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Abstract
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The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea and has been striving to end preventable loss of life around the UK and Irish coast since 1824. It provides an on call, a 24-hour lifeboat search and rescue service, a seasonal lifeguard service and a responsive flood rescue team. It now has a comprehensive network of 237 lifeboat stations including eight inland locations such as the iconic river Thames in London, and Loch Ness in Scotland. This service is reliant on thousands of unpaid volunteer crew.
The RNLI has always had an interest in prevention, stretching back to the 1800's when sailors we given barometers to check if it was safe to go to sea, but its primary focus has always been search and rescue. This started to change during the 1990's when a sea safety initiative was established to focus on preventing accidents by offering free fishing boat 'health checks'. The charity took another huge step in 2001 when it established a lifeguard service, which by its very nature is preventative and views rescue as the last resort.
The Catalyst for Change
This focus on prevention has continued to evolve but hit a cross roads in 2011 when the organisation asked itself a difficult question, how can we save more lives? To answer this honestly a better understanding of the problem was required, so the RNLI started analysing coastal fatality and incident data to establish who is most at-risk.
This evidence-based approach has changed the way the RNLI operates, no longer just celebrating a busy year of rescue, but instead focusing on reducing risk to the public and its own volunteer crew and lifeguards and driving down fatalities and serious incidents. An ambitious target of halving coastal fatalities by 2024 has now been set, but that can only be achieved through partnership work with likeminded organisations and approaching lifesaving in a different way.
Language: en |