STEPPING FORWARD ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS For the year ended 31 December 2017 2 | St John Ambulance Annual report and accounts 2017 | 3 We are St John Ambulance, the And every year around 500,000 charity that steps forward in the people, including children and WE HAVE SAVED moments that matter to save lives young people, learn how to save a and support communities. life through our first aid training. LIVES AND RELIEVED Our highly trained volunteers keep We have saved lives and relieved people safe at events nationwide, suffering for 140 years, but springing into action to help with we still have much to do. SUFFERING FOR medical incidents and emergencies. We also help the NHS by responding Here’s our review of 2017 – and to some 999 calls as well as our plans for stepping forward 140 YEARS, BUT transporting patients safely. into 2018 and beyond. WE STILL HAVE MUCH TO DO. 4 | St John Ambulance Annual report and accounts 2017 | 5 CONTENTS Report of the directors Welcome 6 incorporating the 2017: our impact in numbers 8 strategic report Our volunteers: stepping forward in the moments that matter 10 Supporting our people to step forward 18 Our first aid training: empowering people to step forward nationwide 24 Strengthening our foundations to step forward into the future 34 How we will step forward in 2018 36 Statement of public benefit 39 Financial review 40 Structure, governance and management 52 Our principal risks and uncertainties 56 In gratitude 58 Independent auditor’s report 60 Financial statements Statement of Financial Activities 64 Balance sheet 65 Cash flow statement 66 Notes to the accounts 67 Royal patrons, directors, management and committees 89 Principal places of business and advisers 92 6 | St John Ambulance Annual report and accounts 2017 | 7 WELCOME Report of the directors, incorporating the strategic report The directors, who are the trustees of the charity, present their annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 December 2017. Every time a medical emergency happens, someone nearby has the skills to step forward and try to help right away. No lives are needlessly lost waiting for help and no one suffers unnecessarily. That’s our vision for the future – But as brilliant as they are, we know Surgeon Rear Admiral and we made good progress in 2017. our volunteers alone aren’t enough to Lionel Jarvis achieve our goal. To make sure help is CBE DL MB BS FRCR Our volunteers gave their time to on hand whenever and wherever there’s Chair keep people safe at over 22,500 an emergency, we need to be able to events nationwide, big and small, train far more people to help. In 2017, there to help anyone who needed we reached people 1.6 million times medical attention. Our Community with first aid training and education. First Responder volunteers supported The skills we teach are simple but the NHS on thousands of 999 calls, the impact they can have is huge, helping ambulance crews in their and often life saving. communities and often arriving first at emergencies in the critical Throughout our history we’ve always minutes that can make the difference stepped forward where and when we’re between a life lost and a life saved. needed and we’ve continued to do so Martin Houghton-Brown in 2017. And now, having celebrated Chief Executive We continue to be proud of the expert our 140th anniversary year, we’re training we give all our volunteers, looking forward to writing our next many of whom have no medical chapter. We’re particularly pleased to experience when they start with have our new Chief Executive Martin us. We made many improvements Houghton-Brown on board for this. to our training and recruitment this year, including introducing a new, A huge thank you to every one of standardised, intensive induction our volunteers and employees, course, and getting new volunteers everybody who has learned first aid working for us more quickly. with us in 2017, and our donors and supporters. We hope you’ll continue to make a difference in 2018 and beyond – we still have much to do. Working together, we can make sure someone is there every time for every single person who needs emergency help, in every community. 8 | St John Ambulance Annual report and accounts 2017 | 9 OUR IMPACT IN NUMBERS Our volunteers gave up We gave our volunteers more than WE’VE BEEN We gave workplace first aid training to SAVING LIVES 873,000 & RELIEVING hours of their time , 224,000 FOR 17 000 SUFFERING to protect the public at events pieces of training PEOPLE In London alone… 140 Our refreshed and relaunched received YouTube training videos YEARS 5,400 2,300 responses first on scene >500,000 VIEWS Our first aid Our Community First They were first on the scene in 2,300 and cycling Responders supported of these cases, in the critical first apps were ambulance crews at minutes that can be the difference downloaded 5,400 emergencies. between a life lost and a life saved. > 4 2 0, 5 0 0 103 207,500 times PEOPLE Our volunteers treated Free first aid guides were distributed through ambulance received work and attendance at cardiopulmonary 22,500 resuscitation (CPR) 91,000 and a further from our volunteers PEOPLE IN NEED events 133,000 CHILDREN 129,500 Our patient transport 82,000 received our first aid people learned first aid by watching our service transported over training in school BIG FIRST AID LESSON 10 | St John Ambulance Annual report and accounts 2017 | 11 OUR VOLUNTEERS Stepping forward in the moments that matter OUR PATIENT TRANSPORT SERVICES 873,000 HOURS In our 2016 annual report, we set out plans to review our patient That’s how long our volunteers spent protecting the public transport services. Our aspiration to at events in 2017. Between this and working to support consolidate operations continued to the ambulance service, they saved many lives, performing be challenged by external pressures resuscitation on 103 people. but we did deliver a positive impact. But our impact goes beyond that. We’re just as proud of the Our patient transport services, which difference we made stepping forward to treat injuries until more includes accident and emergency help arrived, helping ill people at crowded events, or just asking discharges, and bariatric, paediatric ‘are you OK?’ to anyone we thought might need our help. and neonatal transfers, transported over 82,000 people this year. No two experiences were the WORKING WITH AMBULANCE same. The one constant, whether TRUSTS TO MAKE EVERY we were transporting sick children MINUTE COUNT or terminally ill people, was our compassion and quality of care. When someone calls 999, every minute can be the difference According to the Care Quality between a life lost and a life saved. Commission report for the East Midlands, we were Our Community First Responder volunteers are ready to go when the most urgent calls come through. ‘respectful, They’ll travel to the emergency in their own car and provide emergency friendly, kind and medical care, reassurance and support compassionate when until the ambulance crew arrives, helping protect their local community. providing treatment or care to patients, We provide volunteers with specialist training to make this crucial service and treated possible. In London alone, our relatives and Community First Responders attended 5,400 emergencies in 2017 and were carers with respect first on the scene for 2,300 patients. and sensitivity’. 12 | St John Ambulance Annual report and accounts 2017 | 13 I stepped forward: Q&A WITH ANTHONY Community First Responder Anthony McKernan has been a Our training means we’re only Community First Responder for dispatched to certain types of three and a half years and does emergencies, like chest pains, two shifts a week in East London, including heart and angina attacks, totalling around seven hours. strokes, cardiac arrests, epileptic He has seen over 400 patients. seizures, choking, difficulty in breathing and diabetic emergencies. What do you enjoy most about being a Community First Responder? Most times we arrive on the scene Being a reassuring presence. People first, get the situation under control, are often scared or anxious when make the area safe, assess and they call an ambulance, so they treat the patient, then hand over to usually feel better just because the ambulance service crew when we’ve arrived quickly and provided they arrive and work with them. initial care. I also like helping the 3.5 ambulance crews with the life saving Even if the paramedic is on scene years as a interventions – it’s real teamwork. when we arrive, they use us as part of their team and we can usually Community What’s the most difficult situation support the patient’s family. First Responder you’ve had to deal with? The difficult calls are those where Do you have a special car? the family is distraught, like when No. Unless you think a Skoda a patient is in cardiac arrest. Yeti is special! We use our own These are quite rare however. cars, without blue lights or 2 adaptations. We have to obey all What’s your day job? road traffic laws – except parking. shifts each week My son and I have a film- making business, working with What makes a good community businesses and charities. first responder? A calm and reassuring manner What do you do when and the ability to relate to a 400 you’re ‘on call’? diverse range of people. All the patients The washing up! We can carry on first aid and medical skills can be life as normal until the ambulance learned, but a responder needs to control centre activates us.