Mini Commissioners call the shots, as young people take over the Fire Brigade

26 November 2007

Fire Brigade staff took their orders from young Londoners on Friday 23rd November, as part of national ’11 Million - Takeover Day’. The day was an opportunity for children and young people to take over leading institutions and sit in the decision making hot-seat.

London’s Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson, made room in his office for two 15 year old ‘Mini Commissioners’, who donned the officers uniform and experienced what it’s like to run one of the world’s biggest fire and rescue services.

At the same time, other young people took over by getting involved in activities:

• A group of teenage girls became firefighters for the day at Southwark Training Centre, training in full firefighter gear. As part of the day they also chatted to the Brigade’s recruitment team about how more young women can be encouraged to consider the fire service as a career. 
•  A group of year 6 (10-11 years) pupils became Fire Brigade Schools Officers for the day. Under the guidance of the Brigade’s Schools Team, they taught year 2 (5-6 years) children about fire safety in the home, whilst providing fresh insight into some of the resources used by the Schools Team. 
•  Young people (various ages) took part in a range of workshops where they were asked for ideas and opinions on key fire service issues like preventing hoax calls, protecting the environment and attracting new firefighters.

’Takeover Day’ is a new national initiative run by ‘11 MILLION’ an organisation led by the Children’s Commissioner for England, Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green.

Events across the country saw some of England’s 11 million children and young people taking over from adults in a wide range of businesses and organisations.

London Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson said: “This was a great opportunity for us to learn from young people. We hope they had a rewarding time, but the real aim of the day was for them to take part in decision making.

“We run a range of youth programmes in the community, but this is the first time young people have come into our headquarters, with the sole aim of telling us what they think. We’re here to make our city safer for all Londoners, so we’re ready to listen and hopefully pick up new ideas.”

Note to editors:
Schools/young people that took part are: Central Foundation School for Girls, Bow (acting as firefighters for the day at Southwark Training Centre), and Archbishops Sumner School, Kennington (activities at Brigade HQ). The two mini commissioners are from Bexley and Islington.

London Fire Brigade currently runs a range of youth engagement programmes including Young Firefighters and LiFE, and is also involved with the Princes Trust.

More information about the Takeover Day initiative can be found at http://www.11million.org.uk/issue_rooms/11_million_takeover_day

Members of the media can obtain further information from the press office on:

telephone number: 020 8536 5922
email: press@london-fire.gov.uk