NARU has delivered the following to each Ambulance Service during 2013:
- A tailored psychosocial risk assessment (known as the resilience and capability assessment) of all HART personnel which has now been extended to include MTFA personnel. This assessment ensures that each Ambulance Service complies with legislative requirements associated with the monitoring of hazards that are created as a result of specialist high risk capabilities (e.g. HART and MTFA). This process culminates in a series of tailored reports for each Ambulance Service. Each report highlights areas of risk as well as areas of strength. This process includes feedback to each Service as well as support for action planning. A national report and feedback presentation are also provided to appropriate groups (e.g. NHS England, AACE, NDOG and EPRG).
- NARU designed and implemented a selection process for all personnel undertaking MTFA duties within Ambulance Services. This comprised designing an assessment process that was completed by over 700 personnel, producing individual psychometric data reports for each person assessed, and supporting local Trusts by providing training on how to conduct specialist interviews associated with this type of programme. The process is aligned to best practice and again ensures each trust adheres to any legal requirements associated with such high risk roles/functions.
- NARU is continuing to develop the online PROCLUS system that is used by all HART units. The system is being extended for use by EPRR departments and NHS Ambulance Services in general. PROCLUS allows Trusts to share information and other critical forms of evidence, and risk issues. In addition, NARU is leading the way in terms of helping services in general capture and share lessons through the PROCLUS Lessons Identified (LiD) system. The PROCLUS National Asset system was launched during 2013.
- All large scale or high cost education/training programmes provided by NARU are subjected to extensive and specialist evaluations. This ensures the programmes are comprehensively assessed and quality is continuously assured. As part of its research service, NARU has access to a unique set of criteria that enables preparedness and resilience of all ambulance services to be assessed and monitored very accurately. The research programme within NARU is also focusing on establishing the leadership qualities required of those who command and lead in critical/high risk/threatening situations. The outcomes of this research will enable ambulance services to enhance their processes for selecting and developing leaders to deal with high threat/risk situations.
For more information about this work, please contact Tony Zarola.