People, Culture and Leadership

Investing in People, Culture and Leadership by providing good practice guidance, tools and improvements at a national level for implementation locally.

The programme has clear cross-cutting objectives focusing on supporting a positive working culture by inspiring distributive leadership, embedding equality, diversity and inclusion in everything we do, finding and nurturing diverse talent, and caring for the health and well-being of our staff.

We will support the continuous improvement of workforce performance through; quality assuring the competency of our workforce, providing high-quality training and development, and duty systems that are best matched to the risks within our communities.

We are in the second phase of the programme and are now focusing on cultural reform and strengthening leadership. Complementing this important work, we are also working on diversity and recruitment alongside enhancements to competence that include embedding apprenticeships and rethinking duty systems.

In the boxes below, you’ll see links for resources that have been produced to support fire and rescue services. You’ll need to be logged in to access these.

People, Culture and Leadership Products

Culture Action Plan

The NFCC Culture Action Plan is our commitment to work with fire and rescue services and other fire partners to redress this position and firmly establish an inclusive, safe culture.

Culture Dashboard Methodology

The use of a culture dashboard will support services in monitoring and understanding their culture and how it changes, identifying key issues and successful practices, enabling conversations between staff and leadership on values, culture, fairness, ethics and diversity and supporting evidence-based action.

Health and Wellbeing Strategic Framework

The Health and Wellbeing Framework has been produced to support everyone across the fire and rescue community to take the necessary steps to develop and deliver health and wellbeing for themselves and their organisations.

Apprenticeships

The Apprenticeship Project is ongoing but the strategy sets out the NFCC's direction and high level objectives in supporting services with their use of apprenticeship in workforce development. There are five fire specific apprenticeship standards available for use and one under development, along with many other apprenticeships for other occupational sectors that form part of a FRS workforce.
* Access to this product requires membership.

Coaching and Mentoring Portal and Toolkit

The Coaching and Mentoring portal enables coachees and mentees to ‘match’ with registered qualified coaches and mentors from across the fire sector. It contains a comprehensive range of guidance and tools to support those delivering and accessing coaching and mentoring, including the NFCC Toolkit and the Core Code of Ethics. It is also linked to the NFCC Leadership Framework, Core Learning Pathway, Talent Management Toolkit.
* Access to this product requires membership.

Core Code of Ethics

A national Core Code of Ethics for FRS in England has been developed in partnership with the NFCC, LGA, and the APCC to support a consistent approach to ethics, including behaviours, by fire and rescue services in England.

Core Learning Pathways

Manage expectations of individuals when considering their career progression and provide guidance from an organisational perspective in terms of the formal qualifications or experience that might be required at each level.
* Access to this product requires membership.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Hub

Guidance and tools on how to develop and deliver local projects and initiatives with EDI principles embedded.

FRS Learn

The FRS Learn platform enables easy sharing of locally produced learning materials across fire and rescue services. The catalogue is constantly expanding and diversifying in terms of subject matter and the format of training materials.

Innovative Working Patterns

The People Programme worked with services to identify new and innovative working patterns.
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Leadership Framework

The Leadership Framework replaces the Personal Qualities and Attributes (PQAs), making them simpler, and provides a consistent approach to leadership and development for all staff, irrespective of discipline, role or function.
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Maturity Models and Workforce Good Practice Framework

The Maturity Models and Workforce Good Practice Framework were developed in conjunction with fire and rescue services and are based on the principles of the Deloitte methodology allowing fire and rescue services to assess current practice, by using a self-assessment tool to determine current maturity level against a range of different areas.
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Middle Leadership Programme

The NFCC Middle Leadership Programme (MLP) has been designed exclusively and collaboratively between the NFCC and CMI to develop knowledge, skills, and behaviours for every existing, new, and aspiring middle leader across all areas of the UK Fire and Rescue Service.
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NFCC Executive Leadership Programme

The Executive Leadership Programme (ELP) is a programme of personal development delivered through Warwick Business School and the National Fire Chiefs Council.
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On-call recruitment

The oncallfire.uk website attracts prospective employees to the role of an on-call firefighter. Videos, content and guidance are presented in a fresh, engaging way that enables users to connect with their local FRS and also has information for primary employers.

Recruitment Hub

The recruitment hub content has been curated from fire and rescue services across the UK and provides a comprehensive collection of information and guidance.
* Access to this product requires membership.

Secondment Template

Use this model secondment agreement and accompanying guidance to support key development opportunities within your service.
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Strategic CPD Masterclasses

A suite of Strategic Continuous Professional Development (CPD) masterclasses has been developed by the NFCC, contributing towards the ongoing development of middle and senior leaders.
* Access to this product requires membership.

Supervisory Leadership Development Programme

The NFCC Supervisory Leadership Development Programme (SLDP) is a standardised first-line leadership development programme, aimed at developing people-focused leaders, who are empowering, collaborative and inclusive in their approach. The programme is designed for every new, existing, and aspiring supervisory leaders across all areas of the UK fire and rescue service, regardless of role, contract type, or location. It was designed exclusively and collaboratively between the NFCC and CMI.
* Access to this product requires membership.

Talent Management Toolkit

The NFCC Talent Management Toolkit is developed to support fire and rescue services at every stage of the talent management cycle, ensuring people with the right skills, behaviours and values are in the right roles at the right time. The Toolkit will support those who are starting to develop a talent management strategy, looking for good practice in a specific talent management area and those looking to manage their own career and development.
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Template Policies

The National Policy Panel (est 2019) develops model HR policies to promote good practice across the UK FRS using a 'do it once' approach. The panel comprises of HR advisors from across the UKFRS and aims to produce approximately 5 model policies each year.
* Access to this product requires membership.

360-Degree Feedback Guidance

National 360-Degree Feedback Guidance and four bite-size videos have been produced for the fire sector. This is based on the NFCC Leadership Framework and is for all UK fire and rescue service, who can adopt or adapt to suit each service (recognising that services use different platforms, either developed in-house or outsourced).
* Access to this product requires membership.