Welcome to the home of International Control Room Week, brought to you by APD Communications. We are a technology business that develops software and infrastructure for public safety, in particular its control rooms. Our admiration and appreciation for the emergency services is un-quantifiable.  Working closely with the services, we understand the live-changing situations its staff face daily and the impact that the job has not only on their life, but their families too.

International Control Room Week is just a small way to show support and highlight the great work you all do – its a week dedicated to you.

Not only that, but we have pledged again to donate £1 to mental health charities every time #UnsungHeroes is used across social media and in the press during 19 – 25 October 2020. Helping to create a strong and positive legacy of the International Control Room Week for many year’s to come.

We have chosen Mind and the Scottish Association for Mental Health, as the charities to support throughout International Control Room Week as we know that health and wellbeing within the control room is often impacted due to the traumatic and challenging nature of the job.

Plus, recent studies show that control rooms up and down the country are dealing with record levels of phone calls from members of the public suffering with poor mental health. By raising money for mental health charities we can indirectly help both the people working within the control rooms, and also the people contacting the emergency services.

Thank You * Gracias * Merci * Tack * Danke Sehr * Dziękuję Ci

A note from the organisers – APD Communications?

We learnt so much from last year’s inaugural week, the response and participation from control rooms up and down the UK was overwhelming. Whether you was on Twitter, or reading the local news – it was pretty impossible to miss the out pour of love, support and appreciation for the teams that work tirelessly around the clock to keep us safe and protected.
We’ve spent sometime looking back at all the activity posted by the control room teams and it’s given the team here at APD an even bigger drive to top the success of last year – so expect great things!

Control Rooms mean so much to team APD, you’ll often find us there on a Friday or Saturday night, trying to better understand the operational need of call takers and dispatchers so that we continually improve our products. Each time we attend there is that one call that really sticks with you, goose bumps, heart pounding and possibly the odd tear – when help gets to that caller there is an overwhelming need to thank and congratulate the team working on that incident. The teams say ‘they are just doing their job’ but to us, they’re saving lives every hour or every day – and that needs recognition.

The International Control Room Week is hopefully a way of saying thank you to everyone who works in a critical control room – it doesn’t feel enough, but its the start of shining the spotlight on the great work you do. 

Rhiannon Beeson, APD Communications Commercial Director 

In the news……

Unsung 999 heroes celebrated as International Control Room Week goes viral

Thousands of control room employees have joined together in an extraordinary celebration of their work as the unseen frontline of the emergency services.

They threw their support behind the first International Control Room Week saluting the critical role played by the 999 teams dealing with traumatic and stressful situations on a daily basis.

Read more

Thousands of heroes in headsets join in a week of celebrating 999 control room employees

The week is aimed at raising public awareness of the life-saving and life-changing work of employees in emergency services control rooms, with more than 185 critical control operations the length and breadth of Britain taking part.

Find out more

Download our range of International Control Room Week collateral

Registrations for International Control Room Week are now closed, but please download our International Control Room Week posters, videos and social media graphics to get involved and celebrate your control room.

DOWNLOAD

Why this date?

We know that every day, every week is busy within an emergency services control room so we thought really carefully about the week we choose to celebrate.

We have launched the International Control Room Week from 22 – 28 October 2018 to help lift team spirit and morale before they head in to one of their busiest times of year –  over the Halloween and Bonfire period control rooms experience some of there highest call volumes.

Please join us and celebrate with us.