Operational preparedness of flexi-duty officers

The ever increasing non-response work being carried out by Middle and Strategic
Managers is severely impacting on the time they have available to dedicate to their
own operational preparedness.

The reduction in this time means that they are often underprepared to deal with the full
range of foreseeable risks that can be expected to occur at incidents within the areas
in which they work. This has been highlighted in most, if not all of the recent
investigations into incident related Firefighter fatalities.

Conference calls upon the Executive Council to campaign for a national minimum
standard for the operational training provided to Flexi-duty Officers in relation to
foreseeable risk within each individual Fire and Rescue Service, and the time made
available for individual Officers to develop their own operational preparedness. This is
to be carried out with a view to establishing minimum auditable National standards of
operational capability for all Flexi-duty Officers.

Conference instructs that this work commences immediately and includes regular
input and advice from the Officers National Committee.