On the second anniversary of Jaden Francois-Esprit’s death on Friday, Francois-Esprit’s mother, NHS worker Linda Francois, 55, called for major changes to the fire service to prevent similar tragedies. The fire service carried out an internal inquiry after his death, which appears to have made 24 separate recommendations for change. A second wide-ranging survey is due to be published in November, looking at wider issues of culture within the fire service. In her first interview since the death of her son, who died just three weeks after his 21st birthday, she told the Guardian that Francois-Espry had raised a number of concerns about what she believed to be bullying, harassment and racism in fire at Wembley. station where he worked. Francois said: “I never imagined a future where Jaden would not be present in our lives. Myself, his siblings, family and friends are devastated by his passing and we struggle to function each day knowing that we will never see our beautiful Jaden again.” He was proud to be accepted into the London Fire Brigade as a new recruit at the age of 19 and was excited to start a career as a firefighter. He had dyslexia, a condition he had flagged to the fire service at the recruitment stage and on several subsequent occasions. But he told his family he wasn’t getting the right support, particularly when it came to completing written assignments. He had no mental health issues when he joined the fire department, according to his family. But towards the end of his life his mental health had deteriorated sharply. He made 16 transfer requests to work at other stations, but these requests were not accepted and he remained at Wembley where he became increasingly unhappy. His family say he raised various concerns about his treatment, including being teased for eating traditional Caribbean food, being given the nickname “lazy boy” which he hated, and being humiliated by reprimands at the tannoy station. He was also concerned about insufficient support for his dyslexia, an initial decision not to assign him a mentor and not be given a locker for several months. At his inquest in February 2021 at St Pancras Coroner’s Court, Senior Coroner Mary Hassell rejected what Francois-Esprit had told his family before his death that he was the victim of bullying and racism at the fire station and said there were insufficient data. to connect these issues with his suicide. The coroner, however, stressed the need for managers to be more sensitive to the mental health of firefighters. Francois-Esprit testified at the inquest that her son had been singled out at work because he was an ethnic minority, because he was the youngest firefighter by several years and because of his dyslexia, all concerns that her son had repeatedly grown up with. Following the investigation, London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe announced an independent review of the LFB’s culture, due to be published in November. He said a culture of casual racism and misogyny remained so prevalent in some pockets of the LFB that his daughter of mixed heritage might not be treated with “dignity and respect” at some fire stations. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Francois said she wanted to see more accountability from LFB managers, for staff to feel empowered to raise the alarm without fear of reprisal and for mandatory learning support and training for managers to help them support people with conditions such as dyslexia. She questioned why managers failed to keep her son safe at work despite family members alerting managers at the fire station of their concerns about Francois-Esprit. “London’s fire commissioner is committed to making change Jaden’s legacy. To enable this change, we must first acknowledge the failures that have occurred,” he said. “Jaden kept telling us, ‘I don’t have the support I need.’ We expect an apology for Jaden’s multiple failures. We want organizational change in Jaden’s honor so that no other employee experiences the trauma that led a healthy and passionate young man in the prime of his life to experience a mental health crisis and an early death.” Roe said: “The thoughts of everyone at the brigade are with the family and friends of firefighter Jaden Matthew Francois-Esprit on the anniversary of his death. It is clear that not enough was done to support Jaden during his time at the London Fire Service. “Shortly after Jayden’s death, an internal investigation made 24 recommendations and seven more were added following a coroner’s report to prevent future deaths. To date, 28 of the 31 recommendations have been completed, including the establishment of an independent culture review, chaired by Nazir Afzal OBE, which is due to publish its findings in November. “I would like to reassure the public that bullying, discrimination and harassment are not acceptable in the brigade. We take all allegations of bullying seriously and have strict policies in place which all staff are expected to adhere to.’
In the UK and Ireland, you can contact the Samaritans on 116 123 or by email at [email protected] or [email protected] In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the Lifeline crisis support service is 13 11 14. You can find other international helplines at befrienders.org.
