The Role
Post: Trainee Control Room Officer
Application closing date: Wednesday 04 August 2021 at 16:00 GMT
The London Fire Brigade are here to protect and serve London.
Our Control Room Officers are based at our operations centre in Merton and manage over 180,000 999 calls a year from Londoners when they need us most. We mobilise fire engines and specialist equipment, provide support to firefighters and work with other emergency services to safely resolve incidents across the Capital.
A career as a Control Room Officer involves providing advice to callers and gathering important information to assist the Brigades response to a terrorist attack, serious fire, major incident or large-scale flooding event. Thankfully, these don’t occur every day.
About 20% of your time will be spent responding to emergencies, you may be taking calls to road traffic collisions, fire alarms, rescues and other incidents requiring our assistance.
At other times you may be undertaking training and development, supporting routine operations in the Control room or speaking to fire stations and officers ensuring you and the Brigade are ready to respond.
At the London Fire Brigade, we believe every contact counts, that starts with Control and it could start with you.
No matter what you are dealing with, day or night, 365 days a year, every contact counts towards keeping London safe.
Is this the career for you?
• Would you like a role that is fulfilling which helps saves lives?
• Could you talk someone through their most distressing moments whilst being calm and compassionate?
• Could you work flexibly on a day and night shift pattern, including some holidays and celebrations?
• Are you able to communicate clearly and follow systems under intense pressure?,
• Do you like working as part of a team?
If you answered yes and think you have what it takes then we would love to hear from you.
If successful our new Control Room Officers will undertake an intensive eight-week training course which covers everything from emergency call management to radio procedure, fire survival guidance and appliance types.
Upon successful completion, you will be posted to a watch to continue your development throughout your probation period of nine months. Training is continuous and we are looking for someone with the self motivation to study and learn, to help them be the best they can be.
To apply - complete the online application form and provide a CV and cover letter to outline your experience and why you would be the best candidate for this role. Please include in your cover letter evidence to address the following:
• Experience of dealing with challenging situations while remaining calm and compassionate.
• The ability to communicate professionally with colleagues and members of the public.
• How you have demonstrated your commitment to continuously developing your skills and learning in current/previous roles.
Please ensure you give yourself enough time to complete and submit your application. Late or un-submitted applications cannot be accepted.
Please note any correspondence received from us will be via e-mail and sent to the address you provide on your application form.
Please watch the videos below:
Danielle - Control Room Officer
London Operations Centre
Assessment Overview
Stage 1
CV and cover letter (sift). Shortlisted candidates will be invited to stage 2.
Stage 2 (mid-August 2021)
Online Verbal Reasoning Test and a Typing Test - at our Assessment Centre in Hammersmith. Successful candidates will be invited to stage 3.
Stage 3 (late August/early September 2021 - depending on number of applicants)
Interview via Microsoft Teams.
Please be advised that if you are unable to make the scheduled assessment date, we may not be able to make alternative arrangements.
Additional Information
We value the diversity of our employees, and aim to recruit a workforce which reflects our diverse communities across London. The London Fire Commissioner is an Equal Opportunities Employer and we positively welcome applications from all suitably qualified individuals, irrespective of people's age, disability, gender, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances. We have guidance in place to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process, including the consideration of reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability.
We are a 24/7 365 service, you will need to be committed to work during school holidays, at weekends and overnight, following a set shift pattern of three working days (Day 1 - 08:00-20:00, Day 2 - 08:00-16:00 or 14:00-22:00, Day 3 - 20:00-08:00) followed by three days off.
As a Control Room Officer trainee, you will start on an annual salary of £30,642.66 (inclusive of a 20% shift allowance). Once trained, the salary rises to £31,391.56 (inclusive of a 20% shift allowance) per annum during the probation period. Then as a qualified Control Room Officer, you will be paid on the salary scale £32,141.81 - £39,932.35 (inclusive of a 20% shift allowance).
Offers of appointment will be subject to a successful medical, reference and other security checks, and if successful you will undertake an intensive, assessment based training course and will have to achieve competence before joining a watch.
In line with the Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) employment checks will be completed by successful candidates, which will include a basic criminal records check. Successful candidate will be required to declare any convictions for offences which are not spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and any offer of employment is subject to the LFC receiving a criminal records disclosure which it considers satisfactory. Successful candidates should apply to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) to get a copy of their criminal record and share the original disclosure certificate with the LFC. The check will only show convictions that are not ‘spent’. It will cost the successful candidates £23 (current charge) and usually takes up to 14 days.
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