Equality, diversity, inclusion and organisational cultural: a blight on fire and rescue services

Murphy, P. ORCID: 0000-0001-8459-4448 and Greenhalgh, K., 2024. Equality, diversity, inclusion and organisational cultural: a blight on fire and rescue services. In: United Kingdom Association for Public Administration (UKAPA) Inaugural Conference 2024, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, 12-13 September 2024.

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Abstract

A series of recent reports (Lucas 2015, Baker 2017, Afzal 2022, Morris 2023, HMICFRS 2023a, 2023b, Home Affairs 2024a) have highlighted growing concerns over the workplace culture in Fire and Rescue Services amid reports of claims of bullying, harassment, misogyny, discrimination and misconduct (Murphy 2022, HMICFRS 2023b). His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found that bullying, harassment, and discrimination are, to varying degrees, still problems in all services and in the last round of inspections, they issued 66 ‘Areas for Improvement’ across 35 services relating to values and culture (HMICFRS 2024a) The Home Affairs Select Committee of the UK Parliament having started collecting evidence earlier this year, for its Inquiry into the ‘cultural failings’ in Fire and Rescue Services when the announcement of a general election terminated its work (Home Affairs 2024a, 2024b).

This paper will critically explore the background and antecedents of Equality, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI), and organisational culture issues which have persisted despite previous Labour government’s attempts to modernise the service and more recently successive Conservative governments’ proposals to reform the service that have been explicitly centred around the themes of “People, Professionalism and Governance”. It will then review and compare the emerging recommendations from the former (Conservative) governments’ proposals for reform (Home Office 2022, 2023) and the former Home Affairs Select Committee recommendations (Home Affairs 2024a, 2024b) before presenting our own views and recommendations as a contribution to the on-going policy debate.

Item Type:	Conference contribution
Alternative Title:	A viewpoint paper
Creators:	Murphy, P. and Greenhalgh, K.
Date:	6 September 2024
Identifiers:	Number Type 2216989 Other
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	17 Sep 2024 14:25
Last Modified:	17 Sep 2024 14:25
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52241

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