All the little bits of information that are as important as they are unexciting, if you feel anything looks out of date, inappropriate or missing our secretary would be most eager to hear from you.

Charity Registration

DCRO is a registered charity in England and Wales (No. 1017362).
You can verify that we are genuine by searching the charity commissions website https://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/

ADMINISTRATION

DCRO is run by a Committee elected annually at the A.G.M. which is usually held in April. The Committee normally meets four times a year and comprises Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Equipment Officer, Training Officer, Medical Officer, Deputy Officers and a number of Ordinary Committee members. It is current practice for all serving Controllers and Leaders to be co-opted onto the Committee.

FINANCES

It costs upwards of £10,000 each year to run DCRO. In addition a contingency fund of several thousand pounds has to be maintained so that major equipment losses or repairs can be remedied immediately without affecting operational viability. Most annual expenditure is on new or replacement equipment, maintenance of the vehicle, the Base and Equipment or on the training programme. Well under 10% of the total is spent on administration with DCRO employing zero staff – we are 100% volunteer run.

Income is mostly from donations and the fund raising efforts of DCRO and its members.

AFFILIATIONS

DCRO is a member of the British Cave Rescue Council (BCRC) which is the representative body for voluntary underground rescue organisations in the British Isles. Through the BCRC it is also affiliated to Mountain Rescue England & Wales which is the representative body for mountain rescue in England and Wales. The BCRC and MREW work closely together to represent and support their members’ interests nationally and internationally. The BCRC is represented on the UK Government’s United Kingdom Search and Rescue (UKSAR) Operators Group which includes all the primary providers of search and rescue services in the U.K. (e.g. Police, Fire, Ambulance, MoD, Coastguard, RNLI, Mountain and Lowland Rescue).

INSURANCE

DCRO Team members are covered by three insurance policies.

The first is a personal accident insurance policy which is maintained by the Police and provides a range of possible financial benefits should a Team member sustain an injury during operations initiated by the Police or whilst attending an official DCRO training event. The benefits are amended from time to time. Any Team member wishing to know what they are currently should contact the secretary.

The second is a public liability insurance policy maintained by Mountain Rescue England & Wales and available to Team members because of DCRO’s membership of the BCRC. This policy covers Team members against third party liability claims. Broad details of the cover provided by the policy can be found on the BCRC or MREWwebsites.

The third policy is a fully comprehensive vehicle policy maintained by DCRO on the Organisation’s vehicle to cover authorised drivers.

Grievance and Disciplinary Policy

DCRO’s Grievence and disciplinary policy can be viewed by clicking the link below.

GDPR

DCRO handle all data in a manner which satisfies current GDPR regulations, a copy of our current policy can be obtained by contacting our data protection officer

Safe Guarding

Any safeguarding issues arising should be passed in the first instance to our safeguarding officer using the contacts page, unless there is a conflict of interest in which case any other senior committee post should be your point of contact. The safeguarding policy can be downloaded from the link below.