Quality management statement
The overall quality objective is to ensure that St John
Ambulance delivers a consistently high level of
service throughout our extensive and diverse
business and charitable
activities.
St John Ambulance is committed to continuous improvement and
implementing appropriate quality management
systems and processes to enable
us to deliver the highest practicable quality
services. We will therefore:
- work with our customers and partners to develop our
services to meet their needs
- conduct our business in a way that reflects our core
values
- create an environment that promotes continuous
improvement and knowledge sharing across all
stakeholders
- ensure compliance with legal and other
applicable standards
- educate and train our people to support the
delivery of high quality services
We recognise the importance of monitoring and
reviewing our quality management systems and
through continual monitoring and planned reviews we have the
opportunity to identify improvements to our service and maintain
compliance with legal and ethical standards. This will effectively
provide our customers with the confidence that the provision of
service will be delivered consistently to
predetermined high standards. Where appropriate we seek and
attain external accreditation for the services we
provide.
Our commitment to quality is supported by individual policies
and procedures that address the activities central to delivering
our services, which include;
- Corporate governance
- The St John Ambulance Trustee Board is supported by a
structured set of specialist sub-committees, including a review
committee which continually keeps the operation
and effectiveness of the governance structure
under review. Strategic and operational
planning, risk management, and budget
planning processes are in place and reviewed
annually. An internal audit function
provides assurance to the Board on risk management activities and
control systems in operation and provides and input to continuous
improvement processes.
- Clinical governance
- St John Ambulance operates a national clinical governance framework to provide an
improving quality of service which meets the
changing demands of law, regulation and standards of best practice
including those embraced by the Department of Health (
DOH
) National Institute of Health and Clinical
Excellence (NICE)
and any other appropriate bodies. We implement appropriate evidence
based performance standards and have an audit
process to monitor our success in meeting these standards.
- People management
- In 2006 St John Ambulance became an Institute of Leadership
and Management (
ILM
) accredited
centre with approval to teach level 2 and
3 leadership and management programmes. Since then SJA has
received further approval to deliver both classroom and blended
learning programmes for levels 4 and 5. The policies and procedures
in place around the quality management of
ILM
accredited qualifications enabled
SJA
to obtain accredited centre status
for Edexcel, the UK’s largest provider of
qualifications. As such, as of this year
SJA
is now also accredited to deliver
BTECs.
- Disability ‘Two Ticks’ Symbol has
been awarded to recognise our commitments regarding the employment,
retention, training and career development of disabled
employees.
- First aid training
- The quality of our first aid training is continually monitored
and ISO9001: 2000
certification is maintained for our commercial training
services.
- Public event cover
- Our On Duty Manual provides a framework for organising
event cover, ensuring consistently high standards
are maintained when delivering first aid services. An
established operations working party is tasked with reviewing
and updating this manual to ensure it continues to reflect best
practice.
- Child protection
- Our handbook, Working Safely with Young People, covers
a whole range of issues from risk assessments of
child related activities to a number of training
and awareness initiatives. St John Ambulance is
the only national organisation to have been awarded a
Certificate of Recognition by the
NSPCC
as part of their Staying Safe Commitment Scheme reflecting the
quality of our child protection framework.
-
All of us who are involved in the delivery of St John Ambulance
services are fully committed to our objectives and to attain the
appropriate training in all aspects of our responsibilities.