Plan to replace paid co-responders with volunteers is met with concern

Plans to replace Devon and Somerset's paid fire service co-responders with volunteer community first responders have come under scrutiny, with Devon County councillors voicing concerns and calling for a pause in the rollout of the changes. Last week, I met with Mel Stride MP, Dave Passmore who is a Group Commander for DSFRS, and community members from Chagford to discuss the proposed changes.

Under the current arrangement, on-call firefighters are commissioned to respond to medical emergencies, often arriving ahead of ambulance crews and providing crucial early care. The South Western Ambulance Trust (SWAST) now intends to shift that responsibility to volunteer community co-responders, claiming it will improve response times.

Dr Martin, Chief Executive of SWAST, said community volunteers typically arrive within eight minutes of a call, compared to 14 minutes for fire service co-responders, who must first report to their station before deployment.

He also noted that volunteer responders, who are trained and managed directly by SWAST, have immediate access to ambulance control room support if needed. However, he assured the committee that the transition would not be finalised until "sufficient numbers" of community responders had been "recruited, trained and had in place".

Listening to concerned members of the community and parish council, it became clear that many of us in the room had direct experience of our local co-responders coming to our aid in times of need. Chagford is a rural community with many properties having names rather than numbers, and just postcodes rather than actual street names. It was agreed that local knowledge is absolutely essential for the co-responders being able to find certain places and it was a worry to those present that such local knowledge might not be so vast if the job were undertaken by volunteers.

Chagford has eight co-responders and have had 46 incidents where they were called to attend from March 2024 to March 2025.

John Riches from The Friends and Patient Group of Chagford Health Centre said: “Local knowledge is critical. [The current co-responders] know the people, the addresses of the farms, where the lanes are narrow and where the potholes are.”

Dr Matt Symonds from Chagford Health Centre said that he'd attended home medical emergencies and knew that when he arrived, the co-responders would have all the information he required immediately so he could best treat his patient quickly and efficiently.

All those present questioned whether the new volunteers would be attending emergencies on their own or in pairs as is the current system, whether they would have to keep all the equipment needed in their own cars or if SWAST would be providing 4x4 vehicles which would be necessary in bad weather.

Dave Passmore read a statement which outlined the basics of the proposal but was unable to answer many questions, clearly not having any further information himself. Mr Stride will take the matter up once he has received more information from those at the meeting, and will strive to seek answers.