Stubborn, determined but filled with pride: an interview with Dany Cotton

Focus on London Fire Brigade

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FIRE speaks to Commissioner Dany Cotton, days after her taking the role as the first female leader of London Fire Brigade

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London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton takes pride in her new role

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Stubborn, determined but filled with pride: an interview with the new London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton

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aving secured an hour to interview Dany Cotton in the weeks running up to her taking over as London Fire Commissioner, it was always going to be hard not to compare and contrast her with Ron Dobson. And yet, as is clear from what follows, the world according to Dany is so very different that it just was not necessary.

“I would never describe myself as a feminist,” says the first female London Fire Commissioner. A strong and slightly startling start, but it quickly becomes apparent why Dany is not arguing for equality around a feminist agenda. If anything, she is arguing from a ‘stubbornist’ agenda – a new word created to describe the strength of spirit that explains her survival of her early days in the London Fire Brigade.

It is a good job she is so stubborn given how she describes her first years. “There was lots of hostility and suspicion. On my first watch, I was told quite categorically that I wasn’t wanted there.”

Her first boss told her that he did not agree with women being firefighters, but that if she kept her head down, worked as hard as the other recruits then she would be fine.

“He was very fair,” she says. Three members of the watch put in for transfers before she arrived simply because they www.fire–magazine.com | February 2017 | 19

Focus on London Fire Brigade

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Looking outward and considering the impending duty to collaborate, Dany is sanguine. “It’s very important not to collaborate for the sake of it. Just saying you’re doing something together isn’t a good thing but doing it for the right reasons is.” She goes on to talk about the relationship between fire and health and how the Fire and Rescue Service can not only relieve some of the burden currently felt by ambulance services, but also work on keeping people safe and well in their homes. “Why wouldn’t you want your firefighters to be as medically equipped as possible?” she asks.

Warming to this theme, Dany talks about the mental health impact of co-responding. London Fire Brigade only recently started trialing co-responding in a limited number of London boroughs, but Dany says that already increased exposure to trauma and to death is affecting firefighters.

“Our crews are having a hard time of it. We absolutely have to make sure that our firefighters do not become overwhelmed by it.”

It is an interesting point and one that has not had a lot of visibility as co-responding has increased across the UK. “Mental health is something we should talk about, something people should acknowledge and should not be swept under the carpet.” She talks about the “solid, dependable, nothing will break me type of person” who typically form the workforce and how men in particular are inhibited to having any discussion about mental health.

“It’s a vulnerable point for the organisation,” she notes, particularly given that firefighters are now working until they are older than in previous generations. She wants to protect them so that they can work longer and be happier in the process.

Turning to other parts of the Policing and Crime Bill and in particular the part that sees the abolition of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority and the increased responsibilities of the Commissioner, Dany is very positive about the change. She is looking forward to working more closely with the rest of the Greater London Authority “family”.

“You cannot get away from whatever gets measured gets done.” Dany thinks the return of the inspectorate is a good thing. “We took our eye off the ball with diversity and inclusion because it stopped being measured.” She hopes that will change with the new regime.

It is interesting that when the conversation turns to look outward to the role London Fire Brigade has to the wider fire sector, the first example Dany cites is National Operational Guidance. Ron Dobson was effusive about LFB’s role in kick starting and funding the programme that is now in its fifth year and Dany clearly shares his view. “It just shows what you can do if you work with other organisations to a common goal. I don’t subscribe to the view that we are London and we have nothing to learn. I think we’ve always got things to learn and to share.”

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did not want to work with a woman.

In December 1988, three months out of training school, Dany attended the Clapham rail crash where 35 people were killed and 484 people were injured. “At the age of 19, you don’t expect to see things and do the things I did there, but in some ways it was weird because it cemented me on the watch. They saw I did my job and got on with it.”

Dany rarely saw another woman at work in those early days. “The trap we all fell into was that you became a bloke.

You behaved in a way that you wouldn’t wish to do now as it compromised you as a woman; back then you never thought you could go to work and be a woman.”

After seven years, Dany ran for promotion to crew manager but “the watch they posted me to was horrific and they knew it was horrific”, She goes on to say: “It was the only time I thought about resigning.” It was Dany’s stubbornness that kept here there and it seems, was the making of her, as she proved that despite being a woman she could overcome extremely challenging situations and was incredibly resilient.

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An Uncompromising Approach These themes are supplemented with a deep-seated dislike for injustice; she is deeply committed to supporting others.

This has underpinned her long-term commitment to Women in the Fire Service (previously NWFS) that she has chaired for many years.

“I’m a real people person. I like to get the best out of people and help them.” She says she stopped compromising a long time ago. She realised quite quickly that she would not improve things through compromising who she was and it was more important to be consistent and professional. Even though it is often easier to “run with the pack”, Dany argues that it is a false economy and means in the long term difficult decisions never get made.

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Mental Health Echoing the theme of professionalism that flowed through the interview with Ron Dobson, Dany is in agreement that this has changed considerably over the last three decades.

Like Ron, she talks about the dirty, manual and physical job that she joined and how today’s Fire and Rescue Service is much more complex, nuanced and about engagement at all different levels. “People see us now as a much more rounded organisation.”

Talking with great passion about the community focus of firefighters today, Dany considers whether those she joined the Service with in the late 1980s and early 1990s have evolved their thinking to the same extent.

“Not everyone’s evolved. There are people still who say ‘that’s not our job’ and that they ‘didn’t join to do that’ (prevention work). My argument is that if you did not join to make the people of London safer, by whatever means that is, you are in the wrong job.”

“Mental health is something we should talk about, something people should acknowledge and should not be swept under the carpet” www.fire–magazine.com | February 2017 | 21

Focus on London Fire Brigade

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She has gone from the early part of her career almost in denial of being a woman, fitting in and seeking to prove herself by not being different. Now she says boldly: “I will always frame my thoughts around being a woman because I do things differently.”

She advises other women to “approach it as a woman, don’t try and approach it by being like a man because you are not and you won’t be successful if you do that.” She goes on to say: “I’m excited that I will be a role model for a lot of young girls who will look and think ‘wow, there’s a woman in charge of the London Fire Brigade’. And I’m genuinely excited about what that will mean about changing the face of the Fire and Rescue Service for the future.”

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Authenticity Changing subject to talk about social media, Dany is not a prolific user of Twitter. She is a fan, but recognises its limitations and negative side, citing the trolling she suffered after her promotion was publicised. Nevertheless she is undaunted; in predictably stubborn style she continues to use it and is undeterred. Time is the only limiting factor here so expect to see authentic and timely tweets from the new Commissioner.

Earlier in the interview, Dany talked in some detail about the role of compromise in her early career and how she no longer feels the need to downplay being a woman in her role. She returns to this in her response to how she uses social media as a woman, how it offers her the opportunity to share her experience with other women and encourage them to consider joining the fire and rescue service.

And indeed she says this authentic approach was a factor in her promotion process. She says: “I went in there and I thought I’m just going to be me. If they give me the job it means they want me and if they don’t, then I wasn’t the right person for the job. I will then do the job as me and not pretend to be something I’m not.”

And she does not restrict her thoughts about technology to IT, but considers the wider improvements in the equipment that improve firefighters’ ability to carry out their work. Amusingly, she uses the example of ladders getting lighter and the response from some who have said “that’s just because of bloody women”; forgetting that innovation like that makes everyone’s job safer and better.

“One of the key roles of the NFCC is about exploring technology and looking at it from a national viewpoint.

By getting some meaningful work done they can make recommendations to fire and rescue services.” Going on to talk about the R&D Hub hosted by the Fire Service College (see On the Frontline on pg 27). Dany is very keen to see it succeed to prevent the continued duplication of effort in this area. “We need to be a bit less precious and bit more trusting. After all we are all doing the same job.”

There are references throughout the interview to Dany’s gender. Asking her if she wished her tenure to be viewed through the lens of being a female Commissioner or as simply the Commissioner of the time, she is clear it is the former. “The whole of my tenure will be framed around me being a woman Commissioner.”

For her, the fact that after 150 years there is now a female Commissioner and the response to this is not “oh my goodness, there’s a woman Commissioner, how outrageous is that” is a relief. “It isn’t a monster anymore,” she says quietly.

It’s a realisation that women are capable of doing the job.”

“I’m excited that I will be a role model for a lot of young girls who will look and think ‘wow, there’s a woman in charge of the London Fire Brigade’”

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She is humble about the Fire Fighters Charity, acknowledging its “brilliant work”. She has been a “customer” and is evangelical about the service she received but also the help it has provided her own staff in recovering from trauma and getting back to work.

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Picking up the Mantle How long does she plan to stay? “For as long as I think I’m making a difference,” she responds. Dany talks enthusiastically about building a fantastic team around her who share her values. She tempers this with bold practicality intending to “start day one planning for what would happen if I fell off the edge of a cliff tomorrow”.

Luckily, there are not many of those in London.

Ron Dobson “has made some great progress across a lot of areas. And now it’s time for me to put my stamp on it and take my ideas forward,” concludes Dany. She employs a relay metaphor to talk about a journey that continues forward, where one runner passes on to another, sharing that journey for a short while and then letting them run forward by themselves.

Batons aside, Dany’s spirit, experience and sheer determination set her apart and show quite clearly why she was selected for the job. Being a role model is a tough job, but one that Dany relishes; let us hope it inspires future generations of female fire and rescue service leaders.

“I’m genuinely excited about what that will mean about changing the face of the Fire and Rescue Service for the future” 22 | February 2017 | www.fire–magazine.com