Enhancing Employment Opportunities with the NFRS

Background

1. 1. Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) employs a workforce of 804 personnel. The majority are operational firefighters based at locations across the City and County. Other staff are employed in managerial and support roles based mainly at Joint (Fire & Police) Headquarters, Sherwood Lodge, Nottingham.
   2. Just 10.5% of whole-time firefighters and 7.1% of support staff employed by the NFRS reside in the City of Nottingham. This is low given that the City of Nottingham makes up 28% of the residents it serves (323,632 of 1.14 million people).
   3. The ethnic makeup of the City and County continues to change with an increasingly diverse population living in the City. The 2021 Census shows 42.7% of the population as being from ethnic minority groups, an increase from 35% in 2011 and 19% in 2001.
   4. 5.59% of all NFRS staff and 6.25% of the whole-time firefighting population are from Black, Asian, and other ethnic minority groups (as at 30/9/23¹).
   5. The NFRS has doubled the numbers of female firefighters over the last 10 years but still just 10% of firefighters are women in Nottinghamshire.
   6. If it is assumed (based on historical NFRS data), that broadly those people applying to be whole-time firefighters will be between the ages of 18 and 40, then 35% of this age group living in the City are from ethnic minority groups. In addition, NFRS’s attraction rate of women from racially minoritised groups is meagre and this work provides some reactions from focused enquiries with City residents as to why that might transpire.
   7. The NFRS recognises that based on its current pace, it will start to ‘reflect the communities it serves’ as follows:
      • Ethnic minority background - 14% by 2046
      • Women in Firefighter roles - 50% by 2069²

¹ NFRS data

² NFRS data requested