Council and democracy

What is Positive Action?

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service aim to have a diverse workforce that is reflective of the communities we serve.We believe that this will in turn improve the services we deliver to our community.

To achieve this goal we are carrying out a number of initiatives to encourage people currently under-represented in the Fire Service to find out more about becoming a 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 be demonstrated 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.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Mark Yates said: "Sadly many people still think that you need to be a burly white male to join the fire service and it is not the case. There is now a steady interest from under-represented groups who are thinking about firefighting as a professional career."