The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) and The Ambulance Staff Charity (TASC) have received £348,000 to establish a new ambulance staff suicide prevention fund.
The funding has come from the Workforce Wellbeing Programme, which is a partnership between NHS Charities Together and NHS England.
The investment will go towards creating a new ambulance staff suicide prevention fund, which will be designed to ensure everyone working, volunteering or learning in an ambulance service can access timely, effective wellbeing support.
The new partnership between AACE, NHS England and NHS Charities Together is intended to bring together expertise, insight and delivery at every level, ensuring ambulance staff can access support as and when they need to.
The three organisations are committed to strengthening suicide prevention, improving wellbeing, and ensuring ambulance workers are protected, valued and supported for the future.
The decision to create the fund was due to ambulance staff facing intense pressures, burnout, sickness absence and exposure to trauma, which can all have a profound impact on their mental wellbeing.
The Workforce Wellbeing Programme has so far invested more than £5 million in 61 local projects across England, designed to tackle to rising levels of burnout and work‑related stress.
Anna Parry, managing director of AACE, said: “This new funding is excellent news and will be targeted where it is needed most. It will help sustain a vital suicide prevention helpline, expand preventative support, and strengthen local initiatives such as suicide prevention training and wellbeing programmes that can be embedded for the long-term.
“This work builds on existing progress, including trauma and neurodiversity projects funded through the Workforce Wellbeing Programme and the efforts of AACE’s employee wellbeing and suicide prevention group, which has introduced sector‑wide tools, guidance and a central suicide register.”
