Unit 1 Marcus Chadwick
Assignment 3
Fire Service
The policy I am going to be talking about is having to pass the fitness assessment policy required to
join the fire service. The trainees to be in the fire service have to go through a series of tests such as
shuttle runs and treadmills. All people training to be a firefighter must achieve a level of 42.3 VO2
Max for all roles in the fire service. VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen that is used by the
body during exercise meaning the more oxygen the body can use the more fit you are and better
your performance will be at firefighting. The component of fitness that the fire service look for is
cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance. If the applicants don’t meet the requirements of the
fitness tests then they will not be able to join the fire service.
How the fitness test policy is affected
It is argued that the human rights of people who want to join the fire service are affected as there is
a physical requirement to be able to join the services. One of the human rights act state protection
from discrimination in respect of these rights and freedom. This seems to be broken as people in the
fire service are discriminated against to get into the service as they must be a certain fitness level
meaning not everyone can be in the service which affects the rights of these people.
Equal opportunities has been maintained very well in the fire service as the fitness test results are
exactly the same as men to women. The fire service also make reasonable adjustments to disabled
applicants to ensure they are able to demonstrate their ability to perform. Both women and men
must meet the fitness requirements of 42.3 VO2 max which supports the point of equal
opportunities being made. However equal opportunities are not fully made as the fire service is a
high physically demanded job therefore it would be very difficult to recruit someone who is blind or
someone who has difficulty with manoeuvrability and would decrease the ability to save lives.
Finance
The overall budget for the fire service is 2.9 billion over the whole constituencies. The fire service
has to provide the departments with the equipment, resources and pay salaries meaning if the fire
service pay for equipment to provide fitness tests then this takes money out of the budgeting of the
fire service especially as they will need fitness equipment in most or even every department to test
and maintain the fitness levels of the fire fighters. If the policy was not followed by then this would
give the fire service more money to be able to provide more resources and allow them to effectively
save more lives.
Civilianisation
The fitness policy affects civilisation as not everyone can join the fire service because you must pass
the fitness assessment policy or you can not join. This affects civilisation because volunteers may not
be fit enough to join the services and this also means the fire services won’t recruit a good amount
of people to work in the fire service which further affects them as they won’t be able to respond to
incidents as quick as they won’t have as many staff on call and available due to this fitness
assessment policy. The positive to this policy is that it ensures that the fire service has the fittest
firefighters in order to protect and save the lives of the community however if the fitness levels
weren’t at a good standard then the firefighters ability to save lives would decrease. The
Assignment 3
Fire Service
The policy I am going to be talking about is having to pass the fitness assessment policy required to
join the fire service. The trainees to be in the fire service have to go through a series of tests such as
shuttle runs and treadmills. All people training to be a firefighter must achieve a level of 42.3 VO2
Max for all roles in the fire service. VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen that is used by the
body during exercise meaning the more oxygen the body can use the more fit you are and better
your performance will be at firefighting. The component of fitness that the fire service look for is
cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance. If the applicants don’t meet the requirements of the
fitness tests then they will not be able to join the fire service.
How the fitness test policy is affected
It is argued that the human rights of people who want to join the fire service are affected as there is
a physical requirement to be able to join the services. One of the human rights act state protection
from discrimination in respect of these rights and freedom. This seems to be broken as people in the
fire service are discriminated against to get into the service as they must be a certain fitness level
meaning not everyone can be in the service which affects the rights of these people.
Equal opportunities has been maintained very well in the fire service as the fitness test results are
exactly the same as men to women. The fire service also make reasonable adjustments to disabled
applicants to ensure they are able to demonstrate their ability to perform. Both women and men
must meet the fitness requirements of 42.3 VO2 max which supports the point of equal
opportunities being made. However equal opportunities are not fully made as the fire service is a
high physically demanded job therefore it would be very difficult to recruit someone who is blind or
someone who has difficulty with manoeuvrability and would decrease the ability to save lives.
Finance
The overall budget for the fire service is 2.9 billion over the whole constituencies. The fire service
has to provide the departments with the equipment, resources and pay salaries meaning if the fire
service pay for equipment to provide fitness tests then this takes money out of the budgeting of the
fire service especially as they will need fitness equipment in most or even every department to test
and maintain the fitness levels of the fire fighters. If the policy was not followed by then this would
give the fire service more money to be able to provide more resources and allow them to effectively
save more lives.
Civilianisation
The fitness policy affects civilisation as not everyone can join the fire service because you must pass
the fitness assessment policy or you can not join. This affects civilisation because volunteers may not
be fit enough to join the services and this also means the fire services won’t recruit a good amount
of people to work in the fire service which further affects them as they won’t be able to respond to
incidents as quick as they won’t have as many staff on call and available due to this fitness
assessment policy. The positive to this policy is that it ensures that the fire service has the fittest
firefighters in order to protect and save the lives of the community however if the fitness levels
weren’t at a good standard then the firefighters ability to save lives would decrease. The
