New home for Wellingborough's emergency services cadets

The town’s Northamptonshire Emergency Services Cadets (NESC) unit has just moved from Glamis Hall to the Hemmingwell Community and Skills Centre in Nest Farm Crescent.

The move means the group is able to use three rooms where cadets aged 13 to 18 can take part in activities based around the work of the police, fire and ambulance services, as well as office and storage space.

NESC executive director Ann-Marie Lawson said: “We’re really excited about the opportunities this new home brings for our growing Wellingborough unit.

“Hemmingwell CIC and Goodwill Solutions have very kindly offered us this space free of charge and we’re looking forward to working with them to benefit the wider community in the area.

“NESC now delivers a five-year curriculum, and the space offered by the centre will really support our structured learning programme.

“We can’t wait to explore new horizons and raise the profile of Northamptonshire Emergency Services Cadets across Wellingborough and East Northamptonshire.”

The unit meets every Thursday evening during school term-time, with the three-hour sessions covering a range of NESC activities including first aid, basic law and officer safety training and basic fire-fighting techniques.

Wellingborough unit commander PC Emily Black said: “I think young people are so important – it’s the morals and values we teach them which will shape the future.

“Each NESC session has lots of interactive elements based around the roles of the three emergency services.

“For example, some cadets will act as call handlers and dispatch their colleagues to work around different incident situations, using the training we have given them.

“That’s then used to help them develop and learn so they gain skills for life, not just if they are interested in a career within the emergency services.”

As well as training in emergency services skills, NESC members take part in emergency service disaster training operations, attend community events and sports fixtures, march in Remembrance Day parades, help with test purchase operations and more.

Emergency Services Cadet units also meet in Kettering, Daventry, Towcester, Corby and Northampton.

For more information about NESC visit www.northants.police.uk/information/careers-and-volunteering/emergency-services-cadets or email [email protected].