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Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service Achieves High Marks for Equality
Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is one of only a handful of fire and
rescue services to be known for its commitment to embedding equality and
diversity into every aspect of its work, through attainment of Level 4 in the
Equality Standard for Local Government.
The Standard was established in 2001 through a partnership between the
Commission for Racial Equality, the Disability Rights Commission, the Equal
Opportunities Commission and the DIALOG unit of the Employers’ Organisation for
local government, with advice from the Audit Commission and was subsequently
reviewed in 2006. Its aim being to guide public bodies and enable them to
measure their progress in delivering against the range of equalities
legislation, and demonstrate positive commitment to equality and diversity
across all six equality strands: age, disability, gender, race, religion/belief
and sexual orientation.
For the last few years, Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service has been
improving in line with this standard, which operates on a basis of five levels
of assessment and at the beginning of 2009 Derbyshire was externally assessed at
‘Level 3 of 5’.
Keith Brooks, who is Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Area Manager
in the Strategic Development Division, said: "We realised at the time that we
had been awarded a very 'strong' level 3 and that the opportunity existed, if we
worked hard enough, for us to achieve level 4 by the end of the year. We
were delighted when we were told in November 2009 that we had achieved
this."
Since the achievement of Level 4, a new national Fire and Rescue
Service equality framework (FRS EF) has been introduced and the organisation has
recently “transferred across” to the new framework where it has been recognised
as “moving towards excellence”.
The development of this new national fire framework has been led by
Derbyshire’s Chief Fire Officer and Chief Executive Brian Tregunna. He
said: "Our journey towards 'excellence' has been a real process of learning and
development in equality and diversity and has taken the whole organisation on a
voyage of discovery. At the beginning we did not realise the extent of the
challenges we needed to meet, but recognised we needed to make significant
changes to move forward on this key agenda if we were to truly meet our aim of
making Derbyshire a safe place to live work and visit."
"We are proud to say that we are only one of a handful of fire and
rescue services to attain the ESLG Level 4 Standard. We anticipate that
within the next twelve to eighteen months we should achieve the highest accolade
of being classed as ‘Excellent’ in the new FRS EF."
Councillor Julie Patten (Chair of the Authority’s Equality & Diversity
Forum) stated: "The achievements the Service has made have meant significant
improvements for the communities of Derbyshire as well as directly within the
organisation itself in many aspects of equality and diversity – these are
evident in service delivery, various processes, policies, people and
attitudes. The work has been completed thanks to the personal commitment
of many employees, who have been the driving force along the way, and this
momentum needs to be maintained in order for Derbyshire Fire and Rescue
Service and Derbyshire Fire Authority to proceed towards the attainment of
‘excellent’ within the new standard and to stay at that level once it has been
achieved."
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Link: Press Release - Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service Achieves High Marks
for Equality
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