Agenda Item 3, Appendix 1

Fire and Rescue Service Equality and Diversity Report 2010Questionnaire.

(Covering the period 1 January to 31 December 2009)

Dear Chief Fire Officer,

As part of Communities and Local Government’s commitment to support delivery against the requirements of the Fire and Rescue Service Equality and Diversity Strategy we undertook to publish an annual Equality and Diversity Report. In order to ensure the annual Report is reflective of the progress being made by each Fire and Rescue Service in England we have prepared the following questionnaire for completion by your Service.

Please can you ensure that the completed questionnaire, certified by you, is returned to us at the address below by 5 February 2010.

Completed returns should be sent to:

Clive Botterill by e mail to:

Or by post to:

Clive Botterill

FRSDD

Communities and Local Government

3rd Floor, Zone D1

Eland House

Bressenden Place

London SW1E 5DU

If you have any questions regarding the questionnaire please contact Gill McManus at

Many thanks.

Fire and Rescue Service Equality and Diversity Report 2010 Questionnaire.

(Covering the period 1 January to 31 December 2009)

As part of Communities and Local Government’s commitment to support delivery against the requirements of the Fire and Rescue Service Equality and Diversity Strategy we have agreed to publish an annual Equality and Diversity Report. The intention is that the report should provide both quantitative and qualitative information on the progress made annually by each fire and rescue service. In order to ensure the annual Report is reflective of the progress being made on equality and diversity we are asking every fire and rescue service in England to complete the following questionnaire.

Thank you for your help in this matter.

Instructions:

To complete this questionnaire you can either print it out and complete by hand or you can complete it electronically. If you complete it electronically answers are written in to the grey boxes below which will allow you to either put a mark in the box or expand so that you can write in some text or a number. You can use the arrow keys to move between answer boxes. Please remember to save your questionnaire when you finished completing it.

Details of person completing questionnaire (who can be contacted should we need to clarify any responses):

What is the name of your FRS: Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue

What is your name: Mary Thompson

What is your job title/role: Equalities Adviser

What is your email address:

Section 1: Statutory Requirements

  1. Hasyour FRSpublished the following equality schemes? (Mark all that apply)

a) GenderNo Yes

If yes where was it published(Please provide web address if applicable)

As a county council Fire Service all our Equality Schemes are County Council schemes and are published on the county councils website:

b) RaceNo Yes

If yes where was it published (Please provide web address if applicable)

as above

c) DisabilityNoYes

If yes,where was it published (Please provide web address if applicable)

as above
  1. Has your FRS published a Single Equality Scheme?

NoYes Date published(mmm-yy):

If yes where was it published (Please provide web address if applicable)

We are working with other county council departments to produce one in Spring 2010

3. If yes please indicate which diversity strands your Single Equality Scheme includes? (Mark all that apply)

a) Gender b) Gender Identityc) Race

d) Disabilitye) Agef) Sexual Orientation

g) Religion/Belief

h) Other (please list):

carers

4.When was (were) your scheme(s) last reviewed /updated:

a) Gender (mmm-yy): Apr-07b) Disability(mmm-yy): Dec-06

c) Race(mmm-yy): May-05e) Single(mmm-yy):

5. Please indicate the level of the Equality Standard for Local Government your FRS has achieved?

12 345

6. Does your FRS intend to migrate to either: (Mark whichever applies)

a) the Fire and Rescue Service Equality Framework?

b) the Equality Framework for Local Government?

And at what level is your FRS migrating?

a) Developing b) Achievingc) Moving to Excellence d) Excellent

Section 2: Leadership and Promoting Inclusion

7. Who is your most senior equality and diversity champion and what is their role in the organisation?

Roy Wilsher - Chief Fire Officer, who also Chairs the Hertfordshire County Council Diversity and Community Cohesion Board for all the Departments within the County Council Structure.

8. What steps have been taken since January 2009 to ensure Authority Members and staff have received appropriate training and development to effectively promote equality and diversity?

As part of the county council Authority members have received Equality & Diversity Training
Staff receiving equality & diversity training since January 2009 :
Supervisory Management Module (including fiarness at work.) 15
(booked up to end of March 2010 = 12)
Harassment & Bullying Lite-Bite (HCC & HFRS) since Jan 2009. 24
(booked up to end March 2010 = 90)
Harassment & Bullying, Confidential Advisor update 5
Equality & Diversity Induction training for Trainee FF and new Support Staff 30
Equality Impact Assessments 16
Pilot courses in Equality & Diversity for firefighters 30
Monthly newslettters 'Essence of Equality' available on intranet for all staff, 10 editions published
April 2009 to January 2010

9. What percentage of a) Fire Authority Members and b) staff have undertaken Equality and Diversity training in the last 2 years?

a) 30%% of Fire Authority Members

b) 15.5% of Staff

10. What steps have you taken to ensure all staff and Fire Authority Members are aware of, and act in accordance, with FRS Core Values?

The County Council portfolio holder for FRS is a member of the Fire Service Equalities Board. As such he is regularly briefed on the issues within the fire service in relation to our core values. In addition he has personal briefings with the CFO on where he can actively support the agenda.
In addition there is a different elected member from the Fire Authority who has a seat on the Hertfordshire County Council Diversity and Community Cohesion Board for the County Council which is Chaired by the Chief Fire Officer.
Other members of the Board are all at Assistant Director level, and representatives from Children Schools and Families, Adult Care Services, Environment, Libraries, Fire and Rescue, HR Department and Corporate Services all attend.

11. How do you ensure that your FRS engages effectively with representative and staff bodies with regard to equality and diversity issues in order to achieve an effective partnership approach? Give an example of this partnership working.

We hold regular meetings with all Representative Bodies in Hertfordshire (FBU, FOA RF). They are also consulted on policy and procedural documents.
They also sit on various equality groups at different levels. They also support within Service with the Positive Action events as a good example of partnership working.
in addition they are a standard consultee on all Equality Impact assessments and attend case conferences for exploring resolutions to issues relating to Equality and Diversity matters. rep Bodies are also invited to support and attend conferences and support the Service through attending the Stonewall national conference at the Services expense.

12. Does your FRS support groups for under represented sections of the workforce such as National Disabled Fire Association, Asian Fire Association, Networking Women in the Fire Service and Stonewall?

NoYes

If yes please list the groups which groups you support:

Currently we support actively the AFSA and NWFS. We are awaiting information about supporting/joining NDFA.
The Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service is also a member of Stonewall in its own right and not as part of the County Council.

13. What measures have you put in place to ensure that equality & diversity issues are fully considered in the procurement of goods and services?

An Equality Impact Assessment is completed at the inception of every Procurement exercise.
The Equal Opportunities Policy is requested from every bidder during the tender process and these are reviewed and monitored throughout the life of the Contract. as part of the wider procurement arrangements which are undertaken at the County Council level, equality and diversity evidence is part of the evidence information for larger tendering processes. i.e. PPE contract.

Section 3:Accountability

14. Briefly describe how your FRS reported to FRA Members on the implementation of the E&D Strategy in your Service during 2009.

The DCFO and the Equalities Adviser presented a paper to the Community Safety Panel in December 2008 in order to gain agreement to our proposed approach to delivering the strategy and to gain their support for the stretch targets. Following the panels agreement the DCFO took the paper to the Cabinet of the County Council for their agreement, which was given.
The DCFO will take a paper on our progress to the Community Safety and Culture Panel in March 2010..

15.Describe briefly how your FRS makes information publicly available regarding improvements to the service it provides.

The Equality & Diversity plan is published on our website, on hertsdirect, as is workforce data and a summary of completed EqIAs.
The IRMP and district plans are also published on our web pages along with general information about improvements we are making. Currently we have a short piece about being officially rated by the Audit Commission as one of the highest performing Services in England and the best in the region.
Also attached is an article that is to be published in the Equalities review national publication on issues affecting the Service and our approach to equalities and Diversity covering a broad range of issues. Please see attachment.

16. Have all members of staff; including Chief Fire Officers had an annual performance appraisal in 2009?

Yes No

If No please explain briefly why and what arrangements have been made to introduce annual appraisal

A Performance Management and Development scheme for all staff includingfire fighters was introduced in April 2009 across the whole Service. This includes the Retained element of this Service.
Previously only Station Commander level upwards had formal appraisal
To date the Service has achieved 78% of staff with a Performance agreement in the first year of its introduction and the service will increase this figure so all staff will have had an appraisal this year.
The formal process for retained staff has raised some issues regarding capacity and availability of staff which are being discussed with a view to making this their appraisal system more practical in future by making pragmatic adjustments to the current appraisal process..

17. Has every member of staff been given/ agreed at least one equality and diversity objective?

Yes No

If No please explain briefly why and what arrangements have been made to ensure every member of staffwill have equality and diversity objectives?

This is addressed through the PMDs and the PQAs are used as base evidence. This is also included in the CPD evidence for uniformed employees. The introduction of specific objectives for Retained staff is more problematic but the current appraisal process for Retained employees does cover behaviour and organisational expectations.
All non-uniformed employees also have behavioural expectations as part of their PMD process.

18. Please describe briefly how performance against these objectivesis measured and what steps are taken to ensure these objectives are met?

Objectives are set during the first PMDS meeting and are measured against the fire fighters' PQAs and the individual's specific achievements.
The objectives are reviewed after 6 months formally and managers are encouraged to meet with staff monthly to monitor progress. Training requests are collated and reviewed by the Training Team to identify learning skills.

19. Does your FRS have specific policies for dealing with bullying and harassment, unfair discrimination and unacceptable behaviour?When was this policy last reviewed.(Mark all that apply)

BullyingNo YesDate last reviewed(mmm-yy): Jun-08

HarassmentNo YesDate last reviewed(mmm-yy): Jun-08

Unfair discriminationNo YesDate last reviewed(mmm-yy): 2004

Unacceptable behaviourNo YesDate last reviewed(mmm-yy): Sep-08

Section 4: Effective Service Delivery and Community Engagement.

20. In developing your Integrated Risk Management Plan for 2009provide an example of what your FRS has done in terms of a) consultation and b) engagement with local communities:

Consultation:

In establishing the content of the draft Community Safety Plan in December 2008, the Service completed an equality impact assessment to inform its approach to gathering feedback on the plans content.
As a result of this, targeted consultation was undertaken to seek the views of all six of the equalities ‘strands’ in more detail. These groups included the elderly, those with disabilities and impairments and residents from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. A total of 43 organisations representing communities cover each of the 6 equalities strands, along with 40 key partner agencies were written to seeking feedback, supported by a general public consultation via Hertfordshire libraries and Hertsdirect.org. Feedback on the draft was considered and informed the final iteration of the plan, which was published on the 22nd April 2009.

Engagement;

The engagement process began in March 2007 and involved extensive internal and external engagement with key stakeholders including senior and middle management, representative bodies and front line staff.
In addition to work commissioned through ORS to engage with residents and high risk groups. The ORS survey involved a range of forum meetings and focus groups across Hertfordshire to better understand the needs and perceptions of our communities. These meetings and focus groups where held at different locations and at different times of the day so that we were able to fully engage with the different sections of our community. All of this engagement occurred prior to the strategic decision making process, to allow feedback to inform and influence senior managers in setting the Service priorities.

21. Provide an example to demonstrate how your FRS has used the evidence from consultation to improve service delivery to different communities within your area?

North Hertfordshire has a large Sikh population, of approximately 4,000 people with which the Fire Service's engagement had been limited. After meeting the Secretary of the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara, Gurdeep Singh, we discovered there were a number of factors which could potentially increase their risk of fire. Mr Singh was interested in working with the Fire Service. This gave HFRS an opportunity to reach one of the groups identified by the Service as hard to reach.
We have visited different groups at the Gurdwara to give fire safety advice and for staff to receive cultural awareness training. Despite changes to the Gurdwara committee, we have maintained our links with them and continued to build our relationship. The result is an increase in fire safety awareness, provided home fire safety checks and raised cultural awareness within HFRS. We also helped create other partnerships for the Sikh community with organisations including the British Heart Foundation, the police.

22. Do you monitor the diversity of those who receive the following services from you:

a) Emergency Response /RescueYes No

b) Fire/Community Safety Yes No

c) Fire Safety LegislationYes No

23. What strands of diversity do you collect about the recipients of the services set out in Q22?(Please mark all that apply)

A) Emergency Response/ Rescue

a) Gender b) Gender Identity c) Race

d) Disabilitye) Age f) Sexual Orientation

g) Religion/Belief

h) Other (please list):

B) Fire/Community Safety

a) Gender b) Gender Identity c) Race

d) Disabilitye) Age f) Sexual Orientation

g) Religion/Belief

h) Other (please list):

C) Fire Safety Legislation

a) Gender b) Gender Identity c) Race

d) Disabilitye) Agef) Sexual Orientation

g) Religion/Belief

h) Other (please list):

24. What method (s) do you use to monitor community satisfaction with your service?

The Service uses the HCC Tracking Survey which is An annual MORI survey which consists of interviews with 1,100 residents in their own homes. The survey tracks residents’ attitudes towards the Council and the services it provides – focusing on satisfaction with the council, perceived success and priorities around the councils stated challenges.
HFRS also uses the Place Survey to monitor customer satisfaction. This is a nationwide consultation, designed to help local councils and the government to understand people’s views and experiences of their local area and local public services. It helps us to find out how well we – and our partners in District/Borough councils, the police, and NHS – are delivering services and tackling the issues that matter to local people. Local interaction and community profiling using tools such as MOSAIC help us better understand our risk groups and so aid targeting of prevention.

25.Provide an example of how you have used the information received from your monitoring processes to improve your service delivery to vulnerable/ minority groups within your community, including evidence of the effectiveness of the improvement made