Profile

Dr Steve Sadler is an interdisciplinary senior researcher, strategic consultant, and experienced UK On-call firefighter, who has served in four UK Fire and Rescue Services over the last 15 years. He has studied culture, change, and its impact in fire and rescue services through his research, and experienced it extensively in his operational roles. 

As a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Keele University, Steve developed the UK’s first research-led model of good practice to sustain On-call fire engine availability. Since then he has completed several On-call related projects with several fire and rescue services across the UK - all aimed at augmenting availability of On-call fire engines. 

He also co-created the software OARS (On-call Availability, Recruitment and Skills) recently lauded by HMI as a Promising Practice. OARS turns On-call complexity into clarity so services can use data to drive meaningful, evidence-based action. OARS is used in hundreds of fire stations across the UK in several FRSs with a proven track record supporting a sustainable, resilient and available On-call system.