Agenda item

To consider a report

31.1     DCFO Hopkinson submitted the 2018/19 Quarter 2 report on performance against Human Resources performance indicators and associated targets.

31.2     Mr R Jones, the Service Diversity Adviser, provided an update on EQ1a (percentage of new entrants to the retained duty system to be women) and EQ2 (recruitment of black and minority ethnic staff across the whole organisation), both of which had missed their targets. He acknowledged that the Service continued to face challenges in recruiting a workforce that was representative of the communities that it served, despite putting considerable resource into positive action campaigns. It was expected that performance against EQ1a would improve during the year and that the whole-time recruitment campaign would have a positive impact on performance against EQ2.

31.3     The Service had undertaken a number of engagement activities across Bedfordshire, including in schools and religious venues, in order to reach underrepresented groups. As the Service recognised that there was a noticeable decrease in the percentage of applicants from BAME backgrounds who became successful recruits, it had also put in place measures to address this, such as providing guidance on the required fitness standards, as well as removing a test which unfairly favoured individuals with previous knowledge of fire and rescue activities, such as those who were related to serving or retired fire fighters.

31.4     In response to a question, the Diversity Adviser confirmed that the Service had worked closely with Bedfordshire Police to learn from its’ successful recruitment of BAME candidates. However, it was noted that whilst recruitment levels were high, the Police still had challenges relating to retention and that the Fire and Rescue Service was heavily oversubscribed with a very low level of staff turnover. The Service also performed very well in comparison to the national average.

31.5     428 individuals had registered an interest via the Service’s joiners page, 30% of which had identified themselves as being from the targeted groups.

31.6     The challenges in recruiting a representative on-call workforce were also recognised, as there was a requirement that the individual lived or worked in close proximity to the on-call station, many of which were located in the rural areas of the County.

31.7     Ms D Clarke, the Head of Human Resources, advised that a programme was in place to assist Fire Cadets in progressing into whole-time posts. It was noted that applicants must be 18 at the time of appointment, but could be 17 at the time of application.

31.8     The Head of Human Resources reported that the year-end performance against HR3 (appraisals completed by 30 September – PI Target 90%) was 83.55% against a target of 90%. This measured the appraisal period from 1 April to 30 September. Appraisals were undertaken in two stages: the initial appraisal and a review. In some cases, whilst the initial appraisal had been undertaken, the review had not been completed. Performance had also been affected by management vacancies. At the time of writing the report, 97% of appraisals had been completed during 2018 and this was the figure that would be reported to HMICFRS as it collected performance information for the period 1 January to 31 December. Managers had been reminded of their responsibility to complete and review appraisals in a timely manner.

31.9     DCFO Hopkinson advised that performance against H1 (number of serious accidents (over 28 days) per 1000 employees) had been adversely affected by two accident injuries. Both individuals had now returned to work. H2 (number of working days/shifts lost to accidents per 1000 employees (excluding Retained Duty System employees)), which was linked to H1, had also missed its target with 116 days lost associated with 26 workplace accident injuries. 98 of those days lost were associated with the two events detailed in the H1, with the loss of 59 days and 39 days lost respectively.

31.10   GC A Draper reported that the majority of training indicators had reached target levels for Quarter 2. The exceptions to this were T7 (percentage of Flexible Duty Officers that have attended an Incident Command Assessment within the required frequency for their role) and T8b (percentage of Safety Critical Maintenance training programmes completed by On-Call Operational Personnel via PDR Pro within the last 12 months).

31.11   T7 was rated as amber as one individual had been nominated for but withdrawn from the course and had missed subsequent courses due to sickness absence. That individual had now returned to work and had been nominated for a future course.

31.12   T8b was 5% below target as a number of new RDS personnel had been recruited and assigned to stations. As they completed the mandatory training, performance against this indicator should improve.

RESOLVED:

That the progress made on Human Resources Performance be acknowledged.