The Fire Service and Essex Police have launched an online education resource to enable them to continue delivering safety lessons to children while schools are closed.

The two emergency services work collaboratively to deliver fire safety and crime prevention advice in lessons and assemblies for all school children from reception to sixth form and college. 

Education officers representing both services visit thousands of school children each year in Essex, something that has now stopped since schools have closed over the coronvirus pandemic.

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and Essex Police say they are committed to continuing to make Essex a safe place to live, work and travel, and the online education will enable children to continue to learn important safety lessons as part of the national curriculum during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Jo Turton, chief fire officer / chief executive said: "We know that safer children become safer adults and we're committed to reaching our younger generations to help keep them safe now and in the future. 

"Our service has adapted quickly to the changing climate and we're working hard to deliver our prevention and protection work in different ways so that no one misses out during this unprecedented time. 

"We hope schools, families and communities can support us to learn and deliver valuable safety advice and ultimately, work together to keep each other safe."

Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex, thanked everyone involved in setting up the platform to keep children educated on many aspects of safety.

He said: "The joint education teams do a fantastic job, teaching our young people in schools. 

"Now with some innovative thinking, that learning can still be delivered during these difficult times - education and preventing incidents from happening in the first place is the best way to keep people safe from harm. 

“Thank you and well done to everyone who has been involved in setting this up."

Paul Wells, assistant chief constable, said: "We work really closely with the fire service and other partners to help educate our children and young people about a whole range of issues to help keep them safe and well informed when making decisions.

"It's really important we still do this while we're temporarily unable to carry out our school visits and we hope children and their families will enjoy using the new online education hub as part of their learning."

All of the educational resources can be found on Essex County Fire and Rescue’s website www.essex-fire.gov.uk/education