Our Equality and Inclusion Priorities are very important to us as an organisation. We understand that the principles of equality and inclusion are integral to keeping our communities safer and stronger. We want to ensure that the decisions we make about our organisation consider and meet the needs of all the communities we serve.
The priorities were established in 2016 and covered a four year period. Towards the end of 2020 the priorities and their actions were reviewed and refreshed before being consulted upon. The feedback we received has supported the refresh of the actions for each Equality and Inclusion Prioritiy for 2021 to 2025 and they were approved by Humberside Fire Authority at their meeting on 7 December, to commence from 1 January 2021.
We believe that everyone should be treated with dignity, respect and consideration, whether it’s our practices, the services we provide or the principles we work to, an we recognise that all of our staff have a role to play. Our five Equality and Inclusion Priorities and their actions are:
Priority 1: Leading by example on equality
- Improve existing equality monitoring systems for service workforce profiling.
- Visibly promote Humberside Fire and Rescue Service as an anti-discriminatory organisation.
- Review and improve the Service’s equality analysis systems to account for our communities and learn from national good practice.
Priority 2: Increasing diversity throughout our workforce
- Visibly promote Humberside Fire and Rescue Service as an employer of choice and positively seek employees from underrepresented groups.
- Improve the recruitment and retention levels for all underrepresented groups.
- Further develop the role of Equality Champions across the Service.
Priority 3: Ensure a safe and fair workplace for all staff
- Raise the awareness of managers and staff to create a safe and fair environment for all staff inclusive of co-workers in protected groups.
- Support staff to establish and utilise diverse staff forums and other ‘voice to power’ mechanisms.
- Support staff through health inequalities and take into account the protected characteristics when reviewing working arrangements.
Priority 4: Continue to improve our knowledge of our diverse communities and how we engage with them
- Actively consult and draw support from leaders of underrepresented communities to guide the steering of our programmes for community engagement and recruitment.
- Work in partnership with local authorities and others to develop organisational learning on community issues to improve our approaches to diverse engagement.
Priority 5: Identifying the fire and other emergency risks linked to multiple disadvantage and discrimination
- Utilise our data to improve our knowledge of multiple disadvantaged and discriminated communities to continually improve our prevention and protection service delivery.
- Utilise our improved equality assessments to guide the direction of prevention and protection engagements in communities that experience multiple disadvantages and/or discrimination.
- Work with our partners to reduce the likelihood of incidents affecting communities that experience multiple disadvantages and/or discrimination.
We report on how we meet our Equality and Inclusion Priorities, to read the latest report and to find out more about how we are an equal and inclusive organisation, visit our webpage here.
We’re committed to lead by example and respect the views of others and we’re working hard to become more representative of the communities we serve and if members of our community have felt and feel excluded, unwelcome, not valued or not supported by us. Then they can contact us confidentially by emailing letusknow@humbersidefire.gov.uk.