Agenda item

The Chair invited Jess Norman to introduce the report.

Jess explained that at the FSMC meeting in October 2019, members agreed to make Inclusion one of the three main priorities for the year and that this report outlined some of the work being done to reflect this increasing emphasis.

Jess said that the HMICFRS had identified a range of problems around diversity and inclusion in their first tranche of inspections and highlighted the fact 25 services received

Require Improvement judgements and two were graded Inadequate in the ‘People’ pillar.

Jess said that the LGA had set targets for diversity in recruitment and retention 2 years ago in its Fire Vision but latest Home Office workforce statistics showed that much work still remained to be done if the targets were to be met.

Jess explained that a key piece of work being done by the LGA was the establishment of a Diversity and Inclusion Champions’ Network which met for the first time in January. The aim of the network was to disseminate good practice and to drive change in FRS’s locally and the LGA was encouraging all FRA’s to appoint a Champion.

Jess said that the LGA was continuing to work with its key partners on improving inclusion and diversity, in particular the NFCC through their People Programme and via the NJC-led Inclusive Fire Service Group (IFSG).

Finally, Jess explained that the LGA was proposing to stop providing bespoke, standalone events on culture, diversity and inclusion as these were not considered to be the best way to engage members from a wide range of authorities on this agenda. The Leadership Essentials programmes however, would continue and the Champions’ Network would discuss possible future training resources for members.

Following Jess’s introduction, members raised the following comments and questions:

·       Were the NFCC workstreams outlined in paragraph 9 still on track to be delivered and what was the Future Working Patterns project? Jess said that she believed that they were all still being worked on but were on target. She said that the Future Working Patterns was a new programme to replace the on-call project and included looking at how more flexible approaches could help support a more diverse range of new recruits. Mark Norris said that if members were interested, more information could be brought back on this to a future FSMC meeting.

·       Was the effectiveness of the IFSG work being assessed? Gill Gittins said that an in-depth piece of work to review the implementation and impact of its work was now underway and a full report would be produced.

·       It was considered that the FSMC should be leading by example when it came to promoting diversity.

·       It was suggested that inclusion and diversity should be embedded in all LGA training, not just as one-off standalone items.

·       The Leadership Essentials course was praised. Jess said that it continued to be very popular and the ‘conversations on culture’ element was very important in raising awareness of diversity and inclusion issues with leaders.

·       There was considered to be an issue with retention of BAME fire service staff, possibly in relation to pay gaps. Were figures on BAME pay gap collected as they were with gender?

·       The accuracy of the HMICFRS conclusions on cultural problems in FRS’s was queried, in particular, whether a few isolated examples of bad practice were being used to draw conclusions across the board. The Chair confirmed that these were genuine and widespread issues that needed to be addressed. Mark Norris said that one of the State of Fire report’s recommendations was to establish a model code of conduct for the fire service which could help to address some of the poor performance.

·       Was there enough awareness of the NFCC’s Inclusivity Strategy and had the LGA been part of drawing it up?

The Chair thanked Jess and other officers for their work in this important area.

Decision

Subject to the comments made during the debate, members endorsed the proposed approach and next steps outlined in paragraphs 17-23 of the report.

Actions

Officers and NFCC to bring a report back to a future FSMC meeting on the Future Working Patterns project.