Philip Allott has welcomed plans to recruit public safety officers in Craven, North Yorkshire. The pilot programme involves employing someone who is an on-call firefighter, part of the local policing team and medical first responder pending the arrival of an ambulance. The public safety officers won’t literally be wearing all hats at once – just one hat with three badges representing their roles in the police, fire and as a NHS emergency first responder.
A key part of the job will involve working with the local community to help deliver fire safety, crime prevention and health and wellbeing information to local schools, residents and the wider community, along with supporting vulnerable people. The policing part is based on using the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme powers authorised by the Chief Constable and will focus on reducing anti-social behaviour, with the aim of increasing public confidence.
Philip says: “In some of the more rural parts of North Yorkshire, this means we can actually have somebody who is an on-call firefighter, PCSO and NHS emergency first responder – funded for fulltime employment using different pots.”
“This is a great way in bringing three different roles together that provides value for money, full time employment and offers greater protection for the community located in the more rural parts of North Yorkshire, where it is becoming more challenging to find retained firefighters within four minutes travel time of a fire station.”
Ultimately Philip believes it is a way of using public resources more efficiently in rural areas whilst also providing more public safety including helping people in the local community who have had trips and falls. Subject to the success of the pilot and Philip winning in May, he will look to expand the role elsewhere in other rural locations, whilst also expanding the size of North Yorkshire’s Police Service with more fulltime officers.
