Employees In Development
| Wholetime | 31/03/2025 | 31/03/2024 | 31/03/2023 | 31/03/2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FF | 38 | 24 | 22 | 28 |
| CM | 9 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| WM | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| SM | 5 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Total | 48 | 28 | 26 | 32 |
| On-call | ||||
| FF | 46 | 38 | 28 | 16 |
| CM | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| WM | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 51 | 42 | 31 | 18 |
| Grand Total | 99 | 70 | 57 | 50 |
Table 11 above shows the number of firefighters currently in development along with historical data from the previous two years.
For both on-call and wholetime cohorts, the numbers show that there is marked increase in employees in development arising from the recent intake of new firefighting personnel into the Service.
Whilst a proportion of those in development will complete their apprenticeships during the year, additional initial training courses will start leading to more firefighters starting their development phase.
- It should be noted that should there be an increase in recruitment activity, trainees may take 26 months to become fully competent and this requires a resource commitment from both the Service Development Centre trainers and Service Delivery managers.
- Due to changes introduced from April 2023, the process for proving competence in role has been streamlined which should mean that the time in development will reduce.
- An increase in the number of operational personnel in development may create challenges for local managers who are responsible for managing the development period.