News
Ambulance Services honoured in first Emergency Call Centre Awards
7 May 2008
Emergency call centres were honoured in an awards ceremony held by
the Call Centre Management Association (CCMA) in Manchester last week,
with two ambulance services, the West Midlands and South Western
Ambulance Services, scooping two of the top four placings. Four
ambulance emergency call centre managers were on the nine strong
shortlist, selected on strict criteria from over 100 applicants.
 Daniel
Gore (right) of West Midlands Ambulance Service was awarded second place
in the Emergency Call Centre Manager of the Year Awards after turning
around the performance of his control room with improved layout and
workflow. The service is now the highest performing in the country and
was voted Ambulance Service of the Year.
Andrew Perris (below), Manager of the Exeter Control Room of the
South Western Ambulance Service, was joint third. Andrew runs one of the
most technically advanced 999 centres in the country with the latest
command-and-control computer systems and telephony.
Louise Delamere-Timms, head of the Kent Police Force Communications
Centre was named Emergency Call Centre Manager of the Year for her work
in managing a team of 530 police staff employees and uniformed officers.
Louise is credited with introducing new career pathways, better
attendance management and improved performance measurement at the
centre, against a backdrop of increasing demand for its services.
Andrew Massey of Greater Manchester Police, who runs an operational
control room in Claytonbrook, was in joint third place.
“For the first time we are recognising the tremendous work
contributed by the men and women at the sharp end of the emergency
services,” said Ann-Marie Stagg, chair of the CCMA.
“The way they handle calls from the public can literally be a matter
of life and death. In a business in which it is not uncommon for
individuals to spend 30 years working in the same organisation,
camaraderie and support are the essential ingredients of building
effective teams.”
The awards were presented by Simon Foy, Deputy Assistant Commissioner
of the Metropolitan Police who is responsible for emergency call centre
matters at the Association of Chief Police Officers. “Much effort has
gone into improving the service levels of emergency call centres,” he
said. “And these awards recognise the great strides that the UK’s
emergency control room managers have made.”
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