Equality and Diversity

Shropshire Area Manager Named Bright Light

The ‘Bright Light Award’ category recognises individuals who have led the way in their role in the fire service, acting as a shining example to others. This is through recruitment, retention or progression of women or enabling women to develop through access to opportunities and resources.

Janette, who joined SFRS in March 2021, was nominated in the national awards for her remarkable contributions to the Fire Service. She is also a National Fire Chiefs Council Lead for HMICFRS/Inspection.

A taste of firefighting for women

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service are offering women the opportunity to experience what it takes to start an exciting career with them as an on-call firefighter with a taster session being held at Ellesmere Fire Station on Saturday 22 May.

Visitors will be shown around fire appliances, equipment such as breathing apparatus and watch a demonstration from the Ellesmere crew.

To be eligible to join as an on-call firefighter you must:

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service launches new four-year action plan

The Service’s Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) 2021-25, which assesses community risks in Shropshire, has been produced following an extensive twelve-week consultation period last year.

Consultation on the draft CRMP began on 6 July 2020 and ran until 30 September 2020.

The document, entitled Making Shropshire Safer, is required by Government and includes information about the Service’s objectives.

These include:

Mental Health Support for Fire Service staff

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service is using a national campaign to ensure all its employees understand how supportive the organisation is about their mental health.  

Time to Talk Day is a day when people across the UK are encouraged to have a conversation about mental health.  

The theme this year is the ‘power of small’ and about finding a small thing people can do to make a big difference to someone else. 

'Supportive Employee' title for Service at Dyslexia Awards

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service has scooped another award after a thorough evaluation at the 2020 Dyslexia Awards, held virtually on Friday, 27 November.

The Service won the the ‘Supportive Employer’ title for the second time - previously awarded in 2017 – with judge and Founder Elizabeth Wilkinson saying: “It is most definitely an exceptionally well deserved win, I am so proud of all that you do and of all our finalists.”

Open to All - Taster Sessions

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service has overcome challenging COVID-19 regulations and announced the latest round of dates for its firefighter taster sessions next month.


Rigorous safety measures have been put in place allowing the sessions to continue despite a change in restrictions and will now happen on Wednesday, 7 and Wednesday, 14 October.

The taster days allow members of the public interested in joining the fire service, the opportunity to experience certain aspects of the role.

Response to positive action taster days

Chief Fire Officer Rod Hammerton, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service 

We acknowledge there has been some criticism of the way the Service has organised its upcoming taster days.

The criticism has largely focussed on our decision to hold separate taster days for specific groups, namely women, LGBT+ and Black and minority ethnic groups. 

As a Service we are trying very hard to address issues that may be persuading some people from these groups that a career in the fire service is not suitable for them.  

By holding taster days tailored to address issues such as this, we believe we have a much better opportunity to dispel misunderstandings and provide people with good, accurate information.

We also want to reassure people that the modern fire and rescue service can offer them a fulfilling and rewarding career. 

Taster days are not recruitment days. They are an opportunity for under-represented groups in the fire service to find out more about working as a firefighter and to encourage them to apply for future vacancies.   

Taster days are positive action, they are not recruitment sessions.   

There are no quotas.   

When we have vacancies we employ the best that apply and only those that meet the standards. 

Positive action is frequently confused with positive discrimination. 

Taster days are an example of positive action, raising awareness amongst those groups, under-represented in our workforce. 
Positive discrimination is illegal and we would not act unlawfully.

A modern day firefighter is a public service role. As well as fighting fires and responding to emergenices, they work in schools and with young people, giving talks to community groups, supporting the vulnerable and most importantly working in people’s homes to prevent incidents.   

We want to be an inclusive service that reflects the communitiy we serve. To do that we want the best people to apply regardless of their age, gender, race or lifestyle for this diverse role. 

We have provided some responses to frequently asked questions that will be helpful in understanding why we carry out positive action. 

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