20 new wholetime firefighter posts could be created as part of Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue's proposals to future-proof emergency response across the county.
Over the last year, Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue has been reviewing its emergency response arrangements to ensure services remain resilient, effective and sustainable for the future.
As a result, the service has developed proposals on how best to move towards a long-term sustainable model, which includes 20 more wholetime firefighters across the county and 24/7 wholetime cover at Grantham Fire Station.
The proposed changes would see Grantham Fire Station become Lincolnshire’s second 24/7 wholetime station, after Lincoln South on South Park Avenue, Lincoln, strengthening response capability at a strategically important location.
To achieve this, new firefighter posts would be established at Grantham to allow for the required 2-2-4 duty system. This is where firefighters work two day shifts, followed by two night shifts, followed by four days off.
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue’s seven other wholetime stations in Boston, Gainsborough, Lincoln North, Louth, Skegness, Sleaford and Spalding, would continue to operate a seven-day, day crewed system, with wholetime firefighters available to respond throughout the day, seven days a week.
These fire stations would continue to be operated by on-call firefighters at night in the same way as all our fire stations across Lincolnshire.
Altogether these 20 new posts would help the fire service move towards a more sustainable model, with more robust shift arrangements and greater consistency in availability across the county.
The proposal would require an additional investment into the service but would mostly be funded by the removal of an uplift for wholetime firefighters providing overnight on-call cover on a voluntary basis.
This uplift became outdated after national changes to crewing arrangements in 2019 which made the arrangement voluntary and hard to rely on for consistent overnight cover.
Rather than continue with this arrangement, which is increasingly difficult to sustain, Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue propose to direct these resources into those 20 new wholetime positions which would guarantee firefighter availability when data shows there is the highest demand on the service.
Under these proposals, on-call personnel would remain a cornerstone of Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, as they provide a crucial role in protecting our local communities across all our 38 fire stations. On-call arrangements would remain in place to provide support at all wholetime stations during the day and overnight.
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue's 29 on-call stations will not be impacted by these proposals.
Mark Baxter, Chief Fire Officer at Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, said: "It's important that we continue to evolve our response model to reflect the changing risks, demand and operational challenges we face as a fire service.
"The work we've undertaken through this recent review has helped us identify what steps we could take towards a more sustainable response model for the future, which is supported by years of evidence and response data.
“These proposals would strengthen wholetime firefighter numbers, retain seven-day wholetime cover at all existing wholetime stations, increase our response capabilities in and around Grantham, and increase our overall resilience.
"However, this is just a proposal. It’s important to say that no final decision has been made. We want to hear the views of our communities, partners and stakeholders before any changes are implemented.”
As part of these proposals Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue will be conducting a public engagement to help local communities and stakeholders understand the potential changes and provide an opportunity to share their views.
The public engagement period opens on Monday 3 August and runs until Sunday 23 August.
Residents and stakeholders are invited to read the proposals and share feedback at: www.letstalk.lincolnshire.gov.uk/response-review
All feedback will be considered before any final recommendations are made later this year.