Community Newsletter

Volume 1 | Issue 1 | February 2024

Welcome to our very first community newsletter. As valued members of our community, we would like to keep you updated with what we’ve been doing here at Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, and what we have planned. All the work that goes on behind our doors is for our communities, so we feel it’s important to share this with you. We’d also welcome any of your valuable input so our fire service can be a reflection of the people we serve, and something we can all be proud of.

Recent Highlights

We thought we’d start with a recap of 2023! Our public video highlights all of the work we’re involved in over the year, from events we’ve attended to incidents we’ve responded to. These are published three times a year on our YouTube channel and this is the latest update from December 2023.

One of the most memorable events of every year is Pride. We are always so proud and grateful to be able to attend these events and to learn as much as we can from our diverse communities. Thank you for letting us be part of such an important celebration in Swindon, Chippenham, Weymouth and Bournemouth. Plans are already underway to attend Pride events in 2024.

We attended and hosted numerous other events – here are just a few:

Celebrating South Asian Heritage Month at Trowbridge Fire Station;
Westbourne Station celebrated Eid with their local community at Meyrick Park in Bournemouth;
Online we “saluted our sisters” for Black History Month, shared our activities as a White Ribbon accredited organisation tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) and observed International Migrant’s Day.

Thanks to all of you who were kind enough to share your journeys with us.

If you have a community event you would like to invite us to, please forward your request to [email protected].

What we’re currently working on

Culture

Following the publication of our internal culture review and the independent review into workplace culture we are developing our Culture Action Plan with staff, seeking views on the draft plan at our upcoming manager’s engagement days in March.

We are already progressing a lot of the work within the plan, that we know we need to do. An example of this is our personal safety workshops which we delivered at the end of last year in collaboration with Police. These were available to all staff, aligned with White Ribbon UK and prioritised for staff who are lone workers.

We are also working on an initiative to help empower our staff with the information to support them when they need it most. Due for launch in March 2024, “Safe To” will include information regarding our health and wellbeing provision, key HR procedures and leadership interventions, all in a simple and automated format in one place.

Promoting inclusion and equity for our staff is an absolute priority for us for numerous reasons, including providing consistently good services to you in our communities.

Community Safety Plan (CSP)

As part of our statutory duty to have a Community Risk Management Plan, we are now inviting your feedback on our draft Community Safety Plan (CSP). The plan sets out the key challenges and risks we face over the coming years and how we intend to address these.

Please have a look at our draft plan and the video which provides an overview and let us know what you think:

If you need further support accessing this information such as an alternative language or as a printed copy, please contact us at [email protected].

We would love to hear from you using this anonymous consultation form which will be available until 9am on 3 May 2024. If you would like us to come and visit a specific community group as part of this consultation, please email [email protected].

Upcoming events

There are many things to look forward to including Pride History Month and Race Equality Week in February. For our Muslim colleagues and community members we know that the holy month of Ramadan is fast approaching too. Ramadan Mubarak!

Have you ever considered working for our Fire & Rescue Service? As well as our incredible firefighters, there are hundreds of job roles that support our response to incidents, each helping to serve our communities and make them safer. If you’d like to know when these come up, set up an email alert here: https://www.dwfire.org.uk/working-for-us/current-vacancies/

Everyone is welcome to apply to work in our service. However, women, people from ethnic minority groups and people who identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community are underrepresented in our organisation. If you fall in to one of these groups and would like additional support to apply as a firefighter, please look out for the launch of our “buddy scheme”.