Join Us

Interested in joining Lancaster Area Search and Rescue?

There are several ways you can get involved with our charity, from joining the Board of Trustees or our Community Outreach Team, to becoming a member of our Operational Rescue Team.

For more information on joining our charity as a Trustee, or a member of the Community Outreach Team, please contact: info@lasar.org.uk.

For more information on joining our Operational Rescue Team, please keep reading and complete the form at the bottom of this page. Please note that we do not recruit for the rescue team all year round, and therefore your application will not be considered until we open up recruitment. This is done yearly, for more information on when our next recruitment drive will be, visit our social media pages, or contact the team on info@lasar.org.uk.

Joining the lancaster area search & rescue operational team

In order to become a Probationary member of our Operational Team, applicants must be over the age of 16 years, must be physically fit to meet the demands of a Rescue Technician Role and must be able to dedicate time to training, and further time to potential callouts, incidents and fundraising events throughout the year. Your call out schedule is determined by yourself and we do not expect any of our team members to be on call 24/7, we use an app which allows our crew to sign on and off call as they please and do not have a minimum required commitment to call out time.

Training typically takes place once a month and will either be a weekday evening or a weekend day, depending on the training to be undertaken, training locations also vary on this basis. All of our team members must complete compulsory training to remain operational, and are responsible for ensuring they keep up to date with training, by attending sessions as often as possible. Probationers are expected to be competent in a number of areas before officially joining as an Operational Team Member, this can only be achieved by showing regular commitment to training, more information on the roles within the team can be found here.

Due to the nature of our operations and requirement to respond to time critical incidents, we also ask that applicants live no further than 60 minutes drive away from Lancaster. Whilst not essential, it would be beneficial for applicants to have a Full UK Driving License, and access to their own vehicle. You will not be required to use your own vehicle for call outs, but will need to have your own transport to get to and from training.

All applicants must complete a fitness test which is assessed by Surf Lifesaving GB instructors. This test will be carried out during your training and involves a swim test, a timed walk and lifting tests. Further fitness requirements must be met at a later stage, to progress to becoming IRB Crew and beyond.

Applicants will also complete a Level 1 Water Awareness Course in order to meet the requirements set by DEFRA for our Probationary Crew Members. This is taught in house by our own instructors.

Lancaster Area Search & Rescue is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and we welcome applications from all members of the community, particularly women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds who are under-represented within the volunteer Search & Rescue sector.

If you are still interested in joining our Operational Rescue Team, please fill in the form below and a member of our Management Team will get back to you. Just a reminder, we carry out one recruitment drive per year, therefore if you complete this form after the deadline for a particular drive, you will need to wait until the next recruitment drive before you progress.

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