Sussex is home to approximately 1.4 million people in an area of nearly 1 million acres (3,700sqkm). The local police services are tasked to find, care for and return to a place of safety anyone that is reported missing who is identified as vulnerable or at risk. We support Sussex Police in fulfilling this obligation by providing emergency on-call nationally qualified search dog teams throughout Sussex and the UK to support the emergency services when looking for vulnerable missing people. We do this 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We are the Lowland equivalent of Mountain Rescue. Mountain Rescue operate above the tree line, we operate from the tree line to the foreshore

Our primary function is to be a member team of Lowland Rescue, to provide response to search & rescue (SAR) emergencies in order to search for, rescue and recover those missing or in distress or potential distress.

The team was founded in 2003 and is made up entirely of volunteers who (together with their dogs) undergo constant training and must meet rigorous standards in order to obtain operational status. Most of our dog handlers and support staff fit this in around full-time jobs.

In 2015 the team were awarded The Queens Award for Voluntary Service - the highest award a volunteer group can achieve. Some of us even got to meet the Queen!

We are openly proud of our team and each and everyone of our team members. Learn more about them here.

Being a registered charity, we receive no funding from the government. We rely solely on donations and sponsorship to keep the team operational. All funds raised go towards providing essential search and safety equipment such as dog first aid kits, radios and hi-visibillity clothing.

An illustration of the UKSAR framework is shown below.

Everybody involved in Lowland Rescue and its units are volunteers.
Nobody gets paid, and all of our expenses come from our members own pockets.

To understand how much value Lowland Rescue brings to the UK, click the button below.