Cornwall Council has announced that they have deployed the first tri-safety officer in the country after Andrew Hitchens became qualified to respond to ALL types of 999 calls following the completion of his training which started last year.
The Tri-Service Safety Officer project started several years ago and looks to be a great success.
Whilst police, ambulance and fire stations have been merging in counties
A spokesperson for Cornwall Council said:
‘The Tri-Service Safety Officer (TSSO) is an innovative,
‘The role has been piloting for over 3 years (originally a
‘The Tri-Service Safety Officers (TSSO) purpose is to provide a ‘supportive link’ between Devon and Cornwall Police (DCP), Cornwall Fire, Rescue and Community Safety Service (
‘The role has a number of additional responsibilities such as; Safeguarding Advocate, Youth Intervention/ mentorship.
‘The role is not a single element of the areas described above, it provides a unique and innovative approach to resolving community safety matters.
‘The role targets and aligns with all of the agencies priorities in relation to protection, prevention, firefighter, medical responder and police incidents including challenging and tackling anti-social behaviour.
‘The development of the ‘TSSO’ role builds sustainable and strong working relationships with partner agencies.’
The TSSO is certainly an interesting one, and, we think, a world first.
As far as we are aware, no other country currently has TSSO’s who can respond to police, fire and ambulance emergencies – although I am sure that our readers will correct us if we are wrong.
The role of TSSO has been specifically developed for more rural communities so don’t expect to see a TSSO anytime soon if you live in more urban areas.
The spokesperson for Cornwall Council cont:
‘The role integrates within the Police Neighbourhood Team and assists with completing neighbourhood enquiries (101 calls made to police –
‘These enquiries afford the TSSO with the opportunity to identify additional areas of concern together with fire safety, safeguarding, anti-social behaviour, protection matters, youth intervention and health difficulties.
‘This provides opportunities for an officer to assist with making agency referrals and arranging multi-agency meetings.
‘The TSSO role has an independent and innovative role profile is aimed at complementing and assisting the existing services and roles within each; one that specifically targets community safety matters and joint agency working.’
‘The evaluation will be completed by early summer and will inform future plans.
Our
‘South West Emergency Services Collaboration group, which includes all senior leaders of all emergency services, continue to support and promote this initiative.’
The role certainly sounds like an interesting and varied one and having served in both the police and in the RNLI, then if a TSSO role ever came up in Essex, then I would certainly apply for it!
Andy Hichens, TSSO Hayle said:
“At this time I can state that I am incredibly proud to be part of this innovative trial and remain enthusiastic and dedicated to its cause.
“I will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that I play a positive part in ensuring the TSSO roles abilities are exhausted in order for us to learn its limitations.
“I thank you all for the support that you have provided to both the project and me personally and recognise that the role would not have come this far without your support.”
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Hummm, conflict of interest anyone? I remember being told as an Ambulance EMT I could not be a special constable due to the conflict between the jobs, so how are they dealing with this?
Not a necessarily new concept although if I’m reading it right its scaled so they are able to operate in all three areas but are more to cover the overlap than as a true all in one responder. Several places in the United States have adopted the Public Safety Officer approach where members work primarily as Police Officers but act as all three services and will respond with fire apparatus or ambulance as required to those types of emergencies.
A write up on the approach can be found at this link (http://lib.post.ca.gov/lib-documents/cc/41-Frazer.pdf).
How long did his “ paramedic “ training take and is he registered with the hcpc? Paramedic is a closed title , only people registered can call themselves paramedic. I agree that having someone to send to calls is an advantage but paramedics train for years. 12 months??