Present:

Mrs J McNeill

-

HFRS (Chairman)

Mr C Bacon

-

HFRS

Ms S Baker

-

RFU

Mrs S Brumitt

-

Unison

Ms C Foster-Key

-

Unison

Mr N Haviland

-

GMB

Mr A Needham

-

RFU

Mr L Ramsey

-

B&EEM

Cllr G Semmens

-

Chair - HFRA Personnel Committee

Mr S Waas

-

HFRS

Mr H Williams

-

FBU

Mrs R Knight

-

Minute Secretary

Members of Green Watch, B23

1.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies were received from Cllr Barron, Mr Bonney, Mrs King, Cllr West and Mr Wythe.

2.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING - 17.01.02

These were accepted as a true and accurate record.

3.

MATTERS ARISING

3.1

Any Other Business - 3.3 of 17.01.02

During a meeting between Mr Bonney and the Deputy Chief Constable, Mr Bonney had raised the matter of Mr Shah of Hampshire Constabulary, who is heavily involved in recruitment, attending one of our meetings to give a presentation and it is hoped this will now take place. Mr Waas will progress this.

ACTION: Mr Waas

3.2

Link 2 Learn Project - 5 of 17.01.02

It was felt that the Link 2 Learn Project, which is now concluded, had been a success. Mr Waas has a meeting with Link 2 Learn on 26 April 2002 when the feasibility of extending the project to some stations within the Service. Mr Williams is to accompany Mr Waas to the meeting. Feedback will be given at the next meeting.

ACTION: Messrs Waas and Williams

3.3

Positive Action Day - 2 February 2002 - 6 of 17.01.02

Due to unforeseen circumstances the Positive Action Day scheduled for 2 February 2002 had been cancelled. However, Mr Waas stated that there were a number of positive action initiatives already taking place, including the Access Course for Emergency Services. This is a course organised and provided by Southampton City College in conjunction with the Fire, Police and Ambulance Services in Hampshire and is for people interested in a career with the emergency services. He explained that although these courses were mainly targeted at women and ethnic minorities they were open to anyone who was interested in applying. Talks are currently underway with Highbury College to see if the courses could be extended into Portsmouth. Various sorts of funding, including EU money, are being investigated.

ACTION: Mr Waas

There followed lengthy discussion into exactly what 'positive action' really meant and various members of Green Watch asked if the Home Office targets would result in the lowering of standards or giving unfair preference to women and ethnic minorities. Mrs McNeill and Mr Waas stated that positive action is a lawful activity which allows an employer to address previous difficulties in attracting candidates from any minority group so that they are given the opportunity to apply to be a firefighter if they wish to do so. This is an opportunity to give these people an awareness of exactly what is involved in being a firefighter, and the standards, both physical and academic, which need to be met. This information is available on our website and is available to all. At the point of selection, all candidates are treated the same and the standards are applied equally to all.

4.

PROGRESS REPORT RE WHOLETIME RECRUITMENT

Mrs McNeill reported that HFRS is currently recruiting wholetime firefighters and has held two recruitment days to date, 6 and 13 April 2002, with the final day on Saturday, 20 April 2002. To date there have been 680 applicants and of these 31 women and 31 from minority ethnic groups have applied. The next stage of the recruitment process will be the written tests, which will be held in Hampshire, followed by physical tests at Reigate in Surrey. The final stage for those who get through will be interviews which will be held in Hampshire in May and July. The first training course on which successful applicants will be placed is September this year. All applicants are aware of why they fail at any stage in the tests and are given feedback on where they need to improve if they wish to apply again the following year. It was reiterated that if anyone wished to attend HQ on 20 April to see what happens they would be more than welcome.

5.

UPDATE - TRAINING THE TRAINERS

17 HFRS employees have now undertaken the course run by the Trade Union Studies Department at Southampton City College to become Diversity Trainers. They are very enthusiastic and are looking forward to commencing the in-house training programme for our employees. It was felt that the course had been excellent and would give our trainers the skills to assist with resolving problems at work at local level. The next stage is an away day to put together a training programme which will be delivered across the Service. This will deal almost solely with issues surrounding bullying and harassment. Elected Members will also receive training once the programme is up and running.

ACTION: Mr Waas

6.

RACE RELATIONS AMENDMENT ACT 2000/RACE EQUALITY SCHEME

Mr Waas reminded the group of the statutory duty, as laid out in the above Act, of local authorities to promote racial equality and the need to demonstrate how this will be achieved. A Race Equality Scheme is currently being prepared covering HFRS actions and will be published by 31 May 2002.

ACTION: Mr Waas

7.

THE BANNER THEATRE

Mr Ramsey had attended a production by the Banner Theater Group, which is a mobile group which enacts situations encountered by minority groups within the Fire Service, at Oxfordshire. The idea is to make people think about how they act and what they say and the effect this has on others. The presentation had been successful and it is hoped this Group will visit Hampshire.

ACTION: Messrs Ramsey and Waas.

8.

NETWORKING WOMEN IN THE FIRE SERVICE (NWFS)

A promotional video, the first produced by NWFS, was shown. This included footage which had been shot at the Annual Conference which had been hosted by HFRS. The main aim of this organisation, which is open to men as well as women, is to raise awareness of what it is like to be in a situation where you are in a minority and to supply support, etc., as and when necessary. The 4^th National Conference of the organisation is being held on 14-16 June this year and will be hosted by West Yorkshire Fire Service. HFRS will be sponsoring some places and an advert will be placed in Routine Notice in respect of this.

ACTION: Mr Waas/Mrs Knight

9.

HFRS CHALLENGE TROPHY - IDEAS

Following sponsorship of a Cricket Festival in 2001 HFRS had been given a trophy as a thank you. Mr Waas felt that this should be used as a challenge trophy and asked for ideas to be forwarded to him as to how it could be utilised.

10.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

10.1

Recruitment - London

As a matter of interest, Mr Waas reported that he and Mr Ramsey had been invited to attend a recruitment open day at London and that they had accepted the invitation.

Mrs McNeill thanked all those present for attending and hoped that they had found it worth while.

11.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

1000 hrs on Thursday, 18 July 2002, at A1 Basingstoke.