Future Firefighter

We are sure that our collective mind is better than any one of us in isolation so, the more people we have from different backgrounds and with different life experiences, the better the solutions to the problems we come across will be. In addition to this having a more diverse workforce makes us more open to all members of our community; many people prefer to talk openly to people they feel comfortable with. As mentioned above a characteristic of all fire service employees is a desire to help people and learn new things - working with people who are different from ourselves means we can better help more people and learn more for ourselves.

The minimum age for joining the fire service is 18 years old which you must be at the start of the training course. There is no maximum age.

Our organisation has a number of family friendly policies including Maternity, Paternity and Shared Parental Leave. If you become pregnant or you are a breast feeding mother you will be unable to attend operational incidents for health and safety reasons. You will be required to undertake your contracted hours focusing on work within the community or business fire safety. The hours worked will be discussed and agreed with your Station Manager. Subject to a minimum of a year’s service and returning to work following your pregnancy you will be eligible for a maternity package of nine months off at full pay, followed by three months at half pay.

Employees who have more than one year’s continuous service at the 11th week before the expected week of childbirth and who are intending to return to work for a minimum of three months will be entitled to:

• 39 weeks full pay – this will include the statutory entitlement to 39 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay which will be "topped up" to the employee’s normal weekly wage for 39 weeks
• 13 weeks half pay

Yes. A disability is defined by the act as anyone who has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on his/her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. You will be asked if you have a disability as part of the recruitment process and to give details of the type of adjustments you may require in order to take part in the selection process and to fulfill the role of a firefighter, should you be successful. Each case will be considered on an individual basis and, if reasonable adjustments can be made to enable you to take part in the selection process and to fulfill the role of a firefighter, then your application will proceed.

Dyslexia is classed as a disability and you will be asked if you have a disability as part of the recruitment process. When you get to the timed online tests you will be asked if you suffer with dyslexia and you should answer "yes". You will then be given additional time to undertake the assessments. You will be required to provide evidence of your dyslexia.

Yes. Firefighters require good vision in both eyes and part of the recruitment process will include an eye test. However you will need to meet the standards of vision which requires a minimum uncorrected vision (i.e. without glasses) of 6/18 in the better eye and 6/24 in the worse eye and corrected vision (i.e. with glasses), should be 6/9 binocularly, and a minimum of 6/12 in the worse eye. You should also have an upper hypermetropic limit of +3.00. You will be required to provide us with evidence of your current eyesight standard during the recruitment process so, if you have any concerns, we suggest that you have an up to date eye test to check your own standard of vision before applying.

We have quiet spaces in the vast majority of our estate. These are dedicated rooms which have running water. They can be used to pray, have some quite time to contemplate and reflect. There are a few older stations and buildings that do not have a quiet space. We would always consider a person’s right to observe their religion within a reasonable period during the working day.

Wholetime stations provide an emergency response 24/7 with firefighters working shifts. Leave is often picked by individuals to fit their particular circumstances and convenience. It would not be unreasonable for you to pick your leave request at the time which is most important to you and this may well be your significant religious feast days.

Our Muslim firefighters, and managers have full access to National Guidance on this support and provisions as such the Service will adopt the following:

• At meal times enable fasting staff, if they choose, to go to another room or quiet room until break and meal times are complete so fasting colleagues do not have to watch everyone eat.
• Accommodate prayer times – adapting to if it's winter or summer months, we will enable prayers to be observed at the appropriate time within the working shift or day, when not responding to an operational job.  Each sets of prayers taking approximately 10 to 15 minutes.
• No unnecessary strenuous drills that month
• If on a protracted incident and the fast is about to finish incident command to be made aware and provide time to break the fast by crewing appropriately, if the incident allows, with replacement personnel through Control.

You do need a full manual or automatic driving licence and will be encouraged to work towards a Large Goods Vehicle (LGV) licence should this be relevant for your development and your station requirements.

No you don’t need to be a strong swimmer, however the role does involve water rescue working with colleagues, so you need to be confident in, on and around water.

At this time firefighters cannot have a beard as this does not meet with the British Safety Standard. If the face seal on breathing apparatus is not tight to the skin there is a real and present danger that harmful chemicals could leak into the face mask and harm a firefighter. The manufacturers of breathing apparatus face masks and the fire service nationally are continually exploring this area to gain technological advancements to get a tight secure seal over facial hair.

You can request permission for a second job and this will be reviewed before a decision is made. It will be reviewed to ensure the second job will not have a negative impact on this primary role and to ensure there is no conflict of interest.