Fire and Rescue Service Equality Framework

The Head of Prevention and Inclusion Policy delivers presentations to the members of the Fire & Rescue Authority and senior managment to update their knowledge about the latest legislation, such as the Equality Act 2010. The presentations cover what the changes mean and how they can work to satisfy them within their roles.

To ensure that inclusion and equality is considered in all strategic decision making the Head of Prevention and Inclusion Policy regularly attends the Strategic Leadership Team meetings as a corporate adviser.

In order to improve communications and promote good relations employees from across the Service attended the Guru Arjan Dev Gurdwara temple in Derby. This gave employees the opportunity to learn about the Sikh community and the importance of the Vaisakhi festival. It also provided an insight into the difference between different cultures for example that there are no set times of worship and that people regularly come and go all day long and that men and women sit in separate places to worship.

An Inclusion Strategy has been written that sets out how the Service will meet the requirements of the new Equality Act. The strategy replaced the Corporate Equality Plan, Race, Disability and Gender Equality Schemes. The strategy affirms the Services commitment to our statutory duties and highlights how we will use good equality practice to improve service delivery and employee relations.
The Inclusion Strategy was presented to the Equality and Diversity Forum in March 2011 and subsequently put out for public consultation.

Following feedback from officers a full review of the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) process was carried out at the beginning of 2010. As a result a new strategy and process for EIAs was introduced which also addressed the changes required by the new Equality Act 2010. All managers where trained in the new process to develop their skill and confidence in completing EIAs.

This process was used to complete an EIA for the proposed restructure of the Service and ensure that no protected characteristics were detrimentally impacted by the changes. The EIA was completed by the Head of Equality and Diversity with the assistance of SLT.

A Migration Action Plan was introduced at the beginning of 2011 to assist the Service in reaching the Fire and Rescue Service Equality Frameworks excellence level. Progress against the plan is monitored by both the Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) and the Equality and Diversity Forum.

The Service has a robust governance process in place to manage and drive the inclusion agenda. We have a dedicated Inclusion and Equality Forum, which is chaired by an elected member of the Fire and Rescue Authority. We also have an internal operational group, which is led by all Area Managers to drive forward the work on the Journey to Excellence and our Inclusion Strategy Action Plan.

The Service makes use of a wide variety of external and internal data to help it target its service delivery. We work closely with partner organisations accepting referals to work with vulnerable people or those with chaeelenging behaviour.

Helping the Vulnerable

We make use of the Mosaic UK demographic data provided by Experian which allows us to target the vulnerable groups in our community when planning prevention activities.

Working with Migrant Communities

Our Community Safety Officers work closely with the Migrant Outreach Officers, who are based in the Community Safety Department at Police Headquarters, to improve the service we deliver to migrant communities. As a result of this partnership ourselves and the Police have carried out a number of community-based cohesion initiatives aimed at:

• Providing information on UK laws, customs and fire safety
• Carrying out myth-busting activities
• Supporting projects and organisations working towards greater community cohesion
• Conducting engagement sessions to identify the needs and concerns of our migrant communities

Language Line Services

The Service uses a telephone interpretation to aid communication with members of communities who have a limited knowledge of the English language.

The service was initially trialed by the command and control team and the service reception who deal with the public in life-critical situations. Following the success of this trial it has been rolled out for use by all operational and support personnel who have contact with the public.

The service is extremely easy to access and requires no special equipment. A normal telephone handset or mobile phone can be passed between the employee and the limited english speaker.

Protecting Young People

The Service recognises the importance of communicating with the young people in our communities to inform them and keep them safe. We engage with young people in a number of ways:

• Visiting schools to educate young people about the dangers of fire, the importance of having working smoke alarms in their home, making escape plans and the causes of fire in the home
• Working with young firesetters through our Firesafe scheme.
• Carrying out Dying 2 Drive campaigns across the county which highlight the dangers of driving under the influence of drink and/or drugs, speeding and reckless driving. These campaigns are often enhanced by road traffic collision displays that drive home the consequences of taking risks behind the wheel of a car.
• Running Youth Engagement Scheme (YES!) courses to provide disaffected young people with the opportunity to work as part of a team and discover what it takes to be a firefighter.

Making the most of Community Events

Community Events are an excellent opportunity to engage. Some examples of what we have done at previous events are below:

• During the Diwali festival of lights employees visited a total of five temples including the Singh Sabha and Guru Arjan temples. Employees learnt more about different cultures, distributed advice on candle safety and gave out safe battery operated candles to worshippers at the temples.
• A community awareness day was carried out at Derby County Football Ground, Pride Park in August 2010. The purpose of the day was to inform the community about the various aspects of the Services work and to promote the Service as an employer of choice. The event was supported by partner agencies including the Ambulance Service and Derby College.
• Members of the Service have also attended and participated in the Caribbean Carnival, Derby Goes Pink, Derbyshire Skills Festival and Festival World of Culture where the Service provides fire safety advice and career information to members of the public.

An Employer of Choice

Training opportunities begin before you are an employee of the Service. In partnership with Derby College we offer access to a course for potential applicants that do not meet the Maths and English requirements.

The Service has worked in partnership with the Job Centre and Connexions to promote careers within the Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service as part of the Community and Local Government Ordinary People, Extraordinary Careers campaign.

Inclusion for All

Inclusion and equality is a core element of the induction programme for service employees. This ensures that our employees are aware of the organisation's commitment to inclusion and fairness. It also highlights their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 and completes the required set of skills and competencies they will need to work with pride and confidence.

For the last few years the Service has run a theatre style production, in association with the Garnett Foundation, to encourage employees to look at the way they view people and any unconscious bias they may have. The actors involved deliver several scenes before allowing the audience to ask the characters questions about the way in which they are behaving and treating others. In the final scene of the production the audience are given the chance to influence the actual behaviour of the characters in the play. Following on from successful training for operational and support employees in 2009 and 2010, the theatre style training was delivered to elected members and amangers at all levels in 2011.

During the Station and Watch Managers development days a series of briefings on mainstreaming inclusion and equality into the Service were delivered. The briefings covered the new Equality Act and its implications for the Service.

Opportunities for Women

Following on from the recognition that woman in operational roles were not putting themselves forward for promotion it was agreed that the national development programme for women Springboard should be actively promoted to all employees. The Springboard programme is designed to encourage women to take control of their life, both professionally within the workplace and / or their personal life.

Working with Action for the Blind

Following the commencement of partnership work with Derbyshire Action for the Blind (DAB) it was identified that the Community Safety Officers needed sight awareness training. Due to our partnership DAB agreed to provide the training at no cost to the Service. Following the training Community Safety Officers were able to more confidentaly and effectively deliver fire safety messages to those with visual impairments.

The Derbsyhire Fire & Rescue Service is recognised as an exemplar of good practice by other fire and rescue services. In spring 2010 we hosted an event for the Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service to share information on equality and diversity good practice with a number of their officers. The topics covered included the identification of target groups, performance management and leadership delivered over a couple of days. Following the event the Service received a letter of thanks from the Chief Fire Officer of Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service for all of our assistance.

The Equality Act 2010 requires that we monitor, report and publish information about our employees. Improvements to the Snowdrop Human Resources system will allow us to record information about the protected characteristics identified by the Equality Act.

The Service is also a member of a number of local and national initiatives where we can evaluate the work of others, have our work evaluated and share good practice.

Locally we are part of:

• The Derby Equality and Diversity Network
  Where we share good practice with our County and City partners

Nationally we are part of:

• The Chief Fire Officers Association Champions Group
• Networking Women in the Fire Service
  We are corporate members and have demonstrated our commitment by supporting a Group Manager who has become the national Vice Chair
• Asian Fire Service Association (ASFA)
  We are corporate members and our Head of Prevention & Inclusion Policy is the national Vice Chair of the National Executive of AFSA
• Stonewall
  We are corporate members of Stonewall

Between 29 and 31 May 2012, Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service (DFRS) was visited by the Fire and Rescue Service Equality Framework (FRSEF) Peer Challenge Team. The team was made up of members of fire and rescue services, fire authorities and local government bodies from outside of Derbyshire. Members were sourced through the Peer Clearing House which is responsible for the recruitment, accreditation and placement of peers for activities right across the local government sector.

Why?

Our peers were invited here to provide an external challenge to the self-assessment produced by DFRS against the FRSEF. In common with the 2009 Operational Assessment that the Service was subject to, the Fire & Rescue Service Equality Framework (FRSEF) provides a platform to move away from an inspection regime instead using a peer review process.

How?

The DFRS drives its own improvement through the self-assessment process. The self-assessment, against the requirements of the FRSEF, was open and honest and involved a range of employees and partners in order to gain the maximum benefit. The self-assessment was followed by the peer review process. The peer review involved gathering of information from a range of key sources, such as the self-assessment, documents, interviews and focus groups, which was then assessed against the Key Lines of Enquiry contained within the FRSEF which are:

• Leadership and promoting inclusion
• Accountability
• Effective service delivery and community engagement
• Employment and training
• Evaluation and sharing good practice

After reviewing the evidence the peer assessors then decide whether to confirm the Services self-assessment rating or suggest one of thieir own.

You can download a copy of our submitted Equality Framework Journey to Excellence document below.

Equality Framework - Journey to Excellence (9.63Mb)

What was the outcome?

Following the visit the peer assessment group decided that they agreed with the DFRS's own self assessment that against the FRSEF we are performing at an excellent level.

If you would like more information about the peer challenge please send your question to us using our contact form.