HAMPSHIRE FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE |
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE FAIRNESS AND DIGNITY GROUP |
THURSDAY, 17 FEBRUARY 2000, AT B24 SOUTHSEA |
COMMENCING AT 1000 HRS |
Present: |
Mr T Murrell - HFRS (Chairman) |
1 |
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE |
Apologies were received from Cllr Mrs Rapson, Cllr Mrs Wiggins, Ms Foster-Key, Mr Williams and Mr Crisford. | |
2 |
MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING -02.11.99 |
These were accepted as a true and accurate record. | |
3 |
MATTERS ARISING |
3.1 |
Training with Southampton City College - 3.1 of 02.11.99 |
Mr Ash to chase Southampton College in order to progress. Mr Butcher has already written to the College to try and ascertain the current position. | |
ACTION: Mr Ash | |
3.2 |
HFRS Fairness & Dignity Survey 1999 - 6 of 02.11.99 |
The next meeting of CACFOA on Equality Exchange will take place on 15.03.00 and Mrs McNeill will put this forward as an item for that meeting and report back. | |
ACTION : Mrs McNeill | |
3.3 |
Family Friendly Matters - 8 of 02.11.99 |
This has been incorporated in to the main Thematic Review Report. | |
3.4 |
New Post of Personnel Adviser (Equality)- 12 of 02.11.99 |
This post is currently being re-advertised as the replies to the original advert did not produce any candidates worthy of shortlisting. Closing date is 03.03.00 and it is hoped that there will be a better response this time. | |
4 |
NETWORKING WOMEN IN THE FIRE SERVICE (NWFS) CONFERENCE 2000 |
Ms Brumitt explained to those who were not aware that NWFS had been set up by the first women firefighters as a support group. It has grown since its inception and nowadays also includes male firefighters. The Annual Conference, NWFS 2000, is to be held in Hampshire this year over the weekend 9-11 June. There will be an opening ceremony and various practical workshops over the three days and it is hoped delegates will come from South Africa, America and Holland as well as from the United Kingdom. Willing volunteers will be very welcome. Fliers advertising the event will soon go out and it is hoped that there will be a good response. | |
5 |
RETAINED EQUALITY AND OPPORTUNITY |
Mr Needham stated that there is a perception that Retained personnel are not significantly subjected to inequality. He felt however that one sentence in the Thematic Review, Paragraph 6.8, "The relationship between WT staff and their retained colleagues are often particularly strained", does point to there being a problem. An in depth discussion followed and Mr Needham asked the group to consider, whilst addressing the main issues in the Thematic Review to take the opportunity to address the concerns of Retained inequality. Mr Needham to liaise informally with Valerie King/Jenny McNeill to find out what is possible and what is not and to bring suggestions back to this group for amendment, ratification or rejection. | |
ACTION: Mr Needham | |
6 |
FACILITIES FOR FEMALE FIREFIGHTERS ON RETAINED STATIONS |
As was the case with facilities for wholetime women firefighters Mr Murrell stated that the Service will ensure that reasonable facilities are provided where they are needed. | |
ACTION: Mr Murrell | |
7 |
UPDATE ON POSITIVE ACTION DAY FOR WOMEN |
Mrs King reported that preparations were well in hand for the Positive Action Day on 04.03.00. The day will be slanted primarily on the wholetime role but information will also be available on the retained service. The day will be run very much along the lines of the wholetime recruitment days and will be staffed by a large number of people from the Brigade and representatives of NWFS. | |
Following a question from the floor as to whether men would be allowed to attend Mrs McNeill replied no, on this occasion it would be a women only day. Following a further question as to whether the same sort of day would be run for men only Mrs McNeill stated that recruiting white males presented no problems at all, there were always far more applicants than vacancies so nothing was planned. It was hoped however that a similar sort of event would be arranged for ethnic minorities. Following further discussion Mrs McNeill that there are currently approximately 20 serving operational women firefighters (wholetime and retained). Home Office Targets for the percentage of operational women firefighters within brigades had recently been released and for Hampshire to meet these the following increases would be needed:by 01,04,02 an increase of 4% = 56 extra womenby 01.04.04 an increase of 9% = 126 extra womenby 01.04.09 an increase of 15% = 210 extra women | |
8 |
JOINT REPORT ON THEMATIC REVIEW |
A small sub group of this Committee, Valerie King, Steve Ash and Sue Brumitt, had gone through the Thematic Review and had come up with a draft report which it was hoped, when finalised and adopted as policy, would point the way forward. Section 3 of the report was a response to the Fairness & Equality Check List. Mrs King emphasised that the sub group had been completely honest when answering the questions and even in cases where actions had been started if they were not completed then a NO response had been given. It was felt that even though this was a Draft it should still be submitted to the March meeting of SMT so that they are aware of what is going on. | |
ACTION: Mr Murrell | |
The Fairness and Dignity Committee are to peruse the report and respond to any of the three named with comments etc., by 17 March latest. Mr Needham to liaise direct with Mr Murrell in respect of any concerns he might have regarding the Retained. | |
ACTION: All | |
9 |
FBU TRAINING |
Lud Ramsey, with the assistance of Chris Rogers and Kevin Butcher, gave a presentation on how discrimination against himself as a member of an ethnic minority had affected his career in the Royal Air Force and also in his acceptance on moving to Andover and joining the Fire Service. What was most apparent was the subtlety used, certainly during his time in the Royal Air Force, to seemingly ensure he did not receive either the promotions or perks that other members of his squad did and also how unaware those around him had been of what was happening. | |
Although Mr Ramsey felt he had been accepted by HFRS there were still occasional problems which were encountered by his family in the local community. All present agreed that vigilance is needed to ensure that HFRS stamps out any form of discrimination within its ranks. Mr Murrell thanked all the participants for their presentation and said that he felt the meeting had learned a lot from it. | |
10 |
ANY OTHER URGENT BUSINESS |
Mr Ash raised concerns about the provision of Stage III training. Mr Bacon responded that steps were being taken to address this matter and HFRS was in consultation with Southampton City College to see if they can advise on training. Mr Ash to contact SCC to see if they still wish to assist in this matter. | |
ACTION: Mr Ash | |
11 |
DATE OF NEXT MEETINGS |
Friday, 14 April 2000, Harland Room Service HQ at 1000 hrs. | |
Thursday, 20 July 2000, Eastleigh Fire Station at 1000 hrs | |
Thursday, 19 October 2000, Andover Fire Station at 1000 hrs. | |
Dir-fin HFRA 24 5 00 F and D 17 2 00