Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Services - Annual Roster Design 

Summary

In 2006, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Services (GMFRS) implemented the recommendations of the Rostering 4 Duty project and adopted a 5-Watch system for their firefighters based on annualised hours contracts.

Since that time, Workforce Logistics Ltd have provided consultancy services to design annual rosters for 1600+ firefighters based at 35 wholetime stations across the Service.  The rosters have needed to meet the changing deployment levels required within the terms of the collective agreement.

The rosters are produced in Excel and provided in a format capable of being uploaded into the Service's Duty Rostering solution.

Demand-Led Rostering

The principle of demand-led rostering, combined with the flexibility within the negotiated collective agreement enables GMFRS to roster the required number of firefighters to work.  Designated colleagues on “Reserve” are able to be called in to cover others’ absence on a range of other duties including Training courses and flexible leave days (known as "PH"s).  A small number of firefighters are available on "Short-Notice Reserve" - which means they can be deployed very close to shift start times to cover for colleagues who report themselves unfit to work at short-term absence.

Watch & Shift Pattern Arrangements

A 5-watch arrangement of firefighters is worked to the conventional [2 Days (of 9 hours), 2 Nights (of 15 hours), 4 rests] pattern.

Annualised Hours

Annualised hours contracts consider firefighter working time across a year, rather than on a weekly basis – so that an annual contract for a firefighter, after holiday entitlement, is made up of 1800 hours p.a. (for those with more than 5 years’ service). 

Of these hours, approximately 350 hours are held in Reserve" with around 1450 hours rostered to operational Day and Night shifts.

Ken Beaumont, MD and Principal Consultant at Workforce Logistics Ltd, has provided this rostering consultancy support.