First Aid - end of SJA affiliation?

[glass_half_empty_2]

I saw a story in Saturday’s DT that SJA were going corporate and effectively losing or more correctly it seems pushing away, the volunteers.

Has this or will this have any effect on the Corps’ current First Aid, given that many have gone through the SJA compliance hoops in order to be able to deliver. If so will it mean we will lose the first aid badges, not that that’s a bad thing, and be able to instruct and assess first aid as we used to.

[incubus]

[quote=“glass half empty 2” post=16211] and be able to instruct and assess first aid as we used to.[/quote]That would be a catastrophic step backwards.

I agree that we would benefit from greater autonomy from SJA, replacing their badges with our own and jumping through our own hoops. There might be the scope to have an overarching FA training authority for all of the cadet forces or we could allie with another national FA charity (BRC?)

[Batfink]

I saw a story in Saturday’s DT that SJA were going corporate and effectively losing or more correctly it seems pushing away, the volunteers.

It’s not just their volunteers. What the article didn’t touch on as that, aside from “the managers” (which the article talked about of a lot!), the full time training staff are being alienated. They are having recruitment and retention issues. A few people I know currently work for them; they’ve gone from working within their home county with occasional visits elsewhere, to covering the whole of the South of England - their mileage allowance has gone down, they car allowance has gone down, and they have to fight for accommodation costs to be met. They also are not allowed to move their own gear and it’s all shuttled around by courier. Unfortunately, the courier/SJA course admin teams rarely get the course/kit/time combination correct.

Since the changes there have been a massive number of staff walk, and quite a large number of off sick - which, of course, increases the stress rates of those left, and causes stress related illnesses amongst those left… that vicious circle thing.

Volunteer wise, as the article suggests, the head office has done a phenomenal job at alienated the coal face and volunteer staff (more so than the ACO has done!).

It will be interesting to see if it’s us (the ACO) who break the affiliation, or whether SJA will drop us unless we pay a service charge!

[James_Blonde]

This was obviously my old thing, it sounds very much like SJA are on a self destruct course?! What’s brought this on?? I mean if they’re alienating their core staff of instructors, you wonder if they’re planning on getting out of the first aid business all together, and concentrating on something else? Patient transport / ambulance through NHS privatisation?

BRC must be rubbing their hands with glee!

Got a link to the story GHE2?

[glass_half_empty_2]

Here’s the story

Rebellion in ranks of St John Ambulance

[Plt_Off_Prune]

In its defence, the St John leadership points to increased efficiency, both financial and in community services. In the past year, there has been an 8.9 per cent rise in the number of people being trained through community first-aid courses, and this year the charity has moved from a deficit to a “budgeted surplus”.

Thanks to the Cadet forces doing this for us.

It also cited a recent “staff and volunteer satisfaction survey”, in which 79 per cent of volunteers were said to “understand the aims and objectives of St John Ambulance”.

And this means precisely what? It doesn’t say those respondents are happy, ambivalent, disappointed, extatic or worried for the future.

Sue Killen, a former Civil Service mandarin, took over as chief executive in 2007.

That explains the last quote then.

[Plt_Off_Prune]

Sue Killen has been chief executive of St John Ambulance since 2007. Killen, 52, was born on the Wirral and educated at Mount St Mary school, Leeds, and Liverpool University, where she read geography. Killen joined the civil service as an administration trainee in the department of energy in 1980. After a secondment to the Australian department of resources and energy, she returned as private secretary to the energy minister, working on privatisation. She then became director of drug strategy at the Home Office as well as creating a Treasury unit to advise business on the impact of the single currency. Before joining St John Ambulance, Killen was director-general in the department of transport. She is a trustee of Addaction, a charity fighting drug abuse.

Just a few key underlines which explain a lot.

[born_middle_aged]

How long has the Corps had the SJA affiliation?