Community First Responders: Staffordshire

(asked on 16th March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why the West Midlands Ambulance Service are downgrading the role of Community First Responders in Staffordshire.


Answered by
Lord Bethell Portrait
Lord Bethell
This question was answered on 31st March 2020

Ambulance services have operated with Community First Responders (CFRs) for many years in mainly rural areas and they play a vital role in responding to the highest priority 999 calls whilst paramedics are en-route.

West Midland Ambulance Service (WMAS) recognise that Community First Responders (CFRs) play a key role in protecting local communities and they want to enhance that by increasing the number of CFRs, using a consistent model of response, so that even more lives can be saved.

Since the introduction of the Ambulance Response Programme, ambulance services have a clearer indication of the severity of each 999 call and so can assign the most appropriate response to that call, which may include the dispatch of a CFR, to ensure that each patient receives the right response for their clinical need.

WMAS plan to use their CFRs to target the most seriously ill patients, in the way that CFR schemes were originally set up.

The Government are content with the approach WMAS are taking regarding CFRs and have no concerns regarding their future plans.

In 2015, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives published a document on the use of CFRs. The document seeks to reduce national variation in the governance of CFR schemes and aims to addresses the deployment of CFRs across all categories of calls. A copy of Volunteer Responders Governance Framework is attached.

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