Contribution
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that useful intervention. If that idea is rolled out to the police, it ought also to be rolled out to other emergency responders.
In its first year of operation, the Fire Fighters Charity crisis line received more than 200 calls from firefighters in need of support. I pay tribute to that organisation’s work, providing online resources alongside that helpline. Individual fire and rescue services have also made strides to adopt and trial workplace support tools despite the lack of an overarching national framework.
Although forces have pioneered their own approaches, such as trauma risk management training and peer supporter systems to facilitate supportive conversations between colleagues, our fire and rescue services should not be left on their own when they are already under-resourced and be expected to work out the best mental health provision with no support or guidance from the top. Clearly, this industry needs bespoke mental health support for its workers. Firefighters put their lives on the line to keep us safe; the least we can do is provide them with the support they need for their mental wellbeing.
In discussing any expansion in the role of our fire and rescue services, the voice of firefighters must be front and centre. I urge the Government to engage constructively with the Fire Brigades Union, and I urge the Minister to set out the engagement of the Minister that he is standing in for today, the Under-Secretary of State for Education, with the union on this matter so far.
The evidence that this training can have a real impact is clear. Already, Samaritans and other providers deliver such training to workplaces that request it. The Samaritans’ training and engagement programme has proven that there is demand for workplace training on how to manage conversations about suicide, how to make a suicide intervention and how to manage the effects of a suicide within fire and rescue services. For example, Samaritans has worked with London Fire Brigade to provide such training to about 50 of their workers.
I pay tribute to the provisions on staff welfare that our local fire and rescue authority in County Durham and Darlington provide already. Those include counselling employer assistant programmes, signposting to local professional organisations that specialise in trauma support and utilising the Fire Fighters Charity crisis line, which all UK fire and rescue services subscribe to.
Let me come to the campaign’s asks of the Government and our asks of the Minister who is responding to the debate. Today, I want to back Samaritans’ call for a national approach to delivering suicide prevention training to fire and rescue services. Such a national approach will ensure that every force is equipped to support those in crisis and to save lives. In doing so, the Government would recognise that the support a person receives in a mental health crisis should not vary depending on where in the country they live or what operational decisions their fire and rescue authority has made with its limited resources. I urge the Minister to set out plans for this much-needed approach in his response.
I recognise and welcome steps that have already been taken to address these gaps, including a suicide prevention toolkit, published by the National Fire Chiefs Council, which I know Samaritans was successful in influencing. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has launched a public consultation on the creation of a new college of fire and rescue to better align training and national standards across England in order to improve the health and wellbeing of fire and rescue staff. That consultation presents an opportunity to embed suicide prevention training in the improved offer.
Standards should be developed by a working group of suicide prevention experts, with a focus on training that is in-depth, facilitator-led and, where possible, carried out in person. Such training should focus on developing practical skills to support people’s safety through conversations about suicidal thoughts, with the aim of building confidence in signposting people to the right support. Training must also build practical skills in safely managing suicide prevention for someone in crisis. I would appreciate the Minister updating the House on whether suicide prevention training is being looked at as part of that consultation, and on how he will ensure that suicide prevention experts and people with lived experience are at the heart of any proposals.
I am grateful for the support from other hon. Members for this crucial campaign. No one suffering from a severe mental health crisis should ever be left without the support they need. In countless cases our fire and rescue services step in and provide that support. They can often be the literal difference between life and death. We owe it to them, and to everyone in our country who suffers from mental illness or who is at risk of a mental health crisis, to provide the training needed to save lives and begin the road to recovery. I look forward to the Minister’s outlining what the Government are doing to ensure that every fire and rescue service worker receives the training that they need so that all our constituents know that if they or a loved one ever needs that emergency support, they will receive it.