The application process for becoming a Retained firefighter will, in most cases, be almost identical to the process for becoming a Wholetime firefighter in the same brigade. There will usually be much less competition for places, however, with many retained stations struggling to recruit enough firefighters to crew the appliances, especially during the hours of 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday.
Training
Retained duty system firefighters are trained to carry out the duties of a wholetime firefighter. You will need to carry out some initial training before you can safely respond to emergency calls but how this is done varies enormously from brigade to brigade. Some brigades run the majority of training on station at evenings and weekends with a short course at brigade training centre and an assessment which then allows you to respond to calls. This is followed by further training courses and assessments in areas such as Breathing Apparatus over the first year or so of service. Other brigades run initial courses which cover all of the above and can require around 15 days attendance at training centre over a period of weeks / weekends before you are considered fit to respond. In some brigades, retained duty system recruits can be given the option to attend the full wholetime recruit basic course although the length of this course often precludes many from taking up this opportunity.
Ongoing training will require attendance at a 2 or 3 hour weekly drill night on station plus further attendance at periodic short refresher courses in areas such as breathing apparatus and trauma care. You may also have the opportunity to undertake optional training courses in order to gain extra skills.
Payment
Retained firefighters receive payment for the work they undertake. Exactly how your payment is structured can vary from brigade to brigade. The most common method is for a retaining fee to be paid based on the hours per week you are contracted to cover, plus extra payments based for responding to calls, carrying out maintenance of the equipment on the station, carrying out community fire safety work etc. These extra payments are based on the hourly rate for a firefighter.
The current rates for all these payments can be found on our downloads page. The amount you earn under this method is tied closely to the number of calls you respond to and the amount of other work you carry out, which can lead to large differences in income from month to month.
For this reason, some brigades have switched to a 'salary based' method of payment where some or all of these payments have been rolled up into a salary which is paid regardless of the number of calls and is based purely upon the hours that you are contracted to cover. Each of these salary schemes runs slightly differently and is based upon local requirements.
Transferring to a Wholetime Position
In theory at least, after recent changes, a firefighter is a firefighter and the retained duty system is just another duty system worked by firefighters in the UK, alongside wholetime and day crewing duty systems. This should mean that transferring from the retained service to a wholetime position should be simple. The picture varies, however, from brigade to brigade. Some brigades now have clear procedures in place which will allow a competent retained duty system firefighter to transfer across to a wholetime position. Others currently still require serving retained firefighters wanting to transfer to wholetime to go through the complete application and initial training phase alongside wholetime recruits with no fire service experience.
Further advice can be gained from our discussion forums or by calling into your local fire station and having a chat with the Officer in Charge.