Community resilience roles focus on keeping communities and businesses safe. They work to prevent emergencies from happening in the first place. Educating residents and businesses about the risks of fire or other dangers, and how to prevent them is a top priority. When you join community resilience, you help:
- Carry out more Safe and Well visits for vulnerable people in our communities.
- Deliver more fire safety messages to school age children and young adults.
- Work closely with businesses, district and borough councils and partners to improve business safety.
Community Resilience areas
Business safety
Our Business Safety team oversee a set of specialist qualifications that allows SFRS officers to audit, educate and advise the businesses in the community. We work closely with Surrey's Learning and Development teams to plan and review training and professional development activity for staff across the organisation.
Business Safety works across the county and focuses on subjects such as:
- prevention
- damage to property
- heritage
- the environment
- preventing serious injuries and loss of life
Business safety areas
- Enforcement
- Consultations and AFA
- Learning and Development
- Primary Authority
- Risk
SFRS works with Primary Authority, a government scheme that allows businesses to access advice from regulators to help them manage their business safely. It covers Trading Standards, Environmental Health and Fire Safety. We provide fire safety advice and guidance to partners working in a variety of sectors including housing, leisure, engineering, wholesale distribution and retail.
Community intelligence
Community intelligence's main core work is to obtain information under the statutory duty of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, protecting life and property in the event of fire and rescuing and protecting people in the event of a road traffic collision or other emergency.
We work in collaboration with operational fire crews who gather information on-site and within communities. Information includes:
- Hazards which may be harmful to firefighters or the environment during an incident.
- Information about people's safety.
- Resources in the community, such as control panels, fire alarm panels, firefighting lifts, water supplies and drainage
This information helps SFRS do their job during an incident. The Community Intelligence team processes the information, including the creation of any Computer Aided Design (CAD) of complex building floor plans. These are then made available to firefighters on 'Mobile Data Terminals' fixed to fire engines.
We also work with information received from third parties. These include:
- National Health Service
- Her Majesty's Prison Service
- National Trust
- Police
- Trading Standards
- Environment Agency
- Safety Advisory Groups
- Site safe notification providing information on timber framed buildings
- Community groups such as the Woking Mosque
Risk reduction analysts
We're creating new Risk Reduction Analysts roles. This will allow the us to improve our understanding of community risk by interrogating data sets gathered.
Watch more information on these new roles.
Fire safety officers
Surrey Fire and Rescue Service is a statutory consultee on Building Regulations proposals that come from the local authority's Building Control and any independent 'approved inspectors'. These proposals rely on fire engineered solutions to overcome specific problems. For example, extended travel distances or creative design not complying with standard building codes and difficult layout issues. We are also consulted on licensing applications by Licensing Officers for premises wishing to provide things like alcohol and hot food.
Our qualified and competent Fire Safety Officers provide written, professional responses to fire related matters for each proposal. This is done within a 15 day timescale to ensure future enforcement of the Fire Safety Order when the building is occupied or, in the case of licensing, when the proposal is enacted.
Community safety
Our Community Safety team focuses on education and prevention in our communities, including raising awareness amongst the most vulnerable. The aim is to minimise serious injuries and loss of life across Surrey.
We have a strong involvement in the community through our education programme. Our Community Safety team deliver prevention messages to those at most risk. We are developing this work to include a multi stage education programme developed in line with the national curriculum, activities targeted at specific age groups and regular involvement with local people and interaction at local events. These community links are vital in educating people about the dangers of fire. The community also need to appreciate the benefits of a working smoke alarm but understand the value of escape plans so they know what to do should a fire occur.
When fire strikes, that's when our intervention role is clear for all to see. Ideally through increased emphasis on protection and prevention, we would hope to see the number of fires, injuries and deaths fall in the county.
Ready to join?
If you'd like to learn more about joining our Community Resilience teams, you can email the Recruitment Hub via sfrs.recruiting@surreycc.gov.uk
