Police and the Fire and Rescue Service in North Yorkshire should start collaborating more closely to promote public safety and drive efficiencies, the organisations’ leaders have urged.
The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for North Yorkshire, Julia Mulligan and the Chairman of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority (NYFRA), John Fort, have signed a statement of intent, in which they announce their plans to improve public safety across York and North Yorkshire and provide a more efficient service through closer collaboration and the sharing of support functions. Closer collaboration would also generate efficiencies that would help both services to build resilience, protect frontline services and support the local economy.
Some functions are already shared and these include:
- Community Safety (Dales and Scarborough Pilot) known as the ‘Safety Service’.
- Training and Development Provision
- Transport and Logistics Provision
This will see an extension to the likely shared functions, with the following areas being considered:
- HR / Personnel Services
- Finance
- Estates
- Health and Safety
- Communications
- Command and Control
- Planning
- IT
- Data Management
- Legal Services
This development comes after the success of a recent pilot by the organisations to jointly provide combined safety services to vulnerable older people across the Dales, namely the ‘Safety Service’. Activities included joint home fire safety and crime prevention visits, along with the promotion of joint safety campaigns.
Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire, Julia Mulligan, said:
I think there is a real opportunity for both organisations to deliver services better through collaboration.
Through the Safety Service, our police and fire services have already shown that they can achieve more together.
We’re now saying: let’s be more innovative and ambitious and start bringing about real improvements to public safety.
Our statement of intent is the next step of our journey. It sets a clear direction of travel and, over the coming months, we will be working towards delivering more collaborative, efficient and responsive public services.
John Fort said:
This is the start of an ambitious project that could deliver real benefits to the communities of York and North Yorkshire.
