Ettington

About Our Community First Responders
Ettington Community First Responders are a team of people who live in and around Ettington in Warwickshire and work in partnership with West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) which provides the ambulance service in a large portion of the Midlands including Warwickshire.  Community First Responders (CFRs) are volunteers, trained to a nationally-recognised (BTEC) standard to provide live saving treatment to people in the community.  CFRs are called out by WMAS to life-threatening, emergency, medical calls within our area providing vital 'first-person-on-scene' assistance to people who are ill or injured prior to the arrival of the ambulance crew. 

The Community First Responder Scheme is a national initiative and is an integrated part of the ambulance service. There are around 1,500 Community First Responders working across the WMAS region.  Responders are backed up by a WMAS CFR Coordinator for Coventry & Warwickshire who is a full-time member of staff (Paramedic) at WMAS. He/she is further supported by regional CFR coordinators who support all the CFR schemes in their part of Warwickshire and provide close liaison between the individual schemes and WMAS. They also coordinate all our training and assessments.  They operate to a strict deployment protocol and operating procedures set by West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Responders are all volunteers who give their time to respond to callouts, train and fundraise free-of-charge.  In common with all CFR Schemes, the scheme receives no funding from WMAS or the NHS and so is totally dependant on fundraising in the community in order for the Scheme to operate.

Coverage
WMAS will alert the team if there is a 999-call which needs an urgent response within 3-miles of Ettington.  Therefore, in addition to Ettington itself, they also cover Fulready, Pillerton Priors, Pillerton Hersey, Alderminster, Newbold-on-Stour and Halford.  They currently have six CFRs and, for a large proportion of the time, are able to provide 24 x 7 cover.

Latest News
Visit the Community First Responder's website for up to date news. (Click here)
You can also find the responders on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=181084239184&ref=mf

How you can help
If you would like to join as a First Responder, please get in touch with them.

The scheme is always looking for people to arrange fundraising events or to come and help with fundraising events that they organise as a team.  They rely heavily on support from local businesses and organisations to assist us with fundraising events and to provide raffle prizes.  If you feel that you can help with fundraising – either individually or as an organisation - they would love to hear from you. 

The article from West Midlands Ambulance Service explains the importance of the role that the community plays in support Community First Responder Schemes. (Click here for the article)

For more information about how you can help, please see http://www.ettingtoncfr.org.uk/how.html

Website
Please visit our website for more information about our work: http://www.ettingtoncfr.org.uk

Contact Us
You can contact us by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Big Lottery Funding

Paul Mulligan, Ettington CFR Scheme Chair, said; “We are absolutely delighted to have received this funding. It has come after months of hard work lead by our determined Treasurer Marie who proved to the Big Lottery Fund that we are a suitably worthy cause.  In March, three members of the Scheme received West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) Community First Responder of the Year Awards in recognition of the work of the entire team of volunteers, so for the Lottery grant to follow so soon afterwards is very rewarding for this fledgling team.”

Marie Lowe, Ettington CFR Scheme Treasurer explained “Much of the Big Lottery Fund grant will be used to purchase equipment that allows the Scheme to sooner provide more extensive operation within our coverage area of Alderminster, Butlers Marston, Ettington, Fulready, Halford, Pillerton Hersey, Pillerton Priors, and Newbold-on-Stour.  Funds will also be used to purchase equipment that allows appropriately qualified members to undertake more specialist call-outs, as well as to maintain critical items such as defibrillators.  These machines have expensive components that need to be replaced on a regular basis in order for them to remain certified, and the lottery funding helps the Scheme temporarily meet this cost.”

NFU Award

The Community First Responder team in Ettington, Warwickshire, now have additional first aid equipment thanks to the Community Giving Fund at Stratford insurer NFU Mutual.

The large rural insurer has made a donation to the Ettington Community First Responder Scheme to fund new equipment.  This has been used to provide the team’s sixth First Responder with a specialist equipment bag and a pulse oximeter, which allows a rapid assessment of patients’ vital output.

West Midlands Ambulance Service recently presented three members of the team with First Responder of the Year Awards. Ian Inglesant, Community Response Manager for Coventry and Warwickshire, said: “I would like to thank NFU Mutual for their donation to the Ettington Community First Response Group.  The group has come a long way over the last 12 months. They have increased the size of the team to six members and have been doing fantastic fund raising for their extra equipment.”

Ian added: “The group were given the Responder of The Year Award by the Trust for their work within the community and the help and assistance they have given to local residents in Emergency situations.  Their enthusiasm for the cause is amazing and they should be extremely proud of themselves.”