Firefighters call centre dispute

One of the stumbling blocks in negotiations between striking fire fighters and the government concerns proposals to merge emergency services control rooms.

Computing can reveal that the dispute over the future of fire service control rooms has been rumbling for more than two years.

A Home Office report published in May 2000 recommended sharing facilities between the police, ambulance and fire services.

But the skills needed to deal with 999 calls are very different in each service, says Fire Brigades Union national officer John McGhee.

'It makes as much sense as saying the police, the AA and a bank should share a call centre,' he said.

'The government says it want us to be more flexible, but this is going to give a worse service.'

McGhee says that a fire service control room is not a call centre because it has to provide much more detailed support to fire fighters.

'They take a call through from start to finish,' he said. 'They provide help to distressed callers, and are trained in giving fire safety advice. They are effectively an encyclopaedia.'

The main recommendation of the Home Office study was:'Fire authorities must work together to eliminate control rooms that handle less than 20,000 incidents per year.

In choosing the boundaries for brigade groupings, it would be preferable not to intersect the boundaries of NHS ambulance trusts and, if possible, police forces. This is desirable on the grounds of inter-working, and to allow for future development towards shared control rooms.'