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The Pink - Issue 45 - 22 - Friday 18 November 2022 |
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We are pleased to announce that the next staff survey will be launched on Monday, 21 November. This remains the most important way for you to have your say on areas of strength within the organisation and highlight those we still need to work on. Feedback following previous surveys has been critical to shaping SFRS and this year’s survey will be no different, so please take the time to give us your open and honest feedback.
What do I need to do?
On launch day, you will receive an email from People Insight straight to your inbox, including a link to access the survey.
This year, we have also sent posters out to stations/departments with a scannable QR code, which enables you to fill out the survey on your mobile phone.
Feedback from the last survey showed that staff in dual roles wanted to be able to submit responses for both roles. We are pleased to confirm that this year, it will be possible. For your primary role, access the survey via the link in the email as usual. For your secondary role, you will need to access the survey via the QR code using specific log-in details that will be sent to you separately.
Your answers will be anonymous and take around 20 minutes to complete.
The closing date for responses is Friday, 16 December and we expect to receive results from People Insight in early January 2023.
Useful information
For an overview of action taken from the last round of responses and the QR code to fill out this year’s survey, visit our dedicated Staff Survey 2022 page on the Portal.
If you do not receive an email from People Insight on launch day, please email: donna.trowsdale@shropshirefire.gov.uk
As always, many thanks for taking the time to give us your feedback.
Simon Hardiman | ACFO
The Service will shortly be advertising Firefighter vacancy roles to all our current On-Call competent Firefighter employees through an internal transfer process.
This selection process is likely to take place in the New Year and successful candidates are expected to join us as Wholetime Firefighters by mid to late spring 2023.
Full details of the process and key dates will be announced soon.
For further information please contact Group Manager Marc Millward, Area Command.
The Service would like to announce that the former Fitness Advisor Tony Roberts has left his post and moved on to pastures new. Benjamin (Ben) Heighway will now be carrying out your Fitness Tests, working with the Fitness Associate Trainers to support those who have obtained a score in the Amber or Red and is available to be contacted for any other fitness concerns. Having met with Ben last week, I am confident he will provide the support and service that you all expect and I’m sure you will all join me in making him welcome when he attends your stations. A copy of his biography is attached.
Ben can be contacted on the email below and a new telephone number will be available soon on the Portal under ‘My Stuff’ – ‘Firefit 42.3’.
b.heighway@worc.ac.uk
Group Manager | Chris White
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 On 8 October Shropshire entered two teams into the national BA challenge, an operational crew (James Fisher, Andrew Reeves, Alex Temmink, Craig Price and Adam Statham) and an Officer team (Simon Hardiman, Dan Quin, Ross Donnelly, Alec Thomas and Marc Millward).
Both teams performed exceptionally well with the operational team falling into the top Gold category and Andrew Reeves getting an honourable mention as BAECO. The officer team excelled in displaying they had still maintained high levels of operational competence and were all present to cheer the operational team on.
"This is our second year in the competition and my second year as driver/pump/fire ground.
It's a great competition, physically demanding and a challenge to make sure we get everything covered and support the BA crew as well as any casualties.
Having done well and with the senior officers also putting forward a team I was nervous this year as we wanted to do better.
The competition went well although was somewhat a blur as it's non stop from start to finish. The added incentive to make sure we did our best for ourselves, the brigade and to make sure operations beat the officers made for an interesting extra element to the competition.
The prize giving dinner and reception after was excellent as always and a great opportunity to dress in our undress uniform. It's a great competition and a good opportunity to push yourself to be assessed against national based guidelines and other national teams and do the best for yourself and your team mates.
We improved on last year and all came away with the intention, hope and determination to do even better next year!" - Alex Temmink.
"Mentally and physically demanding, a real test of your ability at dealing with a large complex property fire" - James Fisher.
"It was a pleasure to attend the National BA Challenge as part of the Officer team, but more importantly, I was really proud of the achievements of our operational crew, who all performed superbly. The standard for next year's event has been set, and I would urge anyone interested in participating to get in touch. I would also like to thank Jordan and the training team for the commitment and dedication displayed, supporting our teams." - Si Hardiman.
Jordan Bixley | Watch Manager | Training Instructor
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White Ribbon Day is when thousands of people take action and raise awareness to prevent violence against women. This day also marks the start of 16 days action against domestic violence where we will be sharing lots of information on social media on where to get support.
We realise that not all men commit violence against women, however, the #allmencan message is about realising that all men can make a difference and take action where possible. White Ribbon Day helps us to open up a conversation and encourage men to never commit, excuse or remain silent about male violence against women.
If you need support please visit the Health and Wellbeing tile, there is support for women and men on this page https://sfrs.sharepoint.com/teams/execsupport/h&w/Domestic%20Violence/Forms/AllItems.aspx
or visit the NHS site:https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/getting-help-for-domestic-violence/
How are we getting involved?
It has now been confirmed that we are going ahead with the White Ribbon Accreditation, our next step is to create an action plan and get some male members of staff on board!
Anyone that wishes to be part of this group must sign up to be either an Ambassador or a Champion, please follow this link to sign up Ambassadors & Champions — White Ribbon UK if you would like to be a part of the White Ribbon Steering Group please email EDI. We will also have white ribbons available for men and women to wear on this day, please email EDI if you would like one of these. They will also be available at HQ and TC.
Domestic Abuse Talk: 10.00 hrs at Shrewsbury Headquarters, Oak Room.
On White Ribbon Day the Domestic Abuse Lead DS Annie Waylett from West Mercia Police will be offering a one hour talk. This will cover cases they deal with, warning signs to look out for in colleagues/friends/family and where support can be accessed. There will also be an opportunity for questions and discussions at the end, along with useful resources which can be taken away.
If you are available on this day, please come along and show your support.
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It is Safeguarding Adults Awareness Week 2022 from Monday 21- Sunday 27 November and this year the focus is on ‘Responding to Contemporary Safeguarding Challenges’.
This is an opportunity for organisations to come together to raise awareness of important safeguarding issues. The aim is to start vital conversations and share best practice, so we can all be better together.
Interested to see how much you know about safeguarding? You could try to complete the safeguarding adults checklist to test your knowledge. You can complete this as an individual or in your team: https://www.anncrafttrust.org/checklist-overview/
The Prevention twitter page will be tweeting different messages every day this week, so if you are able to like or retweet these to raise awareness further, please feel free. @SFRS_Prevention . There is also further information regarding safeguarding on the service website https://www.shropshirefire.gov.uk/safeguarding
You will find resources to support your learning and start conversations in your teams about safeguarding under the safeguarding tile on SharePoint including 7-minute briefings around domestic abuse and cuckooing.
There is also an e-learning package for adult and child safeguarding available through LEO.
Becky Castle | Team Leader | Prevention Team
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If you wish to order more smoke alarms, refer someone for a safe and well visit or discuss any other prevention related engagements, here’s how:
The prevention team have a nominated duty officer available Monday-Friday, within office hours, to answers general calls, and email enquiries that arise each day. There will be members of the prevention team working from HQ every day, and the rest of our team working from other stations and from home.
Please email any enquiries/requests to safeandwell@shropshirefire.gov.uk or phone and ask for the duty officer.
To contact ALL the prevention team, you can email the CFSOfficers@shropshirefire.gov.uk .
Please note: SAFEGUARDING CONCERNS: If you have concerns about a child or an adult with care/support needs, you must in the first instance, take action in order to keep the person safe. If you have concerns of abuse or neglect, these concerns should be reported immediately to the Duty Group Manager, not the prevention team.
Becky Castle | Team Leader | Prevention Team
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service has a legal duty of care to ensure that its employees can legally drive on its behalf.
On 1 December 2022, the company that provides driving licence checks for all staff will change from DriveTech to DriverCheck Ltd who will now carry out these checks for the Service.
All employees will receive an email from DriverCheck on 1 December, inviting them to complete its E-declaration process, using the secure link provided in the email.
The email will come from enquiries@drivercheck.co.uk and will look like this:
 The E-declaration gives DriverCheck permission to perform driving licence checks. To do this, DriverCheck ask you to provide personal information, including your Driving Licence Number.
DriverCheck uses the information you provide solely to check driving licence status and does not share any data with a third party. DriverCheck is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and holds ISO27001 for secure data management.
Lynn Ince | Executive Support Officer
I regret to inform you that Tom Denston, retired Firefighter passed away peacefully at home on 8 November 2022, aged 72 years.
A dearly loved husband, father and grandfather, his funeral service will be held at Telford Crematorium on Monday, 5 December at 11:30hrs.
Family flowers only please, donations if desired to be divided between Air Ambulance and Severn Hospice for which purpose a collection box will be provided at the Crematorium.
Our thoughts are with his family, friends and former colleagues.
Rod Hammerton | Chief Fire Officer
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The date of the December 2022 pay run will be Friday 23 December.
To ensure payments are included within December pay please forward all pay claims to funding@shropshirefire.gov.uk as soon as practicable throughout November but before 07/12/22 at the latest. Any claims received after 09:00am on Wednesday, 7 December cannot be included in December pay.
Please continue to submit any overtime and acting up claims as scanned documents via email to funding@shropshirefire.gov.uk.
RDS training course claim forms should be sent via email to:
Associate Trainer claims should be sent via email to sarah.batho@shropshirefire.gov.uk
Submission via email allows us to process claims more quickly and efficiently whilst also reducing the risk of claims being lost.
The Fire Service Rota extract will be run on Friday, 9 December, therefore, for inclusion in December pay, any relevant retained activity must be entered and authorised on FSR before this date.
Any MyView mileage and expense claims should also be entered before 9 December 2022 for payment on 23 December 2022.
For general pay queries please contact HR.
For any queries regarding claims for Overtime, RDS course claims, Associate Trainers and Acting Up Claims please contact Finance (funding@shropshirefire.gov.uk)
For queries regarding Fire Service Rota please contact FireServiceRota@shropshirefire.gov.uk or the relevant AGC.
For queries regarding My View please contact Sarah Shelvock.
Claire Ellis | Accountant
Last Christmas Posting Dates 2022
First Class Letters and Recorded signed for - Wednesday 21 December
Second Class Letters and Recorded signed for - Monday 19 December
Special Delivery – Guaranteed - Thursday 22 December
Overseas Mail
Australia, New Zealand - Thursday 1 December
China (Peoples Republic) - Friday 2 December
Caribbean Destinations - Monday 5 December
Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Far and Middle East - Wednesday 7 December
Cyprus, Malta - Thursday 8 December
Eastern Europe (except Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia), Greece and Turkey - Friday 9 December
Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Poland, Sweden, USA - Saturday 10 December
Austria, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland - Monday 12 December
Belgium, France and Luxembourg - Wednesday 14 December
Admin Support
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The Festival of Carols is back for 2022 and will take place on Thursday, 15 December in Shrewsbury Fire Station’s appliance bay.
All are welcome to join us at 7pm to see in the festive season and raise money in aid of Blue Light Mind and The Fire Fighters Charity.
With a raffle, refreshments, carols and a headline appearance from a special someone, it’s set to be a night full of Christmas cheer.
We have secured additional parking behind The Maltings if the car park at Headquarters reaches maximum capacity.
As always, if anyone has enticing items they would like to donate to the raffle prizes to help raise some money, please leave with Maxine Titley in the Admin office at Headquarters.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Simon Hardiman | ACFO
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There are several spaces left on the ILM Level 3 Leadership and Management qualification, starting in April 2023. This is nationally recognised qualification, mapped to the NFCC Leadership Framework and aimed at new, existing, or aspiring supervisory managers (both Grey and Green Book).
The timetable of modules is below, and all modules need to be completed together with associated assignments.
 If you would like to attend this training, from either a personal or professional development perspective, please speak to your line manager in the first instance to gain their approval and then contact me. There is a cost attached to attendance, so please ensure you can commit to attending the modules and completion of associated assignments.
Donna Trowsdale | Development Officer
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The Fire Fighters Charity have designed and developed the attached poster for members of the public to use to make a donation. The poster contains a specific QR code which allows us to ensure all donations are accredited to Shropshire.
Each station will soon receive:
1 x A4 Station based poster, should be put up visible to members of the public passing the station for them to make quick and simple donations – the ideal place would be in an external notice board or appliance bay / watch room window. Thus allowing the public to scan from the outside and make their donation.
In addition to this, each station will receive 1 x laminated version for each front-line appliance. This poster will compliment the ‘pop it on the pump’ cash donation envelopes which should be on the appliances already. This will give the public a choice of electronic or cash donation.
Please can you ensure the posters are put in place as soon as they land on stations – via the internal mail.
Any questions, please ask.
Ashley Brown | Service Co-Ordinator | The Fire Fighters Charity
We received these comments from Cllr Raj Mehta, Chair of Telford & Wrekin Interfaith Council.
“We as Telford & Wrekin Interfaith Council reached out to Simon recently. We are keen to try to work together with Shropshire Fire & Rescue to improve diversity & encourage an increase in multi faith, community & diverse recruitment. Simon opened his arms to discussion and is keen to develop & join together to drive forward. We feel Simon’s passion, experience, commitment & drive will perfect qualities to drive the Service forward. We wish him all the best & look forward to building relationships in the near future”.
We received the following thanks from a Local Government Association Advisor (Fire) after Natalie Parkinson, Equality Diversity & Inclusivity Officer, gave a presentation to their Leadership Essentials event on 9 November.
“A huge thank you for coming along and presenting at leadership essentials on Wednesday. Your session was brilliant and got some really exceptional feedback 😊 Your flexibility and the time you took to address questions and explain concepts in practical terms meant that everyone got so much out of it, so thank you!
I really hope you will join us again in the future, and we can build in more time to your session too!”
Reception took a call from a Whitchurch resident who asked them to pass on a “big thank you” to Archie Walkerdine, Vulnerable Persons Officer, who visited her today to refit a smoke alarm which had been driving her mad beeping.
She said Archie was very courteous and polite and a credit to Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service and she wanted to pass on her appreciation.
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Climbing Out is a charity providing fully funded 5-day outdoor activity programmes aimed at rebuilding confidence, self esteem and motivation for people facing life-changing injury, illness or trauma. These programmes help those taking part accept what has happened to them and start to see a new way forward in life.
They work with anyone aged 18 or over who are struggling to move forward following a mental or physical trauma.
If you feel you would benefit from this programme, please visit their website for further information https://climbingout.org.uk/ Self-referral forms can be found on their website, or you can get in touch with HR who can refer you.
There are a number of programmes being held in 2023. Dates can be found here https://climbingout.org.uk/our-programmes/#ProgrammeDates
They also provide walk-and-talk days aiming to bring people together who are facing similar challenges.
For further information, please visit https://climbingout.org.uk/additional-support/walk-talk-days/
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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.
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
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.
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