Essex Resilience Forum Manager

Networking Women in the Fire Service; Rivenhall End; Hybrid; GBP 56,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

A public safety organization in the UK seeks an experienced Essex Resilience Forum Manager to lead multi-agency resilience efforts. This hybrid role involves collaboration with various partners to ensure compliance with safety legislation, manage teams, and deliver key projects essential for emergency preparedness and response. Candidates should possess strong leadership, project management skills, and relevant experience in emergency planning.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in emergency planning, resilience, or a related field.
• Strong leadership and people management skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement abilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate multi-agency resilience planning across Essex.
• Act as the key link between ERF Chairs and partner organizations.
• Provide strategic guidance to ERF Chairs and partner agencies on resilience issues.

Skills

Emergency planning

Leadership

Communication

Stakeholder engagement

Project management

Education

Relevant degree or equivalent experience

Job description

JobTitle: Essex Resilience Forum Manager

Contract: Fixed Term (Until Dec 2026)

WorkingHours: 37*

Salary: £56,968.00 – £61,550.00 per annum

Location: Service Headquarters, Kelvedon Park

Closing Date: 3rd December 2025

*We are open to discuss working arrangements including flexibility over hours and location, however the expectation is that, as a hybrid role your work will be balanced between home and Services facilities, and you will be expected to attend the Service premises for at least 3 days of a 5-day working week.

This role is a fixed-term opportunity. If the role is extended or made permanent, the extension or permanent position may be offered to the successful applicant ahead of any further recruitment process / If the role is made permanent, a further recruitment process will be required.

The Role

We are seeking an experienced and dynamic Essex Resilience Forum Manager to lead and coordinate multi-agency resilience planning across Essex. This pivotal role ensures the Essex Resilience Forum (ERF) members fulfil their statutory obligations under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, driving collaboration and information sharing between partner agencies.

You will act as the key link between ERF Chairs and partner organisations, managing a dedicated team. The role is critical in maintaining preparedness for emergencies and major incidents, while supporting the partnership through evolving government policy and legislative changes.

What You Will Be Working On

• Support the partnership through government changes, ensuring support and alignment with new structures.
• Build relationships with partners from across the ERF to enhance resilience across the forum.
• Lead the ERF secretariat team to support the work of ERF partners, supporting delivery of resilience planning and response arrangements.
• Provide strategic guidance to ERF Chairs and partner agencies on local, regional, and national resilience issues.
• Oversee and deliver key projects, including resilience plan writing, training, and exercises.
• Act as Chief of Staff for the Multi-Agency Information Cell (MAIC) during major incidents as required.
• Ensure compliance with data protection and information-sharing protocols.
• Represent ERF at local, regional, and national forums, influencing best practice and continuous improvement.
• Maintain governance frameworks and manage ERF budgets effectively.

What Are We Looking For?

• Proven experience in emergency planning, resilience, or a related field.
• Strong leadership and people management skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement abilities.
• Knowledge of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and multi-agency working.
• Ability to manage complex projects and deliver results under pressure.

If you are an internal (ECFRS) candidate, you must have discussed your application with your line manager and confirmed with them there are no outstanding issues of conduct or performance. This will be verified prior to shortlisting.

How to apply

You will be required to submit a CV detailing a minimum of five years employment and / or education history, along with a supporting statement of no more than 750 words that demonstrates how you meet the selected essential criteria detailed in the Person Specification.

You may submit this either as a Word document, PDF, or an MP3 (voice note) or MP4 (video), however the word count of your supporting statement should not exceed 750 words no matter which format you choose to present your application.

You may attach separate documents (such as qualifications) should you wish. Your CV and additional documents will be referred to in shortlisting to confirm eligibility (e.g., your current role and any existing qualifications).

Assessment and selection

Stage 1

Application & shortlisting:

Assessment of your supporting statement will be made against the following essential criteria:

• Significant and practical understanding of Civil Contingencies legislation and integrated emergency planning and business continuity.
• Experience of working on projects and delivering business milestones, which includes the management of different resources and challenging situations.
• Experience of negotiating with senior level managers, customers and partners.
• Excellent level of interpersonal and negotiation skills, able to communicate professionally and tactfully to build constructive relationships at different levels, both internally and externally.
• Analysis, interpretation and presentation of relevant data from different sources, to produce practical solutions that meet the Services’ needs and to comply with legislative requirements.
• Significant understanding of business planning processes including the emergency planning cycle.
• Able to take personal responsibility for individual, team, and departmental goals.

Stage 2

Presentation and role specific panel interview.

Further details on the presentation will be supplied after shortlisting.

Assessments at stage 2 will be marked against the National Fire Chiefs’ Council Leadership Framework and the Core Code of Ethics as well as the Role Profile and Person Specification.

For those not familiar with either, you can find the NFCC Leadership Framework here – please focus on the ‘Leading the Function’ elements: NFCC_Leadership_Framework_Final.pdf (nationalfirechiefs.org.uk)

And guidance around the Code of Ethics here:

Core Code of Ethics England Guidance May 21 V0.pdf (ukfrs.com)

Guidance on Safeguarding policies can be found here:

Essex Fire – Safeguarding Statements

Should you wish to have an informal discussion with regards to the role, please contact Andy Message on [e-mail]

Our Culture and Benefits

Here at Essex County Fire and Rescue Service we are committed to prioritising and promoting the wellbeing of our employees.

You can find out more about our benefits at https://www.essex-fire.gov.uk/recruitment/benefits

Important Information for Firefighter Pension Scheme Pensioners

If you are currently in receipt of a pension from the Firefighter Pension Scheme, please note that taking up this role may affect your pension. Under pension abatement rules, if your earnings in this role, when combined with your pension, exceed your pre-retirement salary (adjusted for inflation), your pension may be reduced. For further guidance on this scheme or other schemes you are a member of, please contact our Pensions team on 01376 576799 or email [e-mail].

Safeguarding

Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Fire and Rescue Authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

It is our policy to require all applicants for employment to disclose if you are currently being investigated by any regulatory body or have any decisions or sanctions pending or in progress in respect of your suitability to work for the Service.

You agree to inform the Service within 24 hours if you are subsequently investigated by any agency or organisation in relation to concerns about your behaviour towards children, young people or vulnerable adults.

The information you provide will be treated as strictly confidential and will be considered only in relation to the appointment for which you are applying.

This role will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Disability Confident

We are an equal opportunities, Disability Confident, employer who welcomes applications from everyone and values diversity in our workplace. A commitment to promoting diversity and developing a work environment where all staff are treated with dignity and respect is central to our recruitment process and all applications will be considered solely on merit.

As part of our offer to support all our candidates to perform to the best of their abilities during our recruitment and selection processes and we would like to let you know about a couple of support options you can access, should you wish to, including our employee forums, who are keen and willing to support all of our potential colleagues.

Our employee forums and partners include

Asian Fire Services Association (AFSA), BEING (our LGBTQ+ employee support network), Christian Fellowship, Ethnic Minority Forum, Men’s Forum, and our Women’s Forum. In addition, we also have a female firefighters operational group.

Further to the above, the Service has a Digital Accessibility Inclusion Group (DAIG) that supports all colleagues to improve their digital skills and provides additional support and guidance to colleagues with neurodivergent strengths and struggles as a result of dyslexia, ADHD, Autism, dyspraxia etc. We want everyone to thrive at work, and so we encourage and enable people to access digital tools to help them perform at your best. The DAIG is a group of colleagues from across the Service that unite to support others as a result of their lived experience and desire to make a difference. They support people with a range of visible and invisible disabilities to identify and access digital workplace adjustments and solutions and may be able to assist with your application too.

Should you wish to discuss support, or access further information, from one of these groups, please contact [e-mail].

You are also able to raise any queries or requests for support, including any adjustments you may require, at any stage of the process by email to [e-mail].

You can find out more about Essex County Fire & Rescue Service via www.essex-fire.gov.uk and about our vacancies and application processes via www.essex-fire.gov.uk/join-essex-fire.