HM Coastguard is keeping tight-lipped over major plans to reform the fourth emergency service, including introducing full-time Coastguards into rescue teams across the country.
Island Echo understands that up to 600 new full-time staff are to be recruited nationwide to complement the 3,500 paid volunteer coastguards throughout the UK, amid an increasing number of call-outs and a historic legal battle which all began on the Isle of Wight.
This massive shift for the service will potentially see 2 full-time staff members (likely to be Station Officer and Deputy Station Officer) appointed to each of the UK’s 300 Coastguard Rescue Teams, of which there are 3 on the Isle of Wight: Bembridge, Needles and Ventnor.
At present, Coastguard Rescue Teams (CRTs) are manned entirely by volunteers who receive remuneration on an hourly basis. They are overseen by a Senior Coastal Operations Officer (SCOO) who typically manages a number of teams in a given Area, with around 150 managers across the service.
It is also understood that there will be changes and recruitment within the nation’s control rooms to help support the level of 999 calls being received.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has confirmed to Island Echo that a project is currently under development to ‘enhance’ HM Coastguard’s response, and to future-proof the service. However, there has been no comment made on the specific elements of this project, including whether existing volunteers will be offered full-time roles first and what exactly has prompted the change…
But the news comes amid a massive increase in shouts for Coastguard Rescue Teams in recent years, thought to be driven in part by the increasing number of mental health-related incidents. Locally, the Island’s 3 teams are responding to a larger number of calls in locations such as Culver Down, Ryde Pier and Sandown and Shanklin Esplanades.
The situation has become so prevalent that the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has put a blanket ban on teams mentioning any such incidents on social media, and redacts information from Freedom of Information requests – effectively hiding the true extent of the situation.
Furthermore, an employment tribunal case last year ruled that volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers (CROs) are, in fact, workers – something which is said to be behind the move to recruit full-time CROs, in order to protect the service’s response capabilities.
An Employment Tribunal Appeal, held before Deputy High Court Judge Gavin Mansfield KC, ruled that Martin Groom, the former Station Officer of Bembridge Coastguard Rescue Team, was a worker during his time with the Coastguard.
Martin was ‘fired’ in a meeting where a trade union official was not allowed to be present, which Mr Groom claimed was in breach of the Employment Relations Act (ERA) – but to rely on the act, he had to prove he was a worker and not a volunteer.
Responding to questions put forward by Island Echo, a Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesperson has said:
“The volunteers that provide our Coastguard Rescue Service are an integral part of HM Coastguard’s operational response.
“To safeguard this essential capability, and ensure that we remain able to respond and provide the highest quality of service, a project is currently under development to enhance HM Coastguard’s coastal response and future proof the Coastguard Rescue Service”.
This week, it has been revealed that the service is introducing a total of 18 new Operational Support Vehicles across the country to bolster the wide-ranging fleet. The new Ford Transit vans will act as a command and control base for larger-scale incidents, as well as providing welfare facilities.
Just like the RNLI they all do a great job.
Not forgetting the Independent lifeboat teams
So true the Independent lifeboat teams also do
a marvellous job, the country would be lost without
their services.
Thanks to certain people this is going to ruin it for thousands of others who do or did it for the right reasons !!