Kent Fire and Rescue Service
Annual Governance Statement 2018/19

We are committed to ensuring KFRS is a place where staff feel comfortable with their own identity and are treated with dignity and respect. Great importance is placed on supporting colleagues with their physical and mental wellbeing and we have focused on raising the awareness of the importance of mental health and the removal of any stigma around this. We introduced the Employee Assistance Programme, which provides access to a range of support, and have established a network of Wellbeing Champions to provide a confidential service to support colleagues’ physical and mental wellbeing. We have also introduced several mental health and wellbeing ‘e-learning’ packages. We take the conduct of staff very seriously and have a Code of Conduct which clearly sets out the standards of ethical and professional behaviour we expect. All staff are encouraged to maintain their professional competence and seek development opportunities. Consequently we have updated the appraisal process so we can move away from the traditional "annual appraisal", as we do not believe this helps people perform to the best of their ability. In place of this we are building an environment where everyone is given regular feedback and where appropriate performance coaching is supplemented by a talent benchmarking process. The Authority also has an active programme of staff engagement, combined with a network of Staff Forum representatives. 

The latest report on the gender pay gap (as of 31 March 2018) shows a mean pay gap of 2.4% in favour of females, which equates to £0.39 per hour more than the rate of pay received by males. This is an increase on the 1.1% (£0.17) for 2017 and is likely due to significant female representation at Corporate Management Board and senior management level. However, median male pay is 2.6% (£0.40) more than females, up from the 1.9% (£0.28) on the previous year and is representative of the fact that the workforce is predominately male. Organisational sickness rates have stayed at the expected levels through 2018/19 with the anticipated peaks and troughs in the individual monthly rates. For the first six months of 2018/19, the operational sickness rate was 3.6% and the support staff rate was 1.8%. Reportable accidents remain in single figures and fell from 11 in 2016/17 to five for 2017/18 and six for 2018/19. In 2017 and 2018 we recruited two cohorts of new wholetime firefighters. The 21 firefighters who comprise the first cohort and the 24 who make up the second, are our first new wholetime recruits for 10 years. They are also supported by 15 Service Support and Control Room apprentices. Combined with further recruitment of on-call firefighters, we are starting to make significant changes to our profile.