SMR Search Management course

Attendees will be introduced to the “process” which helps prioritise assets and targets search areas in order to conduct a systematic logical search.

Using a series of front loading, discussions and table-top exercises, groups work through scenarios, undertaking tasks to gather information, plan, brief and notionally deploy assets into the mountains to search for missing persons.

The course looks at working with dogs, air assets including helicopters and UAVs, other volunteer agencies, Emergency Services, working at night and in avalanche areas.

The final exercise joins with the Digital Mapping course to create a lifelike search where all aspects of the search management are brought together and tested.

Aimed at team members who may be hill-party leaders or potential search managers who want a better understanding of what is going on in the Command Vehicle or Team Base, during all phases of a search.

Accommodation will be provided at Stirling Court Hotel on Friday, 21 and Saturday, 22 November 2025 (single rooms). Please note that an evening meal on Friday evening will not be provided.

Included is Saturday breakfast, lunch and dinner and Sunday breakfast and lunch.

Full details of the course will be sent out in advance of the course running.

Essentially it will run from 2000hrs on Friday through to late Sunday afternoon.

Whilst most of the course is indoors, attendees will need to bring some outdoor clothing suitable for a low level search exercise on the Sunday morning.

A sense of humour and the ability to think outside the box are not compulsory but will certainly help you enjoy the course.

THE SMALL PRINT!

Please speak to your Training Officer before booking this course to ensure it is relevant.

Police Scotland / RAF mountain rescue attendees:

Please contact the SMR Office on 01479 861370 before booking onto the course, so that we can ensure you have cleared your attendance with your Team Leader.

Cancellation Policy:

SMR reserves the right to charge a cancellation fee of £100 if failure to turn up to this course or a cancellation too late in which we cannot fill your space. This fee allows us to offset any costs which we will be incurred as a result of late cancellation. SMR Office will invoice directly to your Mountain Rescue team.

If you have any questions about this course, please email [email protected]

Other than trainer(s) and any accommodation provider for this course, Scottish Mountain Rescue (SMR) will not disclose your information to any company or person, except to help prevent fraud, or if required to do so by law. SMR believe that using your data in this manner is a legitimate interest.

You have the right to see any information about you that SMR keep and you also have the right for this information to be deleted at any time. Send an email to [email protected] clearly stating you wish SMR to delete your details and we will do so within 10 working days.

SMR will send you a feedback form shortly after the event and we are grateful for any feedback. Your feedback will be anonymised for the purposes of statistics and review of the training we deliver.

Photographs may be taken at the event and may be used in publications or social media related to Scottish Mountain Rescue. We will seek consent prior to using photographs with recognisable faces. Where individuals are not facially recognisable we will use photographs without seeking consent.

We will delete personally identifiable information collected in each financial year on April 1st each year for the financial year that commenced 4 years previously. For example in April 2023 we will delete all personally identifiable information collected in financial year 2019/20 and continue this process on a rolling annual basis. Any data we keep beyond that time for statistical and reference purposes will be anonymised.

In the event of incident that requires medical treatment and completion of accident form we are required to retain this record for 7 years.

For further information on Scottish Mountain Rescues' Privacy information please see http://www.scottishmountainrescue.org/privacy/

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Stirling Court Hotel, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom