Ms Cep Carty:

It is definitely on the way up but slowly. I met a couple of Civil Defence officers last week and they brought a new perspective to it. We have a target to grow to 2,500 by late next year and then to grow to 3,500. We engaged with Civil Defence officers on our volunteer strategy and induction plan and they mentioned the importance of integrating new people into the team. A lot of the units have very strong and very positive teams throughout the country. They said they made the mistake in the past of bringing in too many volunteers at the same time. This is unfair to the volunteers and it does not work well in integrating with the team and keeping the team safe, which is the top priority for us. We have a plan that all Civil Defence units will run an induction programme after completing the challenging summer period and the weather events of the winter. When they come out of all this, they will run an induction plan that would run for the following year to integrate teams. On this basis the trajectory will have to be managed and we would probably be looking at ten to 15 per each of the 28 units. We are trying to build it gradually over the next few years.

We also want to be more streamlined about how we bring in volunteers. With the way regulation has gone we cannot train volunteers in every discipline because it is too difficult to maintain the competency on a continuing basis. We want to make sure we get the breadth of activities that Civil Defence is involved in and the different skills we need in the organisation. This is so it will appeal to a wider demographic and that they will be focused when they come in and gravitate to two or three teams but not to ten teams. This will mean that we will use our volunteers more effectively, we will not overburden them and we will manage the induction into the unit. The numbers are on the up and this is something that will need to be managed. We have the target of 3,500. We have looked at how this equates across all Civil Defence units based on the area and population of a county. We will discuss this with Civil Defence officers and their direct line managers as part the development plan engagement over the next month to six weeks so we are all on the same page as we move into 2026.