Blue Light Services working towards future collaboration

Joint working across the services is not a new concept; the services have been working closely together to explore collaboration and integration in order to provide a better service to the public for many years. For example, the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme (JESIP) is well established and looking at how services can work together at serious and major incidents and this collaborative work will continue.

All three organisations are keen to support innovative approaches to service delivery and have developed a number of position statements detailed in the attached document.

Paul Fuller, President, CFOA said “I am delighted that the three services have come together to agree a number of common areas where we can work together to deliver our key objectives of improving public health, safety and wellbeing.

“Fire and Rescue Services face significant financial challenges and it is clear that working closely together will deliver more efficient and effective emergency response services”.

Martin Flaherty OBE, Managing Director, AACE said: “Joint working is nothing new to our three organisations and now that we have agreed a key set of principles around further collaboration we can continue to build on the good examples already in place. In doing so we must ensure that new areas of collaboration are fully evaluated so that we can determine which of those are sensible, workable and truly deliver benefits for our patients and the public.”

Lynne Owens, National Policing Lead for Uniformed Operations, ACPO said “It is good to be able to make our shared position on these things public. It is important to be clear that close working is necessary for reasons of efficiency and to protect the public”.

The government is expected to release a response to Sir Ken Knight’s review of Fire and Rescue Services in the near future, which will include its views on wider blue light collaboration. AACE, ACPO and CFOA will respond to the white paper in due course.

ENDS

The joint position statement on Blue Light Collaboration can be found here:

http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/uniformed/2014/20140206-uoba-blue-light-collab-joint-pos.pdf

To arrange interviews or for further information, please contact:
Communications Team at CFOA
Tel: 01827 302370

Mobile: 07817 769227

Email: communications.department@cfoa.org.uk

About Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA)

The Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) is a professional membership association and a registered charity. CFOA members are drawn from all UK Fire & Rescue Services (FRSs) representing the senior executives and managers of the Service. Through the work of its members the Association supports the Fire and Rescue Services of the UK in its aspiration to protect the communities they serve and to continue to improve the overall performance of the fire sector. CFOA provides professional and technical advice to inform national fire policy.

About AACE

The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) is a professional membership organization. It’s core Members are the English NHS Ambulance Trusts and Associate Members include the ambulance services within the devolved administrations and Islands. AACE provides ambulance services with a central organisation that supports, coordinates and implements nationally agreed policy. It also provides the general public and other stakeholders with a central resource of information about NHS ambulance services. The primary focus of the AACE is the ongoing development of the UK ambulance service and the improvement of patient care.

More information about the AACE is available at www.aace.org.uk.

For more information please contact

Carl Rees, AACE Communications Lead

Office: 01273 328140

Mobile: 07958 547727

Email: carl.rees@reesps.com

For more information please contact:

ACPO Press Office
Association of Chief Police Officers
e: press.office@acpo.pnn.police.uk