Essex County Fire and Rescue Service wins two prestigious awards at the Excellence in Fire and Emergency Service Awards 2024
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS) has received two major awards at the Excellence in Fire and Emergency Service Awards 2024, which took place in London on Friday 6 December.
The awards, now in their tenth year, celebrated outstanding achievements across the fire and emergency services sector, with ECFRS being recognised for its leadership and innovative approach to improving community safety and wellbeing.
Colette Black, Director of People Services at Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, won the Most Influential Woman in Fire award. Colette has been a driving force behind the service’s work to improve workplace culture, diversity, and inclusion, making a lasting impact on both the service and the wider emergency services sector.
The second award went to ECFRS for the Emergency Services Collaboration of the Year for the Community Wellbeing Officer Project. Launched in December 2023, the project is an innovative collaboration between Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST), and fire services in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
The project was designed to improve ambulance response times while also supporting vulnerable people in the community. Community Wellbeing Officers work alongside ambulance crews, helping to address non-emergency situations and improving the overall safety and wellbeing of those who need it most.
Chief Fire Officer/ Chief Executive Rick Hylton said: “We’re incredibly proud of the work being done by our colleagues across the service, as well as our partners in the emergency services.
“It’s an honour to see our people being nominated for eight award categories. Being nominated and winning these awards is a true reflection of the exceptional dedication our people show to their work and the communities we serve.
“Together, we remain focused on our mission of making Essex safer.”
The Service was also nominated for:
- Emergency Service of the Year
- Innovation of the Year – Liam Noll, Business Analyst
- Youth Champion of the Year – Education Team
- Neurodiversity Champion of the Year – Education Team
- Most Influential Ethnic Minority Individual of the Year – Muhammad Ahsan, Community Safety Officer
- Outstanding Contribution to the Fire and Rescue Service – Gerald Greenfield, On-call firefighter at Leaden Roding.
During the morning, ECFRS also received two nominations at the Comms 2.0 Awards which took place in Birmingham for best communications team and best use of email.