Bars on fire stations

There is a group of people who meet once a month with the aim of improving the working life of the people in the fire and rescue service. One of their achievements is to get BARS on fire stations.

Going for promotion can be stressful and having BARS will help people relax. But the BARS are not just on stations, wherever you work in the service, you can access one of the BARS at any time.

Sorry but this has nothing to do with Budweiser or gin and tonic. These BARS stand for Behaviourally-Anchored Rating Scales and they tell you how to be successful at one of the new Assessment Development Centres (ADCs). BARS are what the ADC assessors look for when judging your performance. So if you’ve got an ADC coming up – check out the IPDS web-site on www.ipds.co.uk and click the ADC button.

So who’s this group which meets once a month? They are the IPDS Project Board.

Some people have been saying that IPDS is done and dusted and it’s true that IPDS is now firmly embedded in the National Framework, the Grey Book and the CPA process. It’s also clear that many fire and rescue authorities are having great success in making IPDS work - but there are still challenges ahead: 

• Do people on the Retained Duty System have the same access to IPDS?
• How does IPDS support multi-level entry?
• How does IPDS help the Service make progress on equality and diversity matters?
• Do all fire and rescues service staff feel that IPDS is for them?

These are just some of the issues that the Board are dealing with.

The Board members are:

Information about the progress of the Board’s work will be posted on the IPDS web site – http://www.ipds.co.uk/