But the response groups aren't first responders and were never set up to be first responders In fact they're usually last response. their role is to provide transport to the council/emergency services/nhs staff etc. to allow them to get to somewhere that a average vehicle couldn't get to. and that it. in effect it's a community transport scheme. Once they've been called out by plod/council etc then they may be asked to recover stuck vehicles etc but they should never be asked to indulge in firstaid or rescue wreck recovery etc.
that's exactly what they SHOULD be doing - but, especially now during spate conditions, they feel the need to self deploy and often are at incidents before any of the other official services arrive and rather than doing something sensible like vehicle stabilization they feel the need to attempt tasks well beyond their scope of deployment
community first responders (medical) are being more used to provide interim support until a paramedic or ambulance arrives - out where we are a Cat A call which is a infant/child at risk or imminent life risk (cardiac issues etc) requires the service to be on scene within 8 minutes - by the very nature of their organization the community responders are very local and will be on scene within minutes - that leaves a potentially VERY ill person in the hands of someone potentially who will have had very little training for 5-6 minutes, a lot of harm can be done during even such a short time
I'm not knocking people who do volunteer but they should be made aware of their limits, before their being helpful kills someone
did i read it right somewhere in this thread that one of the requirements for membership of one of these response groups is that they attend ONE group exercise PER YEAR