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Looking after our people

Our people are at the heart of what we do, and ensuring their wellbeing, engagement and motivation strengthens the service that we provide to you. We are also focused on being an inclusive service, both in the services that we provide to you and within our own workplace.

During 2021/22:

We employed 842 people, compared to 858 in 2020/21.

This consists of:

  • 668 staff in operational roles, compared to 681 in 2020/21
  • 174 staff in support roles, compared to177 in 2020/21
  • Overall, we recruited to 65 roles which were: 28 wholetime firefighters, 13 on-call firefighters and 24 support staff roles
  • 42 accidents were reported in the workplace, compared with 29 in 2020/21
  • 33 near misses were reported, the same number as in 2020/21
  • All operational staff are required to undertake an annual fitness test with 99.6% passing this requirement

Our People Strategy sets out our key priorities for 2020-2022 and our workforce planning makes sure that we have the optimum number of employees with the necessary skills to deliver our Service objectives, both now and in the future.

Our workforce planning process involves forecasting staffing changes, as a result of retirements, promotions and leavers, and takes account of the likely funding available to the Service. It has identified that we need to recruit to wholetime firefighter roles. We plan to begin this process during 2022. This is part of our succession planning to replace those firefighters who are projected to leave the Service over the next two years. We have been engaging with communities through our positive action programme to increase the diversity of applicants in preparation for the opening of firefighter recruitment in late summer. The applicant fitness programme that we have developed has been adopted nationally as good practice – this ensures that applicants who commit to our Positive Action programme are well-placed to succeed in our job-related tests and meet fitness requirements, and that they also commence their career at optimum fitness levels.

The Service has moved its headquarters during 2022 to share a joint HQ with the Nottinghamshire Police. This will allow us to work more closely with our Police colleagues for the benefit of the community. We are mindful that this is a significant change and have sought to make the transition as smooth as possible and our staff have engaged positively with the move.

As a recognition of expectations about more flexible working arrangements, we have introduced agile working to provide some opportunity to work away from the office where this is possible. This is part of a longer-term transition, alongside the introduction of more flexible ICT systems which support more mobile and virtual working, to bring efficiencies and create a modern workplace.

Throughout 2021 we have focused on promoting an inclusive approach – this underpins one of our four core values and is an integral part of our culture. A focus on inclusion means that we understand the differing needs of communities and service users so that we can make our services better for them, making sure that they stay safe from fire and other risks. We have undertaken equality impact assessments to improve our prevention, protection and business engagement activities. We have also improved our website to make it more accessible to our service users.

We are pleased to be working with a newly formed BAME Community Advisory Group who provide a sounding board for the Service and support the development of stronger relations with our BAME communities through engagement, information sharing and guidance.

Inclusion is also important within our workplace and we have established a number of employee networks which are led by our staff and championed by a senior leader. They include the Women’s Network, LGBT+ Network, Ethnic Minority Alliance and Disability Matters. They help to ensure that all views are heard and issues are addressed, as well as providing a platform for awareness raising and direct engagement.

Our commitment and work to promote LGBT+ issues have been recognised through being awarded Gold Award and placed in Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers list - the UK’s leading benchmarking tool for LGBT+ inclusion in the workplace.

At the latter end of 2021 we commissioned an independent review of equality and whilst this has been a positive report, reflecting the work we are doing to make our service more inclusive and equal, we will be reviewing and implementing its recommendations over the next year.

As part of our wellbeing strategy, we continue to support the physical, mental and emotional health of our employees. This year we have introduced a mental health support app (“Back Up Buddy”) that employees can download, and additional access to counselling via Relate. This enhances the work of our own Occupational Health and Fitness team and other benefits provided such as an independent Employee Assistance Programme, BUPA Cashback Plan and physiotherapy provision. We have also introduced a new employee benefits provision, including a Cycle to Work scheme.