Barry Zielinski, General Manager of Public Safety and Defence at Telent Technology Services
As the backbone of Police, Fire, Ambulance and Public Safety organisations, control room staff play a vitally important role in the UK’s emergency services.
That is why, the Telent team is incredibly proud to be a platinum sponsor of the prestigious APD Control Rooms Awards which saw unsung heroes of major and minor incidents receive accolades last night at a special awards ceremony.
The APD Control Room Awards celebrate the professionalism and determination of the people whose efforts help Police, Fire, Ambulance and other public safety organisations continue to thrive and successfully save lives. The awards ceremony provides a great opportunity to recognise emergency services control room staff across the United Kingdom and reward the work they put in behind the scenes and out of sight of the blue lights.
Talent with technology
Telent’s strong relationship and long history with the emergency services across the UK and Ireland makes us particularly honoured to support these awards for the second year running. Our mission-critical technology solutions support the great work of control room staff, with Telent designing, delivering, supporting and operating a wide range of solutions for public safety organisations, including control rooms. Additionally, we provide vehicle connectivity and conversion services, mobile data terminals, unified communications, cloud-based services, ICT managed services and digital evidence management solutions.
I have personally worked with Emergency Services for over 18 Years and it was an excellent move by APD last year to start this much-needed event. At last night’s awards, it was amazing to see that in only a year the number of nominees has almost doubled.
Typically, it is only when major incidents such as 9/11, 7/7, Grenfell and Manchester take place or when it is publicised in the media that we all stop and remember the massive dependency we have on the emergency services. In those instances, it is often the great work of the front-line police officers, fire fighters and paramedics that is the focus of attention and the great work of control room staff and the vital, important part you all play in our emergency services is typically under reported, flying under the radar of public awareness.
We should all take a moment to stop and think about the day to day lifesaving decisions that control room staff make and the preventative measures they carry out to ensure we are safe in our homes and in our everyday lives.
Extraordinary work
That is why the APD Control Room Awards are so important and will become even more so as demand on our Emergency Services continues to grow, directly increasing the pressure and workload on the control room staff. This is set against the context of continued budget challenges across the public sector.
When it came to selecting the winners, all the judges, including myself, struggled to even select the finalists, let alone the winners – and in our eyes all control room staff and the work they carry out is extraordinary. For those that were selected as the winners, this is even more true, and I am honoured to have been a part of the night that celebrated their achievements and those of all control room staff.