Control staff and psychological well-being

Conference acknowledges and commends the work being carried out by the Fire Brigades Union into mental health and the effects on our Members.

Conference notes at the recent FireFit Conference research presented by Phil Turner revealed that Emergency Fire Control Staff displayed the highest levels of mental ill-health among fire service personnel who completed the on-line survey.

Control staff are being subjected to a variety of factors including changes in workload and working conditions. All of this has led to an increase of absenteeism due to mental ill-health within control.

Conference calls upon the Executive Council to investigate the high level of sickness being reported by emergency control personnel to clarify which changes to working practices/conditions are contributory factors to this and to formulate an action plan which will enable this worrying trend to be reversed.

This work is to be completed and reported back to Conference 2018.