South Central Ambulance Charity were delighted to attend Fareham’s 999 Day back on June 24th 2023. The event was organised by Fareham Borough Council and took place along West Street in Fareham Town Centre. Volunteer Community First Responders (CFRs) from the charity manned a non-operational ambulance offering tours, which was very popular and gave demonstrations of basic life support skills in a bid to teach people how they save lives.
South Central Ambulance Charity would like to thank Fareham Borough Council for the opportunity to receive voluntary public donations on the day and were please to say a total of £214.64 was donated (using street collection permit ref: SH / C371154/ R561110 (6a).
We currently have two opportunities to join the Charity team.
Community Fundraising Officer
Hours: Full time
Salary: Band 5 (£28,407 – £34,581 per annum)
Location: Hybrid Working (home/Thame)
Closing date: September 17th
The Charity is ambitious to grow the support it can give SCAS in funding projects, equipment and programmes that are not funded by the NHS. The role of Community Fundraising Officer is key to us achieving this by raising unrestricted funds through an engaging community fundraising programme.
The role of Community Fundraising Officer is an important link between the NHS charity, the communities we support and our large cohort of over 1000 volunteers. The Community Fundraising Officer for the Charity will be expected to actively support the current strategy to raise funds for the Charity’s key objectives and to support our communications plan both internally and externally.
SCAS Charity is now looking for a highly motivated and enthusiastic individual to join the team on a full-time basis. The successful applicant will be a valuable member of the SCAS Finance Team reporting directly to the Deputy Chief Finance Officer as well as key member of the Charity team.
A positive and proactive and committed approach is essential, including the ability to analyse, innovate and manage a heavy and changing workload against tight deadlines.
The position requires contact with internal/external stakeholders such as suppliers, non-Executives, fund holders, cashiers, solicitors, online giving organisations, HMRC, procurement team and clinical staff.
South Central Ambulance Charity is in the running for this year’s ‘Brand The Bus’ competition hosted by Oxford Bus Company and supported by by Jack FM.
The top prize is a £50,000 package deal consisting of £20,000 worth of advertising with JACKfm and £30,000 worth of advertising with Oxford Bus Company.
This includes a branded double decker bus with all our livery displayed for a year, travelling across Oxfordshire AND 12 months of airtime on JACKfm, JACK 2, JACK 3 and website advertising. As a small charity, the awareness opportunity for us is huge and this will help us to help you.
Your vote could be the one that makes all the difference. Please vote for us (Number 67 -towards the bottom) https://bit.ly/3OzAG1W
If the charity is successful it will provide an immediate platform to showcase the work of the charity and how the projects and equipment we fund enhances the patient care SCAS is able to provide.
It is also an opportunity for the people of Oxford to learn more about SCAS as its local ambulance service.
We need as many votes as possible before midnight on the closing date January 1st 2023 to make the shortlist and have the opportunity to present to a panel of judges who will then choose the overall winner.
Please share wide and far – you don’t need to live in Oxford to vote 😊
Thank you in advance, The South Central Ambulance Charity team
South Central Ambulance Charity has partnered with Tanium, a U.S. technology company with a UK headquarters in Reading, to teach staff cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and help them complete a 24-hour ‘CPR-a-thon’ challenge tomorrow (Thursday, 22 September).
This was the idea of Tony Larks, senior director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) marketing at Tanium and a volunteer community first responder for South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS). The initiative is designed to not only improve life-saving skills and raise funds, but also to remember the life of a colleague.
Angela Davies, 41, suffered an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest last year and sadly could not be revived despite the best efforts of paramedics, leaving Tanium staff determined to commit to doing all they can to learn CPR, raise awareness and pay their respects to Angela.
The event will see staff work in teams of eight to maintain 100 compressions a minute on CPR training manikins for 24 hours – around 144,000 in total over the period – with the aim of raising at least £6,000 for South Central Ambulance Charity.
In the UK, emergency services attempt resuscitation in around 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in every year, but just one in ten people survive to reach hospital discharge.
A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood around the body, which is why CPR and defibrillators – devices which deliver an electric current to shock the heart muscle – enable anyone to provide help in restarting blood flow prior to the arrival of emergency services.
Chances of survival are two to three times higher with immediate bystander CPR – and a report published last year by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) found 35.5% of patients who received CPR from a bystander survived to hospital discharge.
Earlier this year, South Central Ambulance Charity launched a new initiative in collaboration with community first responders like Mr Larks and the community engagement and training team at SCAS to provide Basic Life Support Awareness Training (BLSAT) to businesses.
The development of this programme led to Tanium holding four training sessions for staff to equip them with the skills and confidence to attempt to save a life – and prompted the decision to launch the CPR-a-thon fundraising challenge.
The event will begin at 10am tomorrow (Thursday, 22 September) consisting of staff teams who have raised a minimum of £200 towards the £6,000 total which will go towards the community first responder (CFR) programme at SCAS.
CFRs are members of the public trained to support the ambulance service primarily by responding to medical emergencies and sometimes providing lifesaving first aid to patients before paramedics arrive.
They also assist with ongoing patient care at the scene and attend more than 30,000 incidents every year CFRs are funded solely by South Central Ambulance Charity, which provides equipment, training and is responsible for the vehicle fleet of 51 Dacia Dusters.
“Every year our company runs a month of giving as part of our #TaniumGivesBack initiative where we support community projects or raise funds for good causes and this year, given the sad passing of our dearly loved colleague Angela, it felt appropriate to do something in her memory with the agreement of her family,” explained Mr Larks.
“That led us to the idea of offering staff an opportunity to learn lifesaving skills and then use these skills for a physical challenge and charity fundraiser in aid of South Central Ambulance Charity and its community first responder programme which I am part of.”
He added: “I want to thank Angela’s family for allowing us to hold this event in her memory and to Tanium for supporting it. While there is a team-building part to the challenge, there is no doubt the skills people will take away will prove invaluable to them and they will go on to inform and educate others as a result.”
Vanessa Casey, chief executive of South Central Ambulance Charity, said: “We can’t thank Angela’s family, Tony and Tanium enough for their efforts to support our CPR and defibrillator awareness and training programme as well as help raise funds for our community first responders.”
Tanium’s CPR-a-thon marks the start of a build up towards Restart a Heart Day on Sunday, 16 October, which will see SCAS host a series of events and training sessions. It will also feature a number of case studies and films on CPR and defibrillator awareness.
Paramedic Nicola Dunbar, head of community training and engagement at SCAS and Restart a Heart Day lead, said: “Tanium’s CPR-a-thon is a great way to mark the start of our Restart a Heart Day activities and we want to thank Angela’s family, Tony and his colleagues for their support. We hope this helps to drum up further interest in the events we will be holding as we build up to the day itself.”
We have been working with our volunteers and community engagement team to develop a training course in Basic Life Support to be delivered to businesses both big and small. The focus on the course is around how to help save someone’s life when in cardiac arrest.
A cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood around the body and causes someone to stop breathing and will collapse. Whilst in cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces someone’s chance of survival by 10%. This means anyone having cardiac arrest in the workplace would need your help, whether it is a colleague or a customer. Could your business deal with someone cardiac arrest?
Early intervention of CPR and defibrillation can drastically change the chances of survival. With immediate CPR and defibrillation within 3-5 minutes, chances of survival can increase survival by 50-70%.
Would you like to become a #BusinessLifeSaver in your place of work?
Our Basic Life Support Awareness Training (BLSAT) has been designed to give people in the workplace the skills and confidence to attempt to save a life.
The training includes both theory and practical elements. The key aspects are:
How to recognise a cardiac arrest using a primary survey
How to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
How to use an automated external defibrillator (AED).
Advice and guidance to the #BusinessLifeSaver on how to reflect after delivering lifesaving support.
All students will receive a certificate upon completion.
Class size-For the best student experience, we recommend a maximum of 8 employees with the absolute maximum group size of 12.
Where-The beauty is, we come to you.
Cost– We ask for a minimum donation of £200 per session.
Time-Depending on group size and interaction levels the session is designed to be between 2-3 hours.
We would also be happy to discuss any bespoke requirements to meet your needs.
Our amazing team of Milton Keynes and Villages First Responders who not only provided voluntary first aid cover at the traditional Olney Pancake Races yesterday, but they also accepted a gauntlet from Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service crews to take part in a special emergency services heat.
Maidenhead CFR’s James and Cheryl supported 999 TED at the annual pancake race in Windsor & Eton Central Station alongside many other mascots including Thames Valley Police.
Our Lyndhurst Responders were delighted to be asked to attend the New Forest Golf Club to demonstrate the Mangar ELK lifting cushion to the senior gent’s members including the senior’s Captain Ian and his wife Liz.
Ian chose the Lyndhurst CFR group as his charity for the duration of his year as captain, which due to COVID turned out to be two years, and agreed to donate funds towards the purchase of two Mangars.
Initially Ian thought he was going to come up short but thanks to the generosity of his members, he very proudly presented us with a cheque for the superb amount of £3150.00!
Graham Reeve one of our Lyndhurst Responders said, “We were of course amazed and extremely grateful for such a generous donation”.
Thank you to all of the members at the New Forest Golf Club whom made such generous donations, but also a huge Thank you to our wonderful CFRs whom are always actively looking for fundraising opportunities like this to allow us to keep enhancing the patient care we provide.
Community First Responders (CFRs) at South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) and South Central Ambulance Charity have, like so many others, risen to enormous challenges this year. CFRs have weathered every storm and still come out in strength to provide essential emergency care for patients across our community. Community First Responders volunteer for ambulance services across the UK giving a minimum of 20 hours a month but so many give so much more.
Following initial training from clinicians, they are deployed to emergencies in their area, usually reaching the patient before the first ambulance arrives on scene. They immediately begin assessing the patient, taking basic observations and if necessary begin CPR if a patient is already in cardiac arrest. These vital minutes save lives. These ‘ordinary’ people take on an extraordinary role in their community and without them the demand on the ambulance service would be even greater.
CFR volunteers have continued to respond to emergencies and to support patient care in their communities throughout the pandemic. Not only that they have also taken on new roles such as driving black cabs down from London to protect patient transport patients in transit; trained to dispatch CFRs from call centres; crewed the refreshment vehicles to provide staff with a hot drink while waiting at A&E with patients; helped distribute donated goods from hand cream to coffee across sites and as if that wasn’t enough they have fundraised to raise money for the South Central Ambulance Charity, taking on some tough challenges pushing their personal boundaries.
Those that had to temporarily stand down due to age, their own health vulnerabilities or those of members of their own families did not give up! They found new ways to volunteer at SCAS, joining specific bubbles and providing essential support outside of direct patient care such as helping with the Flu and Covid vaccines. With the support of SCAS Community Engagement and Training Team and South Central Ambulance Charity, this incredible group of volunteers has enabled SCAS to reach even more patients, treat and leave even more patients in their own homes and supported the welfare of elderly and vulnerable patients by responding to non-injury falls and concern for welfare calls. With demand so stretched throughout the pandemic being able to attend an elderly person who is not injured but has fallen out of their bed or chair, getting them back up, checking their temperature, blood pressure, making and perhaps joining them for a cup of tea before heading off, has all meant these patients have not needed the valuable resource of an ambulance and more importantly has not resulted in a long lie on the floor for the patient which would likely have led to a hospital admission and further complications.
Patients would often have a far longer wait without the dedication, passion and commitment of our CFR volunteers. South Central Ambulance Charity is incredibly proud of these volunteers who give so much to support their communities and to help others. Together as volunteers, an NHS Charity and an NHS Trust, they are one team providing an excellent emergency service to patients across four counties, serving a population of over four million people. They would be so much less without their volunteers.
These include pioneering training programmes for Community First Responders (CFRs) and care home staff, as well as 17 new LUCAS 3 mechanical cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) devices.
The funding forms part of a wider £7million investment by NHS Charities Together in ambulance services across the UK announced today.
It means South Central Ambulance Charity can embark on a project that will see SCAS become the first ambulance trust in the UK to train an enhanced group of CFRs to perform diagnostic tests including electrocardiograms (ECGs) and urinalysis to support accurate and early diagnosis.
CFRs are members of the public trained to support the ambulance service primarily by responding to medical emergencies and sometimes providing lifesaving first aid to patients before paramedics arrive.
They also assist with ongoing patient care at the scene and attend more than 30,000 incidents every year. They are funded solely by South Central Ambulance Charity, which provides equipment, training and is responsible for the vehicle fleet.
There are currently more than 1,200 CFRs and Co-Responders – these are members of the fire service, police, coastguard and military who volunteer in their spare time – at SCAS covering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire.
They undertake an initial five-day training programme, six-monthly refresher programme and commit to at least 20 hours a month, usually covering a five-mile radius from their home or workplace.
These additional skills will enable enhanced CFRs to provide more detailed information on patients’ conditions earlier and help SCAS clinicians decide on the most appropriate care pathway for them, whether in hospital or onward referral within the community.
In addition to this project, the funding will enable SCAS to provide support, training and equipment for care home staff to enable them to better assess when an ambulance response may be required.
LUCAS CPR devices deliver continuous, safe and effective chest compressions which maintain blood circulation at a regular level while freeing up paramedics to focus on other critical aspects of care while a patient is transferred in an ambulance. The purchase of the new LUCAS 3 models will mean the Trust can upgrade from its current LUCAS 2 equipment.
South Central Ambulance Charity will also use the cash injection to provide emergency lifting cushions to CFRs to enable early assistance to patients who have experienced non-injury falls and support the implementation of GoodSAM, an app which automatically triggers alerts to nearby cardiac arrests to whoever is signed on.
This means they can attend and provide immediate life support while an ambulance is en route and the app identifies the location of the nearest defibrillator. The funds will also support widespread training in out of hospital cardiac arrest.
“We are delighted to have secured this grant for the charity which has been awarded thanks to the exceptional support from the public and NHS Charities Together. It will enable us to increase the support we are able to give to our CFRs through lifesaving equipment and further training to develop the programme, as well as supporting our staff with important equipment such as LUCAS devices” said Vanessa Casey, Chief Executive of South Central Ambulance Charity.
Nicola Dunbar, Head of Community Engagement and Training at SCAS said “These funds will go towards some really exciting developments across SCAS including our pioneering projects to train and enhanced group of CFRs to carry out additional diagnostic tests and to support, train and equip care home staff to respond to the health needs of their residents so they can better understand when an ambulance response would be required”
Dr John Black, Medical Director at SCAS said “We are extremely pleased to benefit from this generous national funding as it will enable us to further develop a number of areas of work across SCAS to enhance patient care and ensure our CFRs are among the most advanced in the country. It will also help with the addition of more advanced LUCAS 3 devices which can provide high quality chest compressions to patients in need of prolonged resuscitation while freeing up paramedics to carry out other essential patient care during a transfer to hospital”.
Ellie Orton, Chief Executive of NHS Charities Together added “At this time of immense challenge for the NHS we are delighted that we can make a real difference and ultimately help save lives by funding amazing CFR volunteers and additional support for South Central Ambulance Service.”
