Lynsey McVay

Lynsey began her career with Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service in May 2000 where she initially served as a firefighter at Carlisle Fire Station. She progressed to become a Crew Manager at Workington Fire Station then took on a Watch Manager role.

In 2008 Lynsey took a national secondment, which involved developing and delivering the Enhanced Command Support capability as part of the National Resilience Programme.

On her return to Cumbria she worked as part of the Operational Training Department and played a key role in establishing a new incident command school. Lynsey then progressed to the role of Flexible Duty Station Manager in service delivery, overseeing both whole time and retained fire stations.

She went on to manage the initial fire control transition from Cumbria to Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service. This project developed further with the agreement of the introduction of a North West Fire Control function which was to be based in Warrington.

As Transition Manager for North West Fire Control, Lynsey managed the changeover of Cumbria’s mobilising function into the regional facility. She later took on responsibility for a number of strategic projects on behalf of Cumbria.

She spent 12 months in the role then transferred to service delivery, where she was responsible for Warrington and Halton unitary areas.

Lynsey is an avid supporter of staff networks in order to encourage and support minority groups and members of the local community.

She was the North West Regional Representative for Women in the Fire Service for several years. She was also an active member of Cheshire’s FirePride network and successfully launched women’s networks in both of her previous services.