Vehicle Progression

So its been a while since I last updated my blog.

Things have certainly come on leaps and bounds! The new vehicle (Land rover Discovery) turned up in late April, and after a few teething problems is now becoming a familiar site at events. We choose the Land Rover and the model particularly for the clients and the locations which we are deploying too.

I have been asked several times,

"Why did you choose that particular model as opposed to a Defender?"  

Firstly was the financial factor to consider, the vehicle isn't brand new, admittedly it has had several owners - yet due to us having excellent mechanical support from a local garage it is checked and serviced regularly and faults rectified often within a week of being reported.

Secondly there seems to be a better comfort factor within the discovery range, the seats (heated) offer support especially when parked stationary for long periods of time covering events.

The aim of the vehicle and will be the same as any subsequent vehicle purchased is to deliver an appropriately trained and experienced member of the team to an incident location, both safely and whilst carrying all the necessary equipment.

Pictures will follow soon, as it begins the facelift process of turning from a standard family off-roader into an incident support unit.

What makes a great Control Room?

Control rooms evolve for the purpose of processing a variety of information, often resulting in service delivery - whether it be the deployment of resources or the application of procedures.

The most commonly represented control rooms in the media are the emergency services, which feature heavily on the television, in programmes like '999 Whats your Emergency' and Police Interceptors.

These forms of control room are the pinnacle of information processing, allowing calls, radio communications and data to be categorised into priorities, then acted upon.

So what makes a superior control room?

• Excellent Layout

Each control room 'operator' has adequate room to carry out their task, this allows them to move unhindered in the course of their duty, with ready access to all paperwork and information technology systems.

• Management Presence

Whether it be a police control room, or an insurance broker call centre, their are tiers to the management structure, allowing staff the constant ability to refer decisions to senior personnel or consult on instances for advice which may be considered out of the norm.

• Fallback Mechanisms

Business continuity is critical in the modern era of reliance on computerised systems. Often when these systems fail to operate - usually during a critical period this will place an enormous amount of stress upon the operators. IT support needs to be readily available, both during hours of operation and during the quiet or downtime sessions.

• Employee Engagement

Allowing staff at all levels to be able to provide an input into the service delivery allows a more conjoined approach, allowing ideas to be shared along with room for improvement.

Instead of asking a consult company to look at improvements, 

why not ask the people who do the job?

• Secure Environment

To allow the sharing of sensitive information, the control room needs to be secured, both to the risk of crime and also commercial espionage. Achieving this can be simple from providing a simple combination lock on a door or digital swipe card system, up to and including manned guarding dependent on the risk level.

• Highly Trained Staff

Call & Control centres are often an under-looked training opportunity due to the complexity of being able to deliver realistic based scenarios. Various companies offer scenario based training for certain incidents (fire / terrorist attack / technology failures), but there is a limit to external training based on the pure basis of the functioning in the control environment. NVQ's are available in Call Centre Management, Customer Service and Team Leadership - all of which will need to be readily adapted to fit the assessment criteria.

Emergency services use core training, based on thorough theoretical based study, followed by scenario and procedural coaching. Once the mentors are happy with their trainees progress (often 1:1 ratio) they are then allowed to take public calls, working from the least priority workload, up to emergency classification.

At each stage of this process, they are constantly reviewed and assessed, allowing opportunities for revision or increased training to take place before the next advancement can be undertaken.

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So when you next see a control room on the television or call through to a call centre, you may now be able to understand the process involved in the development of the services, or likewise you may be able to identify where improvements could take place.

Updating my skills

Another weekend has gone by.... So what happened?

Well I decided to top up my patient contact hours by volunteering to provide medical cover at an event. Usually I'm based in a medical centre, but this time I worked on a mobile response team.... Friday went without much interest.... Only the 1 callout which didn't need our assistance.

Saturday - 3 callouts, 2 of which were categorised as majors.... I was glad of my experience on one of the callouts, which on face value seemed like a minor fainting episode..... But from looking at the patient I decided to transfer him back to the medical centre rapidly... I had already phoned ahead to ensure we had a paramedic and doctor team awaiting our arrival..... After being stabilised with drugs therapy, the patient was then taken by county NHS ambulance to a specialist hospital for further treatment and potential surgery.

Sunday was spent helping restore a 1967 fire engine, which a friend of mine has just purchased through eBay.... Lots of things to do on it.... But seems an interesting project!