Minister praises Fire Fighters Charity

Fire Minister Brandon Lewis has spoken about the importance of the "significant investment in the fire & rescue service" from The Fire Fighters Charity after visiting their new facilities earlier this week.

After being welcomed by FFC Chief Executive Officer John Parry, Brandon Lewis toured the facilities and heard about how the Charity is developing new mental health support programmes for the fire and rescue community while moving to a new seven day a week service.

At the end of his visit the Minister said: “It is really good to see The Fire Fighters Charity planning for the future of the fire and rescue community, while delivering a great frontline service with its new re-ablement services.

“The Charity's plans to broaden the range of rehabilitation and mental health services available to serving and retired fire fighters, and their families, represent a significant investment in the future of the UK’s fire and rescue service. 

“The decision to install sprinklers throughout the refurbished facilities at Littlehampton is also to be commended both from a life safety and, of course, a property protection perspective," he added.

FFC’s new seven-day service will build on its current rehabilitation and recuperation programmes, but the increased provision across the whole week allows improved access to services for retained staff and for wholetime firefighters who cannot take days out during the ‘working week.’

The increased seven-day access to its services is part of the Charity’s new model of re-ablement such as the increasing demands to support the FRS as it becomes an ageing workforce and the changes in the NHS that are naturally directing people to seek help elsewhere if it is available.

Once the seven-day service comes into effect in April this year, a variable intake day rolling programme will also allow for a more bespoke length of rehabilitation stay, improving the Charity’s ability to fulfil its beneficiaries’ needs. New tailored programmes that support fast track and slow stream rehabilitation will also be introduced.

Posted 22/01/2013 by richard.hook@pavpub.com