People Awards 2024
We celebrated the exceptional work of our amazing people at our annual awards evening, which took place on 2 October.
The ceremony combined the presentation of our long service medals and our People Awards, recognising the extraordinary efforts of our colleagues to keep the communities of Devon and Somerset safe.
10 firefighters received medals for 20 years' service, and one firefighter received the accolade for 30 years' service.
Almost 100 people and teams were nominated by their colleagues for going above and beyond in their work, and the judging panel had the toughest year yet, shortlisting and choosing the ‘highly commended’ and ‘winners’ in each category.
The People Awards celebrate the teams and individuals whose passion, team spirit, resilience, inclusiveness, and commitment have an incredibly positive impact on their colleagues and communities. Their achievements demonstrate how everyone, whether on the front line or in a support role, contributes to our purpose: to protect and save.
Our winners and nominees have brought communities and teams together, supported colleagues, made our communities safer and made a real difference to how we work together.
With our workforce spread over two counties, the event was a rare opportunity for colleagues from different teams to come together. It was great to also have the support of our Fire Cadets from Wincanton and Members of the Fire and Rescue Authority.
A quote from Chief Fire Officer Gavin Ellis:
“I am proud to lead a Service with so many committed and dedicated people. Those who have given an exceptional length of service, with the 20-and 30-years' long service and good conduct medals and clasps. And those who have done exceptional things in the last year. The work the Service does is as challenging as it is rewarding. Every role across the Service contributes to making sure our communities are safe, protected and supported during their time of need."
He also highlighted the important role that families play:
“This couldn’t happen without the exceptional support from the families of our staff. Your endless support and sacrifice to allow your family members to serve their communities is recognised, and highly appreciated. We are forever thankful to the families of our staff.”
Staff achievements:
- Raising £13,500 to make automated external defibrillators available across Torbay.
- Creating a green space in Barnstaple where people can switch off, enjoy, and reflect.
- Running the Service football team for the past 20 years, making the team a great success, winning local, national, and international tournaments.
- Delivering workshops addressing cultural issues, behaviours, relationships, and values and supporting work such as Violence Against Women and Girls and representing the Service at various events.
- Creating an environment for our recruits to feel safe to learn, challenge and thrive.
- Developing the operational guidance app which has helped to bring an intuitive and easy to navigate solution to help incident commanders and support how we train our colleagues.
- Delivering a national webinar attended by 180 other fire and rescue services and blue light services.
Thank you
Thank you to Wales and West Utilities for their sponsorship of the John Cassell Award for Excellence in Staff Safety, People Insight for sponsoring the welcome drinks and Cornish Mutual who made a financial contribution. We would also like to thank the Service Concert Band and the Corp of Drums for their outstanding performances.