Fire service bosses appealing for ‘Shropshire-only’ applications
Half of all firefighters were who trained in Shropshire following a recruitment campaign left to join crews closer to their own homes, a report reveals.
Postcode restrictions were brought in, in 2018, after so many had left two years previously – and now Shropshire and Wrekin Fire and Rescue Authority’s HR officer Wendy Edwards, and Chief Fire Officer Rod Hammerton, have recommend the authority keeps the geographical qualification in place.
The latest campaign also used an online system, provided by the Fire Service’s College, which is no longer available.
As such, the fire chiefs are also recommending the authority uses an alternative system in future, stating that handling more than a thousand expected applications “in-house” would be too much for “the already stretched ICT team”.
The 2018 campaign only allowed applications from candidates with Shropshire, Cheshire, Herefordshire, Powys, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire or Wrexham postcodes, “in line with the ethos of providing local jobs for local people”, they wrote.
However, the 2016 campaign did not apply postcode restrictions and “has seen four of the eight candidates leave following completion of their development programmes and apply for their ‘home’ brigades”, Ms Edwards and Officer Hammerton added.
They recommended using postcode restrictions again, though admitted doing so would slightly curtail the brigade’s ability to “recruit the best candidates from a wide and diverse background”.
The authority will discuss Ms Edwards’ and Officer Hammerton’s report on Wednesday, October 14.
