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Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

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Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service is committed to challenging discriminatory behaviour or practices. We create an environment where our staff feel safe, secure, are valued; enabling us to provide the highest quality service to the communities we serve.

We recognise that equality and diversity must be at the heart of our day-to-day service delivery. We understand that the production of our policies and procedures, recruitment, training & development and retention of our staff are key aspects of mainstreaming the importance of this area.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Plan

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Plan 2020-2025, links into our purpose, vision, mission and ethics, as well as helping to support the delivery of key elements of our People Strategy. Specific areas of focus within the plan include: Our Organisation, Our People, Our Communities and Our Partners.

The plan’s introduction shows the scale of ambition the Service has to promote equality, diversity and inclusion – not just across the organisation but also within the local communities we serve.

Our Core Code of Ethics

The Core Code of Ethics for Fire and Rescue Services in England sets out five ethical principles, which provide a basis for promoting good behaviour. The Service is committed to the ethical principles of the Code.

Our equality objectives

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion is important to us and links to the core code of ethics. We are committed to providing a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of our work and in our services to the community.

In line with the responsibilities placed on us by the Equality Act 2010, we set and publish equality objectives every four years, and we have an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Plan to help us deliver them:

Our equality objectives are:

Our Organisation:

Leadership and Corporate Commitment

  • Our leaders will provide visible leadership to ensure our people, our partners and our communities see the personal commitment to inclusion.
  • We will maximise the transparency of our organisation so our activities can be scrutinised and we can be held accountable.

Our Communities:

Understand, engage and build good relationships

  • We will better understand our communities by ensuring we put in place systems that enable the collection, collation and analysis of community data and information.
  • We will enhance our engagement with our communities to foster good relationships and understand the community priorities.

Our People:

Develop, engage and understand

  • We will develop our people to better understand diversity and inclusion.
  • We will create an inclusive culture where our people feel able to be themselves.
  • We will better understand our workforce composition through our workforce data.

Our Partners:

Working together

  • We will work with external partners to develop strategies that enable effective service provision to our communities.
  • We will collaborate across our own business functions and staff networks to better build equality and inclusion into our policies, processes and practices to ensure inclusion and our values are at the heart of everything we do.

What is Positive Action?

Positive action is a range of lawful initiatives to improve equality for people who share a protected characteristic, through reducing disadvantages, meeting the differing needs and increasing participation. Proportionate action can be taken when there is evidence of under representation or that a barrier exists.

Using positive action to increase representation within HWFRS is beneficial to us all. As well as enabling us to recruit from a wider pool of talented, skilled people to create a more forward thinking, inclusive and positive working environment, it helps us to understand the diverse needs of the communities we serve.

Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service does not advocate or use positive discrimination, such as recruiting individuals because they have a protected characteristic. All our applicants go through the same selection processes and all employees are appointed solely on merit.

Positive Action Statement of Intent

The positive action statement of intent outlines how we will utilise positive action principles to encourage under-represented groups to engage with recruitment, career progression or prevention activities. A copy can be found here.

Equality & Gender Pay Gap Reporting

Here is our current report which details our workforce diversity data, gender pay gap information and progress against our equality objectives:

Here are copies of our previous reports:

Please note the figures in the 2017 report have been updated.

Contact us

Feedback about equality and diversity is important to us, if you would like to comment about the contents of our site, our equality objectives or just to know more, you can contact us by any of the methods listed below:

Write to:

Head of HR & Development

Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service
Headquarters
Hindlip Park
Worcester
WR3 8SP

Tel: 01905 368 355

LU: 27/01/23/BN