The Company
Making Derbyshire a Safer Place to Live, Work and Visit
DFRS provide a wide range of services, often in partnership and collaboration with others, to the people who live, work and visit the county and aim to achieve excellence in all that they do.
DFRS are available to respond to calls across Derbyshire every minute of every day and work hard to reduce the risks of fires, road traffic accidents and other emergency incidents across the county through their activities.
The Service employs over 800 personnel and has a total of 31 fire stations based in strategic areas to cover the local area.
The Services governing body is the Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Authority which provides strategic leadership, monitors the costs incurred by the service and sets the budget.
The Business Situation
Leadership is one of DFRS’ core values and developing leaders in the Fire Service upholds that value, championing their people and having a clear succession plan.
The main driver for any leadership development programme in the DFRS, is the responsibility to ensure people have the right skills for their role and ensuring that these skills are relevant to the fire service, especially for those in a management and leadership role.
The Approach
The aim of the programme was to upskill those moving into a leadership role within the Service as well as refresh the leadership skills of those already in the role. DFRS’ vision is for all leaders and managers to have their leadership and management skills accredited providing a recognised standard of performance across the organisation. To this end, DFRS offered the ILM Level 3 Certificate for all crew managers and watch managers. A programme was designed that suited their needs, met their vision and objectives and was aligned to the ILM requirements.
The success of this programme resulted in the ILM Level 5 in Leadership & Management being offered to Station Managers and additional cohorts planned for the ILM Level 3 Certificate in 2021.
The Benefits
- A better understanding the organisational context –leaders and managers had a broader outlook as to where the service sits in the wider environment and external factors that can impact the service and the role of managers and leaders in implementing change and service improvements and equip their teams for up and coming challenges
- Leadership skills in leading their teams, especially around taking on the responsibility and accountability for team performance; setting goals and communicating these effectively
- Performance management, day-to-day management of team members’ performance and having difficult conversations when needed
- Developing presentation skills – DFRS leaders are called upon to deliver presentations and talks to a range of stakeholders, this may be in schools, to members of the public, senior management and other key stakeholders. Confidence in their presentation skills is essential.
- Managing change – DFRS, like any Fire Service is undergoing changes and it is important for managers to manage their teams effectively thorough these changes; to overcome resistance; to move out of traditional ways of working and be open to change, to be more flexible and agile in the way the service is delivered, both internally and to the public.