BRITAIN’S emergency services are “heading for disaster” as continued financial attacks on the public sector have left staff “bereft of morale, stressed and undervalued,” a research paper warned yesterday.

The report from the University of Wolverhampton and Keele University found that government spending cuts piled extra pressure on managers, leading to “intensified and extended working conditions” for staff.

Managers were found to have introduced detrimental changes to jobs and the workplace, including increasing the use of cheaper and less skilled “assistant roles,” such as Police Community Support Officers and ambulance technicians.