Agenda item

The Director of People and Development tabled a report which updated Members on the current position in respect of recruitment activity and the measures being taken to improve the process to assist in meeting: ongoing positive action campaign requirements; the nurturing of candidates; the amendment of processes whilst maintaining appropriate standards and the ongoing consideration of the role of apprentices.  Members considered the report in detail.

The workforce currently stood at an establishment of 1,242 with slight increases in both BME, female and disabled employees since 2010; but the Service work profile remained unrepresentative of Lancashire’s community.  On occasions when undertaking previous recruitment campaigns the Service had been able to reflect the community, for example the 50 Community Fire Service Practitioners was totally representative. However, when aggregated within the whole establishment, this only reflected a slight overall improvement. Of necessity the Retained Duty System (RDS) recruitment reflected the RDS catchment area which was not representative of Lancashire, and the Service had not undertaken any significant wholetime firefighter recruitment for many years prior to this year due to the demands imposed by the austerity measures.

The current recruitment activity was predicated on an ongoing desire to maintain our current operational strength and this meant the Service originally envisaged a recruitment of a further circa 60 firefighters to maintain this level with recruitment in June (36) and January 2018 (24). Further recruitment programmes would be run on an annual basis.  This followed a recruitment exercise focused purely on RDS which resulted in 27 new recruits for the wholetime in November 2016.  The actual numbers to be recruited would be adjusted through the campaigns to reflect altered demand, retirement and other leavers to meet the overall requirement in the long term.

This recruitment activity would be supplemented by an apprenticeship programme following the imposition on all public bodies of an apprenticeship target of a minimum of 2.3% of headcount annually which equated to a target of 29 apprentices; with a requirement to report on achievement against the target annually from September 2018.  Steps had been taken in respect of support staff to consider the role that apprentices could undertake and an opportunistic approach was currently being adopted with all positions under grade 4 being considered for possible apprenticeships as they fell vacant with identification of specific areas of additional need such as in ICT.

The associated Apprenticeship levy was implemented with effect from 6 April 2017 which, based on our current pay bill, equated to £150k.  The Service was currently continuing to determine the best way of drawing down from this levy, but the approach would be a combination of support staff apprentices,  coupled with higher level apprenticeship training for existing staff and recruiting firefighter apprentices once the issues around the framework to be utilised were clarified.  An allocation of £180k had been identified in the budget and more detailed proposals would be brought to a later meeting of the Resources Committee about the utilisation of these funds.  Due to uncertainty around the appropriate mechanisms it was feasible that the full allocation would not be utilised in year.  If this should occur it was proposed to carry any unspent amount including any set up provision amounts forward as an earmarked reserve as the programmes would require the funding.

The intent was to provide meaningful routes into employment within LFRS and career prospects for young individuals with skills and attributes which would enhance our organisation.

Recruitment

As the Authority had previously sanctioned, the Service had commenced an ongoing programme of recruitment with primacy being given to meeting the appropriate standards, improving the diversity of our workforce and providing an opportunity for our RDS staff to successfully apply for wholetime roles.

The Director of People and Development advised that the endorsed approach had delivered 27 transferees from RDS in 2016.  This was as a bespoke programme to address immediate need whilst enabling positive action to be instigated in advance of subsequent recruitment.

Of the 32 on the current recruits’ course, 12 emerged from RDS employment, while 5 of the 17 scheduled to attend the recruits course commencing in January 2018 were from the RDS. This demonstrated that the standards required had not adversely affected RDS employees (indeed the role naturally gave an opportunity to demonstrate examples of suitability).  Also there were instances where individuals had used the full time standard as a spur to improve their RDS involvement and future employability (driving and enrolment on educational courses being examples). However, this level of success was unlikely to be repeated hence the proposal for additional support.  In effect 44 out of the total of 76 personnel recruited have emerged from the RDS grouping.  Transferring this level of resource from our RDS establishment did have performance and organisational issues which increased demands on the Service. In many respects this was a harder recruitment challenge than wholetime exercises.  A number of individuals transferred had given a dual contract commitment but this was normally with a reduction in RDS hours of cover and the impact had been felt. Whilst it was believed this would act as a spur for future RDS recruitment this benefit had not been seen yet. 

Changes in process

The Service had reviewed the whole process to ensure today's and anticipated future fire service was reflected in the person and job specifications.  Similarly the Service considered and adopted some positive action initiatives to facilitate recruitment from underrepresented groups, whilst the key determinate remained meeting the Services’ standard.

The result from the current campaign was 32 recruited in June and potentially 17 in January 2018.  The standard of successful recruits’ attainment was high. However the level of underrepresented groups had been disappointing with 3 BME and 5 females being within the 32 new entrants, with one BME candidate commencing in January.  The campaign was targeted to improve our diversity and to ensure the anticipated number of applications could be managed.  In reality the actual number of applications was lower than anticipated and the rigid standards, set in anticipation of the volume expected, were such that the desired ability to finally select on behaviours was reduced.  It was intended to allow some flexibility in future campaigns without compromising the actual standards. The processes had therefore been reviewed to identify improvements.

The main change was to adopt the national fitness standards (as opposed to the higher LFRS standards) as the threshold to provide some potential flexibility in final selection.   The Service, based on previous experience, had used higher fitness standards than other services or the national standards required.  This had had the consequence of reducing the level of failures on the intensive recruits training programme that immediately followed employment. The decision was also previously influenced by the firefighter pension scheme provisions.  In this instance the application of the higher fitness standard had an effect on reducing the numbers to a smaller cohort but potentially had an adverse effect on females.  It was proposed to adopt the national standard on the next campaign, but to continue to assess individuals’ overall fitness.

Similarly the equipment assembly element of the process had a significant effect on failure rates, including female applicants and therefore whilst the Service still believed the requirement was genuine it was intended to consider an alternative dexterity test rather than the current slightly out of context measure.  In addition whether a new test or the current test was used the current practice of a strict pass/fail standard would be modified to give a tolerance.  Neither, the ability tests or standard of educational attainment warranted any reduction in standard. The general principle was to allow flexibility so that one slight fail would not unnecessarily rule out a candidate, when the shortfall could be addressed.

To further assist RDS employees and to potentially address any shortfall in overall operational numbers, it was proposed to offer the opportunity for development contracts of 6 months duration. The purpose was to enable individuals to address any operational gaps that they might have. Experience had shown that the gap in the requirements between an RDS and whole-time employee could be significant and this had endorsed the previous decision for all individuals to undertake the full recruitment course as planned rather than a variance on the abridged conversion course undertaken by the 27. The utilisation of development contracts did not provide automatic progression but should enable an individual to enhance their experience ensuring some continued progression from RDS to wholetime.

A separate review of our positive action campaigning initiatives was being undertaken but the emerging themes were that this needed to be a continuous part of our operations and not a bespoke activity as we recruit.  The actual generation of applications from underrepresented groups as a percentage was good; but it was considered that the higher pass figures adopted to manage numbers did not give any flexibility in approach, that a ‘nearly there’ list needed to be collated and nurtured.

It was noted that the results experienced by LFRS were similar to other Fire services and demonstrated the need for the development of solutions that worked within LFRS, working in partnership where benefits were seen.

Shortfall in Numbers

Serious consideration was given to revisiting the applications in order to generate further successful candidates but this was not seen as desirable in view of the messages that would send to the organisation, especially those who were still aspiring or felt concerned about the process, the fact that individuals had already been notified, practicality and the stance the Service had adopted concerning attainment of the standards.  Also depending on the actions taken we would either potentially be moving into positive discrimination or revisiting the whole recruitment process. Similarly consideration was given to immediately embarking on a further recruitment campaign coupled with more positive action work.  However this was seen to be unrealistic due to the limited resource and time available (as well as the effect on morale in view of the dedicated efforts that individuals had put in) and that the positive action needed to be part of the process if the diversity issue was to be addressed. The outcome was to focus on positive action and nurturing the nearly there candidates and provide opportunities and feedback to our current employees to gain skills.

In response to a concern raised by CC O’Toole regarding whether the initial 27 recruits, from the RDS staff had all achieved the required fitness standard the Director of People and Development confirmed that they had; although there had been a concession where psychometric tests (verbal, numeric and flexibility) had been used rather than educational requirements.  Going forward both psychometric and educational requirements were expected.

In response to a question raised by CC Hennessy about the number of females in the Service the Chief Fire Officer confirmed that positive action had been used to encourage people from areas where there was a shortfall in the workforce and there had been a good proportion of BME and female applicants but the standards had to be met.  The Director of People and Development added that progression for females was good; the difficulty was receiving applications in the first place.  It was noted that the Chief Fire Officer was now leading on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for the Service together with Cllr Z Khan the new Member Champion for this area.

RESOLVED: - That the position including the ongoing work undertaken in respect of apprentices and the measures being adopted in respect of recruitment be noted.