NFCC on-call study 2026: what it found and what it means

What the NFCC on-call research study is

The National Fire Chiefs Council is the professional body for the UK's fire and rescue service leaders. Its National On-Call Research Study is a wide-ranging review of the long-term sustainability of the on-call duty system across the UK and the Crown Dependencies. The NFCC's own announcement says it was commissioned by the NFCC with support from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and carried out by an independent consultancy, Exact Consultant Ltd.

The evidence base was broad. According to the NFCC, the researchers collected data from fire and rescue services across the UK, received responses from more than 1,600 on-call firefighters, prepared case studies from each of the four nations and compared the system with international examples and other UK sectors that rely on part-time or volunteer staff. That matters because on-call arrangements differ between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and a study of one nation would not describe the rest.

The NFCC also describes the work as the start of a process, not the end. It says it will pursue the recommendations that lie within its own remit and work with services to develop locally workable solutions. In its announcement the NFCC Chair, Phil Garrigan, called the on-call system cost-effective and community-rooted, and said coordinated action is needed. As a research study it has no direct legal effect on employers or firefighters.

The headline findings in plain English

The NFCC summary describes a system that remains essential but is under pressure. The study found that falling numbers, persistent recruitment and retention difficulties and training requirements designed predominantly around full-time standards are undermining its long-term resilience. Put simply: fewer people are joining and staying, and the way people are trained and assessed was built for someone who does the job every day, not someone who fits it around another job and a family.

The NFCC summary also points to socio-demographic change, a high level of personal commitment and limited employer support as factors reducing the pool of people who can do the job. Weekday daytime availability is where the difficulty is often greatest, because it depends on employers being willing and able to release staff. Weekday daytime availability is a recurring problem that services mention in their own proposals, including some of those in our guide to fire station closures in 2026.

Other findings reported by the NFCC and trade coverage include a widespread perception that on-call firefighters are treated as second-tier compared with wholetime colleagues, inconsistent governance across services which duplicates effort, and availability measures that do not reflect community risk. We have kept to what those published summaries state; we have not reproduced statistics that we could not verify from the NFCC itself.

The five reform themes and the recommendations

The study does not propose a single change. The NFCC describes it as setting out a spectrum of options for change, ranging from incremental local improvement through to fundamental sector-wide reform. The recommendations are grouped under five themes: national leadership and coordination, governance, workforce flexibility, cultural change, and data-driven performance management.

Under workforce flexibility, the published summary mentions tiered commitment with proportionate competences and modular training. In plain terms, that means letting someone commit at a level that suits their circumstances and be trained for the risks they will actually attend, rather than all on-call staff meeting the same wholetime-based standard. It also recommends a UK-wide employer engagement scheme and incentives for employers to release staff, which speaks to the employer-support problem. On data, it favours availability measures linked to community risk rather than a simple percentage of hours a fire engine is crewed.

The study does not, in the summaries we verified, specify changes to pay levels or retainer structures. Any change to on-call pay, terms or training would have to go through the appropriate national and local processes, including the National Joint Council for pay and conditions and service-level training decisions. Until a change is made, current terms apply. Treat any claim that the study has already changed pay or pension terms with caution.

• National leadership and coordination: unified national direction and investment
• Governance: consistent structures and sustained funding, rather than fragmented local approaches
• Workforce flexibility: tiered commitment, proportionate competence and modular training
• Cultural change: tackling the two-tier perception and improving diversity and inclusion
• Data and performance: standardised measures linked to community risk, not just availability

What has not changed: pay and terms today

The study is research. Your on-call pay, retainer, contract and training requirements are as set by the NJC Grey Book and your service. From 1 July 2026, the NJC pay award of 3.8% took the full-cover retainer for a competent on-call firefighter to £6,054 a year, with £18.43 an hour for activity, and the retainer for a development firefighter to £4,731, as explained in our on-call firefighter pay guide. Those figures are the current position, not something the study changes.

Similarly, the study does not alter pension rules. On-call firefighters can join the Firefighters' Pension Scheme; the details are in our on-call firefighter pension guide. If a national reform ever changed contractual terms, it would be announced through the NJC and the relevant government departments, and we would update our guides with dates. Until then, the safest approach is to rely on the Grey Book, your contract and your service's guidance.

What it means if you are thinking about joining on-call

The study is useful context for a prospective on-call firefighter. It suggests services are likely to want you, but that the role asks a lot: availability at set times, a response time to the station, ongoing training and the support of your employer. It also suggests why some services keep recruiting year-round and why some stations describe availability problems in the daytime. A prospective recruit with a flexible employer and a home or workplace close to a station is exactly the person a struggling station needs.

Practical steps: read our guide to how to become an on-call firefighter, talk to your employer early using our on-call employer conversation guide, and check your availability against the station's needs with the on-call availability planner. Ask the service what its availability targets are and what support it offers for training alongside another job. Those answers tell you more about the reality of a station than a generic recruitment page.

What it means for pay and pension in practice

For most people, on-call pay is a supplement to a main job rather than a wage. The retainer rewards availability, and activity is paid by the hour, so what you earn depends on how much cover you provide and how busy your station is. A structural reform such as tiered commitment could, if adopted, mean different levels of retainer for different levels of availability, but the published study summaries do not say what those payments would be, and we have not assumed any figures.

On pension, the sensible position is to understand what you are building now. Membership of the Firefighters' Pension Scheme means contributions and an accruing pension, and it interacts with any main job's pension. If terms change in future, check any proposal for how it treats service you have already built up. The pensions calculator can model how a small annual on-call pension builds up over time, and our earnings examples guide shows realistic annual pay at different levels of activity.

What is not known yet

As of 30 September 2026, we have not found a published government or NFCC timetable for adopting the study's recommendations, and we have not verified any decision to change on-call pay, contracts or training nationally. The NFCC says it will pursue the actions within its remit and work with services on local solutions; the wider recommendations, such as governance change or funding, depend on government and on employers and unions in the National Joint Council.

That means the study is best read as a direction of travel. If you are a serving on-call firefighter, watch for consultation from your service or the FBU on any local changes to training pathways or contracts. If you are a candidate, do not delay a good opportunity waiting for reform. Check the NFCC's website for updates, and our working life guides for changes that reach terms and conditions.

How the study connects to station closures and local cuts

The on-call study helps explain why so many 2026 station proposals involve on-call stations. Where services say an on-call engine cannot be reliably crewed during the day, they are describing the availability problem the study documents. In Kent and in Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes, the stated reason for changes was unreliable on-call crewing, as we report in our guide to fire station closures.

Other people read the same problem differently. Unions and campaigners argue that closing an on-call station removes a community's cover and makes recruitment harder, and that investment in recruitment, retention and employer support is the answer, which is in line with the study's emphasis on employer engagement and cultural change. Both readings start from the same data: on-call numbers and daytime availability are under strain. You can track proposals on our closures tracker.