Shropshire's new fire chief determined despite challenges of industrial action, budgets and recruitment to rural stations

Simon Hardiman was announced as the new Chief Fire Officer (CFO) for Shropshire Fire and Rescue in November, following the retirement of outgoing CFO, Rod Hammerton.

Simon began his career in West Midlands Fire Service in 2001 and moved to Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service as the Area Manager for Operational Risk Management in 2018.

Amid a financial crisis, with Britain facing a wide-ranging labour force shortage and industrial action on the horizon, it won't be an easy first few months for the new Chief.

Simon, however, is excited for the new challenge, and is confident the force is in a good position.

He said: "I'm really excited, it's a huge privilege and honour to be taking on the position of Chief Officer.

"I do think I'm taking over at what could be a challenging time with potential industrial action and budgetary constraints, but it's a new challenge.

"With the financial management that we've had previously, we're in a good position to deal with those challenges over the next 12 months to two years."

In addition to budget constraints, from December 5 to January 30, firefighters and firefighter control staff are balloting on strike action.

Outgoing CFO, Rod Hammerton, said the service will be tested by industrial action, but is confident Simon is up to the job of managing the challenge.

He said: "The service is facing challenges in the short term with industrial action but what we're all determined to do in Shropshire is to stay very close to our staff.

"We respect their rights to take industrial action and firefighters should have a fair rate of pay, but our jobs as Chief Fire Officers is to make sure that the community remain protected during that period.

"In order to do that, we need to stay close to our staff. I think we have a very strong culture in Shropshire and we're very close and honest with each other, so I don't see that as a problem.

"Simon's a perfect fit for the service, he understands the culture of the organisation and wants to improve it even further. I think he'll be a great fit, he's very popular, competent and capable."

Of the challenges facing the new Chief, keeping the 20 stations staffed purely by on-call personnel running is high on his list of demands.

Simon said: "We are a predominately on-call fire and rescue service, supported by our whole-time colleagues who carry out specialist aspects of emergency response. Our on-call staff are integral to our operating model.

"Our on-call staff have a real understanding of the risks involved in their communities. It's about having the right people with the right skills in the right place.

"We are constantly recruiting to maintain the availability on those stations. We are seeing areas of the county where we are struggling to recruit people, but we're are undertaking an on-call sustainability review to try and make the job as attractive as can be."

Rod added: "On-call firefighters are really important to us, and we're trying to think about how we can make that pressure on their lives easier.

"At the moment we expect them to be on-call 84 hours a week or 120 hours a week with higher pay for the extra hours - which is a huge commitment. That's being within five minutes of their fire stations.

"Peoples lives don't work like that anymore. So we're trying to make it more flexible and more modern. They're the heartblood of our fire service, and so they should be.

"It's people from our community, protecting their communities. Especially in Shropshire it works so well, there's such a strong community spirit everywhere."

The service is currently actively recruiting on-call firefighters in Albrighton, Prees and Minsterly.