Fire Services Examinations Board

History of the Fire Service Statutory Examinations

This booklet traces the history of the statutory examinations in the Fire Service since the establishment of the Fire Services Central Examinations Board in 1958 to conduct the Station Officers' examination, the review in 1976 to create a national system and then again in 1985 that saw the creation of the Fire Services Examinations Board and the extension of the examinations to include Scotland, through to the recent review of the Fire Service and the publication of the Training Strategy Report in 1984, which identified that future assessment systems should be based on the competence approach. This last review of examinations and qualifications has seen the development of the Integrated Personal Development System (IPDS) that will now replace the statutory examinations by 2006.