Preparing for UK's Fire Service Situational Judgement Tests

Situational judgement tests are used in the selection process of all UK's Fire Service roles. They identify qualities and attributes that are deemed necessary for those roles, and are in accordance with National Occupational Standards.

They are designed to evaluate judgements in day-to-day work setting. Candidates are presented with a series of scenario-based questions and a list of possible responses to choose from.

Please bear in mind that this information is correct for most firefighter depots, however, in some cases you may be given other tests provided by CEB-SHL which you can prepare for on those dedicated pages.

There is a long list of competencies that are assessed against each role, some of the most popular are:

• Commitment to Diversity and Integrity
• Openness to change
• Confidence and resilience
• Working with others
• Effective communication
• Commitment to development
• Problem solving
• Situational awareness
• Commitment to excellence
• Planning and implementing

You are in charge of managing a crowd that has gathered to watch a house fire. So far the crowd have been calm, but they suddenly become aggressive and shout insults at one of the casualties being rescued from the house. The insults are distressing the

casualty.

What do you do?

1. Do nothing - the crowd will get bored of shouting insults soon
2. Ask my manager what to do
3. Talk assertively to the crowd and tell them to move away from the scene because they are causing a disturbance

*Taken from Loathian and Borders Fire Rescue Service (http://www.lbfire.org.uk)

You have recently taken on a new trainee in to your team. The trainee is very enthusiastic but finds it hard to remember key facts and pieces of information. You think about how you might manage the process of the new trainee.

Which one of the following is likely to be the most effective?

1. Take the trainee to one side and stress the importance to them of remembering key facts and information.
2. Assume that any training for this trainee will take a little longer. However because of the trainee’s enthusiasm they will eventually get there.
3. Provide additional training for the trainee and formally check and record their progress in relation to this extra training.
4. Identify where the trainee is doing reasonably well and use this as a basis for providing positive feedback.

*Taken from Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service (www.hantsfire.gov.uk/adc_briefing.ppt)