NIFRS Equality Scheme & Action Plan. - Northern Ireland Fire ...

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Chapter 1 Introduction Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 1.1 Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 (the Act) requires Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service to comply with two statutory duties: Section 75 (1) In carrying out our functions relating to Northern Ireland we are required to have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity between • persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation • men and women generally • persons with a disability and persons without • persons with dependants and persons without. Section 75 (2) In addition, without prejudice to the obligations above, in carrying out our functions in relation to Northern Ireland we are required to have regard to the desirability of promoting good relations between persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group. “Functions” include the “powers and duties” of a public authority 2 . This includes our employment and procurement functions. Please see below under “Who we are and what we do” for a detailed explanation of our functions. How we propose to fulfil the Section 75 duties in relation to the relevant functions of Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service 1.2 Schedule 9 4. (1) of the Act requires Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS), as a designated public authority, to set out in an Equality Scheme how it proposes to fulfil the duties imposed by Section 75 in relation to its relevant functions. This Equality Scheme is intended to fulfil that statutory requirement. It is both a statement of our arrangements for fulfilling the Section 75 statutory duties and our plan for their implementation. 1.3 We are committed to the discharge of our Section 75 obligations in all parts of our organisation and we will commit the necessary available resources in terms of people, time and money to ensure that the Section 75 statutory duties are complied with and that our equality scheme can be implemented effectively. 2 Section 98 (1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. 6
Who we are and what we do Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service is funded by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. We serve over 1.7 million people across the whole of Northern Ireland covering a geographic area of 5,500sq miles, responding to fires, road traffic collisions and other specialist rescue incidents. We also provide community safety education and advice. The organisation is strategically managed by the Chief Fire Officer, assisted by the Senior Management Team comprising the Deputy Chief Fire Officer, 2 Assistant Chief Fire Officers, the Director of Finance & Performance Management, Director of Planning & Corporate Affairs and the Director of Human Resources. The Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service Board is responsible for steering the management and operational direction of NIFRS. It is also the responsibility of the Board to give strategic leadership to the ongoing implementation of the Fire & Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 and to ensure NIFRS is resourced to meet its challenges. The Board comprises a non-executive Chair, the Chief fire Officer and 10 non-executive members, 4 of whom are District Councillors nominated by the Northern Ireland Government Association (NILGA). The Board normally meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month with meetings open to members of the public. The organisation is currently divided into four operational Command Areas – Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western. Area Commanders manage operational activity on a day to day basis and report to the Deputy Chief Fire Officer. The four Area Commands are supported by 14 Districts, strategically placed across Northern Ireland and which create a community focus for NIFRS activities. NIFRS Headquarters and the Regional Control Centre are both situated in Lisburn, Co Antrim and the Fire & Rescue Service Training Centre is currently situated at Boucher Crescent, Belfast. We employ over 2,220 people who provide the highest standard of fire and rescue service to the community. Our Regional Control Centre deals with over 46,000 emergency 999 calls and mobilises crews to over 29,500 emergency incidents, including on average 3,800 major fires annually. Responding to emergencies and developing a safer community are at the heart of everything we do. Responding and protecting our community from fires, road traffic collisions and other emergency situations such as flooding, building collapses and chemical incidents is part of the daily life of a modern day Firefighter. During 2009/10 our Firefighters carried out 8,450 Home Fire Safety Checks and installed 7,580 smoke alarms into people’s homes free of charge. Our Firefighters also proactively identify areas of need and carry out Home Fire Safety Checks to support those most at risk. Also in 2009/10 we attended 738 road traffic collisions and rescued 424 people trapped in their vehicles. Our Firefighters either work as Wholetime (Full-time) or Retained (Part-time) Firefighters. Wholetime Firefighters are based at Fire Stations in the larger towns and cities throughout Northern Ireland and are organised into Watches (shifts) to crew Fire Stations 24 hours a day. . Our Retained Firefighters live and work in their local town or village and respond to emergency calls in their area, when alerted by a beeper, by making their way to their local Fire Station to meet the rest of the crew and respond to the incident. Retained 7
Page 1 and 2: Draft Equality Scheme for Northern
Page 3 and 4: Foreword Section 75 of the Northern
Page 5: Monitoring and evaluation 25 Chapte
Page 9 and 10: Chapter 2 Our arrangements for asse
Page 11 and 12: the Police Service of Northern Irel
Page 13 and 14: 2.10 NIFRS liaises closely with the
Page 15 and 16: Chapter 3 Our arrangements for cons
Page 17 and 18: If a consultation exercise is to ta
Page 19 and 20: implement the policy and staff memb
Page 21 and 22: Our arrangements for publishing the
Page 23 and 24: opportunities to better promote equ
Page 25 and 26: • We will provide access to copie
Page 27 and 28: Access to services 6.6 NIFRS is com
Page 29 and 30: Chapter 8 Our complaints procedure
Page 31 and 32: Chapter 9 Publication of our equali
Page 33 and 34: Appendix 1 Northern Ireland Fire &
Page 35 and 36: Appendix 3 List of consultees List
Page 37 and 38: Down’s Syndrome Association Dunga
Page 39 and 40: Royal Society for the Prevention of
Page 41 and 42: Measure Action Taken/ To Be Taken L
Page 43 and 44: Review of monitoring information [4
Page 45 and 46: est to communicate with children an
Page 47 and 48: Work with Trade Unions in the effec
Page 49 and 50: Consultations could, for example, i
Page 51 and 52: The promotion of equality of opport
Page 53 and 54: Quantitative data Quantitative data
Page 55 and 56: Appendix 6 Action plan/action measu
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Section 1 - Cross Cutting Themes Th
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Theme 1 - Measures to Improve Acces
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Key Inequalities Identified Disable
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