Fire stations told to recruit more ethnic minority staff

7:21pm Monday 31st March 2008

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By Peter Magill »

SEVEN fire stations in East Lancashire have been told that they must sign up more personnel from black and ethnic minority communities.

Brigade chiefs in Lancashire have outlined a series of recruitment targets for retained firefighter shifts at 10 out of 13 stations locally.

Currently only Nelson, Great Harwood and Rawtenstall stations met the criteria, outlined in a report to Lancashire Fire Authority by the county fire service's performance director Paul Richardson.

He has warned that the lack of firefighters from particular ethnic neighbourhoods could hamper the service's efforts in taking important fire safety messages to communities across Lancashire.

Nelson has a target level of 25 per cent - in line with the town's ethnic make-up - and currently five out of 15 are from minority backgrounds.

And in Rawtenstall three out of 14 retained staff fulfil the same criteria - so the station target of seven per cent is comfortably achieved.

But greater efforts will be needed to meet the same recruitment targets for retained staff at Darwen, Clitheroe, Colne, Padiham, Haslingden and Barnoldswick stations.

None of the 10 retained firefighters at Hyndburn's station at Church are from ethnic minority groups despite 12 per cent of the local area coming from these backgrounds.

And Haslingden's Manchester Road station has an 11 per cent target but currently none of the 11 retained firefighters there are black or from an ethnic minority.

Similar situations exist at Colne, which has 22 retained staff and five per cent ethnic minority population, and Clitheroe, where none of the 23 firefighters there are from minority groupings either.

Unlike full-time or day crews, retained firefighters are drawn up specifically from a designated radius of the station - as they must be available at relatively short notice to answer 999 calls.

Mr Richardson says in his report: "Due to the requirement that retained staff have to be available to respond to emergency incidents with a defined timeframe, the catchment area for recruiting such staff is defined by specific geographical areas.

"Furthermore it is acknowledged that each of those geographical areas may have different diversity profiles, particularly from a BME (black and minority ethnic) perspective."

No targets have been set for the likes of Longridge, Bacup and Earby fire stations, where the black and minority population is only around one per cent or less.

Salim Mulla, a Blackburn councillor and Lancashire Council of Mosques senior vice-chairman, said: "I think that this is a positive step by Lancashire Fire Authority in trying to recruit firefighters from ethnic minority communities and it has to be welcomed.

"It is important that they talk to the right organisation about how they do this and we would be happy to help them grasp this opportunity and recruit more firefighters from the Muslim community."