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 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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