New Year Honours List: East Sussex Chief Fire Officer recognised for her service

Dawn Whittaker has been awarded the King's Fire Service Medal for Distinguished Service.

Ms Whittaker joined ESFRS in June 2016 as Deputy Chief Fire Officer from Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service, becoming Chief Fire Officer in October 2017.

She said: “I was both surprised and humbled when I was told about the award. I have been privileged to work with some fantastic colleagues and partners over many years to influence community safety and in particular to reduce drowning in the UK, so to be recognised for that is a great honour”

East Sussex Fire Authority Chairman Roy Galley said: “Dawn has received this accolade for her national work on water safety and it also reflects outstanding contribution to the fire service nationally and her exceptional leadership of East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service.”

According to ESFRS, during Ms Whittaker’s time as Chief of East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service the service has driven down accidental fires in the home to the lowest level they have ever been. She’s also supported the development of a water safety education programme to local schools and has overseen the introduction of Fire Cadets, as well as celebrating when East Sussex was named UK Fire and Rescue Service of the Year 2021 in the iESE Public Sector Transformation Awards.

Dawn is also Deputy Chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) Prevention Committee and sits on the programme board. She also sits on the NFCC Leadership Board and as a senior female officer, she has supported women’s development and equalities work in Sweden and Australia and is currently involved with supporting some work in New Zealand.

She cares passionately about volunteering and has also served as a trustee of several charities, including as chair of the Royal Lifesaving Society. She is currently the chair of the East Sussex Strategic Partnership

As a teenager Dawn got into difficulty herself in a river in Mid-Wales and was rescued by friends when her foot got caught in underwater branches. Coupled with a number of challenging water-related incidents since she joined the emergency services, this helped shape her commitment to seek a reduction in the number of accidental drownings and water-related incidents in the UK. She has been NFCC lead for Drowning Prevention and Water Safety since 2013, paving the way for the NFCC to join the UK National Water Safety Forum in 2014. After helping to write the UK Drowning Prevention Strategy, in subsequent years she set up the NFCC water safety practitioners group, which is a vibrant group of FRS people committed to improving water safety that Ms Whittaker refers to as ‘the water safety warriors’.

Personally and outside of the NFCC work, Ms Whittaker is part of a group called Families Against Drowning, which helps support families impacted by drowning to spread messages. Dawn was elected chair of the UK National Water Safety Forum in 2020.

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