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Posted by: Steve McGuirk

 

Date: 02 September 2010  | Author: Steve McGuirk  |  Give me your Feedback

'For external readers of the blog it's worth mentioning the 'front page scoop' of the Manchester Evening News (MEN) on Tuesday; that the Fire Service in Greater Manchester was facing major cuts in funding - and contemplating issues not considered before.  The spectre of station closures, fewer firefighters and even compulsory redundancies which then elicited the (almost inevitable) speculation about strikes or industrial action.

The story was very overstated and extremely speculative, not to say very premature - and, to be honest, not that much of a scoop as all the matters have been considered/debated across the Service and indeed the whole of the public sector is grappling with the self same issues. And whilst I would not wish to trivialise the seriousness of the matters outlined - nor would I wish to overstate and blow them out of perspective.  Sometimes on a quiet news day - the commonplace can sound extraordinary.

But I think it is worth people (and colleagues in the Service) looking at the (surprisingly few) comments/responses to the article on the MEN web site as I think they offer a really interesting commentary on some of the key issues we face.

We have a very good public image - there is no doubt about that - but I also think there is a real danger of either taking that for granted or being complacent that we can maintain public confidence simply by carrying on as we are.

September 1st marks the day I joined the Service in 1976 so it's a day that always makes me reflective and I guess it was in this frame of mind I scanned to comments the other day.

Firstly, there were the perennial stereotype 'grumbles' we hoped or thought had gone away - firefighters getting paid to go to bed, all of 'them' having second jobs etc etc. 

This isn't me saying these things by the way - they remain images/notions in the minds of the public as illustrated just yesterday. (To be truthful these were exactly the same kind of comments when I joined all those years ago - so we might say what's changed and have we failed).

Secondly, though, (and this is a massive step and a really encouraging signal things have changed) there is a recognition that we have (almost) become victims of our own success and got fires etc down dramatically over the last few years.

Crucially, we have also got the tragedy of deaths and injuries down to levels not seen even prior to me joining the Service in the 70s.

And this really is something we should be proud of and not be at all bashful about.

When I joined all those years ago, everyone just seemed to accept that people would die and fires would happen - and there was little we could all do about that.

Even our early attempts at recruiting with equality of opportunity in mind used the slogan 'fire doesn't discriminate and nor do we'. 

Well, of course we now understand that fire does discriminate on the basis of a whole range of socio-economic issues.  So much so, we can use our resources a lot differently and target quite precisely where we should concentrate our safety work but also the type of emergency response we need to provide - and it isn't a universal problem with a one size fits all solution.

In a sense, this may be frustrating though as our falling activity levels will undoubtedly raise questions about the level of resources.

But this is what's called being in the horns of a (moral) dilemma.

I don't think we had, or still have, a great deal of choice morally or ethically. 

We know that fitting smoke alarms and educating people about safety in their homes saves lives, and we do have the resources to do it - so it's absolutely something we should continue to do. 

A firefighter I was talking to recently put it far more eloquently than I could because of course firefighters recognise the 'risk' of reducing fires. 

He said, 'one of our difficulties is that because we know this stuff works - we can't unlearn what we know and so we have to do it - it would be like having the cure for cancer and not sharing it if we didn't'. 

So in truth its obvious safety work will continue to be central to our role - even in the face of budget cuts.

But I do also think part of our challenge remains one of changing the impressions the public still has of us and ensuring we portray our Service and its role way beyond the day to day emergencies (that's partly why being at events like Manchester Pride last week or the various 'Melas' taking place this year are so important).

Not only will deaths, injuries and fire loss rise again if we take our eye off the ball, because its a lot of our work that has got fires down, but we must also talk more about our bigger operational role as the 'last defence' in the event of terrorist attacks, and the increasingly important role we play to deal with the impact of climate change.

And as we approach the anniversary of 9/11 its always a good time to remind ourselves what remains possible; and just how crucial the Fire and Rescue Service's role 'might' become (hopefully one never played out though).

It also remains obvious, that we still have some public relations/engagement challenges ahead of us and equally obvious that there are real expectations the public places on us to continue to change and reflect the times we all live in.