Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2023-2026

We will improve our understanding of all our communities to keep them safe from fire and other emergencies

• Keeping our communities safe from fire and other emergencies 
• Putting people first to maintain an outstanding culture of equality and inclusivity
• Having a well-equipped, trained, competent and safe workforce
• Delivering an efficient and effective service, that adds value to our communities
• Promoting continuous improvement through effective challenge and embracing learning

• We will monitor casualty trends making sure resources are targeted to the groups most vulnerable
• We will engage with all our communities, not only those that have been involved in emergencies, through positive interaction and engagement.
• We will ensure the decisions we make are consulted on to allow everyone in our community to be heard.

By allowing incident and equality data to drive our Prevention, Protection and Response Strategies

Success will be a reduction in all incident types, most importantly those involving casualties and fatalities of groups most at risk and disproportionalities effectively reduced

This will be measured through our performance reporting mechanisms reflecting on historical data as a benchmark, and monitoring of emerging

We will improve our understanding of our workforce and create an environment where all can achieve

• Keeping our communities safe from fire and other emergencies 
• Having a well-equipped, trained, competent 
  and safe workforce
• Delivering an efficient and effective service, that adds value to our communities
• Promoting continuous improvement through effective challenge and embracing learning

• We will review our key policies and processes, embedding the core code of ethics throughout our recruitment activity, interview processes, induction training and subsequently employee development and appraisals
• We will promote the importance of Equality Data, to increase our understanding of the workforce
• We will formalise our Employee Support Networks to ensure they foster inclusivity, advocate for minority groups, improve organisational performance and deliver real and sustained change
• We will ensure that all projects that impact people consider and addresses the diverse needs of our workforce through stakeholder engagement, consultation with the Services Employee Support Networks alongside a robust Equality Impact Assessment

Through our People Strategy and subsequent sub strategies

EDI Department will govern completion rates of Equality Impact Assessments and the People Performance Board will provide scrutiny

Success will be an increase in the participation and engagement for groups who currently report low rates and scores through our workforce surveys

This will be supplemented by obtaining increased equality data of our workforce

This will be measured through our performance reporting mechanisms

We will improve the representation of the workforce to reflect the community we serve; to provide the diversity of thought, skills, and experiences required to make everyone in Derbyshire safer

• Keeping our communities safe from fire and other emergencies 
• Putting people first to maintain an outstanding culture of equality and inclusivity
• Having a well-equipped, trained, competent 
  and safe workforce
• Delivering an efficient and effective service, that adds value to our communities
• Promoting continuous improvement through effective challenge and embracing learning

• We will use data to inform our workforce representation action plan for positive action across attraction, recruitment, retention and progression, including actions contained within the Gender Pay Gap Report 2023
• We will ensure all staff are trained in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, including the value of positive action and having a diverse workforce
• We will promote the benefits of positive action within the service and the community, understanding a representative workforce results in a more efficient and effective service
• We will review the attrition rates at each stage of the recruitment process and act to reduce disproportionality where it is evidenced
• We will monitor the proportion of different groups who are eligible and actively seeking progression through promotion
• We will provide support, identifying process improvements and providing relevant development or training where needed
• We will monitor the rates of those exiting the organisation relative to the current representation and seek to act on any factors that may impact on under-represented group retention rates
• We will explore innovative and alternative methods of on-call recruitment and retention; working with our people, our partners and the public to identify and remove prohibitive barriers
• We will be transparent in our activities, ensuring that no group are discriminated against in order to provide opportunity to another

We will create a Workforce Representation Group under the People Strategy and CRMP dedicated to deliver improvements in workforce representation

Success in this area will be a data led assessment of our workforce against our communtiy profile data, which will see an increase in representation particulary against

those who are currently      under-represented within the service

Success in this area will be governed through our People and Service Delivery Performance Boards

We will identify opportunities to utilise digital technology to create a more inclusive and accessible environment

• Keeping our communities safe from fire and other emergencies 
• Having a well-equipped, trained, competent 
  and safe workforce
• Delivering an efficient and effective service, that adds value to our communities
• Promoting continuous improvement through effective challenge and embracing learning
• Enabling the organisation through data and digital transformation

• We will continue to look at ways to allow growth of individuals in our Service through training, development or assessment and by making sure our training equipment and facilities adapt to create a more inclusive and accessible environment
• We will make use of digital technology to improve engagement with our people and our communities
• We will ensure risk information, toolkits, policies, and guidance through online platforms both internally with our employees and externally with partner organisations are accessible and easy to understand
• We will continue to identify and invest in new opportunities to utilise digital technology and training for our operational employees to ensure they are best equipped with the ambition to further reduce mobilisation time and incident severity

Success in this area will be through our people and our communities being able to access our information. This will relate to prevention activities, recruitment, and other service information, as well as being able to engage in communication and consultation with the service

This will be measured though the People and Service Delivery Performance Boards

We will identify opportunities to improve the quality and relevance of data used to inform our decisions

• Keeping our communities safe from fire and other emergencies 
• Having a well-equipped, trained, competent 
  and safe workforce
• Delivering an efficient and effective service, that adds value to our communities
• Promoting continuous improvement through effective challenge and embracing learning
• Enabling the organisation through data and digital transformation

• We will utilise data to identify and address disproportionalities between characteristics and participation rates in our significant processes
• We will evaluate the success of work with our people and communities through stakeholder satisfaction reports
• We will continually review the effectiveness of data used in our Risk Stratification Index and other prevention data sets, to ensure our targeted prevention activities are inclusive
• We will continually review the effectiveness of the broad and inclusive data sets used in our Risk Based Inspection Programme for the identification and differentiation of at risk premises

Success in this area will allow for adequate assessment of our people and our community data sets through all areas of our work, with any gaps and disproportionality in data easily identified and mitigated against