Safety recommendation
HSSIB recommends that the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, in collaboration with HM Prison and Probation Service, sets up formal communication routes, at both national and regional levels, between prison and ambulance services to escalate concerns, review risks and improve systems for emergency care response and ensure continuous improvement of the service.
Response:
Since receiving the HSSIB report, representatives from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) have worked in close co-operation with counterparts in His Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS) to agree actions to address all four of the safety recommendations outlined in the report.
Specifically in relation to this action assigned to us we have agreed through our National Directors of Operations Group (NDOG) that ambulance service Operations Directors (or Chief Operating Officers) will be the lead point of contact for regional communications with prisons. We have agreed with HMPPS that Prison Group Directors (PGDs) are the appropriate regional counterpart and we will be mapping prison regions onto ambulance regions and establishing connections between Operations Directors and PGDs.
At a national level we will formalise the existing relationships between HMPPS and AACE to offer a national channel for regional colleagues to escalate issues and conversely for national issues to be cascaded to regional teams.
We expect that these arrangements will build on existing local relationships that may exist between individual prisons and individual ambulance services and that the overlaying of regional and national channels will strengthen those relationships and encourage greater consistency.
We will document these arrangements in a brief, simple partnership agreement and cascade to colleagues in the prisons and ambulance environment in order to improve communications at all levels
Actions planned to deliver safety recommendation:
- Agree regional and national points of contact for ambulance services. By: November 2024. Other dependencies identified: Corresponding agreement of HMPPS points of contact. Additional comments: Complete.
- Agree regional and national points of contact for HMPPS. By: November 2024. Other dependencies identified: Internal approval required.
- Develop simple partnership agreement. By: January 2025. Other dependencies identified: Internal approval required from AACE and HMPPS.
- Cascade partnership agreement. By: February 2025.
Response received on 27 November 2024.