London Fire Brigade launches its diversity and inclusion commitment, Togetherness Strategy

London Fire Brigade Commissioner Andy Roe today launches Togetherness Strategy, the Brigade’s commitment to embedding gold-standard inclusion and diversity practice in everything we do - and in our relationships with the communities we proudly serve.

By working to deliver a Brigade that more closely resembles our city of nine million people speaking over 300 different languages, we will become more effective in serving their needs.

Commissioner Roe says: “Togetherness means we want every individual and every team across London Fire Brigade to understand and be inspired by difference – it is something we celebrate both for our staff and our communities.

“Togetherness means we think that placing the Brigade at the centre of the communities we serve will help us make better decisions, strengthen community relations and increase public trust in the Brigade.

"And we know that a diverse and inclusive organisation leads to better outcomes for the people we serve across London. We want the Togetherness agenda to touch everything we do.”

Following detailed consultation with our colleagues, our partners in the emergency services, and Londoners, we have crafted four clearly-defined diversity and inclusion pillars to deliver by December 2021. These emanate from our Transformation Delivery Plan.

Our four pillars are:

1. We create a culture of belonging: every staff member feels a sense of belonging at London Fire Brigade, and that they can bring their whole self to work
2. We are inspired by difference: individuals and teams understand, and are inspired by difference – and that this is something we celebrate both for our staff and our communities
3. We are at the centre of London and the communities we serve: The Brigade is at the centre of our communities and makes better decisions based on stronger community relations
4. We deliver excellence through inclusion: threading inclusive approaches through everything we do, leading to better outcomes for every community we serve across London

The pillars are underpinned by a series of deliverable actions against which we will measure our success. They provide formal, standardised processes to guide our colleagues as we create a Brigade that welcomes difference, across our fire stations, non-operational teams, and in our digital presence. Read about the strategy, who is accountable for it, and how we will deliver it here.

Togetherness Strategy will be characterised by close collaboration between support groups created by our colleagues; community groups; and our inclusion, property management, leadership, talent and recruitment, learning support, culture, training and community safety teams - as well as our Fire Cadet and volunteer forces.

The Brigade’s staff support groups currently include the Asian Fire Service Association, Disability Working Group, our LGBT+ and BAME groups, our Menopause Action Group, our Irish colleagues’ group Emerald Society, Women in the Fire Service and United MINDs, our mental health support network.