Strategic Goal 4: We will continue to support and develop our workforce and promote an inclusive Service

This goal is focused on ensuring that our workforce has the professionalism, skills, capacity and flexibility to deliver an outstanding service, within an inclusive and positive workplace environment.

During the life of the CRMP 2025-28, we will maintain a strategic focus on our cultural development, with continuing efforts to diversify our workforce and to develop our employee networks. We will also place strong emphasis on our leadership and management development programmes and on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our teams.

We will protect and support the health and wellbeing of our workforce, through a range of activities ranging from improvements in contaminant management to information and education campaigns.

In 2025-26, our key objectives were to:

• Respond to the outcomes of the 2024 staff survey and complete the implementation of actions arising from the recommendations of external reports including the HMICFRS reports on culture and conduct.
• Embed the use of a cultural dashboard to support cultural development across the organisation.
• Act on reviews of our ICT and People functions, to ensure they have the skills and capacity to meet the needs of the organisation.
• Integrate our long-term action plan for increasing diversity within our community engagement programme.
• Improve leadership development through training, coaching and mentoring.
• Develop a programme of riskbased, proactive health and wellbeing campaigns.
• Define requirements for an occupational health system.
• Implement improvements to contaminant management processes.

During 2025/26:

• We evaluated the results of our 2024 staff survey, which showed a positive outcome. The survey had a 68% response rate, with strong scores in autonomy (82%), connection (85%) and purpose (81.5%). The lowest scoring area was work environment (60.1%), reflecting systems and processes rather than culture. Improvements in these areas are ongoing and highlighted in other parts of this document.
• We continued to strengthen our efforts on improving the culture of our organisation. Our last two inspections by HMICFRS graded us as ‘Good’ for promoting the right values and culture across the Service.
• We developed a cultural performance dashboard, bringing together data across key areas including diversity, leadership, wellbeing, training, and professional standards. This helps us better understand our workforce and target improvements effectively.
• Following a digital maturity assessment in 2024/25, we undertook a restructure of the ICT department to better align team capabilities with the evolving needs of the service. This included a skills gap analysis and an ongoing programme of staff development and upskilling.
• Following both a People Services and Professional Standards Review in 205/26 and acting on we have updated our management training offer, reviewing our HR Essentials and are adding wrap around support to the NFCC leadership courses. A series of toolkits to support managers to resolve low level concerns without recourse to HR have been launched. Changes in governance and improvements in reporting around discipline and grievance cases have also been implemented. Implementation of the recommendations will continue during 2026/27.

• We have strengthened our long-term action plan to increase diversity by embedding it within our community engagement programme. This approach brings together community engagement, communications, and workforce planning in a more joined-up and strategic way.

  A key feature of this work has been the use of independent research conducted by Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and In2People. This research has provided valuable insight into community demographics, perceptions of the Service, and the barriers faced by under-represented groups, including women and racially minoritised communities. These findings are now directly informing how the Service delivers engagement and positive action activity.

• We have continued to strengthen our support for both aspiring and existing leaders across the Service. Our Leadership Framework outlines the training, development and support available to colleagues at all levels, from firefighters through to the Chief Fire Officer, including non-operational staff.
• We have identified target areas where we can improve the health and wellbeing of our workforce through a range of proactive measures. The campaigns, which are outlined later in this section provide more wholistic support and target support to where it is most needed.
• We began the procurement process for a specialised Occupational Health system which will support the delivery of our overall Occupational Health provision. The system will help us to identify trends and better support our workforce through recruitment, absence management, health surveillance and education and is expected to be in use during 2026/27.

• The Service continued to strengthen its approach to managing exposure to contaminants arising from operational activity, in line with national research and best practice. Over the past year, a comprehensive Contaminants Management Policy has been implemented, supported by clear procedures covering decontamination, PPE handling, appliance and station hygiene, and the separation of clean and dirty areas.

  Professional decontamination of firefighting PPE is now fully embedded. Clean cab appliances have been introduced, enhanced equipment cleaning arrangements are in place, and estates improvements are being delivered to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.

  Focus will remain on embedding these controls consistently across all sites, strengthening assurance processes, and extending good practice to specialist and non-operational settings. This will support the continued protection of the health, safety and wellbeing of the workforce.

Other highlights

Workforce Plan

During the year, we launched our Workforce Plan to ensure that our people are deployed, developed and supported effectively to meet current and future organisational needs.

Our multi-skilled workforce remains our most valuable asset, and the Workforce Plan sets out how staff will be utilised, developed and supported to deliver the priorities and objectives contained within our CRMP.

Leadership development

We have continued to invest in leadership development across the organisation. This includes adopting programmes from the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), developed in partnership with the Chartered Management Institute, to support supervisory and middle managers.

We are also a founding partner of the East Midlands Leadership Transformation Programme, delivered in collaboration with local authorities, police and health services, and led by Nottingham Trent University Business School. This programme supports shared learning and strengthens leadership capability across organisations.

Our coaching and mentoring offer has been relaunched, providing access to one-toone support through an internal online hub, as well as external opportunities. We also deliver “manager as a coach” training to support a flexible and supportive leadership approach.

Workforce and recruitment

At the end of 2025/26 we had a workforce of 761 people, compared to 835 in 2024/25. This is made up of 576 staff in operational roles and 185 staff in support roles. A total of 67 people left the service during the year, of whom 19 were wholetime firefighters, 28 were on-call firefighters and 20 were support staff.

During 2025/26, eight operational recruitment and promotion processes were undertaken, covering roles from Firefighter to Assistant Chief Fire Officer, alongside recruitment to 33 support staff roles.

Workforce diversity

Improving the diversity of our workforce continues to be a strategic priority. In recent years we have focussed on improving the understanding of our communities and how these communities can be better represented in our workforce.

There have been gradual improvements within our wholetime firefighter levels, however increasing diversity in supervisory, middle and senior leadership positions continues to be an area of focus.

In 2025/26:

• The number of female firefighters remains at 57 (although this will increase with the new cohort of trainee firefighters).
• 8.4% of our workforce were from racially minoritised groups, compared to 8.1% in 2024/25.

Health and wellbeing

We remain committed to supporting the health and wellbeing of our workforce through a comprehensive and inclusive approach.

Our Occupational Health & Fitness team provides clinical support, fitness testing and rehabilitation services, supported by additional provision such as the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), Unum cashback scheme and the Vivup benefits platform.

During 2025/26, we strengthened our approach through:

• Increased on-site engagement by the Occupational Health team.
• E-learning and specialist guidance to support trauma awareness.
• Improved process for physiotherapy access.
• Introduction of health surveillance.
• Health promotion and education boards across fire stations.
• Delivery of wellbeing workshops.
• Development of a new fitness app for staff.
• Ongoing involvement in the NFCC Health and Wellbeing subgroup to align with national standards.

These initiatives support a healthier, more resilient workforce and help minimise sickness absence.

In 2025/26:

• 99.7% of our operational staff passed their annual fitness test.
• 51 accidents were reported in the workplace, compared with 58 in 2024/25.
• 61 near misses were reported, compared to 76 in 2024/25.

Colleague support

During 2025/26 we introduced Genius Finder Pro, a strengthsbased tool from Genius Within, to better support employees with neurodivergent conditions and identify reasonable adjustment needs.

Working with Genius Within, the Service adapted the tool for operational fire service environments, creating a bespoke version that supports awareness, training and employee engagement.