Dear Sir/Madam,
Inclusive Fire Service Group - update
1. This circular provides an update on the matter of the NJC-led Inclusive Fire Service Group.
2. As part of its continuing commitment to consider equality, diversity, cultural and behavioural issues within the Fire & Rescue Service the NJC decided to lead on a piece of work to assess the current position and to identify guidance in relation to any further strategies that could be used at local level to further encourage improvement in equality, diversity and cultural issues. It was further agreed to invite interested parties such as the Chief Fire Officers Association, Fire Officers Association and Retained Firefighters Union to be involved.
3. The group is chaired by the Independent Chair of the NJC who provided the attached report, on behalf of the group, to the recent meeting of the NJC outlining the work undertaken to date (Appendix A).
4. The report included a number of recommendations to the NJC, all of which were accepted:
(a) that the group undertake work to provide national guidance on data collection, recording and monitoring;
(b) In addition to (a), the NJC will undertake a periodic national exercise monitoring a number of key indicators primarily to be able to measure improvement and to be able to identify themes and if necessary provide further support and guidance. This will be carried out by this group or potentially a smaller form of the group; and
(c) that the group continue its work to explore a number of key indicators, issues and trends further, including those listed below, in order to better inform potential improvement strategies:
The low levels of female and BME representation across the uniformed workforce
The proportionally low levels of female and BME progression through the roles
Bullying and harassment issues
The lack of available data on LGBT uniformed personnel
Encouraging management commitment to consistently instigate and promote equality and diversity initiatives
Levels of grievance/discipline cases involving women and BME uniformed employees
5. The report also included the analysis of the survey of fire authorities. Since the meeting of the NJC an executive summary of that survey analysis has also been prepared (Appendix B).
6. The group also intends to issue guidance in respect of Personal Use of Social Media policies.
7. Equality and Diversity advisers within FRAs may also find this circular to be of interest.
Yours faithfully
SIMON PANNELL
MATT WRACK
Joint Secretaries
