Manx fire service needs to remain competitive, new chief says

The fire and rescue service on the Isle of Man needs to remain competitive to attract staff, bosses have said.

Mark Christian was made chief fire office on a permanent basis this week after holding the position on an interim basis for the past year.

He said while recruitment for whole-time positions was still healthy, securing out-of-town on-call staff was becoming more of a challenge.

The service was now looking at ways to make contracts more flexible, he added.

Mr Christian said part of the issue was a decrease in the availability of jobs in smaller villages and towns, which meant more people travelled out of their local area for work.

That, coupled with a work-life balance becoming more prominent for people, meant recruitment "can be a struggle".

But he said a programme to demonstrate to employers the benefits of having staff with the skills of firefighters has been successful, and six-monthly recruitment drives had kept numbers up.

The service has 59 whole-time staff, including leaders and administration staff, and 107 on-call firefighters based across six stations out of town.

Despite the challenges the service had nearly 99% availability of service out-of-town, which was a "remarkable" figure and testament to the dedication of the staff, he said.

The nature of an island fire service meant "multiple people in the service have multiple roles", something highlighted in a recent peer review.

"We are limited to staff numbers, but we still have to provide everything that any other fire service would provide."

The review highlighted 15 recommendations, including the modernisation of fire legislation and the creation of an integrated risk management plan to match resources with demand on the service.

Mr Christian said those works had been put into an action plan and progress was continuing.

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