It's not just firefighters who make Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service the great organisation it is...there are a range of other positions:
Finance
Our finance team manage the financial affairs of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and ensure value for money is achieved from the use of resources.
Workshops
Workshops are responsible for the management of the Service’s vehicle fleet and operational equipment. The team ensure that all vehicles and equipment are maintained, repaired and tested to a high standard to provide the means whereby all members of the fire service can carry out their duties safety and efficiently.
Human Resources
Personnel Team provides a range of services including recruitment and policy, pay and pensions, occupation health and welfare and equal opportunities and has a number of professionally qualified staff and also clerical and administrative positions.
Attendance Management
As a 24 hour emergency service it is essential that we have sufficient resources in the right place at the right time to ensure that this service can be maintained. Our attendance management section ensures that this is the case and deploys our firefighters to different locations as and when required. There are a number of clerical and administrative positions within this team.
Health and Safety
Firefighters use a wide range of equipment and are exposed to a number of different risks in their everyday work. Our Health Safety Department has professionally qualified staff to provide advice, undertake risk assessments, research issues as they arise and ensure that safe working practices are adopted across the workforce.
Training
Firefighters are constantly training to ensure that they have the skills to do the job safely and that those skills are updated as new equipment and techniques are developed. Our other staff undertake training and development as required for their roles.
We have our own dedicated training and development team with professionally qualified staff and clerical and admin roles as well as a training centre in Croxteth where training is delivered not only to our own staff but also to commercial companies.
Estates and Building Management
We have 24 Community Fire Stations across the region, our Headquarters building in Bootle, Training & Development Academy in Croxteth and Fire Control in Bootle. Our Estates and Building Management Team plan all building work, assess repairs and manage the work done by external contractors.
Catering and Cleaning
A number of our establishments have catering staff and all our fire stations and other buildings have cleaning staff.
Couriers/Drivers
We employ a number of couriers to distribute mail and equipment between all of our Fire Stations, Headquarters and other buildings.
Procurement
We have a procurement function with professional qualified employees who purchase everything that is required to equip a modern Fire and Rescue service from Fire appliances, firefighting equipment to uniform. They also manage all contracts from suppliers for all other requirements the Service has - from utilities to stationery. There are also administrative and clerical positions within the team.
We also have a large stores facility at headquarters from where items are distributed around the Services.
Strategic Planning and Management Information
The Service gathers a lot of information about the incidents we attend. It is vital that we collate, analyse and utilise this information to its maximum potential to allow us to identify trends and plan our resources and responses accordingly.
As a public service we also have to produce statistics to Central Government, Audit Commission and others agencies about how we perform in various areas.
Our corporate research team undertakes this role and has a large number of staff undertaking a range of analytical, data input and research roles.
Corporate Communications
There is a lot of media interest in what the Fire Service does and the incidents that we attend. We have a statutory duty to warn and inform the public and we do this using our website, social media and my engaging with the Press and Media to get safety messages to the public. We also need to publicise our fire safety campaigns as widely as possible with the aim of reducing fires and keeping people safe. Like any organisation we also want to communicate effectively with all of our staff which we do through our intranet and internal communications campaigns. Our communications team manages this across all aspects of the service and is staffed by professionally qualified staff.
Fire Control
Fire Control Operators receive all 999 calls from members of the public reporting emergencies and other incidents. They are responsible for mobilising our fire appliances go to the correct address and maintain radio contact with crews to establish whether further resources are required. The need to know where all appliances are at all times so that they can respond to any situation as quickly as possible. Fire Control is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and Control staff work similar shifts to firefighters.
Advocates
We employ a wide range of Community Fire Safety Advocates to help achieve our aim of a fire safe community. Whilst our firefighters can carry out the majority of Home Risk Assessments there are communities and areas that require more resources and a targeted approach and as a result we have Bi-lingual Advocates, Older Persons Advocates, Disability Advocates, Arson Reduction Advocates, Deaf Advocates and District Advocates to assist with this work.
Marine Rescue Unit
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service took over responsibility for the Marine Rescue Unit (formerly know as Mersey Inshore Rescue Service) in 2005. Based on the famous Princes Landing Stage, at the Pier Head, a continuous 24-hour a day, 365 days a year service is maintained, providing a rapid and effective rescue service for all river users.
Admin and Clerical Positions
In addition to the specific roles highlighted above we have a number of secretarial, Data Input, Word Processor Operator, Reception, admin and clerical positions across many of our departments.