due to commence on 15 September 2022.

Programme dates for 2023 have also been confirmed as follows:

Programme 5

Workshop 1 | Wednesday 8 February

Workshop 2 | Monday 20 March

Workshop 3 | Wednesday 19 April

Programme 6

Workshop 1 | Wednesday 17 May

Workshop 2 | Tuesday 13 June

This programme is 3 x half-day workshops over three months and aims to help individuals develop both personally and professionally.

For more information and to see what previous delegates have to say about the programme, please click here

If you are interested in finding out more or registering on the programme, please contact Donna Trowsdale, Development Officer on extension 1187 or donna.trowsdale@shropshirefire.gov.uk

Donna Trowsdale | Development Officer

Women's Networking Day

The Service's Women’s Voices reps, along with the EDI department, have organised a Women’s Networking Event on Saturday, 24 September 2022 at Shrewsbury HQ.

Please see attached event schedule with information of activities and stalls for the day and use the link below to access the booking form if you would like to attend. We look forward to seeing you all on the day 😊

Booking form

Chloe Richards | Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Assistant

Post Office Strike

The Service has received notification that Royal Mail have announced industrial action on the dates below:

Friday 26 August 2022
Wednesday 31 August 2022
Thursday 8 September 2022
Friday 9 September

Royal Mail won’t be delivering or collecting on those dates, so for anyone that needs to send out items, they won’t be collected from Reception. Anyone expecting items, please be aware they might be delayed.

Royal Mail have reported that Special Delivery items can still be taken to a Post Office counter and these may be delivered on time but due to reduced resources, this cannot be guaranteed.

Maxine Titley | Admin Support Team Supervisor

Health and Wellbeing - New Course Dates

Healthy workplaces help people to thrive and reach their full potential; and as part of our Health and Wellbeing Strategy we aim to offer a range of wellbeing initiatives to support the mental and physical wellbeing of our staff.

Whilst we already have lots of support on offer around mental and physical wellbeing, we are pleased to extend this offer to all staff through some short, informative and interactive sessions on the following:

Musculoskeletal (MSK) Injury Prevention 7 September 6pm (1 hour)

Musculoskeletal (MSK) Injury Management and Rehab 14 September 6pm (1 hour)

Understanding and Managing Back Pain 1 October 9.30am (2 hours)

Nutrition and Healthy Eating 15 October 9.30am (1 hour)

The training is facilitated by The Fire Fighters Charity and will be held via Teams.

All sessions are optional and you can find full details of the content and self-enrol for the courses using the following links:

Musculoskeletal (MSK) Injury Prevention - sign up

Musculoskeletal (MSK) Injury Management and Rehab - sign up

Understanding and Managing Back Pain - sign up

Nutrition and Healthy Eating - sign up

Jayne Turner | Training and Development Coordinator

Mental Health First Aid Awareness Training – New Dates

As part of the Service’s continued Health and Wellbeing plan and in order to continue to raise awareness of mental health, we have been offering some half-day introductory Mental Health First Aid Aware training sessions. Several dates were released and have been filled, however, we are pleased to be able to offer spaces on one further date:

Event date:

06 October 2022 at 09:30-13:30 hours.

The training will be facilitated through a four-hour webinar (with plenty of breaks) and will aim to give:

an understanding of what mental health is and how to challenge stigma;
a basic knowledge of some common mental health issues;
an introduction to looking after your own mental health and maintaining wellbeing; and
confidence to support someone in distress or who may be experiencing a mental health issue.

Learning takes place through a mix of presentations, group discussions and workshop activities.

Everyone who completes the course gets:

an MHFA manual to refer to whenever you need it;
a workbook including a helpful toolkit to support their own mental health; and
a certificate of attendance.

As there is a cost for participation, if you would like to attend the training, please:

discuss with and obtain the agreement of your line manager;
ensure you are able to attend your preferred date (if you have one); and
email your expression of interest to jayne.turner@shropshirefire.gov.uk.

Should you be unable to attend on the above date, or you are not allocated a place, I will contact you as soon as further dates are arranged.

Please note – the date mentioned above will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

Jayne Turner | Training and Development Coordinator

Thank You Letters / Compliments

Following a complaint from a vulnerable member of the public, Marc Millward visited them in his role of Investigating Officer, for which the individual was “very appreciative”.

In the resulting report, it was noted that the individual was “very complimentary about the interactions with the Service since raising the complaint. He particularly wanted to thank Rose Hinchliffe (Executive Support) for her kind manner and professionalism.” He also apologised for his previous behaviour.

Following a Safe & Well visit conducted by FF Stuart Hughes and FF Elaine Timmis from White Watch Shrewsbury, the recipient rang in to express her appreciation of the “two lovely people who couldn’t do enough.” She described them as being “so kind and caring” and she particularly valued the fact that “they did not treat me like a disabled person.”

It was clear that she had learnt a lot from the visit and was enthusiastic about implementing the necessary changes. First on the list was the replacement of her old electric blankets!

On Sunday, 14 August, following a request from the Police, Red Watch Telford attended an incident at Stableford where a saloon vehicle had collided with a property. They inspected the internal and external damage to the building and advised the occupier to have a structural engineer attend.

The occupier rang in to thank the crew for a “great job” which had enabled the occupier to stay in the property.

No Current Vacancies This Week

Attachments

Shrewsbury Fire Station Open Day

Oswestry Fire Station Community Open Evening

Women's Networking Day

Beginner Yoga Classes

PRIDE Ludlow Opening Party

The Pink

The Pink is also available electronically on The Portal or can be emailed to you if you contact Admin Support on EXT 1260.

The Pink

Reminder

All colleagues are reminded that the information in this staff newsletter is designed to improve internal communications and support effective operation of our Service. Items within it are intended solely for Elected Members and staff of Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority and not for onward transmission. © Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service 2014

IT and Communications queries and faults

All faults and queries with IT and communications should be directed to the ICT Service Desk.

When you require assistance or support please click on the ICT Portal Tile located on the SharePoint Portal homepage and click on the 'contact us' tab. You will then have the option to 'submit an incident' or 'request a service' using the corresponding blue or green button. Please use 'submit an incident' to log any faults or 'request a service' to ask for a service or program that you have not previously used or had access to.

When submitting an incident please make sure you select the category that comes closest to the fault you are experiencing, and that you describe the fault in details and upload any relevant screen shots.

Stay Connected with Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service: