AIBU to be stunned that this service is entirely run by volunteers?

[crosspelican]

I was at a presentation this week given by Oxfordshire Lowland Search & Rescue - it turns out that when people go missing, the police don't always actually go out & look themselves, they call organisations like this, in particular if it's your granny with dementia, or a teen who intends to commit suicide. These people can be out looking within 20 minutes, but of course when they find the person (or their body) it doesn't get the press those twats on Ben Nevis got, because nobody is going to tell the local press delightedly that their suicidal teen has been found safe and well and is thrilled to be going back to school tomorrow.

They said that the difference with their callouts is that the person often doesn't know they are lost (dementia) or doesn't want to be found (suicidal).

They're all volunteers, their equipment (vehicles etc) is all donated. They're not the first port of call for ALL missing people - they had 70 callouts in Oxfordshire last year, but I am really surprised that this is not fully funded by the police, because surely they are a branch of the police?

oxsar.org.uk/what-we-do/

Is there anything that you were surprised to find out is NOT funded by taxpayers?

I’m stunned that people don’t realise that all these services are run like this.

Idiocy is a world wide problem. DS has just come back from Tasmania where he did many hikes suitably equipped with boots/poles/ waterproofs/maps etc only to encounter people wearing flip flops and sandals carrying just a dinky little handbag. DB sees the same thing in American National Parks all the time (although there they do have paid rangers who can turn people back - if they see them).

I’m stunned that people don’t realise that all these services are run like this

Me too. The number has increased exponentially in the last ten years too.

I guess smokers, alcoholics and the overweight with type 2 diabetes are consuming products - fags, booze & food - that take some VAT so in the grand scheme of things, they are pre-paying towards their service in a roundabout way. Plus they might be paying National Insurance.
The idiots on the mountains however aren't making any pre-payment for their rescue! I think they should be nudged into giving a donation or at least named in the local papers so others might guilt them into donating.

Air Ambulances too.

Our country runs on an army of volunteer hours. The problem is that whilst older generations were brought up with an ethos that everyone should pull their weight and do what they can, younger folks are more likely to be just looking out for number one.

Volunteering is a vital part of a thriving community and should be better valued. There should be incentives to get people to volunteer more, and we should built up an cultural expectation that everyone will donate both their time and their money to services that are over and above the basics that are funded by taxpayers.

I used to be surprised about RNLI myself, but then got into conversation with one of their leaders who pointed out that most don't want government interference. The thinking was that funding would inevitably mean talking shops and targets, and that they'd "probably have to chuck some folk in the sea" just to comply with whatever the latest silliness was

Considering the mess central government makes of so much else, he may have had a point ...

I knew about lowland search and rescue as I almost joined a few years ago - I didn’t have the time to spare in the end and probably won’t for a few years to come. I do think I’ll do it when DS is a bit older though.

Hospices shocked me - I thought there would be at least some public funding. I will be running a half-marathon later this year to raise funds for the hospice that took care of my grandfather last year. He had a roast lamb dinner, a pint of beer and tapioca pudding, then fell asleep with his two daughters beside him - what a peaceful ending that place gave to him. The hospice that cared for my mother-in-law was just as good. They are places where people go to live right to the end, imo, rather than where they go to die, IYSWIM. They are so important.

Our search and rescues are all volunteer run.

There are people who walk along the cliffs near Eastbourne preventing suicides who are all volunteers - I'd no idea about them until someone I worked with was helped by them years ago. It was started by someone who lost a family member there, it's still a well known suicide spot but there are patrols 24/7 along the stretch.

I'm overweight with type 2 diabetes which has NOTHING to do with what I eat - medication, genetics and other medical conditions caused it. I've known two people die of lung cancer who didn't smoke and spent their last weeks with stupid people making comments about them regretting smoking.

Palliative care hospice run via charitable donations and volunteers. Assumed it was state funded nope

@buttermilkwaffles There's lots of charities you can support through Amazon purchases, I support a different one. As long as you always go through smile.amazon.co.uk rather than the standard site. It's not every purchase, though, it's every eligible purchase, and that's by no means everything. My personal donation, for example, is under £10 for 14 pages worth of purchases. Still, I do it because you might as well help out when you can, even if it's not very much.

I thank god these services are run and staffed by volunteers. Can you imagine the situation if they were run by the government or local authorities .

Hello, can you help, my child has drifted out to sea on a lilo.

One moment please I am transferring you to our call centre in Dubai.

( four seasons played on a loop)

Welcome to the UK Sea Rescue Service Helpline. W e are experiencing a high volume of calls and all our operators are busy. Your call is Important to us and will be answered as soon as possible. You are currently number 9 in the queue.

....... Some time later..........

Brighton. Can you spell that for me. Thankyou. And Brighton is is in the UK you say? I can see New Brighton, is that where you mean? ..... Thankyou for your patience I have alerted the Rescue Service and they will be dispatched presently, although there may be a delay as it is a bank holiday. Meanwhile, do you have a moment to answer these customer satisfaction questions..........

70 call outs a year is less than 2 per week.

Ask the cops how many missing person they deal with its likely to be far in excess of that number.

They are not a branch of the police and do not need to be funded by them.

I am assuming they are out covering huge swathes of ground police can't cover due to numbers involved.

puzzled years ago I was at a meeting which involved with Welsh ambulance services (whatever it was called then) and they had complaints from gov they weren't getting enough calls in certain parts of Wales to justify funding so ambulance stations there needed to be cut and ambulances would always been sent from somewhere else. The person sat next to me immediately said they should run over a couple of people then!!

Sadly, many years later there are now areas of Wales where you can wait four hours for an ambulance to turn up because the stations had been closed and for can forget the never being an hour away from a hospital rule with closures as well.

There's an all weather lifeboat in mid Wales the RNLI are trying to get removed. Because it doesn't get used enough. There's a huge campaign for it to remain as without it people will certainly die as the other all weather lifeboats are too far away. So the RNLI also have targets for rescues as well.

I am shocked and stunned that any intellegent adult in this country has managed to get to adulthood without knowing mountain rescue, R.N.L.I, etc are voluntary organisations and are not funded by the Government.

I’m stunned that people don’t realise that all these services are run like this

I think they don't want to realise it.

These are all essential services, but add up the cost - would you pay extra taxes to fund all these from the Treasury? There are so many other services provided by charities that should be funded by the state. HM Gov is quite happy for all of this to go under the radar.

*have been closed not had!

lowland my 92 year old grandmother refused to give a penny to the RNLI as she insists they're government funded "really" and won't accept otherwise. Never has. Same goes for hospices and air ambulance. Our family has had need of all these people but she won't give them a penny.

Ps hospices do get some paltry government funding which pays for some nursing staff, but nowhere near the amount that it actually costs to run, maintain, clean, heat and staff a hospice, and of course doesn't touch the cost of all the other special services that hospices offer to patients, and their families.

I agree OP. I was completely shocked that RNLI is not government funded. Especially bearing in mind the kit, dangerous work they do and the hours

They don't want to be - they feel they would be hampered by risk assessments etc, and that also the organisation would end up being even more underfunded as govt. cutbacks hit them - and of course, bureaucracy would make them top-heavy, vital cash would go to pay managers and PR etc.

They do a bloody amazing job and couldn't under govt.control.

YABU for not knowing.

Our local Mountain Rescue are bloody fabulous. When I called an ambulance when a friend had fallen off her horse I was surprised when several men in 4x4s arrived from various different directions and started making themselves useful before the helicopter arrived. They listen in to the emergency services and drop everything to help. I have them set up on my Amazon account so they get money when I spend.

How about this then...in Australia, the Country Fire Service is run by VOLUNTEERS.

The government don't pay for country fire services!

We have 'proper' firemen of course but the CFS is voluntary! In AUSTRALIA FFS!

Apparently they get paid $300 a day IF called out for more than 10 days!

The person sat next to me immediately said they should run over a couple of people then!!

Sounds about right, Becca

I confess I wasn't aware that RNLI operated targets, but at least it sounds as if they're "internal" ones IYSWIM? I honestly don't want to think what might happen if they were the government-imposed type - and that's without the issue a PP mentioned of the money mainly going to pen-pushers and worse

A good example is the retained/on call fire service.

My DH started as an on call and is now also wholetime. Most of Oxfordshire is solely retained stations. That is, they don't have wholetime manned stations, they are staffed in a similar fashion to the RNLI with pagers and are on call from home/work. They are paid a 'retainer' to be available, have to attend lots of training (courses and weekly training nights) and are also expected to show up to local events. The retainer is really minimal compensation for the impact it has on family life. For example if DH is on call (and he is expected to be available for the same hours every week) then we may have to arrange a paid babysitter if I need to nip out just in case he gets a call. He must stay within 6 minutes of the station.

However it is clearly a better system than the others mentioned in the thread where there is no monetary compensation. Fire service offer a retainer, a fee per call out, and an increased hourly rate for every hour they are on a shout.

I think viques has painted the perfect picture of what government funded rescue services would be like. It doesn't bear thinking about.

My mum volunteered all her life, and brought us up to do the same.
The state makes such a mess of things.