Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Written Evidence


Memorandum by Jagtar Singh OBE, MA, BA Hons, MiFireE. and Wayne McCollin BA Ed, DipHRD (FRS 49)

PERSONAL SUBMISSION

  As officers, each of 28 years fire service experience, we wish to make a submission with regard to Diversity in the Fire and Rescue Service in England.

BRIEF PROFILES FOR YOUR REFERENCE

  Jagtar Singh joined the fire service in 1977 and worked his way through the ranks to Deputy Chief Fire Officer in Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service. He was the national advisor to the service on diversity for 14 months; a post that was funded for a limited amount of time. The manner in which the post was disestablished is currently being review, however this is another indicator of the lack of commitment and focus of the service on diversity matters.

  Wayne McCollin is currently the Assistant Chief Fire Officer with Lothian and Borders FRS having begun service in 1978 with West Midlands Fire Service. He has been active in diversity matters since 1984 and has a member of a number of related forums including the Equal Opportunities Working Group at the Fire Service College.

  As black officers who have worked at the highest levels of the service, we wish to offer ourselves either individually or together to the Select Committee to give provide oral evidence if required.

  A number of attachments are provided for additional evidence.

  For clarity and brevity we will keep this submission short and focused.

1.   Research

  The Fire and Rescue Service is not short of research into matters of diversity as they relate or recommendations or action plans for development.

  In 1994 Tom Burke issues a report under the Home Office. The Service whilst still under the Home Office was subject to a thematic review in 1999 and furthermore professor Bain also made comment on the state of diversity in 2001. All are referenced in the appendix of this submission. In addition we also recommend the committee look at Jagtar Singh's report "Making A Difference" and the FireWorks report recommendations and findings which along with other reports which provide additional and supporting information are also referenced in Appendix 1.

  All the research reports point to the Service's poor performance as being one of the poorest in the public sector. All provide excellent guidance and route maps for integrated diversity as a key issue. Few have made a significant impact.

  We very much support the select committees review and hope this will provide a driver for changes.

2.   Leadership

  This is a recurring theme in the submission. The Service has little understanding of how leadership within diversity should manifest itself. The Fire and Rescue Service has failed to offer up true champions of diversity at any level. A public body such as the fire service should be able to identify and demonstrated achievement by its champions. Many Chief Fire Officers will claim they have the role of leadership but more often than not this is mere rhetoric and not matched by performance or outcomes.

  We hope that the select committee will support our view and place the role leadership and diversity champions high on its recommendations.

3.   Policy and procedures

  The Service has responded to the recommendations made in early reports that are referenced in Appendix 1. This has been done well in some Fire and Rescue Authorities, however many have just copied policies from other FRAs or public bodies and these have either been applied inappropriately or remained just policies, it is our view that these have had little impact if any on diversity within many fire services. Many unitary Authorities rely on the generic County policies for compliance and these also fail to address the key and specific issues.

  The requirements of the Race Relations Amendment Act have proven to be particularly poorly addressed by FRAs and compliance we believe in all the duties cannot be found in many Services. Until recent times an embarrassingly high number of Fire and Rescue Authorities did not even have Race Equality Schemes. In 2005 up to 60% of FRAs were found to have no race impact assessment completed. One FRA, following an intervention the CRE, is now demonstrating what it is possible to achieve and what managers are capable of and prepared to do if challenged.

  We believe a in-depth study/audit should be carried out similar to that carried out by the CRE on the police service in 2004.

4.   Review and Monitoring

  The FRS has been criticised by many including the Audit Commission for not applying best practice in performance management in general. For diversity this is particularly true. Little evidence exists that a systematic approach is adopted to managing diversity or for evaluating initiatives. The FireWorks research supports this view. The ODPM and the CPA have not placed diversity sufficiently high in its priorities for monitoring or audit. The recent Audit Commission CPA for the FRS even with a diversity diagnostic tool failed to make any significant comments in the reports of any individual FRA. A FRA reviewed and reported as excellent did not even have a strategy on diversity.

  The ODPM should have carried out a follow up thematic in 2003, this still has not been done and in the 2004-05 Framework document a number of recommendations were made that would have supported this area but again to date none has been carried out. These were:

    —  Review of training.

    —  Review of equality officer role.

    —  Developed a peer assessment tool.

    —  Develop a bespoke tool to support the local government agenda.

  In the 2005-06 Draft Framework document all have disappeared.

  One can only conclude that the failure to carry out the reviews and not to carry them forward as was expected means that the Service no longer believes this issue to be important.

  We believe that the framework document is a key driver in England and this should have clear guidance as to what ODPM, RMB and fire authorities are expected to deliver on diversity. We will be making a submission to the ODPM during the consultation period of the Framework document.

5.   Culture

  The culture of the fire service in spite of all the work that has been carried out, is still one that is white male, macho and bullying that is not capable of sustaining or supporting diversity. In the current climate it is not surprising to find the FRS falling to meet the government's and its own agenda on diversity. Culture is often used as an excuse for poor achievement.

  It is our view that the leadership does not understanding the component parts of the cultural web that exists in the Service and does not know what impacts on it. They have failed to identify the critical success factors for changing the culture and more importantly what the role of Members of fire authorities and Chief Fire Officers is in changing the culture. ODPM needs to give clear indications on the what type of culture the service should be aiming for and how it should be training its staff to achieve the change. ODPM and fire authorities need to consider how this is to be monitored and audited. The time is right for a full cultural audit to be carried out and the development of clear short and medium term plans to bring about real cultural change.

  We believe the cultural audit tool that has been developed by ODPM and CFOA has the potential to provide the springboard for the change, However this is not the whole answer as discussed above.

6.   The Business Case (Service Case)

  The FRS has no clear business case for diversity. Much of the research has highlighted this as an issue. The ODPM will be leading in the New Year to develop a Business Case for Diversity or Service Case. This should then provide one of the key building blocks for the Service to understand and tackle the many issues relating to diversity it currently faces.

7.   Recruitment

  The FRS has probably the worst figures in the public sector on the representation of black and minority ethnic staff in uniformed post. Currently the Service has less than 2.4 % staffs that are black and ethnic minorities and similar figures for women. These figures are appalling and cannot be condoned by government or accepted by the public. Drastic action is needed if the Service is to match the changes seen in the police force, prison service and the ambulance service over the last 10 years.

  We can only conclude that this is linked to the earlier heading of leadership. Where the Service sees a need, in our experience, it can and has made the change. The manner in which the culture of health and safety and community safety have changed in our service time are clear indicators were leadership is found on a theme, achievement is matched by the energy, commitment and resources.

  We understand that the ODPM will be issuing a new target strategy on recruitment, retention and promotion. We support this however are cautious in our optimism as this is likely to water down the current targets and alone will have little impact unless supported by other initiatives and is also supported with robust monitoring and audit.

  We are more optimistic that the development of the Service Case will have an impact on this. A better understanding of why the Service should reflect the community can only lead to more within the service committing to the agenda and making a contribution.

  The Service has had a excellent beacon of best practice on this issue in the outreach team of London. London have in our view achieved some fantastic results in the numbers of women and black and minority ethnic staff despite the organisational and political environment they have to work in.

  We strongly recommend that a national outreach team set up and is charged with supporting local and regional recruitment. The model of best practice in London and the manner is which the National Fire Safety Centre has integrated faith issues should be used to develop the approach.

8.   Training

  No clear training strategy exists in the service in spite of the reviews that have reported this to be an issue. The recent FireWorks project reported this to be a major issue and a barrier to achievement. The service has no clear needs analysis on diversity or vision as to what it is attempting to achieve via training. The training in FRS varies from a few hours to a comprehensive training programme. No measurement is made against objectives.

  The service needs to adopt the principles that the FireWorks team have recommended and the ODPM should provide clearer guidance as to what is expected.

  No training courses have been developed nationally to support specialist officers or the leadership of the service. In addition we are unaware of any training on diversity that is provided across the service for members of fire authorities who have a critical role on diversity. It is not surprising that in this vacuum we have such poor understanding at the very top of the service.

9.   Support Groups

  The service has many support groups and some like the Networking Women in the Fire Service are working at a strategic level and making a difference. Others such as the groups under the Fire Brigade Union are still tied very close to the trade union and are not making the impact at strategic level that similar groups such as the Black Police Association are in the police service.

  Support groups in the fire service are not as well supported as their counterparts in both police and the prison service, where national officers have full time paid post. These officers are then able to make a much better and consistent contribution to the diversity agenda. In the FRS this is left to willing volunteers or to paid union officials who are tasked with supporting national trade unions objectives which on occasional can be in direct conflict with the very people they represent.

  We believe that government should determine what best practice in the public sector and disseminate this to all. We believe that by forming strong and visible support groups supported by government the diversity issues can be integrated in all services more quickly and support can be provided for those in need.

10.   Good Practice

  We have previously provided some examples of good practice. A fuller list is proposed below and more will be available when the ODPM commissioned report Diversity matters is published hopefully by the end of the year.

NATIONAL CHAMPION

  The service clearly needs a focal point of contact and a national champion. The benefits of taking this approach have already been iterated. The Health Service and the Cabinet Office have national champions working at the strategic level and they are having an impact.

  Nearly all the referenced reports in Appendix 1 support this recommendation. In addition we believe that the secondment of Jagtar Singh in 2004-05 has provided sufficient auditable evidence to support this view.

DIVERSITY MATTERS

  ODPM have commissioned a report to highlight best practice. This has not yet been published but should be available to the Select Committee during the period of this work. We believe that this is an excellent example of what can be done if resources are allocated to this task. This should be a regular activity of the ODPM.

MULTI-FAITH

  The Fire Service has carried out some pioneering work in this field and a section of the diversity matters report is attached in Appendix 2. The recent national fire safety strategy we believe to be best practice in the public sector as are the CFOA conferences on this topic.

OUTREACH

  Clearly outreach in London Fire Brigade is working and making a difference, this should be used as a model by Regional Management Boards for regional application where that is appropriate. The ODPM should show some leadership and use the national fire safety model and the Army recruitment model to support this work.

INTEGRATED PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM

  Although we have some concern around quality assurance we believe that this is again is an important cog in the changing of the culture of the service. All the role maps have a diversity element and no person may move on to a new role until competence in diversity is demonstrated. This is a positive development.

NATIONAL POINT OF ENTRY TEST

  The new tests will support the agenda. Any divergence form the national standard will have an adverse impact. We support these role related test however have concerns that application may be diluted by stakeholders who do not apply them as they are intended.

CORE VALUES AND THE DIVERSITY CASE

  The ODPM and CFOA have demonstrated leadership in championing the need for theses and the model adopted for the recently issued core values will be a good platform for the development of the service case.

SUMMARY

  In spite of the comments above we believe the Fire and Rescue Service has come a long way since we joined the service in the late 70s when bullying and harassment were the norm and racist behaviour was openly tolerated. Women were particularly badly treated in the 70s and 80s. The changes in this area are to be supported. We have the opportunity to move the agenda forward but this will not happen if the service continues to wring it hands and dither over what to do.

  We have much best practice that is not fully shared across the fire service and also we believe we can learn from the examples of best practice existing in the public sector. It takes a good champion of diversity and leaders to bring about change and sharing and communicating of best practice. We hope this submission will help this process.

  If the service was to take a strategic approach under the 10 headings above and a action plan was to be developed with a clear audit and reporting line to ODPM and ministers, the momentum on diversity would increase placing it back on the Service radar screen and then the Fire and Rescue Service could become the beacon of best practice it aspires to.


 
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