I am pleased that you are interested in finding out more about Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service and the role of Station Commander.

We are proud of Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service, which has continued to improve its performance year on year despite financial constraints and an increasing population in the county. The Service has a reputation for cost effectiveness and highly effective performance. We believe this is possible because of the Service’s highly committed and professional staff.

We are committed to further improving the quality and performance of the Fire Service, despite the financial climate we find ourselves within. This requires us to be far more innovative and challenging of the way we work. We are not afraid to lead the way where we know it is the right thing to do for the people we serve, the first combined Fire Control in the Country serves to illustrate this and our response to the budget pressures of date has seen us change our wholetime shift system and redesign our support functions to make savings of £4.3 million without impacting on frontline delivery of service.

We believe the Service must continue to balance the need to be proactive in preventing the deaths and injuries that occur in fire and other emergencies against the need to maintain a highly effective, safe and competent operational workforce. The role of the Station Commander will be crucial in ensuring this balance is struck and that all staff are fully supported and engaged in helping the Service achieve its aim of operational and community safety excellence.

If you are successful in your application, you will join a highly motivated and close knit team of managers who are committed to leading Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) to operational and community safety excellence. As a Station Commander in CFRS you will immediately be able to play a vital role in helping to develop and translate the Service’s strategic direction in to efficient, effective actions that produce clear and measurable outcomes for local communities. You will be selected because you have the knowledge and skills to successfully perform in the role but more importantly because you have the behaviours and qualities required to build a cohesive team able to deliver outstanding performance.

I hope that this pack together with our IRMPwill provide you with all the information you need to make a decision about applying for this vacancy – if not, please do not hesitate to contact Group Commander Gary Mitchley on 01480 444500 to get the information you need. Our IRMP can be foundour website under About Us and then Documents or via the following link:

We look forward to receiving your application and hope to have the opportunity of working with you as a Station Commander at Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service in the near future.

Our community

The population of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is approximately 805,000.

Cambridgeshire has a diverse and resilient economy. Situated in the heart of the East of England, Cambridge is less than one hour from London, just twenty minutes from London Stansted airport, which has excellent links to most major European cities and Cambridge also hosts its own private airport.

Cambridgeshire has good access to the national motorway network with the A1, A14 and M11 roads which provide easy connections to the Midlands, the North, London and the east coast ports of Felixstowe, Lowestoft, Ipswich, Great Yarmouth and Harwich.

The Fire Authority

The Fire Authority is the governing body responsible for delivering a fire and rescue service to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. It was established in 1998 when Peterborough City became a unitary authority.

Seventeen elected members make up the Authority, all of whom are serving councillors. There are 13 members appointed by Cambridgeshire County Council and four members from Peterborough City Council, reflecting the proportion of tax payers in each of the two council areas.

The political make-up of the Authority reflects the number of members from the political parties on each of the appointing county and unitary authorities. A Chairman and Vice-Chairman are elected annually.

Our structure

We currently operate from 28 fire stations across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, 27 of which are operational. We have four wholetime stations, three day crewed and the remainder are on-call stations, one of which is a voluntary fire station.

We have a fleet of 35 fire engines, three rescue vehicles, two MultiStar 1+ aerial appliances and a number of other specialist vehicles including a new hi-tech incident command vehicle.

Management, professional support departments and our Combined Fire Control (with Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service) are all based at our Service Headquarters in Huntingdon.

We employ 606 staff made up of 249 wholetime firefighters (including Principal Officers), 194 on-call firefighters, 40 members of staff in our Combined Fire Control and 123 staff in professional support roles.

The Service is run by a chief fire officer who is also the chief executive of the Service. The chief fire officer is supported by two directors - the assistant chief fire officer and a director of resources.

Each director is responsible for a number of departments and functions within the Service and is supported by a management structure within each directorate.

Map of our fire stations

1

Our vision is for safe communities where there are no preventable deaths or injuries from fire or other emergencies.

Put simply, this means we want to reduce risk and save lives.

To achieve this, we need to achieve operational and community safety excellence in the most cost effective way (value for money), putting people at the centre of everything we do – both people in the community in terms of their safety and diverse needsand our own staff in terms of training, development and health and safety. These are our four strategic aims.

For each of our strategic aims we have set out what we aspire to achieve in each of the areas:

Community Safety Excellence

  • We understand the risk in our communities
  • We are inclusive in our approach and tailor our services to meet the needs of our diverse communities
  • We work with partner agencies in a targeted, proactive and effective manner and are perceived as a key contributor to community safety
  • We have a high level of customer satisfaction in our activities.

Operational Excellence

  • We have competent, confident and skilled staff
  • We have the right skills, equipment and resources in the right places
  • We have a learning culture looking to continually improve the way we deliver our services.

People

  • We continually strive to improve the service we deliver
  • We listen and engage with staff, communities and our partners to improve what we do
  • We develop our staff and encourage them to reach their potential.

Value for Money

  • We actively seek collaborations
  • We have effective and efficient working practices
  • We continuously monitor how we are performing, sharing what we do with others and taking best practice from others.

We strive to incorporate three key values into every aspect of our work:

DignityOur treatment of people should conform to a standard of behaviour that is socially acceptable to all members of the community we serve.

Respect the differences in groups of employees and the public. We should take into account the right for people to be different and value diversity rather than demean it.

Welcome people into the workplace. We should create a working environment that is open and inclusive, which offers help and support.

Working with staff, we have developed a set of behaviours that we expect everyone in the organisation to demonstrate, from the Chief Fire Officer to frontline staff.

Responsible to: Group Commander

Responsible for:Watch Commander/Watch

MAIN DUTIES & ACCOUNTABILITIES

  1. Lead, monitor and support people to resolve operational incidents.
  • Review and determine incident status
  • Assume responsibility and implement action to support those involved in the incident
  • Debrief following resolution of incident
  1. Determine solutions to hazards and risks identified through inspection and investigation.
  • Plan inspections and investigations
  • Implement inspections and investigations
  • Respond to findings following inspections and investigations
  • Present evidence at formal proceedings
  1. Plan and implement activities to meet service delivery needs.
  • Plan and allocate work activities to meet service delivery needs
  • Agree budgets and resources for work activities
  • Implement and evaluate work plans to achieve objectives
  • Make recommendations for improvements to work activities
  1. Manage the effective use of resources.
  • Plan the use of physical resources
  • Obtain physical resources
  • Ensure the availability of supplies
  • Monitor the use of physical resources
  1. Select required personnel.
  • Identify personnel requirements
  • Select required personnel
  1. Manage the performance of teams and individuals to achieve objectives.
  2. Allocate and delegate work to teams and individuals
  3. Agree objectives and work plans with teams and individuals
  4. Assess the performance of teams and individuals
  5. Provide feedback to teams and individuals on their performance
  6. Resolve performance issues with teams and individuals
  1. Develop teams and individuals to enhance workplace performance.
  2. Identify the development needs of teams and individuals
  3. Plan the development of teams and individuals
  4. Develop teams to improve performance
  5. Deliver individual learning and support for development
  6. Evaluate the development of teams and individuals
  1. Manage yourself to achieve work objectives.
  • Organise and structure personal work activities to achieve objectives
  • Develop and continuously improve productive working relationships
  • Implement personal development plan to continuously improve personal performance
  1. Provide information to support decision making.
  2. Obtain information for decision making
  3. Record and Store information
  4. Analyse information to support decision making
  5. Advise and inform others

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITIES

  1. Equality and Inclusion
  • Support and promote the Service's statement, policies and procedures on Equality and Inclusion in employment and service delivery
  1. Health, Safety and Risk
  • Ensure that health, safety and risk issues are factored into all areas of activity
  • Support and promote the Service’s Health and Safety policies and procedures to maintain a safe and healthy working environment
  1. Personal Development
  • Responsible for updating own practices and professional knowledge
  • Undertaking personal development activities as agreed with line manager
  1. General
  • To undertake such other duties as may be required from time to time commensurate with the role.

1


Job Title: Station Commander

Date of last review: 07 February 2017

CORE COMPETENCIES / CRITERIA / ESSENTIAL / DESIRABLE / MEASUREMENT
EXPERIENCE / Substantive wholetime Watch Commander or a substantive wholetime Crew Commander and be able to demonstrate comprehensive evidence of competence at Watch Commander Level* /  / Application Form
Substantive wholetime Station Commander/Manager (A)** /  / Application Form
ORGANISATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS / Leads groups to achieve excellence by the establishment, maintenance and management of performance requirements /  / Assessment
Creates and implements effective plans to deliver a range of organisational objectives /  / Application Form & Assessment
Recognises the potential political impact and implications of actions from a strategic perspective /  / Assessment
ATTITUDE AND APPROACH
ATTITUDE AND APPROACH / Supports change and seeks opportunities to promote improved organisational effectiveness /  / Assessment
Consistently projects and promotes a confident, controlled and focused attitude in high challenging situations /  / Assessment
Committed and able to develop self, individuals and teams to improve organisational effectiveness /  / Assessment
SKILLS AND ABILITIES / Communicates effectively both orally and in writing /  / Application Form & Assessment
Ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice or give correct information in accurate spoken English /  / Assessment
Leads, involves and motivates others both within the Fire and Rescue Service and in the community /  / Application Form & Assessment
Understands and applies relevant information to make appropriate decisions which reflect key priorities and requirements /  / Application Form & Assessment
Maintains an active awareness of the environment to promote safe and effective working /  / Assessment
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES / Commitment to equality and fairness /  / Assessment

GENERAL

/ A full and current driving licence that entitles you to drive in the UK without restrictions*** /  / Application Form
Satisfactory unaided eyesight and colour vision /  / Medical and Fitness Exam on appointment
Satisfactory hearing /  / Medical and Fitness Exam on appointment

* Applicable only to those applying for the Station Commander A vacancy

** Applicable only to those applying for the Station Commander B vacancy

*** Reasonable adjustment will be made for those candidates who may have a disability under the Equality Act 2010. However, it is essential that the successful candidate can travel to any part of the county when require

1

Salary / The current pay for Station Commander B is £42,576per annum.
Flexible Duty Supplement / You will receive a 20% pensionable supplement of your basic salary in respect of your participation in the flexible duty system.
Annual Leave / Annual leave entitlement is 33 days per year (comprising of 28 Scale A days and 5 Scale B days), plus any long service leave and normal public holidays (8 days).
Duties and place of work / The core accountabilities are as described in the job description for this post. The post holder is liable to undertake such duties as may be reasonably required of them, commensurate with their grade, at their place of work at Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Huntingdon or at any other of the Authority’s establishments or other locations within the county.
Hours of work / You will be conditioned to the 78 hour flexible duty system.
You will be conditioned to the 42 hour working week, based on a nine day fortnight.
The normal working hours are 09.00 - 17.00 hours; if you are required to work in excess of these hours you will be granted time off in lieu by agreement with your Manager.
Sick pay / The provisions of the scheme agreed by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services as set out within the Grey Book apply.
Fairness at work / The Service values diversity in the Service and the community by:
  • Treating everyone fairly and with respect
  • Providing varying solutions for different needs and expectations
  • Promoting equal opportunities in employment and progression within the Service
  • Challenging prejudice and discrimination

Political Restriction / This post has been designated as Politically Restricted under Part 1 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. As a consequence the successful candidate is unable to undertake any public political activities or stand for membership of public/political authorities.
Criminal Convictions / The post holder will be required to declare prior to and at any time during their employment any criminal convictions and notify any pending prosecutions to the Chairman of the Fire Authority. This includes driving/speeding offences.
Applications open / 29 January 2018
Closing Date / 09February 2018 @ 12 noon
Assessment Dates / 05 - 08 March 2018

ADVERT

Please return the completed application and equality and inclusion monitoring forms via email to:

1