USAR Skills payments

The request was successful.

Dear West Midlands Fire Service,

I would be grateful if you would answer the following questions in relation to your Urban Search and Rescue (USAR ) personnel.

1. With the annual firefighter salary at £29.934, What additional payment(s) are given to USAR personnel (ie USAR Technician and USAR Advisor) in your brigade for undertaking training and delivery of the USAR capability ?

2. What on call/recall payments are made to USAR personnel (if additional to above)

3. Do USAR technicians undertake USAR/Technical Rescue only or do they also have full firefighting and CFS responsibilities?

4. How many USAR personnel do you have?

5. Please provide a breakdown of your annual USAR budget and expenditure.

6. Please explain the expected training requirements of USAR personnel.

Kind regards

Yours faithfully,

Joe McMahon

Asif Malik, West Midlands Fire Service

Ref: FOI/18074

 

Dear Mr Mahon

 

RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST

 

I can confirm that we have received your request concerning Urban Search
and Rescue . Your request was received on 14^th  May 2018 and I am dealing
with it under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  

In certain circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, I
will let you know. A fees notice will be issued to you, and you will be
required to pay this before we will proceed to deal with the request.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me on 0121 380
6561. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

 

 

Thank you

 

Kind Regards

 

Data Processor

Data Management

West Midlands Fire Service.

 

 

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Asif Malik, West Midlands Fire Service

Ref: FOI/18074

 

Dear Mr McMahon

 

RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST

 

I can confirm that we have received your request concerning USAR Skills
payments . Your request was received on 14^th May 2018. and I am dealing
with it under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  

In certain circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, I
will let you know. A fees notice will be issued to you, and you will be
required to pay this before we will proceed to deal with the request.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me on 0121 380
6561. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

 

Thank you

 

Kind Regards

 

Data Processor

Data Management

West Midlands Fire Service.

 

 

show quoted sections

Asif Malik, West Midlands Fire Service

Ref: FOI/18074

 

Dear Mr McMahon

 

RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST  

 

I am writing to confirm that the West Midlands Fire Service has now
completed its search for the information you requested on 14^th May 2018.

 

Please find below a summary of our findings.

 

Request

1. With the annual firefighter salary at £29.934, What additional
payment(s) are given to USAR personnel (ie USAR Technician and USAR
Advisor) in your brigade for undertaking training and delivery of the USAR
capability ?

Reply

Technical Rescue (USAR) personnel up to and including Watch Commander
level receive a 10% (£2,990) annual increment for providing an additional
42 hours retained or standby payment in addition to their 42 hours
positive duty period (totalling 84 hours duty per week averaged over an
eight week period). The role of Technical Rescue Advisor (TRA) is purely
voluntary and does not receive any additional payment, or benefit in kind.

 

Request

2. What on call/recall payments are made to USAR personnel (if additional
to above)

 

Reply

In addition to the above, TRU personnel receive a disturbance allowance of
£200 for incidents or exercises that require in excess of 18 continuous
hours duty within a 24-hour period.

 

Request

3. Do USAR technicians undertake USAR/Technical Rescue only or do they
also have full firefighting and CFS responsibilities?

 

Reply

TRU personnel provide full firefighting capability and are required to
maintain competencies across the full fire fighter competency framework in
addition to their National Resilience KPI requirements for USAR & MTFA,
plus those associated with Rope Rescue, Levels 3, 4, 5 & 6 Water Rescue
response, Confined Spaces, Heavy RTC, Large animal rescues, etc. In terms
of CFS responsibilities, these are exactly the same as the core crews
apart from S&W and Schools Visits. SSRI’s and Ward Based initiatives are
still part of TRU’s role. A local agreement exists between TRU and
surrounding Stations at both B07 & E09 for the delivery of CFS related
activities within TRU’s respective Ward areas.

 

Request

4. How many USAR personnel do you have?

 

Reply

Current rider establishment at TRU is: 48 rider personnel across 4 watches
and 2 Stations. Additional to this is 1 x WCdr B Training & Development
Officer role, plus 1 x Stn Commander B post.

 

Request

5. Please provide a breakdown of your annual USAR budget and expenditure.

 

Reply

The total budget for 2017/18 for TRU was £1,289,800. Actually expenditure
for that financial period was £1,236,914 achieving a positive variance of
£52,886. During this financial period TRU also generated £62K in
additional funding through training delivery, plus an estimated £50k in
chargeable SSCs. To achieve this financial efficiency a Section 31 grant
of £816,700 is provided from Central Government funding to support the
delivery of USAR within WMFS.

 

Request

6. Please explain the expected training requirements of USAR personnel.

 

Reply

As highlighted in question 3 TRU personnel are expected to maintain
competencies across all of the key functional roles identified, plus all
of those associated with the fire fighter rolemap. TRU personnel are also
required to maintain and record all of the equipment & inventories
associated with the National Resilience USAR capability with 5 x USAR
modules, each of which can carry up to 2,500 pieces of equipment.
Additionally, key TRU personnel are also required to represent WMFS at
National Working Groups associated with the capability, including NFCC
Tactical Water Rescue Group, USAR NWG & NUG, National Rope User Group,
MTFA NWG & NUG, UKISAR NWG & NUG.

 

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me.  Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision
please write to The Public Relations Department, West Midlands Fire
Service, 99 Vauxhall Road, Birmingham, B7 4HW

 

Further information concerning Freedom of Information requests can be
found on the Information Commissioner website at either the following
link: [1]https://ico.org.uk/ or at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
SK9 5AF.

 

 

Thank you

 

Kind Regards

 

Data Processor

Data Management

West Midlands Fire Service.

 

 

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