Marc Hudson

Authentic, passionate & experienced strategic leader within a leading, high performing & transformational Fire and Rescue Service.

I am an authentic, passionate and experienced leader with a proven track record for developing and leading high performing teams through periods of transformation and change.

With a passion for serving the diverse communities of the West Midlands and as a Diversity, Inclusion and Equality champion & ally, I am committed to creating a welcoming, accepting and equitable environment for all individuals; strongly believing that every individual deserves to be treated with dignity, respect, and fairness, and that diversity is a strength that should be celebrated and embraced.

I have a keen interest in understanding organisational culture and how this can both benefit and hinder the development and transformation of an organisation; in addition to this, I have extensive experience in leading transformational projects which involve effective governance arrangements, procurement & financial management, budgeting & engineered solutions, effective stakeholder communication and engagement.

I have been operating as a Level 2 Incident Commander for the past 7 years.

Over this time I have led a number of operational incidents of various complexity, including significant Tall Building and Commercial Building Fires; in addition to attending a plethora of other incident types including SSCs, Assist Police and significant Floodings.

Through the role of National Inter-Agency Liaison Officer, I have been exposed to a number of incidents working alongside various partners including Police / Police FIM, Ambulance / Ambulance Tac Ads and EOD. Incidents have included a suspect device at Birmingham New St Train Station and the most recent Major Incident involving Pipeline theft, where I chaired the Tactical Coordination Group until handover to Local Authority for recovery which included a large array of partners arranged through the Local Resilience Forum.

Current Specialisms

National Inter-Agency Liaison Officer

FDS Fire Safety

Fire Control Support Officer

Post Incident Diffusion

Accident Investigation

Current Qualifications

MAGIC qualified

CBRN(e) Strategic Command

Below are a list of my key accomplishments:

• Project Manager for the successful implementation of Risk Based Crewing saving Circa £2.4m per annum. Improving both efficiency and productivity, the Risk Based Crewing project continues to challenge cultural norms.
• Maximising the impact of Social Value in Procurement activity through targeting Social Value to provide a positive impact on the services organisational strategy.
• Leading the successful management and oversight of the services 'His Majesty's Inspectorate for Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services inspection, which has lead to improved outcomes and exceptional feedback from the lead inspector.
• Development, procurement and introduction of the Incident Command Unit, providing a state of the art Incident Command vehicle designed for large, multi agency incidents enabling true joint agency working through shared understanding of incident information.
• Creating the concept, overseeing the development and Introduction of Vega Incident Command software, moving to a digitally advanced software, which enabled live tracking of incident information such as risks, incident log, mapping and asset locations.
• Project Manager for rebuild and relocation of Cradley Heath Fire Station to Haden Cross Fire Station, designing a new Fire station with community and Firefighter decontamination at the heart of the design.
• Project Manager for relocation and refurbishment of Coventry Fire Station into temporary accommodation.
• Project Manager for relocation of Fire Control. Of cultural importance, this challenging project involved moving a team of people from a separate 'isolated' building, integrating into the main HQ.
• Concept to Delivery of 'Surviving Driving' the services biggest Road Safety education event involving Circa 1500 young people over the course of 2 days.

I am a keen advocate in the importance of giving something back to society. Since 1998 I have been involved in volunteering during my free time, voluntary work gives me a feeling of making a real difference in my local community. My voluntary work has centred around helping young people, providing an opportunity to tackle social issues and address unmet needs, helping them to foster a sense of purpose and fulfilment.

My experience of volunteering have included:

Coventry Central Fire Cadets: 1998 - 2015 - lead instructor and treasurer

Providing diversionary activities to Young People predominantly from the inner city areas of Coventry. Fire Cadets helps to empower young people, providing them with essential life skills and helping them to be positive community role models.

Coventry Youth Justice Service: 2017 - 2023 - Referral Panel Member

Leading discussions between Young Person, Family and Youth Justice worker, to agree a contract of activity to rehabilitate young people who have going through offender management process this includes consideration to restorative justice throughout the process.

Personal Impact

A leader with a proven track record of developing teams and individuals to deliver transformational change, I am looking to further my career and believe that I am ideally situated to continue in a strategic role within the service.

I have been privileged to work across several areas of the Service over the past 23 years, which has not only led to me being a more rounded strategic leader but has enabled me to make effective & lasting relationships with stakeholders both internally and externally, which come as a benefit to the service in delivering its strategy.

I am currently undertaking the role of Head of Portfolio which involves me having strategic oversight of areas including governance, risk, assurance, data & intelligence and importantly community risk management planning; aside to this, is my responsibilities in directly supporting the Chief Fire Officer to ensure that the service is presenting in the best possible way and that any risks to the organisation are raised and mitigated before they materialise.

I work well with staff from across the organisation and my peers with the Strategic Enabling Team (SET) and believed to be a well-respected leader within the Service, I have no fear in challenging or being challenged and value healthy two-way discussions & listening to opposing or alternative views, I see this very much a part of a healthy mature organisation with a commitment for continual improvement.

I recognise that creating a truly inclusive and equitable service is a continuous process and committed to serving as a dedicated and passionate ally in this ongoing effort. Together, I believe we can build a more just, compassionate, and connected Service for all.

Being anti-discriminatory as opposed to non-discriminatory is of upmost importance to my personal values, I do not walk away from difficult conversations nor do I ignore inappropriate behaviour or comments (in person or online), I am committed to standing up and being counted as the role model that I strive to be.

I enjoy representing the service both internally and externally and take full advantage when given the opportunity to speak passionately around our people and the strategic objectives of the Service, this has evidenced through my role as Service Liaison Lead (SLL) for His Majesty's Inspectorate for Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), regional Chief Fire Officers CRMP presentations, visit by London Fire Brigade and my on-going commitment to the 20 and 30 year long service presentations.

Personal reflection & feedback are critical in my growth as a strategic leader, I am aware of the pressures at working at a strategic level and the need for health and wellbeing considerations in all that I and the team do. I am aware of the need to focus on ‘self' and find the right balance between both professional and personal life, understanding that a right balance maintains the positive approach at work, I have recently implemented health & wellbeing considerations into the Portfolio Teams IPDRs so that I have assurance that these conversations are taking place and we are providing the necessary support to our teams.

I am an experienced Level 2 Incident Commander who has managed or supported a number of multi-agency incidents including a 15 pump tall building fire with multiple fire survival guidance, grenade found at New Street train station and more recently chaired the tactical coordination group meetings for the Pipeline Major Incident.

In addition to the above, I hold a number of operational specialisms which contribute towards my experience and capability both on and off the incident ground, these include:

• National Inter-Agency Liaison Officer
• Post Incident Diffuser
• Fire Control Support
• Fire Safety
• Accident Investigation

Outstanding Leadership

I believe my strongest natural asset is my authentic leadership capability. I have developed a proven track record of bringing people together particularly through journeys of transformation & change with a good example being the Fire Control relocation project.

I believe key to my leadership success is my open, honest and timely communication & engagement, this was evident with the Risk Based Crewing project where throughout the lifecycle of the project I communicated in a way that kept people informed with honest an accurate information, with transparency being the key.

I have a very inclusive leadership style with a strong emphasis on building and developing teams and individuals with a focus on delivering results and always with the right behaviours. I work hard to understand team dynamics and the strengths across the teams and where I can use these strengths to effectively deliver against our priorities; equally I seek every opportunity to develop teams & individuals ensuring that they are setup to succeed; this has been evident recently through the restructure of the Portfolio Team and the additional support required by certain team members, delivered through the IPDR process.

Mechanisms such as feedback, debrief and evaluations are critical, not only within the Portfolio Team, but across the Service to enable continual improvement and to ensure we continue to foster a learning environment. These mechanisms are embedded within the Portfolio and recently evidenced in the SET workshop of our latest HMI inspection and through the Organisational Intelligence function with recent reports such as Babbs Mill and New Cross Hospital.

Often referred to as a people person and recognising the power in diversity of thought, I consistently strive, where practicable, to involve the widest group of stakeholders to gain a rounded view of opinions before making a ultimate decision, such as the well-attended Joint Working Party (JWP) for the Risk Based Crewing project; recognising that success is enabled through collaboration and connectivity; this is however, balanced against my ability to make a decision or judgement call under pressure when and where required as the situation dictates.

I pride myself on being an ambassador for the service and leading by example whether that be how I present myself, to the standard & quality of my work, through to my involvement as an Ally with Fireout networking group – doing as I do and not just as I say, is hugely important to me and I believe reinforces the pride and professionalism that we seeking to improve in the team and across the wider service.

Service Delivery

Maintaining a focus on delivering and improving community outcomes is a key focus within the Portfolio, I make it my priority for all members of the team to fully understand where they fit into the vision of making the communities of the West Midlands Safer, Stronger and Healthier. I find it equally important the team understand the principles of community at heart.

I understand the impact that the Portfolio can have on creating positive outcomes for our communities and the role it plays in providing the evidence base through the Data Analysts and the Community Risk Management Plan; this ensures that decision making is based on risk, data and a firm evidence base.

Risk Based Crewing is a good example of improving services to our community which considers long term sustainable financial management for the service saving Circa £2.3m per annum in efficiencies through staffing, but also increases productivity, maximising community benefit, through simultaneous working.

As project manager I had responsibility & accountability for end user requirements, selection and recruitment of project team & external providers, stakeholder analysis & engagement (formal & informal), procurement & financial control, monitoring of time, cost & quality, decision making and evaluation.

Key to the success of this project was:

• Open, honest, and transparent communications, highlighting not only the areas of the project that were going well, but importantly areas where further development or critical feedback was being received, this built a level of trust.
• Strong, effective joint working party where all members contributed equally throughout the lifecycle of the project.
• Involvement of all three representative bodies was really important and although one of the three wasn't overtly supportive of the concept, the relationship was one where we all worked together to achieve a common goal.
• Local ownership by teams / individuals feeling involved and informed at all stages of the project and in the decision-making process where necessary.

As Service Liaison Lead for HMICFRS, I take a leading role in ensuring that the information presented to the inspectorate is accurate and in the correct format, a key part of this is highlighting to the CFO and the wider strategic enabling team of any emerging issues that arise as a result of my findings and to ensure a plan is put in place to ensure a timely resolution to mitigate against any risk to the Service, an example of which was the site specific risk information (SSRI) issue highlighted through Portfolio during the last inspection.

The Fire Authority play a key role in the accountability of the service on behalf of the communities that we serve. I take a leading role in overseeing the preparation of documents for the Authority to scrutinise and review. I also lead and influence the strategic team on the key themes of strategic importance that should be presented to the Members Engagement Forum (formally PPF) which is an important meeting in the Authorities governance.

Linked to this is the ability to influence key strategic priorities through political leaders such as the Fire Authority and the media alike, this involves horizon scanning and grasping opportunities as and when they present themselves, a recent example involves a fire in a tall building that was extinguished by the retrofitted sprinklers, as Head of Portfolio, I highlighted this to the CFO and suggested this be included in the next Members Engagement Forum to influence all Local Authorities to retrofit sprinklers & also through the media to ensure that not only the good news story was shared but also the key message of the importance of sprinklers in tall buildings, this piece of comms fed into the NFCC national campaign.

Organisational Effectiveness

As Head of Portfolio, I have created a road map of activity that not only meets the minimum requirements expected of the team, but one which also stretches the team and focuses on continual improvements and change.I have learnt that it is important to be adaptable to changing circumstance and priorities, ensuring that prioritised actions are aligned to that of the organisation.

The Portfolio regularly receive requests from outside organisations such as National Fire Chiefs Council or Home Office which often have tight timelines. As Head of Portfolio I have to prioritise activity to ensure that critical work and legal priorities are still met balancing against these other competing priorities.

The Home Office request for a productivity and efficiency report is an example of a critical piece of work that needed to be delivered in a relatively short period. By me reviewing the teams workplans, allocating sufficient resource, interrogating complex data sets and engaging and influencing peers cross programmes ensured that this report was completed to a high level and on time.

Considering the long-term political view of the above report and the subsequent productivity measures from the Home Office and that this will be linked to potential future funding, I have commissioned a research project to consider how the West Midlands Fire Service can accurately measure the productivity of a Firefighter, given that the Home Office measures will not be in a position to do this. This piece of work will critically analyse evidence and data to provide a report with recommendations for the CFO to consider.

Once understood, these productivity measures could compliment the ongoing development of the Strategic Performance Review Board (SPRB) meetings that I have ownership for. Although this Is an ongoing piece of work, progress is being made to align SPRB measures with strategy mapping ensuring that we have more meaningful performance metrics and are subsequently effective at delivering our services to the communities of the West Midlands.

I have also sought to implement changes to existing practices to ensure that the Service can be as effective as it possibly can be.This has included the following pieces of work:

• Project Categorisation: I have influenced, shaped and contributed towards the project categorisation modelling and system changes with the 3PT system. This piece of work will ensure that the wider portfolios & programmes focus is on transformational projects over the continuous (day to day) work packages and is aligned to the agreed annual priorities document.
• One Risk Management: Following a successful external audit, I have continued to progress the ‘one risk management' plan, linking all organisational risks from project through to corporate risks. I have implemented the first step towards this ambitious goal by moving corporate risks onto the risk management system with the introduction of dedicated dashboards to have live tracking of all risks within the Service, moving away from a historic risk reporting through Excel.
• SPRB: I have added assurance elements into SPRB to ensure, on behalf of the CFO, that actions and recommendations from internal & external pieces of work are being managed effectively and timelines are met. Examples include Fire Standards, Spotlight review & Manchester Arena inquiry.
• Social Value: Leading beyond authority, I have presented an opportunity into SET to adopt a targeted approach to Social Value, with an emphasis on where Social Value can add a positive impact against the strategy of the service in making the West Midlands Safer, Stronger and Healthier. This has to date, seen investment towards our DICE agenda with a number of offers including funding towards the cost of our annual inclusive employees membership.

I am a hardworking, committed member of the Service and I will not only look to maintain continuity and momentum in the work of the Portfolio but will continually seek to explore new ideas & ways of working to maximise our efficiency and effectiveness, continuing to work inclusively with all internal and external stakeholders to build stronger relationships.

I believe, that with my extensive experience and understanding across the service and my authentic leadership skills, that I am uniquely positioned to take up any one of the 'head of' roles.