Fire & Emergency Response
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Getting women to the top
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Breaking the Fire Service glass ceiling:
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What will it take to break the glass ceiling in fire and rescue services? With just 20 women in principal officers across the UK, Political Editor Catherine Levin takes a look at their routes to the top and what other women can learn from them
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ornwall Fire and Rescue Service announced recently that Kathryn Billing was to be its first woman Chief Fire Officer; this was swiftly followed by North Wales Fire and Rescue Service confirming the return of Dawn Docx, on promotion to be its new Chief Fire Officer later this year. This is notable because it means that eight of the now 49 fire and rescue services across the UK are led by women. There is much to be learned from those women already holding principal officer roles that can help women in more junior roles secure promotion in the future. Here is a brief look at, and some advice from, those in post today. Women make up half the population, but only account for 17.3 per cent of the workforce in fire and rescue
Rank
2011
2020
Principal officer
3.9 per cent
7.2 per cent
Area Manager
3.2 per cent
6.4 per cent
Group Manager
2.7 per cent
3.9 per cent
Station Manager*
2.3 per cent
5 per cent
Watch Manager*
2.2 per cent
4.7 per cent
Crew Manager*
2.7 per cent
4.4 per cent
Firefighter*
4.9 per cent
8.2 per cent
* Includes on-call staff Source: Home Office Fire Statistics, FIRE1108 Percentage of women by rank
Dawn Whittaker, CFO of East Sussex
services. Restrict that to operational roles, then the number plummets to just seven per cent. The table below left shows the percentage of women at each rank, with either end of the spectrum looking relatively better. The reality is, the numbers move upwards at a glacial pace. On a more positive note, Gloucestershire is an outlier and leads the way with women accounting for nearly a quarter of its wholetime workforce. Gloucestershire also has a woman in a principal officer post as Jean Cole moves from Hereford and Worcester to become ACO. Jean’s remit covers business planning, performance and transformation. Wayne Bowcock, the current CFO, is moving to Royal Berkshire, so this leaves a vacancy for the top job. Direct Entry There is a glimmer of hope with the new direct entry scheme under development by the NFCC. Led by Dawn Whittaker, CFO of East Sussex, and Rod Hammerton, CFO of Shropshire, the plan is to start recruiting from outside the service at station and area manager levels from September 2022. That is not just women, of course. Launching the project, the NFCC stated: ‘It will be a nationally agreed programme that is robust, qualityassured and credible. It will be centrally co-ordinated and supported at a national level, even if it is delivered at a regional and local level’. www.fire–magazine.com
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June 2021
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