St John Ambulance

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2014 Westminster Hall

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

When I was a child, my father, who was a consultant physician, regularly went off pro bono to train St John Ambulance volunteers in first aid, and in particular, as he was a consultant chest and heart physician, in first aid relating to cardiac arrest. I have therefore had a long-standing interest in the work of the Order of St John and St John Ambulance. As Chairman of the Select Committee on International Development, I was very interested in the work that they do and continue to do with the St John Eye Hospital in Palestine. For most Palestinians, Muslim or Christian, I understand that it is the only eye hospital to which they have access.

I hope that all of us will have seen the work of St John Ambulance in our constituencies. St John Ambulance clearly has a vision and an intention that everyone who needs first aid should receive it when they need it and that no one should suffer from the lack of trained first aiders. It is a real tragedy and, indeed, unacceptable that many people have died needlessly because no one was available to give them first aid when they needed it. St John Ambulance teaches people first aid—about 800,000 people last year alone—so that they can be the difference between a life lost and a life saved. St John Ambulance teaches young people in schools and through its activities for young people, including a special first aid programme for those not in education, employment or training.

St John Ambulance teaches people in the workplace and provides first aid products. One of the leading supporters of St John Ambulance in my constituency is Sir Frank Davies, who for many years was chief executive of the Health and Safety Executive. I know he was very supportive in that role of the work that St John Ambulance does in teaching people first aid in the workplace. St John teaches people who become volunteers for St John Ambulance, who offer their skills and time to be the difference right in the heart of their own communities, to be potential first responders at public events, and to provide back-up to local ambulance services. Across the country, St John Ambulance has just under 40,000 volunteers providing first aid services in communities. About half of St John adult volunteers are under 25. St John Ambulance covered just over 50,000 events in 2012 and treated and supported about 90,000 people at those events. That, I suggest, is big society in action, big time.

St John Ambulance is not the only large national charity that, in recent years, has found the need to restructure. The recent restructuring of St John Ambulance is almost identical to the restructuring undertaken a number of years ago by the British Red Cross, which also found that a structure of a number of semi-autonomous county and local headquarters was too bureaucratic and complex, and did not allow it to tackle situations as quickly and as efficiently as it wanted to. The changes introduced by St John were intended to save lives, rather than to preserve a former governance structure for its own sake. It is also important to recognise that as a modern health care charity, St John is registered with the Care Quality Commission, is registered in due course with Monitor and has a whole number of child protection responsibilities. I think the whole House would therefore understand that it is imperative that St John Ambulance has clear governance policies and lines of accountability.

I understand that St John went through an independent governance review, which concluded that St John previously had too many committees and too many roles. As a consequence, it decided to change its governance arrangements in discussion with St John volunteers, as, not surprisingly, everyone wanted St John to be much more joined-up and to have a structure that could move as quickly as possible to bring first aid to people who need it. I understand that, as a consequence, St John Ambulance has made it a priority to improve the training of front-line volunteers still further, and many of the St John volunteers have benefited from a wider range of training opportunities provided under the new governance structures.

In addition to governance and organisational concerns, one of the reasons why the British Red Cross restructured a number of years ago was that it too was concerned about the financial implications of the previous structure. It is clear from annual reports that the deficits of recent years at St John Ambulance arose partly because trustees decided to invest in new charitable programmes and partly because the difficult economic environment affected many charities’ fundraising. There was an overall net deficit of £8.9 million in 2011. However, I understand that St John Ambulance is budgeting for a small surplus this year, and the charity has cash and investments of about £20 million. It is therefore in a strong financial position, but—like all charities nowadays—it looks continually for ways to be more cost-effective in delivering its charitable objectives.

Some of its activities, such as first aid training in the workplace, or providing first aid at events where the organisers make a profit, are run to make a surplus, but that surplus is used to expand St John’s charitable work such as the teaching of first aid to young people, or providing first aid at not-for-profit community events. As the House may know, I am the Commons chair of the all-party group on carers. Often carers need training, but training for carers is at present somewhat haphazard. Given the national footprint of St John Ambulance, I hope that it may be possible to persuade it to consider undertaking training for carers.

It seems entirely reasonable to me that St John Ambulance wants to be a cost-effective, efficient and effective organisation, delivering and expanding the voluntary services that it provides to all our communities. I am fortunate to represent a constituency in Oxfordshire, which I suspect many would consider to be a more affluent part of the country. It is important that the work of St John Ambulance and the Order of St John should be available not only in affluent areas such as Oxfordshire or Kent, but in every part of the country—a point made very ably by the hon. Member for Batley and Spen (Mike Wood). I therefore hope that the work of the Order of St John and St John Ambulance will have the support of Members of the House, wherever they come from.

My hon. Friend the Member for North Thanet (Sir Roger Gale), who is also my brother knight, has perfectly properly raised issues relating to his constituency that have been causing him concern. Clearly the charity commissioners have to be accountable for how they deal with any specific complaint made to them, and Ministers have to be satisfied that the Charity Commission is carrying out its duties as Parliament intended.

I believe that my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Mr Brazier), for whom I have enormous respect, will also discuss this issue, but I understand that St John Ambulance has made it clear that it will support the Kent care home that has been causing colleagues concern. Indeed, the chair of the board of trustees of St John Ambulance, Rodney Green, who also chairs the Order of St John, wrote to colleagues on 17 October last year, stating in terms:

“It is the Trustees’ key priority to secure the best interests of the residents. The Trustees of St. John Ambulance take extremely seriously their legal responsibility and accountability for the home and have made it absolutely clear that the residents and staff must be given all the support that they need. All necessary funding required by the home to meet the Charity’s reasonable obligations will therefore be made available.”

I understand that St John Ambulance has made it clear that it will ring-fence £750,000 specifically for the Kent care home—not an insignificant commitment for a charity with nationwide investments of only £20 million.

The Order of St John and St John Ambulance have a long history as a Christian- based charity, named after St John of Jerusalem. As one would any large charity with a national footprint involving some 40,000 volunteers, one would expect it to evolve continuously to deliver on its charitable aims and objectives and focus on its most important task of saving lives.