Allan Hughes
Recently retired Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Allan Hughes studied DMS and MA Managing Change at Bradford & Ilkley Community College in the 1990s.
Allan joined West Yorkshire Fire Service as a Fire-fighter
in 1977 and had progressed through the ranks until in
1990, when he was promoted to Assistant Divisional
Officer at the Brigade’s Training Centre.
“The Fire Service
was then good at hard skills training in core areas such
as Breathing Apparatus, Road Traffic Accident and
Hazardous Materials training, but there was at this time,
little emphasis placed on management and leadership
training. All such training was conducted at the National
Fire Service College and in truth the training was
militaristic, dated and didactic in nature.”
So Allan enrolled on the DMS. “Course tutor, Roger Wynn
was the star performer; he had considerable experience
as a manager in local industry and was able to give us
real life examples of how we could apply the input he
was giving in our working lives, and all related in his own
inimitable style. The whole experience undoubtedly
broadened my horizons, increased my self confidence
and equipped me with new and relevant skills that
made me a better, more effective manager and assisted
my career to progress. I realised for the first time that
I needed to lead as well as manage and that to get
the best from my team I needed to listen to them and
following Roger’s urgings, to practice some management
by walking about and not become too desk bound. At
that time these things were real eye openers.”
Shortly after, Allan was promoted to Divisional
Officer and a year later to Senior Divisional Officer as
the Brigade’s Senior Fire Safety Officer. Using skills
and techniques learned on the DMS he set about
restructuring and reorganising the department with
a particular emphasis on performance management.
Allan then enrolled on the MA Managing Change.
“I
remember being told by course tutor Judith Foreman
that my work occasionally lacked academic rigour, and
she seemed determined that it should acquire some!
The MA was more theoretically based but by this time I
was operating within my organisation at a much more
strategic level.”
Allan believes his academic studies helped him win a
place on the intensely competitive Fire Service Brigade
Command Course, required to become a Principal
Officer, in 1998. In January 2000 he was promoted to
Assistant Chief Fire Officer as Head of Human Resources,
where he remained until his recent retirement in March
2008. As head of learning and development Allan
now had scope to introduce a much broader based
management and leadership programme into the
organisation. He was instrumental in the development
of a series of management courses for each of the ranks,
leading to a Foundation degree offered as a dual award
between the University of Bradford and the ILM.
“The
thinking behind these initiatives can be directly traced
back to my own experiences of learning at Bradford
College. I believe these programmes are paying great
dividends for the organisation and therefore for the
public of West Yorkshire.”
Photograph supplied by West Yorkshire Fire Service