England’s fire and rescue services are achieving greater levels of diversity and equality than ever, according to a new report.

 

Sir Ken Knight (far right) presents awards

The annual survey, published earlier this week, shows that while there is a trend towards greater diversity with more recruits joining from minority backgrounds, change is more evident at the junior levels rather than in middle or senior management levels.

Examples were cited in the Isles of Scilly and in Staffordshire, where 50% and 42% respectively of their operational intake for 2009 were women, and in Northamptonshire, where nearly 40% of joiners were from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The results were published to coincide with this year’s Fire and Rescue Service Equality and Diversity Awards, which recognised staff for their efforts in integrating fire services with their communities.

Working with people with Down’s syndrome, targeting local communities to stress the importance of car seat belts for children, and combining fire safety awareness with football training for young people were among the winners and runners up in the awards.

Sir Ken Knight, the government’s chief fire and rescue adviser, who presented the awards in London on Wednesday, said: "The equality and diversity awards show what fire and rescue services in England are doing to get fire safety messages to vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups and to improve recruitment, and retention of women and people from other groups currently under represented.

"Prevention has always been better than cure”, he said. “Everything that we can do to reduce the risk of fire should be welcomed. We know that having firefighters that reflect the local community improves mutual understanding and trust and helps to reinforce fire safety messages."

For the full report, click here.