Strategic goal 4

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. We will achieve this through our People and Culture Strategy 2025-28, which will be available on our website.

Over the last three years, we have completed our relocation to a new Joint Headquarters, which we share with Nottinghamshire Police, and improved facilities at ten of our on-call fire stations and our operational training centre to ensure they are inclusive for all.

Recruitment has been a significant focus across both operational and support roles. We recommenced recruitment for wholetime operational firefighters for the first time in a number of years, which through effective positive action, has helped to diversify our operational workforce. We have maintained our on-call firefighter numbers, bucking a national trend. We have seen a high turnover in our support colleagues but have been successful in recruiting across all roles.

We have introduced employee networks, to give voice to underrepresented groups within the workforce and will continue to support the development of these as a valuable component of our employee engagement. We have responded to a number of sector cultural reports, using these, as well as our own internal reviews to inform our continual improvement.

Over the period of this CRMP, we will maintain a strategic focus on our cultural development and improving the diversity of our workforce. We will work within our available resources to ensure that we have the right people, in the right places with the necessary skills to deliver high quality services. We will place particular focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our teams, and developing management and leadership skills at all levels.

Over the life of this CRMP, we aim to:

• Drive cultural development through effective communication and engagement with colleagues, education and training, and improved use of data to inform decision making
• Adopt a long-term approach to improve the diversity of our workforce as an integral part of our workforce planning, to inform our recruitment, promotion and progression activities
• Prioritise workforce wellbeing, reviewing and developing our provisions to support both physical fitness and mental health
• Safeguard the health, safety and welfare of colleagues, through investment in contaminant management, training facilities and continuous operational learning
• Undertake functional reviews to ensure that we align our resources to the needs of the organisation, and have the capacity and flexibility to deliver high quality services
• Promote and enable continuous professional development for colleagues in all areas, with a particular focus on talent management and leadership development