"I am incredibly proud": Rare insight into everyday life for the #UnsungHeroes at Northamptonshire Police force control room where around 115,000 calls were received this year

This newspaper was invited to Northamptonshire Police headquarters at Wootton Hall to take a look around their recently refurbished Force Control Room and talk to superintendent Emily Vernon about her team of emergency call handlers.

This week is International Control Room week, which is all about celebrating, supporting and highlighting the work of emergency and control room employees. International Control Room Week was established by ACD Communications, which is a technology business that develops software for control rooms

Superintendent Emily Vernon, head of the Force Control Room, said: “We get supported by a company called APD, who provide us with lots of bunting, sweets, chocolates, badges and stickers to really celebrate the control room staff that work in there 24/7 responding to calls to service from members of the public. We’ve been doing a dress down week where staff and officers have been contributing to charity.”

The two good causes that Northamptonshire Police are supporting this year are Mind - the mental health charity - and the fund for the family of Sergeant Matt Ratana, who was killed in the line of duty last month in London.. Every time #UnsungHeroes is used across social media and in the press throughout October 19 - 25, ACD Communications have pledged to donate £1 to mental health charities, Mind and the Scottish Association for Mental Health.

The Force Control Room dealt with just under 115,000 emergency calls this year alone.

Team Manager at the Force Control Room, Joe O’Connell, said: “We have a number of what we would perhaps consider to be repeat and persistent callers who, for a variety of reasons, see the police service as their voice to talk to. We can get a lot of calls from individuals who fall within that group who perhaps don’t really have a need for police support or assistance but don’t feel they have anybody else they can reach out to.”

Mr O’Connell explained that, on some days, these kinds of calls can amount to as much as five per cent but the control room can then go weeks and months without being contacted by these individuals.

He added: “It is not a big imposition on the service that we provide. We are still able to service all of the other calls and demand that come in to us.”

We asked the Superintendent what she feels is the control room’s biggest achievement this year.

Superintendent Emily Vernon said: “Every day, we consistently provide support to the most vulnerable in society and I’m so proud of my teams that they do that with care, compassion and empathy. I’m really fortunate I sit in an office right in the middle of the control room and I hear the calls that they are taking and I hear the trauma that they are having to listen to every day.

“Plus being involved in some really nice things for people - people who might be in the process of having their child or something like that and they’re calling 999 so there’s some real positives but I think the big thing is the staff’s dedication to showing that empathy and support at some really horrific times for people.”

They have a reward system in place called ‘FCR Stars’ where peers and line managers can nominate other team members when they have gone above and beyond in their job. Ms Vernon told the us that her team of call handlers rarely fall below the 90 per cent target to answer an emergency call in less than ten seconds.

Working as a 999 call handler can become quite overwhelming at times due to the traumatic nature of some of the calls so it is very important to control room staff that they have a quality mental health support system in place. Ms Vernon described the control room as “a big family”.

She said: “We have a recognised structure for counselling if staff want to seek that but it is generally through that day to day line management support, peer support that people get and that seems to work really well.

“We’ve got a good network of team managers - people like Joe, who can provide that day to day hands on support and somebody like Joe will recognise really quickly if there has been a severe or significant call that is likely to cause some sort of additional distress to our caller handlers and they will step in and they might take them off the phones for a little while.”

Call handlers go through a 14 week training programme before they are expected to start answering live 999 calls in order for them to get the support they need so that they feel equipped to do the job.

Recently, Northamptonshire Police appeared in the new series of Channel 4’s ‘999 What’s Your Emergency?’ - as well as showcasing the work that officers have to go out and deal with, the programme also gave the nation a glimpse into the Force Control Room and how the team deal with the emergency calls they receive. The final episode aired on Monday (October 19) this week.

This newspaper asked Superintendent Emily Vernon and team manager, Joe O’Connell, what they hope the public will have learnt from watching their team in action on TV.

Ms Vernon said: “I’m hoping that ‘999 What’s Your Emergency’ showcased what a fantastic place it is to work but also that, being there, you might not be a police officer but you are a front line member of the police and you are just as pivotal and critical to our policing mission as anybody who’s going out there and what we would see as the traditional front line so it’s seeing the value that those roles really bring to the community of Northamptonshire.

“It’s also really seeing the day-to-day impact that calls have and, hopefully - when people do need to ring through - they know they’re going to get that quality of service and have a better understanding of the things that my staff are faced with day in and day out. I think it has been a fantastic opportunity to shine a light on the excellent work that goes on within the control room, which - as I say - I am incredibly proud to lead.”

Mr O’Connell said: “It gives the wider public an eye into our world. Call handlers are - what I would describe as - faceless when you pick up a phone and, when you call through and you speak to somebody, you have no idea who that person is, what they might look like and how they might carry themselves. Having the cameras in filming us while we work just gives the wider public the ability to see what it is like in our world. People have very little idea of that and it just lets them know what we’re really about.”

Northamptonshire Police are currently recruiting for control room staff. You can find out more about positions and vacancies in the Force Control Room on the Northamptonshire Police website.