Day crewing, LLAR and fire service duty systems explained

National duty systems versus local rotas

Two levels are easy to confuse. The Grey Book sets national duty systems and the principles any duty system must meet. Local services then implement them as named rotas. Section 3, Part A says duty systems must meet the requirements of the service’s community or integrated risk management plan, be discussed with the recognised trade unions and follow four principles: basic hours averaging 42 per week (inclusive of three hours of meal breaks in every 24 hours), at least two periods of 24 hours free from duty each week, compliance with all relevant legislation including the Working Time Regulations 1998, and regard for individual circumstances and being family friendly.

The Grey Book lists the existing national systems as shift, day-crewing, day duty, flexible duty and retained. If a service and union cannot agree a new system that does not fit those principles, either party can refer the difference to the NJC’s Technical Advisory Panel, chaired by an independent expert. That is how local variants such as 12-hour self-rostering have entered use.

This guide complements our guide to firefighter shift patterns, which explains why the pay circular divides by 42 hours. Here the focus is what each system is, how the hours are built and what it means for your daily life, pay and leave. Names such as 2-2-4 are not in the Grey Book; they are local descriptions of how the shift system is rostered.

The shift system and 2-2-4 rotas

The national shift duty system divides each 24 hours into a day shift and a night shift. The night shift must be at least twelve hours, there must be at least two complete 24-hour periods free from duty each week, leave days must change week by week in a regular progressive manner, no rota may include continuous duty periods of 24 hours, and three hours are specified for meal breaks in every 24 hours.

The best known local implementation is 2-2-4: two day shifts, two night shifts, then four days off. Northumberland describes day shifts of 08:00 to 18:00 and nights of 18:00 to 08:00; West Yorkshire lists 8am to 7pm days and 7pm to 8am nights; and Nottinghamshire describes two 12-hour days then two 12-hour nights on a self-rostering basis. Merseyside’s control room uses 07:00 to 19:00 and 19:00 to 07:00 on the same 2-2-4 pattern.

The arithmetic shows how it fits the national average. With 12-hour shifts, four shifts in an eight-day cycle is 48 hours, and 48 divided by 8 days multiplied by 7 is 42 hours a week. With 10-hour days and 14-hour nights (as in Northumberland’s 08:00 to 18:00 and 18:00 to 08:00) the cycle is 2 × 10 plus 2 × 14, again 48 hours. With 11-hour days and 13-hour nights (West Yorkshire) it is 22 plus 26, also 48. The hours are the same; the split differs.

Day crewing: 35 hours at the station and 7 on standby

Day crewing is a hybrid between wholetime and on-call. The Grey Book says full-time employees on this system work an average of 42 hours a week, made up of an average of 35 hours a week at the station and an average of 7 hours a week on standby at home, when they are required to respond to any emergency call. There must be at least two complete periods of 24 hours free from any duty each week, and one hour a day is specified as a meal break. Employees may also be asked to undertake retained duties outside those hours.

Local versions fit the pattern. Northumberland describes four day shifts from 08:00 to 18:00 for four consecutive days, being on call in the evenings, followed by four days off. Four 10-hour shifts in an eight-day cycle is 40 hours, or 35 hours a week, matching the Grey Book’s station hours. West Yorkshire describes two day-crewing patterns, four on and four off, or three on, two off, two on, three off, with personnel at the station from 8am to 5pm and residing within five minutes of it.

Day crewing is often paired with an on-call crew that covers evenings and nights. Nottinghamshire’s day-shift crewing stations have one wholetime and one on-call appliance available between 08:00 and 19:00 and two on-call appliances in the evening and overnight. Where employees on this system undertake retained duties, the Grey Book pays an annual retainer of 5% of full-time annual basic pay. At the July 2026 competent rate of £40,358 that is £2,018 a year.

LLAR: Low Level of Activity and Risk crewing

Low Level of Activity and Risk, or LLAR, is a locally designed system used in some services, including Merseyside. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority papers describe it as a 12-hour wholetime day shift followed immediately by a 12-hour retained night shift, spent off the station, where the crew must respond to an incident within one minute 54 seconds of an alert, maintaining a comparable alert-to-mobile time to wholetime staff at night. It is used where incidents are relatively few. The authority’s paper cited a threshold of 825 incidents to the station area agreed in 2006, and said the system required accommodation for the night retained period within the response time.

The same paper points out the trade-offs. Because the same staff cover the 12-hour wholetime period and the 12-hour retained period, a crew that attends incidents at night then needs a recovery period during the day, which reduces prevention work and normal scheduled duties. If mobilisations rise above the threshold, the case for LLAR weakens. The paper also describes a day-crewing pattern with a typically 10-hour wholetime day and a 14-hour retained night with a five-minute response from home.

Merseyside also lists Day Crewing Wholetime Retained (DCWTR), a hybrid variant and Wholetime 224 (WT 224) on its careers page, and says each duty system is based around a full-time requirement of 42 hours a week, with retained cover provided in addition to positive hours in the retained systems. New recruits are allocated to duty systems as required. Because LLAR and its variants are local, names and rules differ; ask any service for its documented system and the accommodation arrangements.

Flexible duty (flexi duty) for Station Managers and above

Flexible duty applies only to Station Managers and above. Employees perform two types of duty: managerial duty, rostered for operational command, managerial, supervisory or specialist duties (also called positive hours), and standby or call-out duty, when they are available on call for the urgent performance of managerial duty. The rota is built so that managerial hours plus standby hours divided by four equal 48 a week on average over a cycle not exceeding eight weeks.

There are guard-rails. No rota may contain more than five consecutive 24-hour periods with duty of either type, and any two-week period beginning on a Monday must include at least two pairs of rota leave days. Managerial hours must not average more than 42 a week and the sum of both types must not exceed 78 on average. Rota leave must be rostered no less frequently on a Saturday or Sunday than any other day. Standby employees have freedom of movement in and around their area and are notified of their standby area.

In return an employee on flexi duty receives a pensionable supplement of 20% of basic pay. On the July 2026 Station Manager Competent A rate of £53,604, that is £10,721 a year, giving £64,325 in total. Transfer onto flexi duty is voluntary, and because of the pension implications employees will not be moved off it against their will except as a result of a disciplinary reduction in role. West Yorkshire lists a five-week rota of 8-hour shifts, 24-hour shifts and rota days for its flexi system. See flexi duty allowance explained for pay detail.

Retained (on-call) duty and how it differs

The retained duty system is different in kind: the hours of availability are agreed between the employer and each employee rather than set as a fixed number of positive hours. An employee must attend the station for an average of two hours a week for training, development and maintenance, or three hours at the employer’s discretion; attend promptly in response to an emergency call at any time during their availability; and attend any incident or another station for standby duties.

Pay follows the availability. The annual retainer is 15% of the appropriate annual basic pay for full cover of at least 120 hours a week, with lower bands of 5%, 7.5%, 10% and 12.5% for less cover, and 5% for cover as part of the day-crewing system. At the July 2026 competent rates the full retainer is £6,054. Activity is then paid at the hourly rate, and overtime applies on retained duty only when someone works more than 42 hours in a seven-day period. Our guide to on-call firefighter pay works through the numbers.

Leave is also different: four weeks, or five weeks after five years’ on-call service. If you are interested in this route, see on-call firefighter availability and how to become an on-call firefighter, and model your own hours in the free on-call pay calculator.

Comparing systems: pay, sleep, commute and family life

Pay for a given role is set by the national rate irrespective of duty system, but what surrounds it differs. Day-crewing staff who take on retained duties earn a 5% retainer, flexi-duty officers get a 20% supplement, and wholetime 2-2-4 staff get the base rate. Overtime, the Continual Professional Development scheme and other additions sit on top. See firefighter allowances explained and CPD payments.

Lifestyle differs more. A 2-2-4 rota gives blocks of four days off and the ability to work a run of nights, but includes nights at the station. Day-crewing gives evenings at home but can carry residency limits and interruptions to evenings. LLAR and day crewing both involve responding from accommodation or home, so recovery after night calls matters. Flexi duty offers no fixed weekly pattern and long standby. The right choice depends on your commute, dependants and sleep.

Leave and annual entitlement are the same in principle across wholetime systems, but how rota days count against leave depends on the rota. Our guide to firefighter annual leave covers this. If you are considering a transfer, our transfer checklist and the guide to moving between fire services explain how to compare systems.

Working time, rest and second jobs on each system

All duty systems must meet the Grey Book principles, including two 24-hour periods free from duty a week and compliance with the Working Time Regulations 1998. The regulations themselves exclude certain activities where the specific characteristics of civil protection services inevitably conflict with them (regulation 18), but employers still owe health and safety duties and the HSE treats fatigue as a hazard to be managed. Merseyside’s papers note that to comply with working time regulations it provides separate accommodation for the retained night period on LLAR stations.

On any system, pre-arranged overtime is voluntary and limited under the Grey Book to no more than 24 hours a month averaged over six months, and it cannot be used to cover planned staffing shortfalls. Employees other than those on the retained duty system may not hold other employment without express permission. See firefighter working time and rest and firefighter second job.

If you work a mixed pattern, such as day crewing plus retained duty, or a wholetime role with extra shifts, check your total hours. Track them in the shift calendar, and check any premium payment on your payslip against the overtime rules in firefighter overtime rates.

How to choose or check your duty system: a short process

You rarely choose a system as a new recruit. Merseyside, for example, says successful candidates are allocated to duty systems as required, and Northumberland says the specific system is determined on appointment and staff may be required to transfer between systems during their careers. Still, you can ask questions before you accept an offer and check the details in your contract afterwards.

1. Ask the recruiting service which duty systems operate at the stations you could be posted to, and how allocation is decided.
2. Get the shift times, cycle length, and shifts per year in writing for the relevant system.
3. Check residency or response-time requirements, especially for day crewing, LLAR and on-call.
4. Ask what accommodation is provided for any retained night period, and how call-outs affect the following day.
5. Ask which pay elements attach to the system, such as a retainer or flexi supplement, and whether they are pensionable.
6. Check how leave, rota days and public holidays are counted on that rota.