Warwickshire Fire & Rescue hopes to boost recruitment and retention of on-call firefighters after tweaks to its pay policy were approved by councillors.

Pay rates were standardised nationally from the start of 2025 but they were at odds with Warwickshire's adjustments as part of the rollout of its resourcing to risk plan.

It had been proposed to scrap all of Warwickshire's on-call firefighter teams due to plummeting availability but night cover at Polesworth, Henley, Wellesbourne, Southam and Bidford were saved after they were deemed to have stable enough manpower. Those sites will run on-call from 7pm until 7am each day.

Warwickshire Fire & Rescue agreed to adopt a new pay structure which sees the percentage of the full-time salary an on-call firefighter receives go up with the number of hours committed to. 

Previously, Warwickshire's local offer was incremental in blocks of 10 hours but the national structure sees the rate increase in blocks of 30 hours.

As part of its restructure, Warwickshire wants to offer 24, 36, 48 and 60-hour contracts but the same rate of 7.5 per cent of a full-time wage, on top of an annual retainer, would have applied to anyone committing to between 31 and 60 hours, resulting in no incentive for anyone to do more than 36.

The service wants to add its own extra level for 40 hours or more – 8.75 per cent – and reduce by one hour the point at which the 10 per cent rate kicks in, ensuring more pay for those who take the 60-hour deal.

Despite individual firefighters getting more money, it is anticipated that fewer will be required if more of them take on more hours, leading to lower overall costs.

A report to Warwickshire County Council's staff and pensions committee read: "By introducing these changes, each location will require fewer on-call firefighters to provide the required cover. Consequently, this will reduce the overall on-costs including, training, personal protective equipment and uniform.

"This proposed structure is an improvement to the already agreed national structure and will have several benefits for our people. It will provide greater opportunity for employees to be remunerated fairly for the hours they are contracted for.

"By having an improved pay structure it will improve the attraction and retention of staff on the on-call duty system. This will create efficiencies when considering the resources required to recruit and train new members of staff."

It also noted that "retention and recruitment of on-call staff has been and still is a challenge for all fire and rescue services in the UK", citing "pay and commitment challenges". 

When questioned by councillors, report author and group commander Tom Crookson said: "Engagement with staff in the on-call system suggests one of the reasons we cannot retain staff is the pay and this is an improvement."

Councillors said yes without dissent, giving the service the option of offering those deals as part of terms being discussed now for the planned rollout from the start of July 2025.