Council and democracy

Positive Action Events for Women and for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic People

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service believe that a workforce that reflects the diversity of our community will in turn improve the services we deliver to our community.

Our aim is to have a diverse workforce that is reflective of the communities we serve.

To achieve this goal we are carrying out a number of initiatives to attract people to the Service, in particular to the role of firefighter. We call these initiatives “positive action”.


What is Positive Action:
Under the law organisations are allowed to carry out positive action work if it can demonstrate that within the previous 12 months, persons of a particular sex or racial group are considerably under-represented. (Sex Discrimination Act 1975 & Race Relations Act 1976).

Positive Action initiatives can be in the form of encouragement to apply for a particular job or access to training for a particular job. It can only be undertaken up to the point where someone makes an application and the opportunity to apply must be open to all.

All applicants must go through the same recruitment and selection process and must achieve the same level in all tests/assessments. Offers of employment can and will only be based on merit.


What Positive Action events do we have at HFRS?

Open days for women – a one day programme of workshops covering simulations of the different stages of the selection process, held twice yearly and places must be booked in advance.

Open days for BME people – a one day programme of workshops covering simulations of the different stages of the selection process, held twice yearly and places must be booked in advance.

Physical development workshops for women – evening workshops held at various locations with a fitness instructor covering the type of exercises/training needed to build the level of strength needed to successfully undertake the work of an operational firefighter

Application workshops being developed for BME people – likely to be evening workshops covering the skills needed to successfully complete application forms