Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Prevention Team has won formal praise from the Royal National Lifesaving Institution for its outstanding delivery of the Waterside Responder Course. Certificates of best practice were handed over at Fire Service HQ on 24 June 2026, with the University of Northampton also receiving recognition after its Campus Safety Team used the training to pull a person from the River Nene.
The course equips waterside businesses, voluntary groups and community organisations to carry out basic rescues before firefighters reach the scene. Trainees are taught how to talk a drowning casualty into floating on their back to defeat cold water shock, and the correct way to cast a throw line. Prevention Team Leader Darren Carson said the programme buys vital minutes, especially in rural locations where emergency response times are longer.
The RNLI launched the initiative following a Tyne and Wear pilot in which five lives were saved between 2018 and 2020. Northamptonshire joined as an official partner in 2022, and Si Bristow, the charity’s Water Safety Education Manager for the North and East, said the county’s fire crews had gone above and beyond ever since. Deputy Vice Chancellor Becky Bradshaw added that the ongoing partnership with the fire service helped keep staff, students and the wider community safer.
The presentation followed a real‑world rescue in which the university team’s training was put to the test on the River Nene.
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