The FBU’s Lifelong Learning Project has led the development of a new culture within the Fire Service, one that helps firefighters support each other through the mental health challenges that come with the territory.

Every time a Firefighter answers an emergency call, they have to be prepared for the worst. It may turn out to be a false alarm or a small-scale incident that only makes the local news. It may turn into a national tragedy like the Grenfell fire. But the threat to life and limb – for the public involved and for the firefighters themselves – hangs over every emergency and any firefighter can find themselves battling with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a harrowing incident.

But up until comparatively recently, when firefighters were struggling with the stress and trauma that come with the job, the standard response was usually to help them drown their sorrows, says Fire Brigades Union (FBU) Lifelong Learning Project Manager Mark Dunne.

Mark said:

The culture of the Fire Service was that if you were having a hard time, or if you’ve got all the stresses and worries that everyone else is going through in their life, the answer would be, ‘Let’s go for a pint’.”

But looking for answers to mental health challenges in the bottom of a glass is a short-term solution at best that can lead to greater isolation and, however well-intentioned, isn’t a genuinely inclusive approach to peer support.

And that’s not to mention the health issues around alcohol misuse both for individuals and for the health service. Problem drinking is the biggest risk factor for early death, ill health and disability for those aged 15 to 49 years, while government estimates indicate alcohol-related harm costs the economy £21bn a year.

But there’s been a substantial shift in the way firefighters support each other in recent years, Mark says. And that’s down to the FBU Union Learning Fund (ULF) project’s focus on mental health, which has led to its mental health awareness course being its most popular offering every year for the past eight years.

Mark explained:

I was having a conversation in my fire station on Merseyside the other week and we were sat round a mess table – cups of tea, biscuits on the table – talking about how we were feeling and what was going on.”

It was mostly about Covid, but it was also about all our relationships – and that just wouldn’t have happened 10 years ago, it would have been ‘We’ll got for a pint’, which is not how we do things anymore. We’ve got to the point now where we can be sober and have open and honest discussions about how we feel as human beings without our toes curling in our shoes or having to look the other way.”

It’s this huge change that Mark is most proud of when he thinks about the ULF project.

In terms of breaking down those barriers and feeling comfortable with our emotions and our health, the FBU learning project has led the fire service and firefighters into that position.”

And above everything else we’ve done in the ULF, that for me has been the number one success story, without any doubt at all.”

The 10-strong ULF project team is made up of five project support organisers (PSOs), four National Learning Centre staff and Mark himself. The PSOs cover all 12 of the union’s English regions, which means most look after two and some take care of three.

Mark said:

All the PSOs are all quite well known and well established now: if you mention one of the names, people will say, ‘They’re in our region’, or ‘I was online with them on a course the other day’.”

They use the FBU networks and the fire service networks to ask what’s going on, what do we need, what courses and qualifications would people like, and to generally promote the opportunities and qualifications on offer through the ULF project.”

One of the major successes that the project has been promoting in the last 12 months is its new e-learning Heat Illness Prevention and Awareness (HIPA) training project, a pioneering approach to tackling one of the key physical challenges of the job – overexposure to heat.

On average, firefighters risk exposure to excessive heat in one or two incidents a month but that figure can rise to five times a week for trainees, while their instructors can face extreme heat as often as 27 times in any one month. Yet this major issue was barely being addressed before the ULF project took it on.

Mark said:

I’d had 27 years in the fire service at that point and I’d never had any official rehydration protocol training apart from breathing apparatus training and certainly no refresher training goes on for that.”

That was why the union made a successful bid into the ULF’s innovation funding stream two years ago. FBU National Officer Sean Starbuck had already been thinking about what the union could do about rehydration after hearing Alan Richardson and Emily Watkins from the University of Brighton discuss their research on the subject at a health and safety event.

So when the innovation funding opened up, he introduced Mark to the academics so they could discuss working together on a bid.

Mark explained:

We sat down in the café at Congress House with Alan and Emily and their eyes lit up when I said we were thinking of writing this bid because they already had eight years’ worth of research on the subject and had been working with a couple of fire and rescue services.”

With Alan and Emily’s help developing the material, and long-standing creative partners Beach Design in charge of the visuals, the HIPA training project went on to produce an e-learning package that has already helped train thousands of firefighters in England and across the UK.

The three modules of bite-sized information use short video presentations, quizzes and interactive games to help firefighters learn more about how to deal with heat stress and heat injuries; how to better control difficult environments; and what firefighters and instructors can do to prepare for and combat the effects of exposure to heat. The next step was to develop a separate package to address the specific needs of women firefighters dealing with heat exposure, which was jointly financed by the ULF and the FBU.

Mark explains:

We asked a number of female firefighters if they’d be interested in doing some research with the University of Brighton and they volunteered to help because it was a very important piece of work for them: with the physiology of men and women being different, it needed to be done.”

The result was probably as ground-breaking if not more ground-breaking than the original HIPA package because not a lot of research had been done on the specific effects of heat on female firefighters at different age groups before.”

News of the HIPA projects has spread across the globe via the union’s website and social media feeds as well as peerto-peer contacts, with the result that the e-learning packages are currently helping firefighters in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa and the USA.

Mark said: “International dissemination is all down to the FBU. Without us, and our officials and our members speaking about it, no one would know about it. Otherwise, we’d have an important, critical piece of research with a brilliant report that wouldn’t be going anywhere.”

But the HIPA project was by no means the first time the FBU ULF team had developed innovative, learning-based solutions to issues facing firefighters. Back in 2016, the project launched a Level 3 Personal Trainer apprenticeship to help members continue to meet the physical demands of the job.

The 18-month programme represented a new way to support, encourage and enhance fitness on fire stations around the country and maintain required standards of fitness.

Mark laughed and said:

When I originally said, ‘Let’s go for it!’ I didn’t have a clue about how much work that meant and how many hoops we would have to go through – or that some of those hoops would be set on fire towards the end and we’d still have to jump through them!”

But it was a massive success. At one point, the union’s learning project was working with 23 different fire and rescue services in England, offering access to gyms and classrooms and insurance that helped hundreds of firefighters improve their fitness levels and gain the knowledge and skills they needed to sustain longer and healthier careers and support their work colleagues.

Mark said:

It was a lot of hard graft, it was many hours people didn’t see, a huge learning curve, and the team – the PSOs and the learning centre staff – were absolutely brilliant throughout,”

But the FBU lifelong learning project has not only worked to help firefighters develop their skills and progress their careers. The team has consistently opened up learning opportunities for family and friends of FBU members and developed close working partnerships with community organisations up and down the country.

For example, a couple of years back, Leanne Naudusevics enrolled on an FBU project Level 2 Understanding Autism awareness course that she heard about through her firefighter husband Dave to help the family better understand the needs of their autistic son, Charlie.

But she didn’t stop there. Boosted by the knowledge and confidence she gained on the course, Leanne then went on to set up a football team for boys and girls with special educational needs, The Wigston Foxes.

Open to children from six to 12 years of age, the team is the only one in Leicestershire to focus solely on inclusive football – and it might never have existed without that original learning opportunity through the union’s friends-and-family offer.

And in Northumberland, the project has established a ground-breaking partnership with not-for profit organisation Calmer Therapy, which was launched in 2015 to fill the gaps in provision for children with additional needs. With the help and support of the learning on offer to its members through the FBU, Calmer Therapy has grown from a small parents’ group to a thriving organisation, with 3,000 members across the north-east. PSO Ian Dick originally enrolled 50 Calmer Therapy members on the Level 2 Understanding Autism course in 2017.

The course proved so useful to the participants that the team went on to develop an all-encompassing care and education package that has benefited more than 1,000 community members since then.

They have been enabled to have complete courses on Understanding Autism, Awareness of Mental Health Problems, Working with individuals with Learning Disabilities, Understanding Dyslexia and Specific Learning Difficulties and Nutrition and Health.

Ian even joined Calmer Therapy members on the Great North Run last year to raise much-needed funds for the group. Having the opportunity to take part in such life-changing courses through the FBU ULF project is massively appreciated by members of Calmer Therapy.

Member Jac Moody said:

For most of our children with hidden disabilities such as autism and ADHD, the biggest barriers in life will be the ignorance of other people. High-quality learning for parents, public servants and all members of the community is so important to improve the lives of our most vulnerable children.”

As parents of a child with autism, it was most useful for both my husband and I to do the training in autism course made available via the FBU and Calmer Therapy. There was so much encouragement and support too – the very best kind of training.”

For Mark himself, this is what FBU lifelong learning is all about – being able to help people, whether they are parents of autistic children or firefighters looking to boost their skills or meet the physical and mental demands of the job.

That drive to help has been a golden thread through Mark’s work life, whether as a firefighter when he joined the service at the age of 20, as an FBU official in his 30s or as a member of the ULF project since hitting 40.

Mark said

I’d never thought about it until I had a conversation recently with a friend of mine who said, ‘Everything you’ve done since the age of 20 has been about helping people’.”

And first as a PSO for three years and then as project manager for the past five, Mark has taken every chance he can to develop his skills so he can improve the support he offers learners.

Mark added:

I have accredited qualifications as a dyslexia support adviser and a dyslexia workplace adviser and in information advice and guidance, equality and diversity, mental health awareness, health and nutrition Level 1 and Level 2 and personal training adult apprenticeship Level 3.”

But the qualifications are only half the story.

Mark firmly believes that all the learning he has undertaken in the past eight years has not only improved his knowledge and skills but helped him develop as a human being.

Learning has significantly changed me into a better person – more patient, more understanding, more thoughtful, more caring – and never mind all the Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 qualifications I’ve done myself, for that I have the ULF to thank.”

This article first appeared in the Spring 2021 edition of the Learning Rep.