Scottish Government

STRATEGIC ISSUES OF THE FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICES

ATTACKS ON FIRE SERVICE PERSONNEL

105. Last years annual statistics in relation to attacks on fire crews showed a significant decrease in the numbers of such attacks. Unfortunately, this year has shown a major increase from 226 in 2004/05 to 324 in this reporting year.

106. During late 2005, HMFSI engaged 'Space Unlimited' to assist in identifying reasons why young people attack fire crews and to find ways of improving this disgraceful behaviour. Space Unlimited is a new initiative that has been developed by Scottish Enterprise and has a track record for innovative approaches to many of today's societal challenges. They act as co-ordinators to groups of young people who are tasked to identify causes of problems and methods of improvement.

107. Space Unlimited engaged volunteers from the 2nd and 6th years of Govan High School and St Paul's High School in Strathclyde along with the Fire and Rescue Service in that area who were experiencing a high number of attacks. These young people spoke to all stakeholders, in particular peer groups, in some cases perpetrators themselves, in addition to Firefighters, the Chief Officer, Social Services, Teachers, Police, family and friends. Their work has now been concluded resulting in a report which can be summarised as follows:

General reason for taking part in an attack

• having a laugh;
• boredom;
• showing off;
• don't know, I just did it.

108. Whilst these reasons may appear shallow almost to the point of being dismissive, this is nevertheless what they found. The young people involved in the project have made a number of recommendations to assist in reducing the number of attacks on fire crews.

109. The results of this project have been made available to Scottish Fire and Rescue Services via a "Dear Chief Officer Letter" and it is for each individual Service to consider the outcomes. It is also extremely timely in that the Scottish Community Fire Safety Forum has launched its Youth Development Plan recently in which all of the findings and recommendations put forward by the young people in the Space Unlimited project are addressed.

110. To some extent the increase in the figures recorded for attacks on fire crews can be attributed to operational personnel having received encouragement to report incidents from HMFSI, Fire Services and Trade Unions. There is an anticipation that these figures may reduce in future as a result of the introduction of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005.

Attacks on Fire Service Personnel 2005 - 06

Attacks of Fire Service Personnel 2003-04 to 2005-06

FAIRNESS, DIVERSITY, EQUALITY AND CULTURAL POSITION OF THE FIRE SERVICE

111. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service's have undertaken a cultural audit of staff over the previous year. The results are now available and some of the Services are taking forward their own solutions. For instance, Strathclyde FRS has developed a staff focus group to look more deeply at some of their results and other Services are taking similar initiatives.

112. One of the reasons for undertaking the audit was to produce a benchmarking report of all Scottish results. This has now been completed and work has begun to consider solutions through the Scottish Service Delivery Advisory Forum. The completed cultural audit report is available at www.scotland.gov.uk/hmifs

113. Scottish Fire and Rescue services continue to improve their systems in relation to the requirements of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. All services have produced a Race Equality Scheme and action plan and are developing better systems for monitoring. The Services are able to produce the required statistics but some systems are not joined up. Through the CFOA Equality and Diversity Business Stream group work continues to improve on these systems. Currently the Service is doing quite well in relation to the new duties and this has provided the baseline for work to be undertaken on the new duty to promote disability being introduced later this year. CFOA Equality and Diversity Business Stream partners continue to work towards the development of a single equality duty which should be complete early next year.

114. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service continues to make limited progress in the field of equality and diversity. The introduction of the new recruitment and selection point of entry tests and the development of the Assessment and Development Centres ( ADC's) for assessing promotions are continuing to assist in this agenda. The Services continue to require all candidates for entry to answer questions on equality both at the application stage and at interview stage in the recruitment process. Equality and Diversity is also an area in the ADC process which must be passed in order to achieve success. This shows the continuing commitment to equality issues within the Services at all levels of entry and improvement. All Services continue to deliver equality training to their staff and are currently preparing for the new changes in legislation regarding age and disability.

115. Whilst the Service continues to make progress, the attraction of currently under-represented groups into the uniformed Service is still disappointing. The Service must look to the good practice, particularly in the other Blue Light Services, that exists throughout the UK in order to ensure that Scotland is served by a diverse workforce reflecting our communities. This vital area must be a priority for the recently established ministerial advisory forums.

BREAKDOWN OF SCOTTISH FIRE SERVICES EMPLOYMENT PROFILES

116. The Inspectorate monitor diversity and representation within the Fire Service through the annual statistical returns submitted from the Fire and Rescue Services during routine inspections.

Diversity Profile of Scottish Fire Services - all sectors 2000-01 to 2005-06

Diversity Profile of Scottish Fire Services by Sector 2005-06

HEALTH AND SAFETY TRENDS

117. As was reported last year, the trend in both reported accidents and near misses continues to fall and this is reflected in the number of accidents reported which has fallen by approximately 25% from the 2004-05 figures.

118. The number of near misses also continues to show a gradual decline to 457, some 5% down on last year and 13% down from the high of 525 which was recorded during 2003-04, although that figure had to be tempered against an improved recording of near misses from previous years.

119. This downward trend is particularly encouraging as it is measured against an overall 3.5% increase in operational activity during the reporting period. This rise was mainly due to the increased number of secondary fires.

Accident Statistics in Scottish Fire Service 2000-01 to 2005-06

*The figures for 2002-03 are not directly comparable to the others, as service was withdrawn through industrial action for parts of this period

**This figure has been amended from 830 to 803 as was previously published in the 2004-05 report

MANAGING ATTENDANCE

120. The mean rates of absence for wholetime operational and control room employees in each Fire and Rescue Service, together with the overall rates of absence for Scotland, are given in the accompanying table. As noted in previous years, there are significant variations between Services in levels of absence. However, this reporting year's absence rates show a 24% decrease from the 2004/05 figures.

121. This significant improvement is mainly due to individual Fire and Rescue Services targeting this area of HR management specifically, as a result of poor figures and an increasing trend in previous years. Although this decrease is welcomed, there is still more room for improvement. Analysis of the results of those Services that have shown improvement in absence should allow examples of good practice in the management of this area to be identified and shared.

Average Absence per Employees 2005-06

Average Absences per year