Archived decisions

Human Resources

Where are we now?

Last year HR combined with Training to make a single directorate. Over the period a collection of developments took place and there were a number of changes to roles and staff in the new Directorate. These have provided us with a good basis for further development and we are in a better position to help the Service achieve the aims we have set ourselves in the next Fire and Safety Plan (2008 - 2011).

As well as making changes within HR & Training, we have developed some key areas that affect the whole organisation. Some of these will continue to be developed during the life of this plan and beyond. All staff will have been touched by at least some of these over the last 12 months.

Over the previous 12 months the HR function committed a great deal of time and effort into delivering the key outputs contained within the Workforce Strategy. The Workforce Strategy seeks to support a fully integrated approach to help make sure that we have the right people in the right place, with the necessary skills and motivation for their role.

Human Resources

What are we trying to achieve?

Our aim is to provide the best possible support to the Service in all the areas that we work. Whilst we expect to primarily work with colleagues internally, we will also take the lead in areas that have a direct impact on externally focused services and the way we deliver them. These will include areas around equality & diversity and recruitment and selection amongst others.

We will work closely with colleagues to assist in meeting our organisational aims through the provision of advice and support, completing objectives in support of our strategies and implementing new systems and procedures. Over the next year there will be a number of national and locally generated targets and objectives that will continue to help shape and direct our work. These include the new Fire and Rescue Services National Framework, the new national Equality and Diversity Strategy, the developed proposals around a National Centre of Excellence for Fire and Services and also our own Fire and Rescue Service Plan (2008 - 2011). These will help drive the direction of our work in the future and will enable us to craft the revised Workforce Strategy which will start from April 2009 and we would expect to cover a 3 year period again.

The programme of change within the Service and our own aspiration to be in the top 10 Fire and Rescue Services in the Country requires that we continue to seek more flexible and effective ways of working. We will continue to develop the ways we select, develop, and support our staff thereby helping in the continual improvement of the delivery of service and the safety of the people of Hampshire.

Human Resources

What are we going to do?

We will work with all areas of the Service to help deliver the corporate aims. In doing so we will provide a number of services and assist in key areas of delivery of services. We will aim to do this through the following:

· We will support individuals and teams to realise their potential.

· We will challenging the status quo and help enable effective change.

· We will ensure compliance with employment and related areas of the law and where appropriate adopt best practice.

· We will provide customer focused services.

· We will provide help, guidance & support to managers.

· We will champion fairness & dignity and equality & diversity.

· We will provide systems and processes to meet organisational needs.

· We will work to meet national directives and requirements

· We will work closely with Representative Bodies to bring about service improvements and beneficial change.

Whilst the HR function will seek to support the wider Service in the achievement of its strategic and corporate aims, there are within the Fire and Rescue Service Plan (2008 - 2011) a number of objectives that have specific relevance to HR. In these areas, HR will either take the lead or work especially close with others to achieve the desired outcomes.

We also anticipate that the new national strategies will present some additional challenges for us and we will provide the focus for achieving these to the same high standards that HFRS has set in the past.

Human Resources

How are we going to evaluate and learn?

The Service has a variety of plans and strategies against which HR will assess its progress and the actions that are needed to achieve the desired outcomes that have been established. These are clearly established in the Fire & Rescue Service Plan 2008 - 2011. The individual and collective objectives within HR will have a link back to the objectives that are set in that plan. Additionally, the existing Workforce Strategy and the associated Action Plan sets out the overall way forward and the steps necessary to achieve the supporting strategies that underpin the work of the people management aspects of our role.

This Medium Term Plan provides a more detailed planning and assessment medium for those in HR and those who work with us. We have a document called the HR Partnership Arrangement which details the things that we do and the areas of work or activities that we carry out. It also provides an outline of the contributions that we need from others in order to achieve what is required. This provides the blueprint for the services we deliver. This document will be refreshed during this year.

As with all other areas of the Service we are subject to scrutiny of our performance in achieving Local Performance Indicators and Best Value Performance Indicators. These are regularly reviewed and performance managed via SMT. The function is also subject to a degree of external scrutiny. This includes regular Internal Audit inspections and specific performance assessments for particular areas of work, such as the IDeA assessment of performance against the equality Standard for Local Government.

We aim to continually develop and learn through collective and individual CPD. This includes focused personal development plans for individual members of the HR Team, collaborative working across the South East Region (we are active members of the Regional Development Group), learning from other organisations locally, regionally and nationally and adopting best practice that has been developed where this meets our needs and values.

Training and Development - Where are we now?

The Training and Development Department is responsible for facilitating the learning and development of all staff groups. Supporting the training of our operational staff remains a priority for the department and we allocate a significant proportion of our resources to achieve this. We provide training, development and learning opportunities to all staff through a range of activities including courses, access to further education, shadowing opportunities, vocational qualifications and on-line resources

The Personal Development Review System (PDRS) provides the tool through which individuals identify their personal development needs, aligned to the organisational objectives. This will remain as the key tool for identifying the future training needs within the organisation and will support development of the annual training plan.

The role of the fire and rescue service continues to change and we are becoming more involved in the wider community safety agenda.

To engage effectively with our partners we will need staff to develop new skills and attitudes to ensure we deliver better outcomes for our communities. These will include communication skills; leadership skills; developing effective partnerships; political awareness and equality and diversity training integrated into all training activities.

Training and Development - What are we trying to achieve?

The quality of the services we deliver is dependant on the skills, competence and motivation of our staff. The goal of the Training and Development function is to maximise the potential of our workforce, through providing the appropriate learning and development opportunities, to deliver the required services and to drive down risk in our communities.

We will provide access to, and deliver the most suitable and appropriate learning and development opportunities to enable people to perform their respective roles. Wherever possible we will integrate different staff groups within development activities to provide enhanced learning experiences for everyone.

We are seeking to develop a culture in which every member of staff is empowered to challenge existing practices, and offer solutions by which we can improve, in order to create continuous improvement in the quality of all our services.

Our Learning and Development Strategy sets out how we will achieve this to deliver practical, positive and continuous improvements in our service and deliver the current and future expectations from Government and the public.

Training and Development - What are we going to do?

We will develop a workforce with the skills, knowledge and attributes to deliver high quality services to our communities. For all our staff, whether they are a front-line firefighter or a member of a supporting team, we aim to provide the best and most appropriate training and development, at the right time, throughout their careers. We will focus on the following key areas of development:

¬ Leadership and management development

¬ Embedding equality and diversity principles in all our activities

¬ Developing a coaching style of management

¬ Community safety training for station based personnel

¬ Creating effective partnerships

¬ Enhancing our e-Learning capability

¬ Working with our Elected Members

All training, learning and development activities will seek to improve the skills identified above to embed them across the service. As these skills develop we would expect to see clear progress both in terms of the quality of services we deliver and our culture, with highly trained and motivated people in all of our work areas, delivering high quality services aimed at meeting the needs of the diverse communities we serve.

Training and Development - How will we evaluate and learn?

Learning for all our development activities is central to our future success. All training/development activities will be developed to meet an identified need and will be subject to evaluation. We will use our Quality Assurance Framework to evaluate our activities at four levels:

Level 1 - reaction evaluation - how the delegates felt about the training or learning experience

Level 2 - learning evaluation - the measurement of the increase in knowledge - before and after

Level 3 - behaviour evaluation - the extent of applied learning back on the job - implementation

Level 4 - results evaluation - the effect on the business or environment by the individual/team

The evaluation data will be used to review the delivery and impact of our development activities on the individual and their future practice. We will use this data to make future changes to improve the quality of our learning and development activities to achieve the maximum benefit for the service.

Areas for improvement

HR & Training action

1 The provision of adequate Incident Command Training (ICT) for all operational Fire staff, particularly those acting up to supervisory management positions.

Training & Development will seek to fund additional training staff to support the delivery of ICT. We will also seek to provide new facilities to conduct this training by establishing a new Command Training Suite using existing facilities where possible. We will work with Service Delivery Performance Management Group in the audit process to measure the outcomes and effectiveness of our training.

2 The pressure of non operational work appears to have taken precedence over officer attendance at organised exercises.

The operational Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of Service Delivery staff and managers will be monitored through the Personal Development Review System (PDRS) process. The resulting development plans will be used to help direct Training & Development resources to meet the needs of the Service

3 Working with and for our communities - By improving our understanding of the needs of our communities, we can improve the quality and delivery of service:

3.1 Poor performance against BME (black and minority ethnic) and gender Best Value Performance Indicators

As part of our Equality Action Plan, we have set specific positive actions which will help encourage greater numbers of applicants from currently under represented groups.

3.2 We will comply with Race, Age, Disability, Gender and Equality requirements and deliver on our action plans.

To ensure that we comply with the requirements of equality Legislation, we are developing plans to review the relevant Human Resources policies and procedures in terms of equality legislation.

3.3 The Authority has achieved Level 2 of the Local Government Equalities Standard but need to improve further.

Our aim is to achieve Level 3 by December 2008. Associated with Human Resources Medium Term Plan and the Fire & Rescue Service Plan 2007/10 we have specific actions detailed within the Equality Action Plan which are designed to support our achievement of Level 3.

4 Developing our workforce - To achieve a fundamental shift from a

hierarchical organisational form to one which fosters discretion, innovation, and an element of risk taking in order to improve performance, decision making needs to move down the organisation. We have a number of initiatives to begin the process, such as Personal Development Review System

An integral aspect of achieving Investors in People accreditation for the whole organisation involved the implementation of an improved Personal Development Review (PDR) staff appraisal system which links personal development to personal and organisational objectives to support the IRMP.

Training was completed in 2006/07 and was fully implemented throughout the service by end of 2007/08. The outcomes of the PDRS will inform the Training Needs Analysis for 2008/09 and thereafter.

The Personal Development Review System project group has reviewed the original policy and procedures, and has implemented the recommend actions for improvement for this year. (2008/09)

5 Knowing our performance - being constantly aware of our performance is key in addressing areas of improvement:

Corporate Health Indicators need to be improving and strategies put into place for Managing Resources PIs (including the HR ones).

Human Resources (HR) indicators are monitored by the HR management team and reported to the HR Policy Group on a quarterly basis. A new Group will be formed from the existing Attendance Management and Occupational Health and Welfare Groups to form a new strategic Workforce Wellbeing Strategy Group. This will take organisational responsibility for the holistic approach to the wellbeing of staff across all areas of the Service.

6 Building our capacity & working in partnership - We can only achieve our ambitions if we have the skills and resources available to deliver on our plans:

Management capacity and increasing workloads

Further capacity building is required, largely in respect to station based managers

Part of the process of gaining Investors in People accreditation was to develop the understanding, abilities, and capacity of our managers to lead their staff to deliver change locally. Our new Learning & Development Strategy provides the focus deliver on this important area of leadership & management development. The Service is actively supporting the Aspire Leadership & Management portfolio facilitated by the Fire Service College and will continue to develop its own ADC and Development programme processes

7 Managing our Resources Better: Improvements need to be demonstrated in the management of absence, especially at middle management level.

The Attendance Management Improvement Plan has been developed and is currently monitored by the Attendance Management Project Board (soon to be amalgamated into the Workforce Wellbeing Strategy Group). This issue will form part of the criteria to achieve the Beacon station award.