True Interoperability is the pinnacle of joint working between responder agencies, it should bring together their skills, capabilities and assets to deliver a coherent joint response which provides the best possible outcomes for the public and the responders. It should not be affected by the type of incident regardless if it is a natural disaster, transport or terrorism, the response should be built on the same principles. However, interoperabiity is much easier to describe, than achieve. There are many myths, misunderstandings and pitfalls associated with achieving it. This presentation takes the audience along the journey to achieving true interoperability, what that feels like, what it requires and what the outcomes can look like. The different stages and building blocks required include doctrine which provides a foundation, people who are trained and exercised to deliver the doctrine during the response and the ability to identify, share and learn lessons from training, testing and incidents so that the response can be better next time.
Carl joined the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme (JESIP) as the Ambulance Senior User at its inception in September 2012. He led on developing the JESSIP training products and a model for delivery, resulting in over 12000 emergency services commanders being jointly trained. Carl has been heading up the JESSIP team as the Deputy Senior Responsible Officer since 2014. Originally from the Ambulance Sector, Carl has a wide range of experience in service delivery and design, Resilience and project delivery. He is an experienced commander and has commanded the ambulance response to a variety of incident types, including flooding, public order and terrorism. Having delivered keynote addresses at conferences in the UK, Europe, North America and Australia, Carl is also a member of the Advisory Board for a number of EU projects. He attained a Master's Degree, with merit, in Management from Manchester Metropolitan University Business School in 2009.