Watch Manager – Organisational AssuranceWatch Manager – Organisational AssuranceWatch Manager – Organisational Assurance

Job Title: Watch Manager Organisational Assurance 
Contract: 3-month Fixed Term / Secondment.
Working Hours: 42 hours (Day-Duty working pattern)
Salary: Watch Manager B (£46,707 per annum)
Location: Kelvedon Park
Closing Date: 1st October 2024

As an operational employee, you will be required to maintain operational competency, and support availability and work from various stations across the county, in line with our Day-Duty Officers Riding (DDOR) principles. This is a requirement of the role and an essential condition to maintaining Grey Book terms and conditions.

This role is a fixed-term opportunity.  If the role is made permanent, a further recruitment process will be required.

The Role

This 3-month temporary role offers a great opportunity for a colleague looking to engage in a multi-functioning team, providing assurance across the Service, developing skills and knowledge of all functions whilst working with colleagues to agree and assure actions leading to the continuous improvement of our Service.

What You Will Be Working On

Supporting Service Audit processes, including station audits and development of future audits.

Supporting our Service debrief process, including discussing considerations for change with other departments within various meetings.

Working together with other departments assuring various aspects of our Service.

Attending meetings both internal and external on behalf of Organisational Assurance.

Supporting and developing future thematic reviews, when required. 

What Are We Looking For?

We are looking for someone who is self-motivated and resilient with a passion to moving our Service forward through assurance and positive change. The individual must be open to learning and familiarising themselves with other departments processes and key performance indicators and creating assurance processes. We will also require the applicant to be familiar with or willing to learn the suite of software packages available with Microsoft 365.

The successful applicant will have excellent written and verbal communication skills and interpersonal skills. They will be proficient in assessing problems and determining the most appropriate action and will be able to demonstrate that they support changes in the Service in a positive constructive manner.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for this opportunity, you must:

Hold a substantive role as a Crew Manager (wholetime / day-duty) for a minimum of twelve months, or are Watch Manager (or equivalent), within a UK Fire and Rescue Service 

Have successfully completed all relevant operational assessments and mandatory courses, and are competent in your current role 

Hold a valid Level 1 Incident Command

Be able to travel around the county as required, to visit all ECFRS fire stations and sites 

Not be subject to any current live disciplinary or performance warnings, nor be subject to any informal management for reasons of conduct or performance 

Have a valid and current FiTech of 42 VO2 max

If you are an internal candidate, you must have discussed your application with your line manager and confirmed with them there are no outstanding issues of conduct or performance. This will be verified prior to shortlisting.

How to apply

Internal candidates in either the development or resource pool –  

If you meet the essential criteria listed above, you should express an interest for the role by clicking Apply in Cornerstone (recruitment portal).

Internal candidates who are not in either the development or resource pool –  

You are required to submit a supporting statement of no more than 750words detailing how you meet the essential criteria for the role via Cornerstone (recruitment portal). It is important that you provide as much evidence as possible as to how you meet the essential criteria of the person specification as this statement will be used to shortlist your application. Please ensure you have uploaded the supporting statement before clicking Apply.

External candidates

You will be required to submit a supporting statement of no more than 750words that demonstrates how you meet the essential criteria of the Person Specification. You may submit this either as a word document, pdf, or an mp3 (voice note) or mp4 (video), however the word count must not exceed 750 words no matter which format you choose to present your application.   

You may attach separate documents (such as qualifications, or a CV) should you wish. Your additional documents will be referred to in shortlisting to confirm eligibility (e.g., your current role and any existing qualifications).

Assessment and selection:

The assessment and selection approach will be:

Stage 1

Application & shortlisting(assessment of your supporting statement will be made against the essential criteria from the Person Specification)

Stage 2

Role specific panel interview and presentation.

Assessments will be made against positive indicators taken from the Code of Ethics and the NFCC Leadership Framework. 

You can find the NFCC Leadership Framework here: NFCC_Leadership_Framework_Final.pdf (nationalfirechiefs.org.uk)  

And guidance around the Code of Ethics here:

Core Code of Ethics England Guidance May 21 V0.pdf (ukfrs.com)

Should you wish to have an informal discussion with regards to the role, please contact Lee Hurst at lee.hurst@essex-fire.gov.uk or Ben Stapleton at Ben.stapleton@essex-fire.gov.uk

If you have any questions about the process, then please contact recruitment@essex-fire.gov.uk)  

Our Culture and Benefits

Here at Essex County Fire and Rescue Service we are committed to prioritising and promoting the wellbeing of our employees.

You can find out more about our benefits at https://www.essex-fire.gov.uk/recruitment/benefits

Disability Confident

We are an equal opportunities, Disability Confident, employer who welcomes applications from everyone and values diversity in our workplace. A commitment to promoting diversity and developing a work environment where all staff are treated with dignity and respect is central to our recruitment process and all applications will be considered solely on merit.

As part of our offer to support all our candidates to perform to the best of their abilities during our recruitment and selection processes and we would like to let you know about a couple of support options you can access, should you wish to, including our employee forums, who are keen and willing to support all of our potential colleagues.

Our employee forums and partners include:

Asian Fire Services Association (AFSA), BEING (our LGBTQ+ employee support network), Christian Fellowship, Ethnic Minority Forum, Men’s Forum, and our Women’s Forum. In addition, we also have a female firefighters operational group.

Further to the above, the Service has a Digital Accessibility Inclusion Group (DAIG) that supports all colleagues to improve their digital skills and provides additional support and guidance to colleagues with neurodivergent strengths and struggles as a result of dyslexia, ADHD, Autism, dyspraxia etc. We want everyone to thrive at work, and so we encourage and enable people to access digital tools to help them perform at your best. The DAIG is a group of colleagues from across the Service that unite to support others as a result of their lived experience and desire to make a difference. They support people with a range of visible and invisible disabilities to identify and access digital workplace adjustments and solutions and may be able to assist with your application too.

Should you wish to discuss support, or access further information, from one of these groups, please contact Equality.Diversity@essex-fire.gov.uk

You are also able to raise any queries or requests for support, including any adjustments you may require, at any stage of the process by email to recruitment@essex-fire.gov.uk

You can find out more about Essex County Fire & Rescue Service via www.essex-fire.gov.uk and about our vacancies and application processes via www.essex-fire.gov.uk/join-essex-fire

Safeguarding

Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Fire and Rescue Authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

It is our policy to require all applicants for employment to disclose if you are currently being investigated by any regulatory body or have any decisions or sanctions pending or in progress in respect of your suitability to work for the Service.

You agree to inform the Service within 24 hours if you are subsequently investigated by any agency or organisation in relation to concerns about your behaviour towards children, young people or vulnerable adults.

The information you provide will be treated as strictly confidential and will be considered only in relation to the appointment for which you are applying.

This role will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.