The Gray Monk

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May 20, 2004

Trouble at Mill?

"Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits."

I seem to recall that that quote is from one of Mark Twain's books, but I am willing to concede that I may be wrong. The last few days have been frenetic at work and having the gasman (cue Flanders and Swann - "The Gasman cometh") beavering away in my flat installing a central heating system hasn't exactly helped.

So, my mood over my morning coffee (shortage of sleep and serious case of the "Buggerems") is hardly sweetness and light at the moment. Thus, it was almost a nuclear event when the news announcer declared that the fire services are now "working to rule" over large tracts of the country.

There are always three sides to any story - theirs, mine, and the truth - and I am willing to concede that I am seeing this from the side being hit by "change fatigue", mismanagement, and the crass arrogance and monumental ignorance of both the politicians driving things and the civil servants who do their bidding. But this latest one is a prime example of what happens when trust is destroyed. The pay deal hammered out late last year - and the first phase of which was implemented with dragging feet and grudging acceptance by the employers - has now been further upset by the employers trying to get smart and delay implementing the second phase. This despite the National Audit Office reporting that all save two brigades had implemented the modernisation process.

Now it would appear that some have been pushed just that little bit too far - ironically in Manchester, where ther attempts to implement promotion based on the "new" role maps and the idiotically bureaucratic "evidence of competence" system has resulted in Application Forms which have resulted in submissions of more than 9,000 words "proving" compliance with 57 different "essential" and "desirable" competencies. These are taken directly from the National Occupational Standards and make a complete nonsense of the supposed process which is supposed to be in place - to whit, that everyone is assessed through an Assessment Centre for selection. GMC is one Brigade that claims to have an "Assessment Centre" but the fact is that their view of such a centre is not that of the professions who operate these. Result, massive dissatisfaction among those who see their promotion being wrecked by unfair selection processes.

Further disturbing news comes from the Shires, where several Services have had their budgets "capped". This means that, like it or not, there will be a reduction in the number of frontline fire fighters and therefore in the service to the public. One Brigade affected is already trying to identify how they will manage with fewer fire fighters and how they will go about shedding jobs in a way that will not cost more in terms of compensation packages than it would to simply keep the people in post.

No wonder the troops are disillusioned.

It is made worse by the fact that the middle managers in charge of all this "modernisation" have their own agenda - making sure that they stay in post - and have shown that they are not to be trusted, either. So, we have a situation in which Senior Management is under the thrall of politicians, Middle Management is taking care of itself and looking to move up the tree, and the troops are under the hammer. This entire "modernisation" agenda is rapidly becoming a cost cutting, service downgrading exercise which will result in a third world service, at third world price under the management of incompetent managers whose knowledge of the service will have come from Hollywood movies, newspapers, and the annual balance sheet.

One Brigade has just, at a stroke, rendered its Station Officers, Assistant Divisional Officers, and many of its Divisional Officers redundant. Of course they now have a problem of what to do with them, but effectively they have no jobs. Why? Because their Chief has decided to appoint (and he can under our Illustrious Leaders "modernising" legislation) Area Managers who are just "Managers", civilian, and with no operational role. They will manage groups of fire stations and the fire crews and resources - but have no background and no knowledge of fire fighting, fire equipment, or fire fighters. The first has been appointed. She is a former Call Centre manager and will manage three of the Brigade's stations. The former Station Commanders (Station Officers and Assistant Divisional Officers) have been re-assigned to dead end posts and told that they will have to make application to be considered to join an "Incident Management Team" which is a group of Station Officers, ADO's, and a DO, who will respond from a central location to take charge of any incident requiring someone more senior that a Watch Manager (formerly called a Sub Officer) in attendance.

Still wondering why the fire fighters are fed up and disillusioned? I'm glad I have less than three years left before I can take my pension (and it won't be as large as the media would like you to think) and turn my back on this mess.

I wonder how much it will cost me to sprinkler-protect my house? It will certainly be safer than relying on Mr Blair's "modernised" fire service in a couple of years time!

Posted by The Gray Monk at May 20, 2004 08:42 AM

Comments

Posted by: Matthew at May 20, 2004 08:20 AM

Posted by: Ozguru at May 20, 2004 10:02 AM

Posted by: Gawain at May 20, 2004 02:36 PM

Posted by: The Gray Monk at May 21, 2004 08:49 AM