Conference Speakers

Sheetal Panchmatia

Policy Officer, National Fire Chiefs Council

Sheetal Panchmatia joined West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) in 2004, as their Partnerships Officer and since then has held many different roles, to include: Policy, Community Safety and being seconded to the Government Office for West Midlands (GOWM) as the Regional Fire Service Lead. During her time at GOWM, Sheetal was part of the NFCC (CFOA) team that led on the national Prevention/Protection workstream, following the tragic events of Lakanal House, in 2009, which is when her interest in fire safety was formed.

 Since 2013, Sheetal retrained as a Fire Safety Officer, at WMFS, specialising in Licensing and Events and qualified with a Level 4 Diploma in “Fire Safety Inspecting Officer”.  She holds a Masters in Housing from De Montfort University (dissertation topic: Fire Safety Responsibilities in the Social Housing sector), a P.G.C.E. in RE from Warwick University and a Postgraduate ILM L7 Diploma in Public Sector Leadership from Coventry Universit

Sheetal is currently seconded to the National Fire Chiefs Council Protection and Policy Reform Unit, in the Building Safety Programme Team, as the Resident Voice Lead and the lead for hotels.

 Sheetal, prior to being seconded to the NFCC BSP team, also worked as a freelance associate consultant / trainer for TPAS, CIH and HouseMark, as well as a visiting lecturer for the University of Wolverhampton on the Fire and Rescue Degrees, care of Artemis Ltd.

 Before joining WMFS, she worked for the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) as their Education Officer and then their Service Development (Area) Manager. During her time at the CIH, she was integral to the introduction of their Equality and Diversity Policy.

 

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