North Yorkshire could become home to the country’s first squad of multi-agency public safety officers created to boost the emergency services capacity.
Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire and York Philip Allott has revealed he intends to build upon a pilot scheme launched last year by his predecessor Julia Mulligan to promote crime prevention, fire safety and health and wellbeing as well as support community problem-solving.
The public safety officers will also serve as on-call firefighters as well as being emergency first responders for Yorkshire Ambulance Service and being part of the local policing team providing early intervention and monitoring antisocial behaviour.
In the foreword for both the Policing and Crime and Fire and Rescue annual reports for the past year Mr Allott highlighted how an independent
evaluation of the year-long trial which concluded in April showed “significant public and stakeholder support for the role and the benefits it offers”.
He added the scheme also aims to make the police and fire services more sustainable and efficient for the long term across the vast and rural county.
Mr Allott said:
“As Commissioner, I am committed to extending this scheme, recruiting more public safety officers and giving communities even more visible support and protection.”
The new service will bring together North Yorkshire Police, Yorkshire Ambulance Service and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service to help prevent vulnerability and reduce harm and to improve the safety and resilience of communities which have seen a decreased presence by emergency services in recent years.
It is understood the scheme will see public safety officers receive training in an array of disciplines before being embedded in communities across York and England’s largest county.
The multi-disciplinary officers role will be to provide initial support and improve capacity to tackle issues before they become problematic.
Health-related training will include basic life support, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and they will carry an automated external defibrillator and oxygen, as well as basic first aid equipment. It is hoped the officers will be able to attend medical emergencies in their communities and provide vital care, comfort and reassurance before an ambulance reaches the scene, similar to community first responders.
They will also be dispatched to emergency incidents at the same time as an ambulance and will not replace the usual emergency medical response from Yorkshire Ambulance Service. However, those behind the move said public safety officers’ location within communities could mean they are on scene in those first critical minutes of a medical emergency.
The police service’s annual report, which will be considered by North Yorkshire and York’s police, fire and crime panel on Thursday, states the public safety officers “are also bolstering blue-light capacity in some of our more remote locations, including firefighter availability and emergency medical response”.
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