1. I am a highly motivated and result orientated member of the Flood Resilience Team (FRT). I am
responsible for reviewing Flood Warning areas, the management of the Incident Duty Officers’ roster
and overseeing the maintenance of the Area Incident room.
As an Assistant Flood Warning Duty Officer for number of years, I developed the ability to work on my
own initiative and demonstrated the ability to work flexibly through high pressure flooding incidents ,
including the December 2013 tidal surge in which I was heavily involved with. This included the
welfare of the duty teams making sure they had everything that was needed. I also had to manage the
balance of my own workload and duty shifts so that my own day job was not affected.
I work with Floodline Warnings Direct (FWD) on a daily basis, registering, cancelling and updating our
customers’ details. As part of this I have built up a strong customer focus due to keeping the
customers informed about their FWD accounts, and helping them understand how it will work for them
and what the system will do. I also use FWD to extract statistics and reports from the system to inform
team working.
While working on reviewing flood warning areas I have had to analyse and interpret previous flood
data from a variety of sources. This could involve searching through previous data or talking
externally to customers and interpreting the information that they provide. Through analysing and
interpreting this information thoroughly, I have improved the accuracy and timeliness of flood warning
service that we provide to our customers. Recently I was involved supporting the Technical Specialist
to review all the Tidal Flood Alerts and Warnings in Cambs and Beds area. I contributed to
discussions with external partners about the proposed flood warning changes in order to get their
support and obtain any additional flood observations they may have had
Through working with duty officers I have developed excellent organisational and problem solving
skills which I have demonstrated by ensuring all IT equipment and procedures are fit for purpose and
resolving any issues raised by duty officers. Working closely with duty officers and having a Facilities
background has helped me build up effective working relationships with teams in Cambs and Beds
area, as well as some teams from other areas.
I have voluntarily chaired our FRT meeting and found this experience daunting yet thoroughly
enjoyable. I learnt how to engage the team in the meeting. It also helped me embrace and adapt to
the task in front of me and helped me understand how to hold meetings and to plan the agenda items
to fit into the meeting.
Part of my current role is to process and deal with excel spreadsheets that are sent from a national
team. This involves dealing with customers and FWD and is work I have been sharing with a
colleague to coach them in how this process works so I am then able to pass over some of this work
to them.
I have project managed the upgrade of our Area Incident Room, liaised with a wide variety of
stakeholders and contractors to ensure the project was kept on track. This experience has helped me
develop my communication skills both internally and externally. Once the project was complete I
presented the changes to Duty Officers, so they were equipped to carry out their roles effectively.
I have worked with a wide variety of internal teams that has enabled me work closely with the different
team members and learn new skills. I am looking for a new challenge and I am really excited by the
opportunity to further my experience within the Flood Resilience Team, whilst expanding on my
knowledge.