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09
Oct
On-call firefighter recruitment ‘always going to be a challenge’ in North Yorkshire
The recruitment of on-call firefighters is “always going to be a challenge” in North Yorkshire, the deputy mayor for policing and fire has said.
The Stray Ferret revealed last month that all on-call stations in the Harrogate district had suffered big declines in crew availability, which prompted concerns about public safety.
The availability of Ripon’s nighttime on-call crew fell from 48% in 2022/23 to 17% in 2024/25. Crew availability in Summerbridge and Boroughbridge declined from 44% to 21% and 67% to 23% over the same period.
Jo Coles, the Labour deputy mayor for York and North Yorkshire who is responsible for scrutinising North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s performance, criticised the Stray Ferret for reporting on the issue during the Langdale Moor fire.
At a meeting of the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel on Wednesday, Cllr Chris Aldred, who represents High Harrogate and Kingsley on North Yorkshire Council, asked Ms Coles whether there were any plans to address “this particular pressing area”.
The figures from our freedom of information request.
Cllr Aldred pointed to the decline in firefighter availability in Ripon, Summerbridge and Boroughbridge as an example.
Ms Coles said that the overall fire engine availability stood at 68%. This is the combined figure for wholetime and on-call crews throughout North Yorkshire.
She added that part of the issue in Ripon, Boroughbridge and Summerbridge was due to recruitment of “a certain type of officer”.
She said:
My understanding is that is not primarily due to a shortage of on-call fire fighters, it is actually to do with the availability of a certain type of officer within the crew and certainly there has been substantial recruitment going on in that space in order to mitigate that availability of those particular types of crew members that are needed in order to make the appliance available.
All of the on-call stations listed have now had a number of new starters this year and there are other recruits coming in the pipeline.
Ms Coles added that new starters were “in the pipeline” this year for Ripon, Boroughbridge and Summerbirdge. This included six new on-call firefighters in Ripon and six in Boroughbridge.
However, the Labour deputy mayor said that the issue of on-call firefighters will continue to be a “challenge” in North Yorkshire.
She said:
It’s always going to be a challenge in our region because of our reliance on on-call firefighters. But it is also a national challenge across the country.
We actually do pretty well compared to most regions in the country for on-call fire fighters. It is something that the mayor and I are continuing to look at.
Ms Coles added that David Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, and the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority were looking at measures such as providing workspaces at fire stations for on-call firefighters to work their day jobs to improve recruitment and availability.
Deputy mayor Jo Coles (centre) with chief fire officer Jonathan Dyson (left) and mayor David Skaith
It comes as senior fire officers have previously acknowledged that on-call firefighter recruitment is a “significant challenge”.
During an online public meeting chaired by Ms Coles in September, Damian Henderson, director of service improvement and assurance at North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, said:
A significant amount of work continues to be undertaken with regards to on-call recruitment. If anyone can support their local fire station that would be hugely appreciated. We do appreciate that in a number of our stations there’s a significant challenge.
On-call firefighters are part-time, trained firefighters that respond to alerts on pagers at work or at home. They earn on average £7,000 a year.
You can apply to become an on-call firefighter here.
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