Firefighter pay progression: development to competent to A/B

The stages of firefighter pay: training, development, competent

The Grey Book says rates of pay are based on defined stages of development leading to demonstration of competence in the role. For firefighters there are three stages. Training is full-time training before the employee is performing the role in its proper context. Development is working under supervision in the role while being assessed against the functions that make it up. Competent is reached once all applicable functions have been assessed as achieved.

Only the development and competent stages now have a national pay rate. Circular NJC/3/25 deleted the trainee rate from 1 July 2025, while confirming that the role of a Trainee is unaffected. In 2026 that means a firefighter's pay ladder has two rungs: £31,539 (development) and £40,358 (competent), with hourly rates of £14.40 and £18.43. The trainee firefighter pay guide explains that change.

There is no year-on-year incremental scale in the national table. A competent firefighter with ten years' service is on the same national basic rate as one who became competent last month. What differs over a career is CPD, promotion, allowances and local terms, which is why the rest of this guide focuses on those routes.

The two-stage firefighter ladder from 1 July 2026

Stage	Annual	Hourly	What it means
Training	No separate national rate	n/a	Full-time training stage; trainee pay rate deleted 1 July 2025
Development	£31,539	£14.40	Working under supervision, being assessed
Competent	£40,358	£18.43	All applicable functions assessed as achieved

Source: NJC/2/26 and the Grey Book, Section 2. Local scales such as London Fire Brigade's differ.

How long does it take to become competent?

The Grey Book is careful here. It says the time it takes to demonstrate competence depends on the specific requirements of employees, accessibility to assessment and the opportunities available, and that development is tailored to individual and organisational needs. It then sets a reasonable expectation that the majority of employees on any duty system will demonstrate competence within three years from entry to the service for a firefighter and eighteen months from entering the programme for all other roles.

So the three years is an expected upper bound for most people, not a fixed period served. London Fire Brigade describes about 18 to 24 months as a Development Firefighter after 15 weeks of initial training, and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service describes a three-year apprenticeship-based development programme. Your own service will have its own assessment schedule; ask for it in writing.

The money at stake makes this worth asking about. The gap between development and competent is £8,819 a year for a firefighter, roughly £735 a month gross. If you are delayed by a lack of assessment opportunities, keep a record of the dates you were ready and the reasons for delay, and talk to your line manager and your representative early. The pay calculator shows the take-home difference.

Free toolFirefighter pay calculatorCompare development and competent pay after tax, National Insurance and pension.Open the free pay calculator →

Development and competent pay above firefighter

The same stage principle applies at every rank, and each promotion begins in a new development stage. A newly promoted Crew Manager is on £42,892 until assessed as competent, and then £44,742, a gap of £1,850. A Watch Manager development is £45,711; Competent A is £46,980 (£1,269 above development) and Competent B £50,034 (£4,323 above development). The Station Manager range runs from £52,040 to £57,402, Group Manager £59,937 to £66,445 and Area Manager £70,368 to £77,186.

Above Crew Manager, the Grey Book adds a job-size element: pay is determined by the role, the stage and whether the employee is in the A or B job-size category. It does not define the size criteria in the pay section; those come from how the employer evaluates the post. In practice, two managers with the same title can have different competent rates because their posts are sized differently, so ask which category your post is in.

The Grey Book's time expectation for these roles is eighteen months from entering the programme. Between promotion and competence, acting-up rules matter too: an employee required to undertake the duties of a higher role is paid the development rate of that role, or the competent rate if they have already shown competence in it.

Stage steps above firefighter, national basic pay from 1 July 2026

Role	Development	Competent (or A)	Competent B	Development to top
Crew Manager	£42,892	£44,742	No B band	£1,850
Watch Manager	£45,711	£46,980	£50,034	£4,323
Station Manager	£52,040	£53,604	£57,402	£5,362
Group Manager	£59,937	£61,736	£66,445	£6,508
Area Manager	£70,368	£72,476	£77,186	£6,818

Crew Manager has a single competent rate. Above Crew Manager the A or B category depends on the job-size evaluation.

Continual Professional Development (CPD) payments

CPD is the Grey Book's reward for experienced employees who demonstrate continual professional development over and above competent level. At firefighter level you can apply after five years since attaining competence. Applications are made by 1 March in the year of eligibility, decisions are notified by 1 June, and a successful applicant is paid from 1 July. If you apply and are unsuccessful, you can reapply only after twelve months have passed since your last unsuccessful application.

The value is set per fire authority in NJC circulars and rose 3.8% on 1 July 2026; the FBU reports amounts of £400 to £1,346 a year across authorities. The Grey Book says that a CPD payment is treated as basic pay for all pay-related purposes, including pensionability, sickness and maternity leave, and that part-time employees, including on-call staff, are paid pro rata with a minimum of 25% of the full-time equivalent. It also says services are encouraged to bring the value up to a minimum of £500 a year full-time equivalent within affordability limits.

CPD is not retained on promotion. Once you reach Crew Manager or above and have attained competence in the new role, evidence can be gathered over the following year with a view to a payment from the next July. So a promotion that looks like a £2,534 increase can be worth less in the short term if you lose a CPD payment. Look up your authority in the CPD payments page.

What each promotion is worth in cash

The first promotion from a competent firefighter to Crew Manager development is worth £2,534 a year (from £40,358 to £42,892); to Crew Manager competent it is £4,384. From Crew Manager competent (£44,742) to Watch Manager development (£45,711) the increase is only £969, though reaching Watch Manager Competent A (£46,980) makes it £2,238 and Competent B (£50,034) £5,292.

The steps from Watch Manager Competent B (£50,034) to Station Manager development (£52,040) is £2,006, and from Station Manager Competent B (£57,402) to Group Manager development (£59,937) £2,535. Group Manager Competent B (£66,445) to Area Manager development (£70,368) is £3,923. Station Managers and above can also be on the flexible duty system, which adds a pensionable 20% supplement. See flexi duty allowance explained.

Remember that promotion also changes your pension band and tax position. Moving from £40,358 to £50,034 takes a firefighter from the 12.59% contribution band into the 14.09% band, and a larger proportion of each additional pound is deducted. Real take-home gains are lower than gross gains; see firefighter take-home pay 2026.

Promotion steps and gross annual increase, from 1 July 2026

Step	From	To	Gross increase
Competent Firefighter to Crew Manager (development)	£40,358	£42,892	£2,534
Competent Firefighter to Crew Manager (competent)	£40,358	£44,742	£4,384
Crew Manager (competent) to Watch Manager (development)	£44,742	£45,711	£969
Crew Manager (competent) to Watch Manager (Competent A)	£44,742	£46,980	£2,238
Watch Manager (Competent B) to Station Manager (development)	£50,034	£52,040	£2,006
Station Manager (Competent B) to Group Manager (development)	£57,402	£59,937	£2,535
Group Manager (Competent B) to Area Manager (development)	£66,445	£70,368	£3,923

Free toolPromotion pay calculatorCompare your current pay with the next role, including the effect of losing CPD.Open the free promotion calculator →

Acting up and temporary promotion

You do not have to be substantively promoted to be paid for higher duties. Under the Grey Book, an employee required to undertake the duties of a higher role is paid the basic hourly rate for the development phase of that role, and the competent rate if they have already demonstrated competence in the higher role. For wholetime staff the payment is for a minimum of one shift. For on-call staff the payment covers the duration of the attendance in the higher role and any further attendance up to the end of the continuous cover being provided, capped at 24 hours.

To act up or be temporarily promoted, the Grey Book says an employee must have demonstrated competence in their current role, shown potential to develop beyond it and successfully completed the relevant assessment process for the higher role. So acting-up pay is tied to assessment, not to being asked to cover a gap. If you are asked to cover a higher role without an assessment process being in place, raise it with your service and your representative.

For a worked example: a competent Crew Manager acting up as a Watch Manager (development) would be paid the £20.87 hourly Watch Manager development rate for the shift, against their own £20.43 competent rate, a small difference of £0.44 an hour. The detail is in the acting-up pay guide.

London and other local scales

Some services run local scales that build progression into the pay table. London Fire Brigade's Policy 558 (24 July 2026) has a Competent Plus rate for firefighters, station commanders and group commanders and maximum rates for leading firefighters, sub officers and station officers. A London Competent Firefighter is on £47,991 and moves to £49,223 after five years from PDR sign-off, an increase of £1,232. Station Officers have 1-year, 2-year and maximum (after 3 years) steps, from £57,666 to £62,476.

The LFB policy explains this history: the older NJC CPD payments were consolidated under local agreements between 2008 and 2013, and separate development rates for leading firefighters, sub officers and station officers were abolished from 16 October 2019, with development staff at those ranks paid the competent rate. The result is a scale in which time in rank produces further steps, unlike the national table. See London firefighter salary.

If you are outside London, check whether your service has any local progression arrangements in its pay policy statement. The rule of thumb is that anything not in the NJC circular or your contract is local, and should be written down.

Pay reform: what may change

Pay progression has been a live subject in national talks. When the 2025 agreement was reported, the employers and the FBU said there would be further talks on pay progression and payments for additional duties. After the 2026 award, the FBU's circular of 2 July 2026 said its negotiators would continue detailed engagement through the NJC to achieve an agreed programme of pay reform, focused on a fairer and more transparent pay system, better career progression and greater national consistency, and that the NJC Joint Secretaries would soon issue a revised circular containing newly agreed pay bandings.

At the time of writing, this guide's figures come from NJC/2/26, the published circular. Any revised circular on bandings would supersede the relevant parts, so check the NJC circulars page or your service for updates. This guide will need updating if progression rules change; the date at the top of the page shows when it was last checked.

For how national pay is agreed and what consultation means, see FBU pay claim and NJC process. For your own position, the payslip checker confirms whether your stage and rate match the national figures, and the Personal Pay Report gives a written summary.

Frequently asked questions

How does firefighter pay progression work?

You start on the development rate, £31,539 from 1 July 2026, and move to the competent rate, £40,358, when assessed as competent in every applicable function. Above Crew Manager there are A and B competent bands. There are no automatic yearly increments in the national table.

How long does it take to become a competent firefighter?

The Grey Book says most firefighters should demonstrate competence within three years of entry, and other roles within eighteen months, but it depends on assessment opportunities. London Fire Brigade describes 18 to 24 months as a Development Firefighter after initial training.

What is the difference between competent A and B?

From Watch Manager upwards the Grey Book sets pay by role, stage and whether the post is in the A or B job-size category. B pays more: a Watch Manager Competent A is £46,980 and Competent B £50,034 from 1 July 2026. The category depends on the post, not the person.

When can a firefighter apply for CPD?

At firefighter level you can apply after five years since attaining competence. Applications are made by 1 March, decisions notified by 1 June, and successful applicants are paid from 1 July. CPD is not retained on promotion and can be applied for again after a competent period in the new role.

Do firefighters get annual increments?

Not in the national NJC table. Pay changes through national awards each July, progression from development to competent, promotion, CPD and local terms. Some services, such as London Fire Brigade, have local steps such as Competent Plus after five years.

Is acting-up pay the same as promotion pay?

Acting up is paid at the basic hourly rate for the development phase of the higher role, or the competent rate if you have already shown competence in it. It is temporary and tied to assessment, whereas substantive promotion changes your role and contractual pay.