Choose to Challenge

9 June 2021

#WFSVirtual

About This Workshop

Women in the Fire Service UK (WFS) have developed an interactive development session for middle managers to reflect on some real-life scenarios relating to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). These scenarios will stimulate conversation – facilitated by senior leaders, past and present from UK Fire and Rescue Service (FRS).

Areas to be discussed include positive action, behaviours in the workplace, banter vs bullying, and impact assessments. We will discuss issues relating to gender and race and the associated causes and effects of unconscious bias and discrimination. Scenarios are based around fire stations but applicable to all. Attendees will experience all five scenarios.

The HMICFRS State of Fire report posed many challenges to the National FRS:

• Staff need to be treated better
• There is a toxic culture in too many services
• The fire sector refers to itself as humanitarian, yet firefighters in some services don’t treat their colleagues with enough humanity
• The best cultures are inclusive and diverse
• Diversity among firefighters is woeful
• Watches have created their own subculture – contrary to service values which have proved impenetrable for new staff

Why Attend?

Middle managers are key to changing the culture of the FRS. Without their leadership, strategies to improve the workplace are difficult to implement. The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) Leadership Framework and the Code of Ethics for the FRS plays a key role in helping middle managers to understand their roles and responsibilities.

These virtual sessions are aimed at middle managers and above in any department (this includes Station Managers or equivalent and above). We recognise the difficulty for many who have been part of historic and deep-rooted culture and will provide some simple tools to help challenge inappropriate behaviours in the workplace.

Above all, we hope to help middle managers recognise the right thing to do in problematic situations, and to realise their pivotal role in ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of the workforce. You will experience five different scenarios during this practical half-day session, and have a chance to get involved and share your knowledge in small groups.

This event is open to all genders and we hope to encourage more conversation through diverse participation.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the impact of inappropriate behaviours and the risks of not challenging them
• Feel more confident having difficult conversations
• Feel more prepared to deal with challenging situations

We are delighted to be supported by SFJ Awards. All delegates will receive an SFJ Awards’ Certificate of Attendance.

Preparation

This session will occur online using Zoom. Please check you have the most up to date version of Zoom. You will need access to a laptop or computer with a working webcam and microphone as well as a strong internet connection.

Ticket holders will be notified 7 days in advance of this program with joining instructions and information on how to log in to the Zoom meeting room. An additional reminder will be sent 24 hours before the event.

If you do not receive an email, please check in spam as some service firewall protections may prevent emails getting through.

Booking your tickets

We're expecting this to be a great event filled with discussion, so book your place today.

Tickets* are limited to 50 (no more than five personnel from the same FRS). *This event is discounted if your Fire and Rescue Service is a WFS Corporate Member. Please contact karen@wfs.org.uk to find out if your service is a Member before you make any bookings.

Please ensure your registration email address is the email you will be using on the day to access the event.

We are grateful to the HMICFRS and the NFCC for their support in developing this programme.

Got a question about this event? Email: karen@wfs.org.uk