Agenda item

Presentation

Councillor Choudhry gave a presentation on his Portfolio area, workforce and organisational development.

As part of his presentation, he advised Members that:

• 30 wholetime plus 6 transferees, 2 Control and 22 on call firefighters had been recruited by the Service during the previous year, along with 25 Green Book staff, including some hard to fill roles such as the Occupational Health Manager and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager.
• Hybrid working arrangements had been implemented for appropriate roles.
• The Service had undertaken a benefit and recognition staff survey.
• The Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy had been revised, including Reasonable Adjustments Guidance and the launch of an individual “reasonable adjustment passport” for qualifying staff.
• A neurodiversity steering group and staff working group had been developed.
• An extensive health and wellbeing events and services programme had been developed for staff, including the launch of the cycle to work scheme.
• Significant pensions work had been undertaken during the year.
• A new People Strategy and new People priorities for the Community Risk Management Plan had been developed.
• Strategic and operational plans to deliver statutory services during potential industrial action had been drafted.
• A review of Occupational Health had been undertaken, including contract re-procurement and addressing the COVID backlog of health surveillance and medicals.
• A whole-time recruitment plan for 2023/24 had been developed as part of the Service’s succession planning procedures.
• Management training in core people management practices had been developed with Learning and Development Officers.
• The Service had taken part in a range of engagement activities with underrepresented groups, such as “Have a Go” days, schools and college events, Eid in Luton, Bedford River Festival, social media and mailshots to community centres and local businesses.
• There was strengthened partnership working, particularly with Bedfordshire Police, on recruitment and community events
• A “Women in the Fire Service” group had been constituted and was particularly active, with a local employee group and representatives in every Service in the Eastern region. A menopause awareness day had been held on 18 October 2022.
• The new EDI Manager would start in post in January 2023. This post would be responsible for a number of actions including supporting the Service in engaging with underrepresented community groups, working with regional colleagues to share knowledge and resources, establishing a Bedfordshire EDI forum with partners and developing relevant training and reviewing and refreshing EDI policies.
• The Service had led on a Black History Month national conference, with the assistance of the Asian Fire Service(?) Association. This was recognised as a very successful event and Members in attendance commented favourably on their experiences taking part.

(Councillor McVicar left the meeting)

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer gave a presentation on Organisational Development, training, learning and development and apprenticeships as follows:

• Over 900 training courses were delivered in 2021/22 to address the backlog created by COVID.
• A Tactical Firefighting course had been developed.
• A Marauding Terrorist Attack live play exercise had taken place at RAF Henlow, to which Members had been invited.
• Paramedics now took part in Road Traffic Collison refresher training.
• Three established Training Centre instructors would return to stations soon, with three new instructors recruited to replace them.
• Some safety critical training has been delayed as the Service planned for possible industrial action.
• The Service was working with Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Services on the provision of a joint training facility as the training centre was running at full capacity and was limited by the size of the estate. This restricted the type of training that could be delivered.
• The Service had delivered two wholetime recruit cohorts in house, following one in partnership with Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service.
• Three on call recruit modular courses had been run, leading to the recruitment of 22 new on call firefighters.
• Industrial action may delay the latest recruits course from being completed.
• A Behaviours & Values poster had been designed which aligned to NFCC behaviours and the Core Code of Ethics.
• An incident command refresher course had been introduced to align command training to National Operational
• Guidance.
• Neurodiversity training was now included in gateways and the delivery of training.
• A large number of promotional gateways had been run, including at least one at every level.
• The application as a supportive provider for Hertfordshire had been successfully approved and Hertfordshire had been invoiced for £27,000 for the first cohort through training.
• The number of green book apprentices had increased, with apprentices in fleet, finance and administration.
• The Service was exploring how it could become an apprenticeship provider, as this was a recognised income generation opportunity.
• The Service had appointed a new Green Book Driver Training Manager and Driving Instructor. The London Fire Brigade had expressed an interest in the driver training course and this was recognised as another income generation activity.
• The Service was one of only two services that could provide an Emergency Response Driver Instructor Course.
• A new BMW training vehicle had been purchased.
• All Officers, even Green Book staff, had to complete driver training before they could use Service vehicles, even pool cars.

Members commented that driver training would be a good topic for a future Member Development Day.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation be received.