234 08 25 – Practical Training: Wholetime, Retained & Fire Control (September 2025)

Date of Request

04/08/2025

Request

Dear FOI Officer, 

As part of my academic research, I am investigating the barriers to practical training and exercising within UK fire service control rooms, with a particular focus on the comparative prioritisation of control room training versus that of operational firefighters. 

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would be grateful if you could provide the following information: 

(For the purpose of this request, “practical training” refers to scenario-based, simulation, or live exercise activities, as opposed to purely theoretical or classroom-based training) 

RETAINED

Staffing and Roles

  1. What is the total number of retained firefighting staff in your brigade, including ranks? 
  2. Do you have a designated training and exercising manager for retained firefighting crews (or a general operational firefighting training and exercising manager)? 
    a. If yes, what are their relevant training qualifications? 
    b. When was this role established? 
    c. Is this a permanent, full-time position? 
  3. Is there a designated budget for training and exercising for retained crews? 
    a. If yes, what percentage of the overall department budget does this represent? 

Training Policy

  1. Are there policies or procedures to ensure uninterrupted practical training for retained crews (e.g., operational cover during exercises)? 
    A. If yes, please provide a copy of the relevant policy if possible. 
    b. If not, is training generally conducted during on-call periods with potential for interruptions? 
  2. Has your service piloted or implemented any digital/simulation-based tools for retained firefighter training or exercising, including virtual reality technologies? Please give details if yes. 

Practical Training Participation

Between 31st July 2023 to 31st July 2025:

  1. How many times have retained crews participated in practical training involving only their own station? 
  2. How many times have retained crews participated in practical training involving other teams/departments within your brigade? 
  3. How many times have retained crews participated in practical training with other fire brigades? 
  4. How many times have retained crews participated in practical training with other agencies, such as Police or Ambulance services? 

If any of the requested information is not held, or only partially held, please state this clearly. If fulfilling this request exceeds the cost limit, please advise on how it can be refined. 

FIRE CONTROL

Staffing and Roles

  1. What is the total number of Fire Control staff in your brigade, including ranks?
  2. Do you have a designated training and exercising manager for the Fire Control department?
    a. If yes, what are their relevant qualifications or professional training related to the role?
    b. When was this role established?
    c. Is this a permanent, full-time position?
  3. Is there a designated training and exercising budget specifically for the Fire Control department?
    a. If yes, what percentage of the overall department budget does this represent?

Training Policy

  1. Are there policies or procedures in place to ensure uninterrupted training for Fire Control teams (e.g., operational cover during exercises)?
    a. If yes, please provide a copy of the relevant policy if possible.
    b. If not, is training typically conducted during normal working shifts with potential for interruptions?
  2. Has your service piloted or implemented any digital/simulation-based tools for Fire Control training or exercising, including virtual reality technologies? Please give details if yes.

Practical Training Participation

Between 31st July 2023 to 31st July 2025:

  • How many times have Fire Control staff participated in practical training exercises involving only Fire Control?
  • How many times have Fire Control staff participated in practical training exercises with other teams or departments within your brigade?
  • How many times have Fire Control staff participated in practical training exercises with other fire brigades?
  • How many times have Fire Control staff participated in practical training exercises with other agencies, including Police or Ambulance?

WHOLETIME

Staffing and Roles

  1. What is the total number of wholetime firefighting staff in your brigade, including ranks?
  2. Do you have a designated training and exercising manager for wholetime operational staff (or a general operational firefighting training and exercising manager)?
    a. If yes, what are their relevant qualifications or training credentials?
    b. When was the role established?
    c. Is it a permanent, full-time position?
  3. Is there a designated budget for wholetime crew training and exercising?
    a. If yes, what percentage of the overall department budget does this represent?

Training Policy

  1. Are there policies or procedures in place to ensure operational cover for uninterrupted training for wholetime crews (e.g., operational cover during exercises)?
    a. If yes, please provide a copy of the relevant policy if possible.
    b. If not, is training typically conducted during normal working shifts with potential for interruptions?
  2. Has your service piloted or implemented any digital/simulation-based tools for wholetime firefighting training or exercising, including virtual reality technologies? Please give details if yes.

Practical Training Participation

Between 31st July 2023 to 31st July 2025:

  • How many times have wholetime crews participated in practical training exercises involving only their own station?
  • How many times have wholetime crews participated in practical training exercises involving other departments or teams within your brigade?
  • How many times have wholetime crews participated in practical training with other fire brigades?
  • How many times have wholetime crews participated in practical training with other agencies, such as Police or Ambulance services?

If any of the requested information is not held, or only partially held, please state this clearly. If fulfilling this request exceeds the cost limit, please advise on how it can be refined.

Thank you in advance for your time and assistance. 

Kind Regards, 

Response

Hi

We thank you for your request for information, which has been received by Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (the Service) and considered under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000

The Service can confirm that the information that you have requested is partially held and is as per the attached documentation along with the following answers.

FIRE CONTROL 

Staffing and Roles

  1. What is the total number of Fire Control staff in your brigade, including ranks? 28
  2. Do you have a designated training and exercising manager for the Fire Control department? No
    a. If yes, what are their relevant qualifications or professional training related to the role? N/A
    b. When was this role established? N/A
    c. Is this a permanent, full-time position? N/A
  3. Is there a designated training and exercising budget specifically for the Fire Control department? Yes
    a. If yes, what percentage of the overall department budget does this represent? 1% of Service Training Budget

Training Policy

  1. Are there policies or procedures in place to ensure uninterrupted training for Fire Control teams (e.g., operational cover during exercises)? The procedure is to bring in additional staff for resilience shifts to ensure training is uninterrupted.
    a. If yes, please provide a copy of the relevant policy if possible. No Policy available.
    b. If not, is training typically conducted during normal working shifts with potential for interruptions? Yes
  2. Has your service piloted or implemented any digital/simulation-based tools for Fire Control training or exercising, including virtual reality technologies? Please give details if yes. Yes – AI training tool to simulate emergency calls. Redkite Click-Through Rate (CTR) and Learning Pool Learning Management System (LMS).

Practical Training Participation

Between 31st July 2023 to 31st July 2025:

  1. How many times have Fire Control staff participated in practical training exercises involving only Fire Control? Daily
  2. How many times have Fire Control staff participated in practical training exercises with other teams or departments within your brigade? Monthly
  3. How many times have Fire Control staff participated in practical training exercises with other fire brigades? Annually
  4. How many times have Fire Control staff participated in practical training exercises with other agencies, including Police or Ambulance? Annually

WHOLETIME & RETAINED

Staffing and Roles

  1. What is the total number of wholetime firefighting staff in your brigade, including ranks? 232
  2. Do you have a designated training and exercising manager for wholetime operational staff (or a general operational firefighting training and exercising manager)? 1 x Group Commander – Head of Training, 1 x Station Commander – Training Delivery, 1 x Station Commander – Training Support – both for WholeTime and On-Call.
    a. If yes, what are their relevant qualifications or training credentials? Previous experience as instructors, PTTLS or modern equivalent, Coaching and Mentoring courses, Incident Command Assessors, ADC Assessor, etc. None specifically required for role.
    b. When was the role established? Unknown
    c. Is it a permanent, full-time position? Yes
  3. Is there a designated budget for wholetime crew training and exercising? No separation between WholeTime and On-Call staff for operational training.
    a. If yes, what percentage of the overall department budget does this represent? Operational training – (both WholeTime and On-Call) approximately 60%.

Training Policy

  1. Are there policies or procedures in place to ensure operational cover for uninterrupted training for wholetime crews (e.g., operational cover during exercises)? Please find Exercise Planning Guidance attached. Procedure also exists to allow two operational appliances to be off the run for training daily, so that they are not interrupted:

Significant Delay Essential Training (SDET) 

The SDET is only for safety critical courses or any other absolute risk-critical training essential to a specific specialism, whereby competence would be seriously affected should the training not be undertaken, such as safety critical refreshers put out by Training Centre. The delay for these courses is for 1 hour (classed as significant).  

 

The delay for exercises is as follows. 

For station exercises, all appliances are placed on a 15 min delay and Fire Control are informed of this on the day of the exercise subject to crewing. 

For those exercises that require an increased level of preparation and support from other agencies or from special appliances committed to the exercise above a 15 min delay, the SDET of 1 hour can be applied to those resources for the duration of the exercise. (i.e. boat exercises committed to the risk area.) 

For any exercises that clash with safety critical courses, Training Centre confers with the organiser to rearrange the exercise for a different date. 

If yes, please provide a copy of the relevant policy if possible. Please see above and the attached Guidance Document.

b. If not, is training typically conducted during normal working shifts with potential for interruptions? Yes – although steps are taken to bolster crewing for formal exercising and crews are made unavailable for some formal training courses such as Breathing Apparatus (BA), IC, Driving.

  1. Has your service piloted or implemented any digital/simulation-based tools for wholetime firefighting training or exercising, including virtual reality technologies? Please give details if yes. XVR, Red Kite CTR, Learning Pool LMS

Practical Training Participation

Between 31st July 2023 to 31st July 2025:

  1. How many times have wholetime crews participated in practical training exercises involving only their own station?
  1. How many times have wholetime crews participated in practical training exercises involving other departments or teams within your brigade?
  2. How many times have wholetime crews participated in practical training with other fire brigades?
  3. How many times have wholetime crews participated in practical training with other agencies, such as Police or Ambulance services?

Answers to 6-9 below:

NOTES:  Question 6 has been interpreted as a single station exercise i.e. only pumps from a single station, no agencies or OTB collaboration.

For questions 7, 8 and 9, one incident could count towards all three, a distinct count per year has been included.

Between 31st July 2023 and 31st July 20252023/242024/252025/26Total
Criteria 61426444
Criteria 73854597
Criteria 838112
Criteria 91312328
     
Distinct count of exercises meeting one of the four criteria578512154

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Thank you for your request for information.

Kind regards

Information Governance Team

Download Attachment

Significant Delay Essential Training_Redacted
On Call Duty System Management v3.05Download
Exercise Planning Guidance 2025Download