St John Ambulance trials ‘casual responder’ role

Launching a pilot programme in London and Greater Manchester, St John Ambulance is trying out a new way to help meet increasing demand for event healthcare services.

Through a time-limited pilot, the first aid charity is to test the use of paid casual responders to strengthen its workforce capacity to meet its ambition to provide care to more than 70,000 patients a year by 2028.

The charity says it remains committed to ensuring volunteers remain at the heart of its work to support events with the pilot creating a more flexible workforce model to meet peaks in demand during the busiest periods of event activity. Gareth Barker, the charity’s Head of Event Healthcare said: “St John needs the flexibility to deploy the right mix of skilled people at the right time.”

St John Ambulance teaches life-saving skills, supports communities with volunteers and youth programmes, and provides first aiders and ambulances at events nationwide.

Those interested in applying to be a casual responder must already have an Immediate Response Emergency Care Level 3 (IREC3) qualification.

Applications are open until 16 July for London and Greater Manchester.

St John Ambulance will be at The Emergency Services Show on 16 and 17 September at the NEC in Birmingham. You can visit them on stand T50. Register to attend here.