The firefighters who serve twice: how SFRS backs reservists

As part of a UK Defence Journal series looking at how Scottish public sector organisations support staff with links to the Armed Forces, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is the latest body to come under examination.

SFRS has confirmed it currently employs 22 active reservists, with a further 39 staff registered with its Armed Forces Community contact, figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request submitted as part of this series.

The two numbers tell slightly different stories as the 22 reservists are those formally recorded on the organisation’s Reservist Register, staff who have completed the consent process required under SFRS policy to join the Volunteer Reserve Forces or High Readiness Reserves, while the broader figure of 39 is likely to take in veterans, service leavers and others who have identified themselves to the organisation’s Armed Forces contact without necessarily serving as reservists today.

The gap between the two is probably to be expected, since in any large organisation not everyone with a military background will have registered centrally, and some will engage with support through their line manager or colleagues rather than through any official channel.

What the policy says

Released alongside the FOI response, SFRS’s Reservists Policy, updated in August 2023, sets out in reasonable detail how the organisation supports staff who are also serving in the reserves.

Reservists typically commit to around 30 days of training a year, spread across weekly evenings, weekends and a two-week annual camp, and under the SFRS policy staff can claim up to ten days of paid special leave for that camp, with the remainder covered by annual or unpaid leave. The August 2023 update was made specifically to introduce that paid leave provision, meaning camp attendance no longer has to come entirely out of a reservist’s own time.

The policy is at its most comprehensive on mobilisation, where a reservist is called up into full-time military service, usually for between three and twelve months. It covers pay arrangements during deployment, what happens to pensions, life assurance and annual leave accrual, and the return to work process, with returning reservists referred to Health and Wellbeing and given refresher training before resuming duties. The policy also notes that staff can self-refer if they are struggling with anything psychological or physical after coming back from deployment.

Joining the reserves in the first place requires an application in writing to a line manager, and it is not a rubber stamp either, with the organisation retaining the ability to refuse or defer mobilisation if it would affect operational effectiveness.

SFRS itself holds the Ministry of Defence’s Gold Award under the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme, the highest tier available, and the Reservists Policy references the award directly, noting it was developed partly to maintain compliance with what Gold status requires.

The organisation has also signed the Armed Forces Covenant and frames its commitments around supporting veteran employment and the families of serving personnel, not just reservists.

What the data shows

The FOI response did not include a year-by-year breakdown of registrations, so it is not possible to say whether more or fewer staff have been coming forward over time. Beyond the headline figures, support arrangements appear to be managed through HR processes at a local level rather than captured in periodic central reporting, which is a fairly common picture across large public sector employers.

What the SFRS disclosure does show is an organisation that has built genuine infrastructure around Armed Forces Community support rather than treating it as a box-ticking exercise.

A detailed and recently updated Reservists Policy, a formal register of serving reservists, Gold Award recognition and a long-standing Covenant commitment all point in the same direction, towards an employer that has put sustained effort into making reservist service compatible with a career in the fire and rescue service, and whose published policy framework gives staff a clear picture of where they stand.

Armed Forces at work in Scotland

Armed Forces at Work in Scotland is a UK Defence Journal series examining how public sector organisations support Armed Forces community staff in practice, drawing on freedom of information responses, published policy and organisational comment across around a dozen bodies, from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Police Scotland to Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and smaller regional authorities.

Veterans, reservists and service families work throughout Scotland’s public sector, and the support open to them varies by employer and location. Setting out what is in place helps inform debate, highlight good practice and show how it works in reality, and the series will continue over the coming weeks.