Deputy Chief Officer Shantha Dickinson

Shantha was first appointed as a Principal Officer in November 2016 for Hampshire Fire and Rescue, beginning as Director for Community Safety and Resilience and joining the Strategic Command team.  In April 2018 she took up the position of Director for Performance and Assurance, where she is responsible for leading the organisational learning capability for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service. In June 2021 she was appointed as Deputy Chief Fire Officer for the newly combined Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service and as Director for Policy, Planning & Assurance. Shantha has a varied portfolio including leading the organisation’s strategic planning and policy development, performance management and communications functions and preparing the organisation for HMICFRS inspection.

Previously, Shantha was the Head of Knowledge Management, where the emphasis was on delivery of strategic planning and performance management capability based on putting intelligence at the heart of decision-making.

Beginning her career in the British Army, Shantha served ten years as a Commissioned Officer in the Intelligence Corps and has always undertaken roles that are related to developing actionable knowledge. Since joining the Fire Sector in 2014, Shantha has led national work relating to improved integration of data within the Fire Sector. More recently she had close involvement with the development of strategic leadership capability in the sector as the Deputy Director of the Executive Leadership Programme, run in partnership between the NFCC and University of Warwick.