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Just five weeks into his new role as head of the national JESIP team, David Boyle brims with enthusiasm about his 100 day plan and, like the new inhabitant of Number 10, he is now on a mission to deliver change when funding is a challenge and there are many competing priorities.
Many in the emergency services world will be familiar with Carl Daniels who headed up JESIP for many years and has now handed over to Bedfordshire Police Chief Superintendent David Boyle who has joined the national team on secondment. David spoke to me at The Emergency Services Show and said he’s hugely excited to take on this role, adding “no one can replace Carl Daniels; he’s an absolute legend.”
JESIP models and principles have become the standard for interoperability between the police, fire and ambulance services and other first responders when they are deployed to operational incidents. While JESIP may be associated with major incident response and referenced in inquiry reports, notably the one from Sir John Saunders on the Manchester Arena bombing, the approach is used everyday by emergency services across the country.
The JESIP Joint Doctrine: the interoperability framework sets out a standard approach to multi-agency working, along with training and awareness products for responding organisations to train their staff. David is steeped in the development of JESIP having been involved for a long time as the lead officer in Bedfordshire. “I have worked in partnership roles for many years,” he shares as he recalls the recent collaboration between forces in his area of the UK.
The change in leadership for JESIP will soon include a new Senior Responsible Owner at chief level as Chief Constable Charlie Hall recently announced his retirement. The Hertfordshire Police chief is also the chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Operations Co-ordination Committee – known as NPOCC.
On David’s 100 day to do list is assurance and he is keen to distinguish assurance from inspection.
“Assurance isn’t inspection, it is a development process. We are a critical friend, asking questions and sharing good practice. We are supportive.”
The reason he makes this distinction is because I question how the respective inspection regimes of the emergency services can provide him with a multi-agency view on how well JESIP is working when they only inspect one sector. HMICFRS inspects fire and police in England, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland having their own versions in place and ambulance has an entirely different regime under the Care Quality Commission. Perhaps someone in the government could look at a multi-agency inspection of how well JESIP is working across the emergency services?
He tells me that he wants to build on what’s been done before and have a contemporary picture of the extent to which JESIP is built into every emergency services operations. He wants to know the maturity level of JESIP in every service and create a baseline on which to move forward.
“Would we say with confidence that JESIP is embedded nationally? I don’t think we can.”
He is going to build on these findings by sharing good practice and that of course involves the system of Joint Operational Learning – commonly known as JOL. David says it is essential for services to diligently and consistently contribute structured debriefing and learning to JOL.
“The real trick for me is how the learning is applied in operational reality.”
With new leadership in place, it seems like a good time to think about a permanent home for JESIP with long term funding to do the kind of work that David talks about here. It’s too early for David to comment too much on the detail but suffice to say, he like the rest of the public sector, is waiting for the first spending review of the new Labour government to provide some financial certainty. With finite public finances, JESIP will have to fight its corner in the same way as everyone else. Influencing at the highest levels will be a big part of David’s new role.
The timing could be good though as both HMI Andy Cooke and Sir Martin Moore-Bick in his final report from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry have separately urged the government to create a new public body that would ensure that recommendations from inquiries and other major reports are monitored and come under parliamentary scrutiny. That sounds like a place for JESIP to reside too, armed with JOL (and perhaps the National Operational Learning from fire too).
Alongside these systemic considerations sits the need to get out there and talk to people, build networks, including with academics. He is effusive about the work of Dr Nikki Power who spoke at The Emergency Services Show about leadership and decision making. “It could help in the development of the JESIP doctrine,” he says.
“We need to reach a tipping point so that everyone is aware of all the elements of JESIP.”
“JESIP will never be done,” he muses, “the transformation programme that I’m putting in place is about consolidating the evidence base and reviewing the training products to make sure they are universally available.”
And while we talk mostly about police, fire and ambulance, JESIP isn’t just about them, for David, JESIP is critical for the wider Local Resilience Forum members too. “By continued multi-agency testing and exercising, learning from that and applying JESIP on a daily basis, it will become truly embedded.”
“JESIP is the right thing to do,” he concludes as we wrap up this interview, one part of his communications plan to get out and talk to as many people as possible. His LinkedIn post after the show indicated how much benefit he got from being at the NEC for two days.
“I had a fantastic couple of days at The Emergency Services Show, working alongside wonderful colleagues at the JESIP stand. It was truly inspiring to meet so many people passionate about JESIP and exploring its application in such a broad range of ways.”
Sounds like this is someone who is perfect for the job and with that level of enthusiasm, JESIP is in good hands, let’s hope the money and political will is there too.
For more information on JESIP and the products available to the emergency services, visit www.jesip.org.uk.
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