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Headed up by David Boyle, the JESIP team is working hard to get its interoperability principles embedded in the muscle memory of all responders. He tells me about his approach to leading this work when I spoke to him for the first episode of the new season of the Emergency Services Times podcast, For Every Response.
Joint Emergency Service Interoperability Principles – or JESIP as it’s commonly known – is not new and talking about it in 2025 may seem like we are going over old ground for something that should be business as usual. The arrival of David Boyle in the national lead role last summer is a good opportunity to test that assumption and as the podcast conversation shows that there is still much to be done to see it truly embedded.
“The doctrine in itself, contains guidance and principles and models around how emergency responder agencies should work together to respond to incidents and the five principles I’m sure most people are familiar with; but just a reminder they are to communicate, to coordinate, to co locate, to develop a joint understanding of risk and to develop that shared situational awareness that allows us to more effectively work together.”
The intention, he says, is that when emergency services work together they apply these principles and the underpinning models including one about joint decision making and the now famous METHANE mnemonic. And when they do so, all of the evidence points to a more successful outcome for the public as a result.
So far, so good. But what has changed since then? Are all services using the principles and models and do incidents since then suggest that it is working on the ground? One look at the Kerslake report into the Manchester Arena bombing and the Moore-Bick reports into the Grenfell Tower fire – both tragic incidents that happened in 2017 – provides evidence that JESIP was not working as it should.
Eight years on, David is looking at maturity, getting a sense of where police, fire and ambulance services are when it comes to embedding the principles into not only major incident response but in day to day operations as well. This is where he refers to muscle memory – responders doing it without thinking because it is known, practised and used with confidence. He’s working on a maturity model and creating a research community to help with that.
“I’ve been on the road an awful lot, and I’ve visited various different places right across the UK, and there’s been a lot of good work that we’ve identified with some great examples of testing and exercising.
“It’s been really good for me and the team to be at training exercises. Joint organisational learning isn’t the end in itself though, it’s about embedding a learning culture within organisations. We’re encouraging services to share joint learning with us so that we can share it more widely.”
With new strategic leadership in place after the retirement of Chief Constable Charlie Hall, David is working with Essex chief BJ Harrington and the wider interoperability board to deliver the strategy for JESIP that takes them up to 2027, but money is still a concern. He says he has strong working relationships across both emergency services and government. “We’ll continue to kind of demonstrate the value that we’ll get from any funding that we attract,” he explains.
“I need to continue to articulate a compelling case for JESIP, building a solid evidence base as we continue to embed JESIP consistently across the UK. We need to do this because it leads to more successful outcomes for the public.”
To learn more about what David and his team are doing, listen to the full interview using the link below or through your favourite podcast platform.
