Why Work For Us?

The health and well-being of our employees is of great importance. All employees of the Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service have access to:

• Gym facilities
• The Occupational Health Unit
• Pro-active health advice
• A Fitness Advisor
• An external Employee Wellbeing Service
• Counselling

The leave entitlement for each employee group is as follows:

Support employees - Annual leave ranges from 22 to 25 days depending on the grade of the role. Following 5 years continuous local government service this increases by an additional 5 days. You will also be entitled to all statutory bank holidays and an additional 2 extra statutory days.

Wholetime Duty System / Command and Control - 30 days annual leave and all statutory bank holidays. Following 5 years service you will also be entitled to an additional 3 days of leave.

Retained Duty System - 4 weeks annual leave and all statutory bank holidays. Following 5 years continuous service this will increase to 5 weeks.

With DFRS we have an extensive and dedicated Learning and Development portfolio.

All employees have regular meetings with their line manager and an annual review to discuss their successes and development needs.

There are development opportunities for all employees within DFRS and this includes the option of gaining relevant qualifications.

If you are a working parent, childcare vouchers are a flexible, simple and cost effective way to help towards your childcare costs on a monthly basis.

Childcare vouchers can be used to pay for the care of children up to the age of 15 (until 1st September following their 15th birthday) or the age of 16 if they are disabled (until 1st September following their 16th birthday).

The vouchers are exempt from tax and National Insurance for up to £55 per week which can lead to a saving of up to £962 per year or up to £1,195 per year if you are a higher rate tax payer.

The aim of the association is to encourage and support employees to participate in all sports within DFRS. Funding may be available to facilitate training and competitions. Membership is open to all employees.

Out of the 180,000 charities in the United Kingdom, the Fire Fighters Charity is listed in the top 100 and offers a number of professional services to fire service employees and their families during their times of need.

The Charity offers support services across the UK for the whole fire community, assisting in excess of 17,000 individuals every year. This community includes firefighters, support employees, and retired employees, as well as dependants. Further information is available at www.firefighterscharity.org.uk.

DFRS recognises the importance of achieving a good work-life balance and has policies which offer family friendly working arrangements to all employees. These include annualised hours, term time contracts and job share.

A flexi time scheme is available to support employees.

Recognising the importance of making access to work easier and convenient, free car parking is available on site to all employees at all DFRS premises.

We welcome views from the public on how we could best develop our policies and procedures from an Equality and Inclusion point of view, and improve our service to the Community. Please submit your views or suggestions by completing the Contact Us form.

National Fire & Rescue Service Discounts offer discounts on products and services from a wide range of national companies. These include discounts on holidays, car rental, theme parks and hotels. Further information is available at www.fireandrescue-discounts.co.uk.

NWFS is an independent voluntary group who aim to contribute to making the Fire and Rescue Service a place where men and women can work together professionally and harmoniously.

All employees are eligible to join a pension scheme, which scheme is dependent upon the post.

All Support / Control and Control employees are eligible to join the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Wholetime / Retained Duty System employees are eligible to join the New Firefighters Pension Scheme.

We recognise the following trade unions at DFRS:

• UNISON (for support staff)
• Fire Brigades Union
• Retained Firefighters Union

DFRS and the unions work in partnership to support lifelong learning. We also have access to library resources based at the Fire Service College.