How did fire and rescue services in England respond to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Murphy, P ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8459-4448 and Lakoma, K ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2583-3813, 2023. How did fire and rescue services in England respond to the COVID-19 pandemic? International Journal of Emergency Services, 12 (1), pp. 77-90. ISSN 2047-0894

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Abstract

In England, fire and rescue services are defined as category A responders to all and any emergencies under the 2004 Civil Contingencies Act. As such they are one of the 'core' responders obliged to prepare for various types of emergencies and undertake a range of activities during an emergency. The Policing and Crime Act 2017 places a duty on the police, fire, and ambulance services to collaborate and makes provision for the three services to enter into collaborative agreements and to set out how the parties will work together in discharging their functions.

This paper will explore how fire and rescue services in England responded to the challenges and opportunities presented by the first three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, the form and nature of their collaborations with the police, ambulance and other services, and how effective their emergency planning arrangements prepared for that response.

The paper will draw inter alia on the survey and report of the National Fire Chiefs Councils (Levin et al 2020) as well as the 44 'virtual' inspection letters to individual services, and the summary national report from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS 2021), which controversially criticised the role of Fire Brigades Union in the national and local response to the pandemic (Chappell 2021). As the conference theme suggests this provided an opportunity for old issues relating to planning and collaboration to be re-examined and for emergence of innovation (both technological and organizational) to provide new responses and solutions.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	International Journal of Emergency Services
Creators:	Murphy, P. and Lakoma, K.
Publisher:	Emerald
Date:	30 May 2023
Volume:	12
Number:	1
ISSN:	2047-0894
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1108/IJES-10-2021-0070 DOI 1563010 Other
Rights:	© 2022 Emerald Publishing Limited. Emerald allows authors to deposit their AAM under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial International Licence 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	05 Jul 2022 07:59
Last Modified:	29 Aug 2023 13:26
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/46560

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