2020: the numbers

Jan-March

• 14,000 hours of winter pressure support to the NHS
• 100s of public events safe due to our first aid cover
• 60,000 people public trained in workplace and general first aid

March–Dec

• 4,000 volunteers trained in Covid Care
• 250,000 hrs frontline response

St John Ambulance has emerged “resilient and confident” from a year which has seen the health and first aid charity stretched to its limits but excel in its support to the nation’s health during the coronavirus pandemic.

The charity’s 2020 annual report tells the story of how thousands of St John volunteers and staff from across the country stepped up in the fight against COVID-19. Training and deployment began in earnest in March 2020 and by the end of the year, 250,000 hours of patient-facing care and support to the NHS had been given in hospitals, community settings and as ambulance crew.

And, when preparation for the vaccination programme began, St John set about recruiting and training up to 30,000 more volunteers to work as vaccinators and care for people getting their jabs.

In the report, Anthony Marsh, NHS National Strategic Adviser for Ambulance Services, is quoted giving this praise to St John for its vital support: “I honestly believe that if we had not worked so closely, the ability of Emergency Ambulance Services within our country to respond so effectively to the pandemic would have been greatly hindered.

“Without your volunteers and staff members, the country would not have been able to increase the number of resources that we have been able to deploy. This has undoubtedly helped to relieve pressure on the 999 service and ensure we have been able to save as many lives as possible.”

Backdrop of financial challenges

The report also reveals the financial struggle behind St John’s extraordinary achievements, with its main source of income – first aid training – closed down in the first lockdown and significantly reduced for the rest of the year.

The provision of first aid cover at public events, for which the charity is so well known, was also paused for many months, after which it returned only to support behind-closed-doors sport.

Faced with this sharp fall in income and the need to ramp up its support to the NHS, the charity asked for Government support. This came in the form of a grant of £6.8m, from a nationwide pot for charities of £750m.

To further offset losses, St John Ambulance’s fundraising team launched an Emergency Appeal to the public, whose generous donations raised £3.2m, bringing donations for the year to £14.2m.

Resilience for the future

The annual report also shows how the pandemic prompted the charity to start or speed up a raft of initiatives to strengthen its position for the future.

These measures include investment in a fleet of new environmentally sustainable ambulances, designed in part by St John volunteers, innovation in first aid training, new technology and data insights, an enhanced wellbeing programme for St John people and the development of a wide-ranging internal culture change programme to improve diversity, inclusivity and transparency.

St John has also partnered with the NHS, YMCA and other organisations to build on its youth activity, particular aiming to involve seldom-heard groups of young people.

In his foreword to the report, Prior of England and the Islands and chair of St John Ambulance, Surgeon Rear Admiral, Lionel Jarvis, praised the work of St John volunteers and staff for their “immense contribution” to the nation in 2020.

“Throughout our long and illustrious history those of us privileged to serve humanity in the name of St John have sought to improve the lives of those around us,” he said.

“This has never been more evident than in the response by St John people in England in 2020 where our collective contribution has made a profoundly positive impact upon the health of our nation.”

He added: “The hard choices made to sustain our charity with financial constraints, property disposals and job losses have added to the demands that we place upon our people; yet your powerful determination to deliver has been unyielding…

“…We have trained, treated and transported the nation, we have helped to vaccinate its population, and we have improved the lives of the people about whom we care so much.”