On-call Firefighters

Key Dates

An integral part of the county’s fire cover

The on-call duty system is one of three Duty Systems (alongside Shift and Day Crewed) that combine to provide operational fire cover across the County of East Sussex.

All firefighters in East Sussex are trained to respond to the same incidents and on-call Firefighters are not a secondary or backup service. 

They are an integral part of the county’s fire cover and enable us to crew more fire appliances in some of the more rural and remote areas of the county.

How much will I earn? 

On-call Firefighters are paid an annual retaining fee of up to £2,520+, plus an hourly rate of up to £11.51 for any work undertaken for the Service, including responding to incidents and training. 

Annual earnings depend largely on how much cover can be offered and how often on-call firefighters get called out.

The average earned by on-call firefighters in East Sussex is between £5,000 and £7,000*.

+correct at 01 July 2021. *gross average, ESFRS, 2016. 

Interested?

Please pop down to your local station on drill night (see below) to find out more about the role of the on-call firefighter and to discuss the cover required with the Watch Manager.

The first question we will ask is, "Where do you live and/or work?" 

The reason for this is that on-call firefighters carry alerters when on duty and need to be at the fire station and ready to turn out within 5 minutes of the alerter sounding, travelling at normal road speeds, typically from home or their place of work. 

You can also visit the national on-call website: www.oncallfire.uk  The website gives advice to employers and how having on-call firefighters within their business can bring advantages. These include health and safety and medical response training, as well as developing situational awareness, leadership skills and the ability to work under pressure.

More information about the role of an on-call firefighter and the application process is available in this information booklet, which you should read in full.

Ongoing Commitment

You will be contracted to be on call during the hours that you have agreed to provide cover and will therefore need to remain within 5 minutes of the Fire Station during those times, although there will be some flexibility for ad-hoc changes to be agreed with Station Management.  

Training

The initial training will comprise of an induction weekend, a two week Core Skills Course and an RTC weekend.  Once you have successfully completed this you will be able to ride a fire appliance, though in a limited capacity.

Completion of the Core Skills Course places you on the Firefighter (On-call) Development Programme which is accredited through Skills for Justice.  On completion of the Development Programme you will be deemed as a competent firefighter.

There will be further training within 6 months of completing the Core Skills Course as follows: 

• Breathing Apparatus (BA) Readiness Course- 1 day course
  
• Initial BA Wearers Course-  Two weeks
• BA weekend- Two days 

• 2 ½ hour Drill nights on your station each week

• 4 hours per month theoretical training 

There will be regular fitness tests on station during drill nights to ensure your fitness levels do not drop between attendance on the Core Skills Course and attendance on the BA Course.

Apply

To apply fill in this on-line application form.

Please allow 10 working days for a response.

Your data will not be provided to a third party and will only be used for the purpose of this campaign.

Not all Fire Stations in East Sussex have on-call crews, below is a list of those that do and the recruitment status for that station.  If you live in one of the areas where we are not currently recruiting, you can still apply to us and we will contact you when vacancies arise.

Brighton, Hove, Hastings and Eastbourne Fire Stations do not have on-call crews.                               

Station Recruitment Status & Drill Nights

Information pack

• Information Pack