Here at 2518 Flint Squadron, 1 of our priorities is to purchase a Defibrillator for the cadets, the cost is approximately £1000, does anyone know of any funding or grants that are available for a Defibrillator?
The BHF use to give a grant of £600 towards the cost of one, but that scheme has finished now unfortunately
Any advice will be gratefully received
Carl
I suppise the first question is “why?” Do you mean as a training aid? Or a live working one?
Sorry for not being clear, we are looking for a live working Defib to be stored in the squadron.
They are a lot of expense unless you have a risk assessment that makes it particularly worthwhile.
Each wing will shortly be receiving 2 AEDs as part of a corps initiative and these ought to be available for loan for specific activities. It could be worth considering purchasing the same model as these for commonality.
I’m not certain what make/model these will be though.
Unless it’s going to be available to the public, it seems like a lot of expense for very little function (unless as I say it’s going to be available to the public).
If you’re looking to get one because you have a cadet with a known condition who might benefit from having one close by then it could be viable, but aren’t there better things you could spend money on for the cadets?
If you’re adamant you’re getting one, maybe ask local companies for sponsorship?
I have a bit of experience on this; the British Heart Foundation will only fund publically accesssible defibs - and your Sqn HQ is not publically accessible as it is an RFCA site (more than likely).
There are plenty of grants out there that you could apply to get the funding you need to purchase one though 
Not sure of how to route things this way, but our local Co-op has an AED on an external walk. Members of the public can dial 999 & quickly get the combination to unlock the device.
That might perhaps solve the public accessibility?
That’s not a bad idea. Especially with the spate of them being nicked to be sold online or in Europe.
If you speak to the local ambulance trust and ask to speak to whoever manages the Community First Responders for that Trust, they will be able to help you - they are usually wrapped up in defib purchase and site installs all over the place.
Just a word caution, but it might be worth running the idea through your region first aid officer. I’ve heard there are a lot of financial issues along with other obligations that go along with having de-fibs that are publically available or otherwise held at squadron.
Not saying you shouldn’t but how it was described to me was that if a squadron got one, it had to always ensure that it maintained the monitoring system as if the De-Fib was required in an emergency and couldn’t be accessed, and the squadron hadn’t kept onto of its maintenance logs, then there could be the potential that the Sqn/ Sqn Cdr could be held liable by the coroner (who may not be aware or even care about the structure of the organisation).
Unless you have a cadet with a specific need, I would certainly recommend getting it cleared by Region first as that way as the designation duty holders they can hold the risk.
There’s that modern blame trail. How delightful.
We unfortunately do not have the luxury of dealing with the World how we would like it to be or even how it should be, but for better and worse, only how it is.
You have been reading “The Prince” by Niccolò Machiavelli haven’t you?
the Welsh Ambulance Service don’t like fixed defibs in locked locations, they publicly state that they would vastly prefer any cash raised for such to spent on community first responders, who have their own defibs from the WAS, and are considered a far better investment - in terms of lives saved - than defibs that no one can get to.
you won’t get funding for what is regarded, now, by both the WAS and the local funding groups, as a vanity project.
have another think - there are vastly better things toi spend your money on.
i thought this was a SOP for all public defibs…? Certainly the two i know, one in town, one in a village; dial 999 for the combination code.
to the OP - it does seem an odd item to prioritise efforts on to me…particularly with the public access question.
I’d hope the chance of Staff or Cadet needing a device is below the national average due to the persons attending - making it only justified for public use as well…however of the handful of units I have attended, although “in town” not anyway convenient - certainly 2 examples I know they are tucked away town’s folk won’t know where to look!
95% of squadrons are in out of the way places so this would be impractical.
Why not do fund raising towards purchasing a community defib if there is a need.
We’ve got 4/5 dotted around the town all as said 999 to get the access code.
I would also question the training need, as the community defibs are designed to be used by anyone. Our company has two of the idiot proof ones and stopped running defib training courses, as it became a potential danger as only people trained would be using them.