Capita’s communications and control solutions business has secured an eight-year contract to provide a new communication and command and control centre system to four fire and rescue services. This is the first collaborative partnership of its kind and comprises Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset and Devon and Somerset fire and rescue services – all members of the Networked Fire Control Services Partnership (NFCSP) in the south.
The collaborative partnership will improve the resilience of all four fire and rescue services, and also deliver cost savings. The new system will also enhance the services’ existing control centre functionality.
Dave Curry, Chair of the NFCSP strategic board, said, “Because all four fire and rescue services will have the same Capita technology in their control centres, it will give us far greater resilience. If one service is under pressure for whatever reason, one of the others will be able to provide full support. This integrated system will allow us to work together even more effectively than we do at the moment, and that can only be good for public and firefighter safety.
“This is very much ‘one system, many opportunities’. We will have the ability to work together when we need to, we will be able to train together and many of our processes will be simplified. The fire and rescue service nationally has been challenged to face the future and find better ways of working – we are confident that this project will achieve the efficiencies and economies that Government is demanding of us.”
George Godliman, Managing Director of Capita’s communications and control solutions business, said, “The solution that we are providing to the NFCSP is the latest in control and command technology. This system isn’t just confined to the four walls of the control centre – it’s about providing technology that fire and rescue workers rely upon when responding to calls. Information flowing back into the control centre is just as important as information received by fire crews on their way to incidents.”
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