Agenda item

To consider a report

20.1     ACO Evans submitted the 2018/19 Quarter 1 report on the Human Resources programme, projects to date and performance against Human Resources performance indicators and associated targets.

20.2     ACO Evans reported that the timeline for the HR & Payroll Project Phase 2 (Time and Expenses Module) had been planned and the expected completion date was January 2019. The Recruitment of

            Green Book employees via the web was also now live.

20.3     In relation to the performance report, it was noted that EQ2 (recruitment of black and minority ethnic staff across the whole organisation) had missed its target with 3.03% (1 out of 33 appointments) of staff recruited during the reporting period identifying as coming from a black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) background.

20.4     SOC Peckham advised that the Service was running an extensive positive action campaign in order to encourage applicants from BAME backgrounds.

20.5     In response to a comment about the perception of the Fire Service as an unsuitable career to some of the South Asian communities, Mr R Jones, the Service’s Diversity Adviser, advised that this was not the case for younger generations. The school visits had generated a lot of interest from Asian young women. It was important that the Service increased its presence and that it was recognised that there was a wide variety of careers available within the Fire and Rescue Service.

20.6     Councillor Atkins referred to a visit by a delegation of fire fighters from Bangladesh. It was noted that this would be taking place during the next couple of weeks and would offer opportunities for engagement with the Bangladeshi communities in Bedfordshire. ACO Evans advised that she would obtain and circulate details of this visit to Members of the Committee for information.

20.7     A Member commented that a “canteen culture” often put off applicants from certain ethnic minority communities and that improvements had been made in the last couple of decades. The Police had recently run successful recruitment campaigns and it was hoped that the extensive positive action activities that the Service was currently involved with would result in successful BAME applicants to the Service’s forthcoming whole-time recruitment campaign.

20.8     In relation to the training indicators, SOC Peckham reported that all the stretch training targets had been met with the exception of T7 (percentage of Flexible Duty Officers that have attended an assessed Incident Command Assessment within the last 12 months), T8b (percentage of Retained Duty System personal attainment in maintaining core, operational safety critical training modules within a rolling 12 month period) and T8c (percentage of Safety Critical Maintenance training programme completed by Control personnel via PDRPro within last 12 months).

20.9     T7 and T8b had missed their targets by 2% and T8c had missed its target by 1%. Meeting the RDS target continued to be a challenge and there was a review ongoing in relation to the learning materials provided to on call fire fighters. It was noted that performance against T7 and T8c had been impacted by a small number of staff.

RESOLVED:

That the progress made on Human Resources Programmes and Performance be acknowledged.