Since April 1, 2015 immediate response stations have been group crewed, with five watches working 12 hours stints: 0700 until 1900, or 1900 until 0700. The change brings a completely new shift pattern - two days, two nights, six off - which has proved to be popular with the teams. Leave and training are fitted in on the non-working days, with the flexibility to 'swap' shifts to accommodate personal needs. The new ways of working brought in under the service's Future Fire and Rescue programme have also seen changes to the shifts at day crewed stations. They now provide immediate response cover and carry out community work for 60 hours a week, from 0700 until 1900, rather than the 50 hours that had been in place before. Central to the new operating model is a new 'Hub' planning team, based at West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service headquarters in Chichester, and a Crewing Optimisation Group (COG), a roving team of firefighters deployed to support RDS resilience and to carry out community safety work.
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