Priority three
Our Service is recognised as a great place to work: our staff feel valued, supported, safe, and well-trained to deliver a high-performing fire and rescue service.
HMICFRS - People
How well does the FRS ensure fairness and diversity?
How well does the FRS promote its values and culture?
How well does the FRS develop leadership and capability?
In 2024, we developed our People Strategy, which is designed to empower our employees to reach their full potential, fulfil our Service goals, and realise our vision. It also facilitates the development of a workforce that is capable of providing efficient and effective services to the communities we serve, and supports our workforce planning process. The strategy is in place until 2027, when we will undertake a full review of the objectives and aligned activities detailed within the plan.
Learning and development
We are continuing to introduce and support the development of our leaders at all levels by providing opportunities for colleagues to be a part of a leadership development programme, Action Learning Set (ALS). The programme is for people who believe they can learn from each other by collaborating and sharing knowledge. The cross-organisation ALS groups have participants from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, Royal Devon University Hospital, Devon County Council, and Devon and Cornwall and Dorset Police, over a minimum of five months, providing individuals with richer insights into leadership and growing their style and skills of leadership as a result.
All leaders in the Service have access to leadership development tools which support a dynamicenvironment for learning, collaboration, and personal growth for both operational and professional support colleagues.
We have introduced the leadership skills build programme, which provides colleagues with the opportunity to unlock their full potential through learning new techniques, participating in interactive workshops and networking, supporting individuals to develop self- awareness and understand the value of collaboration and teamwork to promote leadership excellence.
All development programmes and supporting management tools are aligned to the NFCC Leadership framework which can be viewed on the NFCC website.
“Development culture within DSFRS is successfully evolving from purely a reactive task, focused on promotion
to a more holistic journey of personal development. The embedment of clear career pathways running in parallel with the foundational continual support from colleagues, leaders and the people development team shall add value to Individuals, our organisation and ultimately the public we serve “. SM Patrick Clarke - People Development Lead
Apprenticeships
We are continuing to support staff in the Service who want to develop themselves by providing a variety of apprenticeships that can assist them with enhancing their careers. This can be to support them in their current post, or to gain leadership and management knowledge, skills, and behaviours before they step into the next leadership role.
Culture
It is important we undertake our legislative and public responsibilities in a proficient, professional and considerate manner; however, it is also vital that we provide a safe, welcoming and inclusive workplace where individuals can be themselves and flourish. To maintain and grow trust within our communities and our staff, we will continue to implement the NFCC Core Code of Ethics alongside our Service values in everything we do.
To influence the culture in our organisation, so that bullying and other negative behaviours are challenged, we have recently incorporated ‘Bystander effect’ training into our Skills Build sessions. Providing our staff with the tools to stop inappropriate behaviour before it arises and to provide support to each other in challenging inappropriate conduct. We have also introduced additional routes for staff to raise concerns, supporting staff to feel safe to contribute and challenge.
Staff wellbeing
We want to ensure that the environment in which we all work is safe and healthy, and that the Service is a great place to work. Our focus over the last 12 months has been on the fitness and wellbeing of our staff. We have improved access to our wide range of wellbeing interventions, fitness sessions, programmes and testing. We have reviewed and updated several HR policies, ensuring they continue to deliver the services required to support our staff.
In addition, we are examining operational routine medical procedures in relation to the introduction of an in-house fitness team to conduct blood and cholesterol testing. We are also undertaking research into training providers that support spirometry and asbestos testing.
Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) helps professionals to enhance the psychological well-being of people dealing with unusual and stressful events. Our staff attend CISM multi-agency conference events to share best practices through our defusing network and continue to support the delivery of defusing training to our new recruits.
Workforce / Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
Our focus is to continue to embed the NFCC Core Code of Ethics and our Service values within all our activities. We recognise and promote the value of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, both within the Service and the wider communities in which we serve. We stand against all forms of discrimination, create equal opportunities, promote equality, foster good relations, and celebrate difference.
The People Strategy outlines our commitment to creating a diverse workforce and improve recruitment and retention processes. We want our workforce to truly represent the communities we serve and to support this we are continuing to work on engagement and positive action within all recruitment processes, using various social media platforms to promote the events. For more information, please visit the careers page of our website.
We have streamlined our recruitment process, however further work is required around how we can encourage underrepresented groups to raise their awareness of employment opportunities and recruitment and selection processes. We have seen a positive response to the latest on-call firefighter recruitment, however, to encourage more applicants, an analysis of our current response times to stations may need to be reviewed.
To support our commitment to employing a diverse workforce, we are using a variety of media outlets to continue to promote Have a go days and Positive Action events, raising awareness of the role of an on-call firefighter and encouraging applications from under presented groups. For more information read the Have a go days for people interested in becoming on-call firefighters news page.
We are continuing to expand our staff network groups with the introduction of a Young People in the Fire Service group. The group enables young people to come together, share experiences and support each other. The networks provide a safe place for staff to share their experiences and establish a collective voice to raise awareness of areas for improvement within the Service.
We continue to attend Pride celebrations and Diversity festivals, to engage, deliver safety advice and talk about recruitment to our diverse communities, while also gaining insight and feedback to help design our service.
Female Firefighter Forum (F3)
“The F3 (Female Firefighter Forum) provides mutual support for women firefighters within our Service. Due to our huge geographical area many of our women firefighters are the only woman on their station. Knowing other women doing the same role are just a message away can be a lifeline.
The Service also supports the WFS (Women in the Fire Service) which is an organisation that we are proud to be a part of that enables and inspires confident and successful women to help build a more progressive fire and rescue service and nurture and encourage role models: “if she can see it, she can be it.” Caroline Anderson – Chair of the F3 forum.