Ambulance service making 'good progress' almost three years on from 'inadequate' rating

South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS), which covers Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire, received a warning notice from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2022.

Inspectors rated the organisation as ‘inadequate’, with particular concerns regarding its leadership and safety culture.

Since then the trust has been in the NHS Recovery Support Programme (RSP), which provides focused intensive support and oversight.

During this period, a new chief executive has been recruited alongside other changes at the executive level.

At a Southampton City Council health overview and scrutiny panel meeting on Thursday, June 19, SCAS chief governance officer Becky Southall was asked where the organisation was on its recovery journey.

Ms Southall told councillors monthly local RSP meetings continued to take place and progress was being made on each of the transition criteria.

“A lot of the transition criteria are weaved into the ‘Fit for the Future’ framework we have got, so we have got one plan now,” she said.

“We are not having separate plans in different places.

“We are feeling like we are making good progress.

“We’ve made a lot of progress in the last two to three months on the culture and leadership element, which was probably the area that we were not as progressed as we could have been.

“Now we have a robust programme in place that we are about to start delivering, which starts with the values and behaviours.”

Ms Southall said there was “reasonable confidence” evidence was there to provide assurance that the trust was well on the journey, but she added the journey would not stop.

The senior officer said: “It is not a case of meeting the transition criteria and exiting RSP, which obviously we want to do.

“But the work will endure after that because from the leadership and culture perspective, in particular, that work is much more of a slow burn than some of the immediate fixes that we were able to put into place around the CQC observations from when they came in 2022.”

The panel heard the CQC recently carried out an unannounced four-day inspection of SCAS, the results of which have not been published yet.

Ms Southall said initial feedback was that improvements were seen and matters raised on the day were “swiftly, professionally and properly” dealt with.

She said there were no issues of concern raised with the executive team during the inspection and no serious concerns that needed to be addressed.