Change to make firefighter pay 'fairer' approved

Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service is hoping to boost recruitment and retention of on-call firefighters after small changes to its pay policy were approved by councillors.

The service has agreed to adopt a new pay banding structure, which sees the percentage of the full-time salary for an on-call firefighter go up with the number of hours they are contracted to be available for.

Pay rates were standardised nationally from the start of 2025, but they were at odds with Warwickshire's adjustments as part of the council's rollout of its resourcing to risk plan.

Previously, Warwickshire's local offer was incremental in blocks of 10 hours. The national structure sees the rate increase in blocks of 30 hours.

As part of its new restructure, Warwickshire wants to offer 24, 36, 48 and 60-hour contracts.

However, the same rate of 7.5% of a full-time wage, on top of an annual retainer, would have applied to anyone committing to between 31 and 60 hours, resulting in no incentive for anyone to do more than 36.

The service wants to add its own extra level for 40 hours or more – 8.75% – and reduce by one hour the point at which the 10 per cent rate kicks in, ensuring more pay for those who take the 60-hour deal.

Despite individual firefighters getting more money, it is anticipated that fewer will be required if more of them take on more hours, leading to lower overall costs.

It had been proposed to scrap all of Warwickshire's on-call firefighter teams due to plummeting availability.

However, night cover at Polesworth, Henley, Wellesbourne, Southam and Bidford were saved after they were deemed to have stable enough manpower, with those sites running on-call from 19:00 until 07:00 each day.

A report to Warwickshire County Council's staff and pensions committee said that the changes would mean each location would require fewer on-call firefighters to provide cover, reducing overall costs for training, personal protective equipment and uniform.

The report added: "This proposed structure is an improvement to the already agreed national structure and will have several benefits for our people.

"It will provide greater opportunity for employees to be remunerated fairly for the hours they are contracted for.

"By having an improved pay structure it will improve the attraction and retention of staff on the on-call duty system."

It also noted that "retention and recruitment of on-call staff has been and still is a challenge for all fire and rescue services in the UK", citing "pay and commitment challenges".

When questioned by councillors, report author and group commander Tom Crookson said: "Engagement with staff in the on-call system suggests one of the reasons we cannot retain staff is the pay and this is an improvement."

The service has the option of offering the deals from the start of July 2025.

Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.