This page, launched in January 2021, aims to provide you with ongoing knowledge of the College’s activities all in one place. Regularly updated, you will find brief outlines of developments, publications and workstreams, and updates on national groups that the College’s staff are involved with or leading on.

December 2023

Manifesto 
The College is drafting a manifesto, setting out some key asks for the next government to support the paramedic profession. We’re consulting with the Board and Student Council and we will also produce information for members to keep you up to date with the General Election, so keep a look out for the updates. If you have any questions, please contact our Policy & Public Affairs Manager, mandy.powell@collegeofparamedics.co.uk

Enquiries
In 2023, our enquires team coordinated over 500 responses to email enquiries. 
The College of Paramedics enquiries team monitor and coordinate responses received via email on a variety of subjects. All emails are acknowledged with a holding email identifying that a response will be provided as soon as possible and thanking the sender for their patience. Depending on the nature of the email the team member either responds directly to the sender or forwards the email to the appropriate individual within the College, this can be a member of our Executive Team, a Council or Student representative or a Specialist Interest Group (SIG) member to assist with the enquiry. Our top three most common subject areas: medicines and prescribing, membership enquiries and education queries.  

Membership
The College of Paramedics Membership team are pleased to receive many telephone enquiries every day from members in addition to responding to hundreds of email enquiries received each week. The key subject areas for the enquiries we receive within Membership, beyond assistance with members personal records, relate to the College’s Fitness to Practise scheme, the Medical and Public Liability insurance provided as a member benefit, working in Primary Care and questions around education.  
Over the course of 2023 we welcomed around 2,900 new members, and also assisted a number of former members wishing to return to the College. Over 1,000 Student and Associate members were upgraded to Full membership having successfully joined the HCPC register. 

November 2023

NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan Meeting
The College will be attending a meeting on the 9th November with many other health and care organisations to review the ambitious NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan, hosted by NHS England.  It is fair to say that we have some concerns about the ability to meet the ambition that has been published and we look forward to hearing from senior NHSE representatives to understand how they feel this can be achieved.  We know that retention of paramedics is a high priority, and the workforce plan details a very optimistic growth in paramedic numbers.  More detail is required before we share in the confidence of the plan, with particular interest in the non-medical workforce given the current feeling of many other organisations, unions and regulators.

Paramedic Mental Health and Wellbeing Steering Group 
Led by Dr Ursula Rolfe, members: Sasha Johnson, Jo Mildenhall, Katie Pavoni, Andrea James, David Davis, Emma Geis and Richard Corrall. 
Current focus - two streams of work: mental health and wellbeing of our paramedic workforce (led by Jo Mildenhall) and supporting and developing means for how paramedics manage mental health patients in clinical practice.
Projects: feeding into the undergraduate curriculum rewrite with the focus on mental health to be increased in the new curriculum. The team are also working on a PGCert/PGDip specialist qualification in mental health. This is currently being trialled in two NHS ambulance trusts. There has also been a lot of discussion around the implications of the Police Right Care, Right Person Model with current anecdotal evidence suggesting a large increase in calls to the ambulance service. The launch of Mental Health ambulances is a large project with £7 million funding from the government – this will be trust-based in terms of deliverables and operational and educational responsibilities. There is also ongoing mental health simulations in partnership with a variety of external specialists organisations are piloting various means of running mental health simulations for ambulance personnel. 
If you would like to join this steering group which meets every 2 months, please email Ursula at urolfe@bournemouth.ac.uk. 

Code of Conduct
Work has begun to produce a College of Paramedics member’s code of conduct.  We are incredibly proud of our individual members and the paramedic profession as a whole and we know that the majority will always act with due integrity, professionalism and thoughtfulness. Unfortunately however, there are rare occasions when we are called on to explore whether the behaviour and conduct of a member has fallen short of the prevailing high standards. Therefore, as the professional body, we need to outline our expectations in an open and honest way. This code will not be seeking to specifically comment on the conduct and decision making of our members when acting in a clinical role, but rather provide guidance and a commitment to the prerequisite behaviours of professionalism. This code of conduct is intended to be used as an adjunct to guidance provided by the HCPC and any other appropriate regulatory or professional body.

October 2023

Policy and Public Affairs 
Mandy Powell, our new Policy and Public Affairs Manager has been getting to know the profession by meeting with colleagues and members to draft a response to a consultation from the Welsh Affairs Committee. The consultation looked at population changes in Wales, and the impact on services. The College of Paramedics response focused on the impact population changes are likely to have on health services and took the opportunity to highlight the skills and knowledge of paramedics to support health needs. Mandy met with a number of stakeholders to gather views, including College representatives Kerry Robertshaw (Vice President) and Alex Wedlake (Student Council, Wales representative). 

Primary Care Update 
October has been a busy month for primary care with our inaugural conference being held in Leeds, and reviewing the Diploma in Primary and Urgent Care processes since it’s re-launch earlier this year.  Within the Clinical Development Directorate, we have also been working on the content of some exciting new training and courses which will be ready to take bookings before Christmas, and will launch in January/February 2024. An Expression of Interest form is available for members to indicate if they would like to be involved in any of these opportunities, and also some other initiatives we are progressing which will be useful for our primary care paramedics. Members can complete this here https://forms.office.com/e/w4wUXVs3vV 
Delegates at the Primary Care and Prescribing Conference had asked if the interview with Andrea James could be made available to watch again. Andrea had kindly agreed to be interviewed to discuss challenges that paramedics can face in their primary care roles and what to be mindful of to avoid fitness to practice situations. This is now available on the College website and can be accessed here 

6th Edition Curriculum
The Education Team held the final pre-launch stakeholder event for the 6th Ed curriculum on Friday 20 October, the hybrid event saw over 60 attendees (both education providers and employers) contributing to some final details prior to publication of the curriculum in December. An interactive slide deck was shared with the Paramedic Education Network for additional feedback for 2 weeks; we are now collating the results to inform the curriculum. A meeting to explore the implications of the curriculum relating specifically to the paramedic apprenticeship is scheduled for late November.

AHP Principles of Practice Based Learning published 
October has seen the newly published AHP Principles of Practice-based Learning document, the College of Paramedics are one of the ten collaborating AHP professional bodies. The principles were developed by Tamsin Baird (Chartered Society of Physiotherapy) and Carolyn Hay (Royal College of Occupational Therapists) and first published in October 2022. Many AHP professional bodies quickly recognised the value and significance of the framework for practice-based learning that these principles provide, ourselves included. The principles are informing the 6th Ed. curriculum and will be adopted in terms of our approach to practice-based learning for paramedic learners from now on.

Read more here. 

Paramedic Foundation Preceptorship (PFP) programme 
Work is continuing on the Paramedic Foundation Preceptorship for all new registrants regardless of where they are employed. As well as e-learning content to support confidence and competence we are creating a framework for induction and a learning assessment to inform a personalised learning plan. The PFP is intended to enable new registrants to explore the pillars of practice and start to consider their career aspirations.

Team Together Day
At least once a month, our staff team at the College come together to update each other on our work and join together in some shared learning on topics that support and grow the College. This is our opportunity to meet face-to-face and communicate the issues that face us and our members. Among other things in October, we met to update the whole team on new policies that have been approved and to share some of the work we are doing to support members in the coming year. We heard from one of our Diversity Steering Group members, Matondo Mazeninga who shared with our Head Office team what the day-to-day issues are for paramedics. This really helps to ensure our non-clinical team members who work for the College understand the current pressures and challenges so that they can provide the best response to you if you contact us. We ended the day with a session from Andy Elwood, Mental Health First Aider and ex-SAR paramedic, who engaged us in activities to support effective communication. 

September 2023

Health and Wellbeing 
The Rejuvenate. Thrive. Breathe paramedic wellness programme has gone from strength to strength this year and over the summer months saw members have opportunities to take a wellbeing hike in the beautiful surroundings of Snowdonia, and undertake mountain skills training in association with our colleagues at Black dog Outdoor and Mountain Training. These courses were so successful, that we have been able to offer a further date in November, for which places have been quickly snapped up. 
The power of being in the outdoors and connecting with our environments is such a great healer for our mental wellness. Building on our success from last year, we’ve been delighted to offer two more retreats this year, hosted by the team at Mind Over Mountains. Offered free to full members, the four-day retreats have both been a sell-out. The autumn retreat takes place shortly, however, the summer retreat was held in June and provided time to rest, stop, and reflect. Having attended this event, members feedback was heart-warming to read: 

“A fantastic opportunity… to be in the company of great likeminded people where we could share our experiences and support each other along the journey. The coaching team were fantastic and very supportive. Thank you all”. 

Also continuing to run, and again, free for full members, is Surfwell surf therapy. Confidential counselling is also available for our members in Northern Ireland. Details for both are available on the events page of the website. It’s been a busy year so far, and we’re already making plans for new events in 2024!

HCPC Professional Body Forum
Liz Harris, Head of Professional Standards attended the face-to-face Professional Body Forum at the HCPC offices in London in September. The professional bodies and the HCPC themselves were all well represented at the Forum. This forum, usually online, was organised ‘in person’ to discuss one area in particular, in which many professions are experiencing challenges, the subject of international registration. There are currently 1000 international registrants (all professions) joining the HCPC register per month, with the HCPC decision making process usually occurring within 60 days of application. The attendees discussed the recruitment and ongoing training of international applicant assessors and the HCPC agreed to work with professional bodies on these important aspects of the process. The HCPC run regular ‘Joining the UK Workforce’ webinars to aid the transition of registrants into UK work, but did acknowledge that the induction and preceptorship needs of individuals does vary considerably. The HCPC agreed with the professional bodies that there is a need to work closer with employers to improve the understanding of the process and the need for comparability of qualification, rather than any requirement to have equivalence.  

The meeting was also an opportunity to discuss other areas of challenge and concern and for the professional body representatives to meet the new HCPC CEO, Bernie O'Reilly. 
Several Fitness to Practise concerns were raised and discussed. The HCPC will start work on assessing Fitness to Practise rates and referrals via their equality, diversity and inclusion data from 2024 onwards. Professional bodies agreed to continue to encourage their member registrants to complete their EDI information to help with this. There was also a recognition by the HCPC that the Consensual Disposal process is possibility currently underutilised within fitness to practise processes, and that work is commencing to improve this. Finally, looking ahead, the new Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics will be published in early October, with the launch of the supporting documents early 2024, and the Standards of Education and Training pre-engagement work will begin in the coming months, with the formal consultation planned for Spring 2024.` 

July & August 2023

Despite the summer months being a little quieter with regards to activity from some of our key stakeholders, activity within the College remained high. The 8th of July was the hugely successful International Paramedics Day and on the 11th July we held one of our regular Team Together Days, which featured colleagues from SSHINE, a student led movement to support neurodivergent student healthcare professionals. The first College of Paramedics Inclusive Recruitment Conference was held in Birmingham on the 13th, attended by many of the NHS Ambulance Services and the Universities who run paramedic programmes. The conference featured a range of expert speakers and a selection of regional workshops where rich discussions were had and valuable connections made. A blog about the day can be found on our Blog page. As a follow-up to this conference one regional event has already been held to continue the great collaborative work started on the day to improve the diversity of the paramedic profession. 

Early August we were proud to deliver the ParaMEdic Project, with support from The Prince’s Trust, St John Ambulance, South Western Ambulance Service and The University of the West of England. We are currently preparing our evaluation of the project and a brief report on the event will feature in the next edition of the Emergency Services Times, launched at the Emergency Services Show in September. On the 23rd August we saw 40 attendees join us for an extraordinary one-day Paramedic Conference in the vibrant city of Aberdeen. Covering critical topics such as trauma, professional practice, pre-hospital clinical decision making and the expansive roles paramedics play in public healthcare, the attendees had a chance to connect with fellow paramedics to share experiences, exchange ideas, and forge valuable relationships that will extend beyond the conference.

We continue to support our members going through Fitness to Practice investigations with the HCPC through our peer support programme. This programme provides informal non-therapeutic and non-clinical support from trained peers. If you are interested in becoming a peer supporter, please see the June edition of INSIGHT magazine for more information or contact jo.mildenhall@collegeofparamedics.co.uk   

Research Update
The College of Paramedics is again running a small grant scheme to support Paramedic research. The aim is to support members of the College of Paramedics to carry out research studies. A maximum of three studies will be funded to a maximum of £1,250 each. The call opens on 16th September 2023 and closes on 24th November 2023. These grants do make a difference to the researchers, the profession and in some areas of activity patient experience and the College is proud to be able to support this work undertaken by our members. Some of you will have noticed an advert for a part time Research Fellow to support a study that we have been commissioned to undertake by the London Ambulance Service looking at different models of clinical team working. We will be reporting to College Knowledge as we reach key milestones for this project – the first one being the appointment of the team. The College is developing a digital collage of paramedics in research careers – we are still building this so if you have not submitted your contribution please contact Professor Julia Williams for details. This will be an interactive wall of research paramedic profiles so make sure you get involved.

June 2023

 Update from Lewis Andrews, Chief Operating Officer 
“At the time of writing, we have started to review initial feedback from our membership survey. It was great to see that over 2000 members completed the online survey, thank you. I have asked the wider team to start to consider actions to continue to improve the positive relations between the college and its members. More details and a summary of feedback will follow.

We are pleased to see our full membership cohort continue to grow, as of the 1st July we had 16,020 full members, we want to see this trend for our student and associate members and have made this a focused workstream.

Always looking for new ways to support our members I’m delighted to announce we’re in the early stages of developing a College of Paramedics App. The early work has already started and we’ll be releasing more details over the coming months, ready to reveal the finished stage one version at our 2024 National Conference.

Keen to make sure we deliver the best possible user experience we’ll be looking for members to test the app and feed in during this initial build stage. Details on how to get involved will be released in the coming months.”

National Student Wellbeing Survey
Senior Research Fellow, Jen Elliott joined the College of Paramedics in March of this year to work on this piece of work. Jen is currently completing a scoping review of the literature relating to student paramedic placement experiences and whether this has an impact on health and wellbeing, this will help to refine the focus of the survey towards some of the interesting gaps that are emerging and to reflect current challenges. This work and the development of a study protocol will finish over the summer, we anticipate the survey will be ready for distribution early in the new academic year. 

Controlled Drugs prescribing by paramedics 
On Thursday 29th June, following correspondence with Lord Butler, Tracy Nicholls CEO and David Rovardi, Specialist Medicines Advisor were invited to the House of Lords to meet with Lord Butler to discuss paramedic independent prescribing. Tracy and David were able to brief Lord Butler on the current situation regarding independent prescribing and the current delay in the approval for the limited list of controlled drugs for independent prescribing and how this is impacting on patient care and wider service provision. As a result of the meeting David is preparing a fuller brief for Lord Butler including case studies and wishes to thank all the paramedic independent prescribers who have contributed to this. Lord Butler expressed an interest in working with the College in the future and we would like to thank Lord Butler for his time and consideration.

May 2023

Education Update
The Education team have now completed the seven stakeholder workshops on development of the 6th Edition pre-registration curriculum. Task and Finish groups are being stood up to now produce the content. 35 universities, 9 ambulance trusts, the HCPC, AACE, NHS England and NHS Education for Scotland have all contributed to the workshops. We will be presenting at the National Conference to outline the journey so far. The work around the pre-registration element of a practice portfolio is ongoing, the initial aim being the development of a framework that all education institutes can adopt to embed a level of consistency across all areas of the UK.

We are currently exploring the needs of other professions when coming to work in the ambulance setting. This has come about following discussions with colleagues in ambulance trusts as they look to bolster the workforce numbers and capabilities with additional professions. We must be clear that the College do not oppose other HCPs working in the ambulance sector, but as the profession borne of this unique and challenging environment, we are keen to assist in identifying a safe and effective transition programme that will ensure patient safety as well as the safety and wellbeing of colleagues practising in that space. A report will be published in the coming weeks with recommendations and next steps.

The ELfH programme is back on track with revised and new content is now in development for the coming year. We would welcome suggestions around content that our members would like to see. (contact gary.strong@collegeofparamedics.co.uk)

We are delighted to have welcomed 4 learners from the University of Bournemouth undertaking a joint placement with ourselves and NHSE, a pilot partnership leadership placement that will enable learners to experience both the professional body and the leadership body for the NHS. They will be with us one day a week for the next few weeks and are already getting involved in some key workstreams.

#ParaCon23
In May we warmly welcomed over 200 delegates to the Nottingham Belfry for our national annual conference. Excitement had been building for several months while the organising team worked hard behind the scenes to deliver our first face to face conference since 2019. Delegates enjoyed 30 sessions by 40 presenters on a range of subjects. The main plenary sessions were the Mark Bloch lecture, The College of Paramedics: Tackling the Future Together, Ambulance Service Challenges: A Four Nations Perspective, and the finale of day two, a live ABD simulation session. The evening Honours and Awards ceremony greeted 180 guests dressed in their finest and the dinner was kindly sponsored by James Hallam. In total 21 awards were presented on the night by Bob Fellows and Graham Harris, Chair and Vice Chair of the Honours and Awards Committee, including recognition to our outgoing President and Vice President. #ParaCon23 was pleased to host 16 exhibitors and a huge thanks to our Sponsors, Class Professional Publishing, and CorMed-DX. All the recorded presentations will be uploaded to our member's only CPD Hub in the coming weeks. Thank you to everyone who attended and made the conference a successful and enjoyable event for all.    

April 2023

Working together to prevent misogyny and improve sexual safety in the ambulance service
NHS England have been reviewing sexual safety within the ambulance service. An initial review gathered intelligence, reports, and data from a range of sources and stakeholders highlighting banter, misogyny, and sexual harassment concerns across the sector. This piece of work was further supported by a narrative literature review undertaken systematically. The result of these reviews is a workstream which is developing a consensus agreement across the ambulance sector, alongside a suite of evidence-based interventions. The College of Paramedics has a participatory and active role in this work. This workstream is referenced in the recently published ‘Listening to Workers, A Speak Up Review of ambulance trusts in England' February 2023.

Anti-racism Training with Bliss and Airey
The College are committed to both ensuring that we understand the needs of the membership and to building a more diverse profession where all can thrive. A part of this commitment involves offering training to the staff group and over the past two months, staff from the College have attended a day of anti-racism training run by the brilliant Ellie and Alisha from Bliss and Airey. Feedback has been very positive: “The training has enabled me to look at myself to see how I might change my bias and be more empathetic to other people’s specific situations”, “No two people’s experiences are the same, we must always allow minoritized voices to be heard”, “I’ve learnt better how to reflect on how I engage with different people."  We are now organising a further two days of this important training, for members of the Board of Trustees and the Paramedic Council. We envisage this as the beginning of a journey to increasing a sense of belonging for all our members, whatever their background and to encourage those who might not have previously considered a career as a paramedic, to come forward and join us.

Future Workforce Mental Health Project 
The last update of this project was in May 2022 (see below) and so this update today is a follow on to that. April has seen the launch of the HEI Collaborative Platform. This platform will allow HEI Wellbeing Leads to join, chat and be able to share best practice of how to embed the student personal mental health and wellbeing curriculum into current paramedic programmes.   
The WRAP tool has now changed to WRAPT (work, risks, awareness, play, think), the addition of the Think is for people to “think about who this could be sent to”. This change was made due to the tool having the same acronym as the Wellness Recovery Action Plan, which is already popular within the mental health field. A new logo has been updated across the website and other communications for the tool. Our two project Academic Leads have had the privilege to speak at multiple events over the past year and other AHP’s are very keen to adapt WRAPT for their students, this is something the Academic Leads are exploring as potentially the next arm of the project. This is in addition to applying for further funding to carry out a full evaluation research study into WRAPT. The tool can be found here.
The project Academic Leads have also now started to visit NHS Ambulance Trust pilot locations to deliver the first face-to-face element of the ‘preceptorship supervisor’ training sessions. These sessions take a train-the-trainer approach to allow practice educator leads to receive training into how to deliver this package of support. We aim to have visited each of the six Trusts that are part of the pilot by July 2023.

March 2023

Education update 
March has seen the Education Team host 4 of 7 planned stakeholder workshops to inform the new 6th Edition Paramedic Curriculum. The pre-registration curriculum is being redesigned with a view to ensuring that our new paramedic registrants are prepared and enabled for practice in the ever changing world of health and care. So far we have had workshops in Manchester, Bradford, Gloucestershire and Dundee, over 20 universities have been represented, along with 4 ambulance trusts, Health Education England and NHS Scotland. Each workshop has had learner representation courtesy of the College’s Student Council. The discussions have been honest, frank and at times difficult. No subject is off the table and there is a brilliant engaged and motivated attitude that’s looking to make change for the better and get this right. There are 3 further workshops planned and Task and Finish groups being set up to tackle specific areas of the new curriculum. 

Alongside this massive piece of work we have the national learner practice portfolio workstream, looking to create a portfolio framework that can eventually fit with a lifelong portfolio for paramedics. Both pieces are set to be ready for presentation in time for the National Conference on 24 May. If you’d like to know more, please do get in touch – Education@collegeofparamedics.co.uk

Workforce Reform Project update
Work has been progressing on the Workforce Reform project commissioned by HEE and our Workforce Reform Support Officer, Charlotte, has been working on three specific areas of focus within this project; International Recruitment of paramedics, encouraging Return to Practice for paramedics and promoting portfolio working in the paramedic profession. 

The College of Paramedics was requested to “Create profession specific resources to support the education, scope of practice and pastoral care of international recruits”. The main output of this request will be in the form of an electronic booklet aimed at potential/current international paramedic recruits coming to the UK to work. The booklet will include information on life as a paramedic in the UK, support available and opportunities to enhance individual professional development.
An online event is being planned for individuals looking to return to practice as a paramedic. Work on this area of the project so far has included research into understanding better the current proportion of paramedics looking to return to practice and how we can support and increase this number. Whilst a lot of paramedics that have left the HCPC register will not be able to return to work as a paramedic due to a number of personal reasons, the College of Paramedics is eager to support individuals that feel that they might be able to re-join the paramedic workforce. We have been working with individuals from ambulance trusts and staff at HEE to understand what options are currently available for those interested in coming back to paramedicine, alongside staff from the Universities offering Return to Practice courses. Many exciting opportunities are on the horizon for potential returners and the College of Paramedics is looking towards how we can promote these opportunities to better support the profession.

The College is also promoting ‘portfolio working’, aiming to support paramedics who want to explore other ventures alongside traditional ambulance work. We are going to be showcasing case studies at our upcoming National Conference for those interested in branching out into different roles. As the paramedic profession expands and changes, many roles have already come into place for individuals that are interested in diversifying their work.

Behind the scenes work on these three areas of the project is being done in order to expand the College website to include signposting links to resources concerning the above and updates for our members on the opportunities available to them.

February 2023

Diversity Steering Group update
The Diversity Steering Group (DSG) have recently recruited an additional nine new members and we are delighted that they are already involved and helping to progress some important workstreams around the diversity, equity and belonging agenda and the Colleges’ Belonging and Inclusion Strategy. Did you know, that there are five ‘strand’ groups within the DSG. They are the Race Equality and Cultural Heritage (REaCH), Disability, LGBTQIA+, Gender Equality and Socio-Economic Disparity strands. Each are working on important areas. For instance, the REACH strand members have built closer ties with the National Ambulance Black & Minority Ethnic Forum, the Disability Strand are reviewing the Colleges own website and aiming to make improvements from a neurodiversity perspective. The LGBTQIA+ strand are developing a series of podcasts, the first of which will include a panel answering questions regarding all things trans and non-binary, posed by the College’s membership. They will also be offering suggestions around sensitive questioning of patients and discussing some of the health inequalities experienced by the trans and non-binary community. The Gender Equality Strand are looking at ways to normalise inclusive language and the Socio-economic Disparity Strand want to develop support mechanisms for those on low incomes and including students.
The primary role of the College of Paramedics’ Diversity Steering Group is to represent College members in relation to diversity equity and belonging. The group provides a voice for members; working with the College to increase diversity, ensure equity and instil a sense of belonging for all, within the profession and membership. The group’s work is underpinned by the strategic aims of the College. The DSG supports and advises the College to increase diversity and ensure equity within the organisation as this is vital to the work with the membership and profession. Overall, the DSG also aims to increase the diversity of speakers at College events and conferences and has increased it’s own visibility at these events in order to offer in-person support and resources to members.
We hope soon to be able to introduce you to our newest members of the DSG when we include their profiles on the website.
We are also updating our Interactive Career Framework this year and would welcome case studies from members who identify as belonging to currently under-represented groups. If you are interested in being included in this resource which is publicly accessible via the College's website, we would be very happy to hear from you on the diversity email below. 
We hope you have enjoyed reading this update and if you have any questions about any of the content please do not hesitate to get in touch with us either via enquiries@collegeofparamedics.co.uk or diversity@collegeofparamedics.co.uk.

Equality Monitoring and how we fully support and represent all our members 
For those who have been members of the College for some time, are you aware that we now have a set of equality monitoring questions which we encourage you to complete if you haven’t already? You can find them at the top of the home page of the College of Paramedics website and they can be accessed by clicking on the ‘head and shoulders’ icon. Under the ‘My details’ tab you will see five grey tabs and if you click on the ‘Equality’ tab you will be able to input your specific details. This information is protected under the GDPR legislation and all data is anonymised and used only to understand the demographic of our membership. If you are wondering why you should share this personal information; the College of Paramedics is committed to fulfilling the aims of our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy which includes the need to understand the diverse needs of our members. In order to ensure that we are supporting you through our events, health and wellbeing provision, CPD and representation, we need to know about you. Please do go in and complete the questions if you would like us to represent you, as a member of the College.

January 2023

Inclusive Recruitment Conference 
You may be aware that the College were, due to unforeseen circumstances, forced to postpone the Paramedic Inclusive Recruitment conference back in October last year. We are now very pleased to have a new ‘save the date’ of Thursday 13th July, which has been announced on our social media. 

The ‘ParaMEdic’ Project
Plans for the project now named the ‘ParaMEdic’ Project which aims to give young people from under-represented groups, an immersive paramedic experience including high acuity simulation, designed and organised by year three student paramedics and NQP’s, are picking up pace. The Princes Trust and St Johns Ambulance are supporting this project and we now have a confirmed venue and date. More details will be released as the date approaches and we look forward to sharing photos and updates as it happens.

Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan 
The College has been present for the stakeholder engagement sessions with NHS England for the formulation of the Urgent and Emergency Strategic Plan with other Royal Colleges. Whilst the strategy was due to be publicised shortly, this piece of work has been slowed to enable the two-year Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan to be formulated, drafted, and rolled out. This decision has been taken to attempt to address both the poor ambulance response times, including the hospital handover delays and to address the flow issues into social and community care. As such, there are two key themes emerging which will be the focus of the Recovery Plan:
1.           The reduction of Category 2 response times for the next two years;
2.           To improve the four-hour waiting time for patients in the Emergency Departments
Whilst there have been intense and rapid discussions for many organisations, including a meeting with the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the implementation of the outcomes of the plan remains uncertain. The College has also been engaged with the NHS England National Director of Intermediate Care and Rehabilitation about what skills paramedics who work outside of the ambulance sector can offer. For those ambulance services with rotational models, there is likely to be some synergy that may be accessed through the Integrated Care Boards and Systems. Discussions remain ongoing within Wales and Scotland, but for Northern Ireland, the key focus is to support the vacant post for the role of a temporary Chief Allied Health Professions Officer to advocate during the political uncertainty regarding the formation of a government. 
 
Scottish COVID-19 Public Inquiry 
This Inquiry is investigating the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland. The Inquiry will establish the facts about the devolved response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to identify what lessons there are for the future. The College has received notification that it has been accepted as a Core Participant in the inquiry. Core participants have a central role in public inquiries and, as such, we now welcome the opportunity to submit evidence. 
 
Manchester Arena Inquiry
The College have been formally contacted by the Solicitors for the Manchester Arena Inquiry on behalf of the Chair,  Sir John Saunders, and further to the publication of the second volume of his report on the Manchester Arena Inquiry.  A copy of the report can be found on the Inquiry website here. The report considers matters relating to the emergency response to the attack and makes a number of recommendations for the future that the Chair will monitor for progress. The College has to formally reply by letter by Friday 3rd February 2023 which will provide a summary of the steps taken towards implementing each applicable monitored recommendation.

December 2022

On 1st December, College President, Dr John Martin and Chief Executive, Tracy Nicholls visited the Department of Health & Social Care to meet with Will Quince MP who has several paramedic activities within his ministerial portfolio.
The invitation came from a letter sent to the Secretary of State for Health and Care and was to discuss directly the issues of handover delays, education of paramedics and possible solutions for the future.  Whilst these meetings are never very long, John Martin was able to share the key areas raised at his recent House of Commons, Health and Social Care Committee attendance and Tracy Nicholls gave an outline of the intractable issues members are facing. The discussions were open and quite productive, with a view to holding further meetings soon. However, there was no agreement about tangible solutions, and it is clear further engagement will be necessary. It was clear that our members may have an opportunity to contribute with their ideas and suggestions, so we will be in touch soon.

December was a busy month for Natasha Weale, our Press Officer and the members of our Comms Team. There were several news and print pieces in relation to Dr John Martin’s appearance before the Health and Social Care Committee. We continue to try and fulfil media and press requests for College comment wherever we are able to speak on behalf of the profession, most recently through December these were connected to long ambulance wait times and ambulance handover delays. Find out more on our Press Engagement page.  

November 2022

Lewis Andrews, Chief Operating Officer Update 
As we near the end of 2022 it allows the staff and volunteers within the College to reflect, discuss, learn, and put in place plans for 2023 and beyond to support you, our members and our profession. 

We now have an events team in place, I say team it’s really a duo and what a great duo it is, they will lead in planning and delivery in a wide range of opportunities for our members, from local CPD events to national conferences, with great support from Steve Poulton, our CPD Advisor. Our marketing team have done a great job of promoting the College in 2022, engaging with key stakeholders, seeking opportunities to attract new members and always looking for ‘membership benefits’. 

We have had to make some difficult decisions this year, we carefully consider and explore the potential impact of these and although we don’t always get things right, the important element is that we are always listening. A recent example being was the change for student and associate members’ fee collection points, following listening to our members, representatives from Council, Student Council, our own team and with data available, a Board decision was made to offer monthly collection again. This required a lot of background work including changes within our IT systems which could not have happened without our committed business support colleagues. The day-to-day running of the College and ability to change and become more resilient wouldn’t happen without the dedicated support and focus of the team at the College.

The College is leading on several projects working with Health Education England, these projects are wide ranging, but all focused on promoting our profession, attracting to the profession, benefits for our profession and demonstrating opportunities. We will soon be releasing a short film which promotes diversity within the profession. The promotional film will be available for schools, universities, and key stakeholders to encourage a wider, broader range of diversity into our profession. 

We warmly welcome any of our members the opportunity to visit our head office, it’s a great opportunity to meet the team, look at the day-to-day activities and speak to us about your experience as a member of the College. We have also set up a dedicated email address for feedback and thoughts, newideas@collegeofparamedics.co.uk this along with the ability to speak or contact your local Council and Student Council representatives, we hope will improve communication channels.

We are all excited for 2023 and beyond for the College, you our members and the profession, there are great things “inbound”.

October 2022

Royal Charter Progress 
Following recent permission from the Privy Council to petition for a Royal Charter, we have moved on to writing our governing document – our Charter and Bylaws. We are working with an expert who has taken many charities successfully through this process. The resulting draft governing documents will go to Congress and then to the membership, via a virtual Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), for approval. This process is imminent so look out for an email with details of the EGM in the coming weeks. The approved Petition Charter and Bylaws will then be submitted to the Privy Council for their decision. Read more about our journey towards Royal College Status here. 

Proposed Changes to C1 Drivers’ Licence Legislation
This month we submitted a response to the Government’s Driving Licensing ‘call for evidence’ Consultation. Since 1997, all personnel required to drive an ambulance have been mandated to pass the DVLA’s C1 driver training and test. Once successfully completed, those working in paid or unpaid roles (such as students) in ambulance services have had to further complete an ambulance emergency response (or ‘blue light’) driving course which takes 3-4 weeks to complete. The C1 training and test costs around £1000-1500 to complete and has consequently been prohibitive to some from low-income households. In addition, the paramedic profession has developed since this legislation was introduced to the current picture where paramedics are found in roles across the healthcare, education and long-arm body systems where there is no longer a requirement for them to drive. The C1 driving legislation has therefore created a situation where the profession is under-represented by those with disabilities, who are unable to apply to universities and ambulance services for courses and employment due to this discriminatory policy. The College of Paramedics would welcome the removal of the C1 licence as a requirement to apply for paramedic courses or roles as a paramedic and believe that this would be of great benefit to the profession, as it would increase its diversity and ultimately this would support reducing health inequalities. 

September 2022

Scottish Government ‘A new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy’ public consultation. 
We recently submitted a response to the Scottish Government's public consultation on a new mental health and wellbeing strategy. The purpose of this consultation was to guide the future work of Government and other key organisations to improve mental health and wellbeing in Scotland. This includes supporting professionals whose role it is to improve and provide care for those experiencing mental ill-health. The consultation, which has now closed, sought responses around the underlying factors that contribute to poor mental health, stigma, what helps people to thrive, and specialist help and support for mental illness. We welcomed the opportunity to share our views and contribute to this important piece of work.

Following the Medicines and Fit Note webinar that we held in July we expressed a desire to build a database of case studies outlining where controlled drugs prescribing would benefit and improve patient care. We hope this will provide evidence for a future application for full independent controlled drugs prescribing for paramedics. Please click this link to find the template for case studies and a completed example. Please email any case studies to David.Rovardi@collegeofparamedics.co.uk

Primary and Urgent Care update
By Helen Beaumont-Water, Head of Clinical Development in Primary and Urgent Care.

September has been busy with days working away from my desk.  I attended the Urgent Care Conference in Milton Keynes with Ed, the vice-chair of our devolved PUCSIG where we were able to catch up with many of our members.  This is a really good conference with a reputation for securing some interesting speakers who deliver really informative sessions, and I would urge those who work in Urgent Care to look at this two day event if you’ve never been before.  This month I also visited our head office for the first time since coming into post so it was great to meet the rest of the team in real life, and we were able to progress some important workstreams. 

We continue to work on the Fit Note strategy since the legislation changes and following two important meetings where I was able to share the snap-shot data we collected in July was presented to the policy teams. They were very interested in the data and have asked for case studies to evidence the impact on paramedics and patients of not being able to issue Fit Notes. Please send case studies to me at primarycare@collegeofparamedics.co.uk. It would be helpful if they were no more than one A4 page, with no practice or patient identifiable information. Case studies can be in any format but should you require a basic template, please use the following:

• Clinical area (eg, general practice, ED, ward based)
• Age, sex and presenting complaint (eg. 34yo male, ankle injury)
• Details of health and work discussion (eg. Works as refuse collector, cannot wear safety boots due to swelling, walking with limp, feels unsteady, then detail expected healing time, advice given and management plan) consider any instances where phased return or amended duties have been recommended.
• Fit note recommendation (eg. Fit note - unable to work, recommended for 2 weeks then review)
• Details of action to facilitate Fit Note (eg. Task to GP/ANP with request to review consultation/assessment and issue if agrees appropriate).
• Then, add any patient comments (eg. Patient very unhappy that they have to wait for a GP to review before they can send Fit Note to employer)

Case studies will be collated and themes shared with DWP and DHSC policy teams, in addition there will be a more formal study released in a few months to provide more robust evidence to support this work.

 

August 2022

2022 Elections 
Hopefully you followed the call for candidates in our elections through May and June. We were able to announce the results at our AGM on the 19th July and there is a news piece celebrating the arrival of our new Trustee and Paramedic Council member, as well as our newest Student Council member. Behind the scenes Imogen Carter, Executive Officer, communicated with the candidates and liaised with our independent election service. When the vote was in, all the candidates who put themselves forward were thanked and given the results by phone, and those who won were set up with their College accounts and introduced to relevant people in the organisation. Our Executive Assistant, Helen Lumber, who provides secretariat duties to the Board of Trustees and Paramedic Council, then met with each new person, welcoming them and answering their questions as well as arranging for a 1:1 meeting with the President or Chair of Paramedic or Student Council. Helen then provided them with essential information, including the College annual work plan, the College meeting calendar, our Strategic Implementation Plan, Annual Reports and Impact Report and a Welcome Pack. Our new volunteers received a College ID badge and polo shirt and joined their Board or Council colleagues on a chat group as well as key SharePoint/Teams sites. 


Primary and Urgent Care update, by Helen Beaumont-Waters   
At the end of July I co-hosted a webinar with David Rovardi, the College’s Specialist Medicines Advisor about the changes to the Fit Note legislation and to give an update on controlled drugs.  This was very well attended but for those who were unable to make it, the webinar can be accessed on the CPD Hub, the link is here Discussing Controlled Drugs and Fit Notes (collegeofparamedics.co.uk). There were many points and questions raised in the chat box and we were able to answer these which have been published on the primary care webpage, the document can be found on this link here Primary and Urgent Care (collegeofparamedics.co.uk).  Work to respond to these issues continues, with the College setting up a Fit Note/CD Strategy Working Group to determine the best way to evidence the impact both to our members who work in all clinical settings.  Following feedback from members in terms of regular updates on our workstreams, although we do give these in College Knowledge updates and via the News Digest, David and I agreed to hold a monthly drop in (which will be delivered on Teams) so these dates will be shared through these channels and also on social media for members to request the link and join the conversation.  Additionally, some College staff are using social media to give daily updates, you can see mine by following the #CollegeToday on Twitter, or by following me at @CoP_PrimUrgCare. 

The FCP Portfolio Support Day which was planned for 19th July needed to be cancelled due to the extremely hot weather, it will be difficult to match up diaries with those who were attending as Facilitators so it may be we need to bring this closer to our members and run more but smaller events.  Please contact me directly if this is something you would find helpful, and I can then try and gauge demand and plan accordingly.  

You will have seen we sought applications in early summer for members to join special interest groups at the College.  The primary and urgent care special interest group (PUCSIG) is now up to full capacity again, and we were impressed with the high standard of applications coming through.  There were some identified within those applications who have significant experience working in primary care roles, and we have been able to set up a new Clinical Reference Group (CRG) who have agreed to work alongside the team and be called upon to support my workstreams and ongoing projects.  Due to the increased interest and need for paramedics to be more involved in public health issues, we now have a Public Health Special Interest Group led by Sammer Tang, the College’s Public Health Lead.  Additionally, to address the needs of paramedics working in palliative medicine or end of life roles, we have set up a new palliative and end of life care special interest group (PEOLC SIG) with oversight from our new specialist advisor, Kieran Potts from NWAS, who was elected into this post after delivering a presentation to the group members. The College also has a new Safeguarding Lead, Ross Dobson from London.  We are delighted that Kieran and Ross are able to share their expertise with the College and advise on issues impacting paramedics.  

August also saw some College staff involved in a preliminary meeting with other stakeholders to discuss education of paramedics when dealing with children and young people, this was in response to recommendation made on a HSIB report and as developments occur, we can share these with you.  We are still trying to secure a suitable venue to re-launch the College’s professional exam, the Diploma in Primary and Urgent Care, so keep an eye out for updates on this.  We are working hard on an informal and fun ‘Christmas Annual’ showcasing our teams and the work they do on your behalf, and stories from those who work in non-traditional settings.  There will be a section on portfolio careers, which I firmly believe is a brilliant way to enjoy a successful, interesting  and varied career.  I am keen to hear member experiences and would like to include them in the Christmas Annual, so please do get in touch if you are happy to share your story.  To contact me regarding this or any of my workstreams, do email me at primarycare@collegeofparamedics.co.uk, it's always good to hear from our members.  Look after yourselves and each other, Helen.

 

July 2022

College Acknowledge 
Following receipt of a letter from a member that was brought to the weekly Chief Executive Group meeting, we feel it is important to take this moment to acknowledge the ongoing challenges and burden that our members and colleagues are facing in the ambulance services. The passionate and emotive member’s letter, entitled ‘A Paramedics View on the horrendous situation outside ED departments’, outlines what many of you are experiencing currently. Therefore, this month we take a slightly different approach and have written a new College Acknowledge update to share with you the work that we have been doing in relation to ambulance handover delays. Click here to read College Acknowledge.    

June 2022

Diversity Equity and Belonging update
Plans for the ‘Paramedic Inclusive Recruitment’ conference to be held on the 4th October in Birmingham are well under way. The event is to be held in-person at the Birmingham Conference and Events Centre and will bring together recruitment leads from Higher Education Institutes (HEI’s), Ambulance Trusts and other paramedic employers, to share ideas and formulate strategies to increase the diversity of the profession, improve the retention and experience of staff with protected characteristics, and to consider how we can support the development of these staff. By cooperating across the network, identified themes will be discussed, and solutions to any barriers, overcome. A strategy for recruitment, retention and development of staff from their initial application to HEI’s through their career progression to Board level will be initiated and, task and finish groups set up to continue the work.

The Student Paramedic Council are supporting the DEB Manager with an exciting project which plans to offer 15–17 year-olds from schools and academies across the UK that have high proportion of under-represented students, the opportunity to participate in a week of high acuity simulation and paramedic specific activities. This will be designed and delivered by final year student paramedics as a demonstration of their leadership skills and with support and oversight by NQP’s, all of whom are acting as role models for future generations of student paramedics. This project is in the initial phase and is already attracting interest from HEI’s and governing bodies.

Keep an eye out for the series of podcasts due to be developed soon which will discuss a range of topics regarding some of the nine protected characteristics detailed by the Equality Act 2010. They aim to equip paramedics with the knowledge and communication skills needed to ask those sensitive equality monitoring questions when gaining a patients medical and social history, physical assessment and to aid clinical reasoning.

May 2022

Future Workforce Mental Health Project update
Launched in July 2021 with the last update provided here in December, we are now very happy to be announcing near completion of several pieces of work. The creation of a national curriculum for mental health & wellbeing for pre-registration students is now complete, the WRAP (Work, Risks, Awareness, Play) support and recovery tool for student paramedics and early career staff is complete in terms of design and content, and is now just getting the finishing touches, and the content including case studies, for the student and preceptorship supervisor learning and education package has been written ready for inclusion on the eLearning for Health platform.    

Members can read more about the project in the June issue of Paramedic INSIGHT. In addition, there will be a ‘The Future is Bright’ conference held on the 19th July in Birmingham, aimed at University faculty staff, Ambulance Service education teams and those with an interest in student education and wellbeing. If you would like to attend or just want further details then please contact Project Academic Lead, Emma Geis at Emma.Geis@collegeofparamedics.co.uk

Business as usual
May has been a busy month for staff at the College with the culmination of months of hard work in the successful delivery of the 2022 National Conference. The conference ran over two days, with three simultaneous streams offering over 30 different presentations for delegates to enjoy and learn from. 

We have recently seen the deadline for several elections pass, with opportunities available to get involved in the Board, Paramedic Council and Student Council. 10 individuals have stood for the available Trustee of the Board roles and all successful candidates will be announced at our AGM on the 19th July in Birmingham. If you would like to attend the College of Paramedics AGM you can book your place via the Events page on our website. Please do take a moment to look at our outgoing Trustees who have reached the end of their tenures.
 
Work has been ongoing in recent months also to produce our first Impact Report. This short and bright booklet will highlight all the main achievements of the College of Paramedics during 2021. It will be published for all those with an interest in the College to read in the coming weeks. It is our aim and hope that this report will provide a very interesting yet concise outline of the work that the College does on behalf of its members on a yearly basis. 

The very first #InternationalParamedicsDay with the theme of #ProudToBeAParamedic is fast approaching. Please visit https://www.internationalparamedicsday.com for more information on this international celebratory day for paramedics.   

April 2022

Team Together Day 
All the employed staff team came together for their regular Team Together Day in Bridgwater in April. As the number of people who work for the College continues to grow it is vital that essential communication regarding the many workstreams of the College is maintained across the organisation. This day is a perfect opportunity for staff to share updates with each other, to learn and develop together and also to have an invaluable catch up socially too. In addition to sharing updates this month the team enjoyed three presentations, one from new member, Sarah Todd (EDI Manger) on her priorities and plans for the future, one from Imogen Carter on the essential work around GDPR and a third on primary care entitled ‘The world of HBW’. There was also a very useful and practical training session on Emergency Aid and CPR for the non-clinicians within the team delivered by Tony Stone.    

#ParaSurvey 
Throughout 2021 the College of Paramedics tried a different way of engaging with members through a series of short survey questions. These surveys ran almost every month and produced important feedback on a range of topics. Analysis of these data is ongoing and we have decided to utilise our National Conference as a platform to feedback some of what the membership told us. This #ParaCon22 session entitled ‘The Member Voice’ is on the afternoon of the 26th May and will include the most recent survey, ran in March 2022 on the NHS England proposal to erect temporary external structures outside of Emergency Departments.    

Medicine Administration by Student Paramedics 
The College has been aware for some time that the issue of medicine administration by student paramedics is being discussed between Ambulance Services and Universities with a view to establishing some clarity on the subject. In addition to this we are regularly approached for the College’s own views on this by other stakeholder organisations. As a result, we have over recent months been working to develop a position statement on the subject that will set out our position on medicine administration by student paramedics. We are currently making the final amendments and we plan to publish in May 2022. 

March 2022

The Mental Health Continuum launch 
The mental health continuum has been developed by an expert working group comprised of individuals with experience in public health, the ambulance sector and mental health. Mental health is not an all or nothing concept – it can change frequently. We will all experience difficulties at some point during our life, mental health is affected by lots of things such as work, home life, bereavement, ill health and more. Even positive things can affect mental health, such as the pressure after getting a promotion or the stress of a house move. The mental health continuum has been designed to help individuals identify when mental health is low and can be used to show that we are able to move between the different states of wellbeing; thriving, surviving, struggling and crisis. The mental health continuum is a tool that is being implemented in NHS Ambulance Services which helps individuals to think about wellbeing and what actions to take to improve it. Click here to find out more. 

Critical Care Special Interest Group
The College of Paramedics Critical Care Special Interest Group (CCSIG) met for a full day face to face meeting on the 24th of March, which was the first time that the CCSIG have met in person since the start of the pandemic. The CCSIG is made up of representatives from across the UK who have an interest in the development of paramedic delivered critical care, and the CCSIG’s primary role is to plan how the College can support members who work in, or are interested in working in this area. The focus of the meeting on the 24th was to discuss how the College could proceed with the development of a UK-wide career development framework and curriculum for specialist and advanced paramedic pre-hospital critical/emergency care. The meeting was supported by a representative from the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care (FPHC) and by several co-opted members to help ensure the meeting represented the diversity of the College membership. The day was full of interesting and productive discussions and hopefully is the start of creating some UK-wide standardisation. Keep an eye out for future developments! 

Equality Monitoring 
We are currently introducing equality monitoring into our joining process and membership services. The aim is to gather information about the diversity of our membership, to better understand our membership, in order to tailor our services accordingly and improve the representativeness of our policy-making and negotiating structures. We wish to meet our aims and commitments of non-discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, reflecting in our membership, the paramedic and student bodies and the communities we serve, in order to be sustainable, to grow and to allow the voices of all groups to be heard. We understand that you may not want to answer some of the questions, so we have included an option for ‘prefer not to say’. But the more information you provide us with, the better able we are to improve our membership services and profession specific support. 

Recruitment Film: Promoting diversity in the paramedic profession
We have been commissioned by Health Education England to produce a video to promote diversity in the paramedic profession. 

The paramedic workforce has been developed from a strong in-house ambulance training base over the past 50 years. Since the first pre-reg honours degree in 1998 and now the expansion to 46 different approved university programmes and nine apprenticeships. We have also seen the workforce move from male dominated to nearly 50/50 male/female. As part of that key change however we have not enjoyed the same balance with student paramedics and diversity of the student community from applicants with protected characteristics. Only 4% the paramedic profession identifies as BAME, yet many UK city centres have much closer to 40-50% ethnic diversity within their communities.

Evidence is clear that some underrepresented communities need encouragement to apply and that is enhanced when they can see and hear people from their own communities raising a welcome banner. This film is a proactive and accessible way to promote the paramedic profession as a career for all and to show that recruitment opportunities are available for all.

February 2022

FCP/AP Roadmap
It is a year since Health Education England published the FCP/AP Roadmap for paramedics. There was a second edition published in July 2021 which addressed some broken links.  The link to this version is First Contact Practitioners and Advanced Practitioners in Primary Care: (Paramedics) (hee.nhs.uk).  Within the document there are links to the Primary Care e-learning modules, the Personalised Care Institute modules and the FCP Survey for submission once completed, these can be found on pages 34-35.  For those who still need to find a Roadmap Supervisor, your Training Hub will be able to help, or you can contact your local or regional Faculty of Advancing Practice who can also point you in the right direction.  The College is running another Roadmap Supervisor course shortly, please contact me at primarycare@collegeofparamedics.co.uk if you would like to access this free training. 

Business as usual
2022 has started just as busy as any of our recent years. The paid staff team here at the College continue to work hard on a range of ongoing workstreams and projects. We are currently compiling our next Annual Report with the Finance Department preparing for the annual external independent audit of our finances. This 2021 Annual Report will be published in the summer of 2022. The College is currently recruiting to two key vacancies, the Chief Operating Officer and a PA role to provide vital increased support and capacity for the team. Work continues on the organisation of the 2022 National Conference, International Women’s Day, International Paramedics Day and our Honours and Awards Ceremony. Nominations for our Honours and Competitive Awards are open until 21st March 2022 so please visit the webpage for more information on how to nominate a colleague. The College continues to use all our social media platforms to communicate with members and we are currently starting to utilise analytics software to ensure our membership communications are as effective as possible and that we can reach all of our members.     

A final exciting development to mention is the production of a recruitment film. The planning and design of this promotional film has already begun, with key participation from members of our Diversity Steering Group. It will showcase the paramedic profession as an attractive career and have an emphasis on appealing to those communities that are currently underrepresented in our profession. 

January 2022

HSIB Recognition of the acutely ill infant report

HSIB has published a report highlighting the impact of delays in recognising acutely unwell infants. The investigation considered the system and environmental influences that impact on the decision making process, taking into account the contextual factors that influence the effectiveness of existing track and trigger tools for acutely ill infants. The HSIB have made five safety recommendations, two to System-wide Paediatric Observation Tracking (SPOT), one to NHSX, one to Association of Ambulance Chief Executives and one to the College of Paramedics. We will be responding to the HSIB within 90 days of publication of the investigation report.

Practice Educator Development
We are aware that the preparation of paramedics nationally to undertake practice education in the UK has many iterations and variants and that we believe there are at least 15-20 different approaches to this programme of development and at different academic levels.  We believe it is a good time to review what is happening and bring some new ideas into the field and help build a new curriculum model and standardise what is taught. Jim Petter (Education Consultant) is leading on this work on behalf of The College of Paramedics.

National Practice Assessment Document (PAD)
Jim Petter has also been asked to undertake some exploratory work for the College of Paramedics initially looking at what is currently used and then contrasting and comparing to build a cohesive review. This is very early days and it will link to the Health Education England review of the NQP so that all our graduates can be seen to have a common set of learning outcomes and competencies go beyond the threshold of the Standards of Proficiency for Paramedics, which is due for publication in the early summer from the HCPC. These standards haven’t been reviewed since 2014 when they were last published. For our student members nothing will change at this stage for your own PADs until HEIs are ready.

Foundation Preceptorship Programme (new NQP) 
HEE are leading a review of the NQP programme, and of course we are all wanting this to be a four Nation approach and not just England. Estimates position this work as between 18 and 24 months. With over 7,500 students in pre-reg education to become paramedics, it will impact significantly on our future paramedics and the national workforce modelling being undertaken. The project has only just started, but it is important you are aware that the first conversations in this area are up and running.

Key Aims of the programme 
•            To develop a paramedic preceptorship offering that encompasses the 4 pillars of practice and aligns to the AHP framework to promote continued development and learning.
•            To support confidence and competence in newly-registered and new practice paramedics
•            To develop a paramedic preceptorship
•            Improve retention
•            Wellbeing
•            Workforce stabilisation
•            Potentially reduce Fitness to Practice cases for New Paramedics

DECEMBER 2021

Future Workforce Mental Health Project
This project, launched in July (see below) is now progressing fabulously in the hands of our two Academic Leads, Katie Pavoni and Emma Geis.  
Output 1 – The first draft of the curriculum guidance content regarding student personal mental health and wellbeing is nearing completion and there will be stakeholder engagement in early 2022. 
Output 2 – Focus Groups were held in December to collect qualitative data on the proposed student wellbeing tool and the post intervention focus groups will be held in March 2022. 
Output 3 – Work is ongoing to create student and preceptorship supervisor, case study learning content for the e-Learning for Health platform, with an aim of completion by Spring 2022. 

Mental Health Continuum 
Following our collaborative work with the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) on suicide prevention, we were commissioned alongside other representatives, including those from the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (formerly Public Health England) to develop an ambulance sector specific visual tool as a guide to help people evaluate where they are at in terms of their mental wellbeing. This tool acknowledges that mental health is not something which is 'all or nothing' and rather we fluctuate between different states of wellbeing. This is highly dependent upon a variety of factors including things happening in our daily lives, relationships, and at work. The tool is grounded within an evidence-base following examination of current research literature. It guides individuals to think about and self-reflect upon how they are feeling and also promotes individuals thinking around the support that may be helpful to them and how they may access this. The tool can be used by individuals to assess their own wellbeing, or could be used to engage staff in wellbeing conversations with managers, for example. The tool will be available via the College and AACE website's shortly, and will be shared with NHS Ambulance Trusts.   

One Question Survey
Since April 2021, we have been running our monthly one question surveys, via our social media platforms, to get your thoughts on a wide variety of topics including CPD events, membership and what an International Paramedics Day would mean to you. Over the course of nine months we have had in excess of 700 responses which have given us a fantastic insight into what our members want and need from their professional body.
Of all the questions we have posed, the two which elicited the biggest responses by far were to do with a potential Coat of Arms for the College of Paramedics and your experiences of harassment and bullying, the results of which were truly shocking and a subject we have been addressing in our series of webinars with Brabners.
We will be analysing the data in the new year and will be continuing with our monthly questions throughout 2022. Please do take the time to participate in these surveys because we want your voice to be at the centre of everything we do.

NOVEMBER 2021

Primary and Urgent Care update by Helen Beaumont-Waters (Head of Clinical Development – Primary & Urgent Care)
Following on from Tony Stone and I’s 'Sharing our Vision Roadshow' in Northern Ireland, the second leg has now been planned and booked, we will be in Scotland in Spring.  We will be visiting Inverness, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow and look forward to meeting more of our members.  
The Primary and Urgent Care Special Interest Group met in Leeds on 1st December and after a year of monthly Teams meetings, it was great to meet the team in person.  I was delighted with the progress we made and how productive the day was.  Watch this space for exciting things happening next year.

Education and CPD
Bob Fellows, Head of Education and Gary Strong, National CPD Lead have been busy working on a plan to develop a more integrated approach to education and CPD, looking at the infrastructure and resources needed for the future.  Did you know that the College is engaged in over fifteen separate projects which support the profession and our members in pre and post registration education?  Examples include undergraduate Curriculum Guidance, due for review in 2022; post-registration career guidance, also soon to be updated; endorsement of approved programmes; working with e-Learning for Healthcare to provide paramedics e-learning; and leading the interprofessional CPD and Lifelong Learning working group. Talking of CPD, the College has hosted almost fifty online CPD events in 2021, a remarkable achievement for our small but highly motivated team. CPD can of course take many forms, and by integrating our CPD output within our education work, we aim to give our members the best of both worlds and build a strong team capable of leading the profession in all aspects of education and continued learning.

Paramedics e-Learning Project
The College of Paramedics, eLearning for Healthcare (eLfH) project has now been running for five years, during which time our authors and editors, supported by eLfH’s highly skilled instructional designers, have between them produced well over 100 bite sized e-learning sessions to support paramedics in practice. The Project Executive is now focussing on how these sessions, and more, can be used to help newly registered paramedics grow in confidence and competence in their early years of practice. If you are recently registered and would like to give feedback on current and future e-learning content, watch our social media for some pre-Christmas posts asking for your views.

OCTOBER 2021

Honours & Awards
The College of Paramedics Honours & Awards processes underwent a full review and revision in 2020 and as a result introduced a new award for the 2021 season, the Companionship of the College. We were very proud to announce our awards winners at a special ceremony in central Birmingham in late summer this year that included the honours and awards from the previous two years due to our inability to previously meet in person. We are now looking to further improve this process and learning from the previous review and we are looking forward to the National Conference in May 2022 where we will celebrate more of our colleagues achievements in person. We will make announcements through our normal communication channels for both the competitive awards and for members to nominate their colleagues who meet the criteria for the formal honours awards in the coming months.
     
Primary and Urgent Care update by Helen Beaumont-Waters (Head of Clinical Development – Primary & Urgent Care)               
October has been busy with different events and it has been great to meet up with our members. Early October saw myself and Tony Stone in Northern Ireland on the first leg of our ‘Sharing Our Vision’ roadshow, and planning is now underway for the Scottish leg. We hope to meet many more of our members very soon. It’s incredibly important to us that we have this contact with those who work in Primary and Urgent Care, and in Emergency and Critical Care so we can better understand how we can support you in your roles and let you know about all the background work that is ongoing at the College.  

The Urgent Care conference in Milton Keynes was well attended, and again it was brilliant to meet members in real life! Mark Hobson, a member of the College’s Primary and Urgent Care Special Interest Group, and who works in Urgent Care attended this meeting with me and I must thank him for his expertise and support.  

There are many ways for those who are interested to become more involved in the workstreams at the College, do email me if you have any ideas or want to volunteer for any short project work.

Also, keep an eye out on the News Digest for a Fellowship secondment that we aim to land in the New Year which will support a larger project at the College.  

In addition to my College work, I still maintain my clinical role working three long sessions per week in general practice. I think everyone is equally busy and feeling drained and wondering how the winter pressures will be this year, stay positive, look after yourself and please don’t struggle on your own. We have access to support resources here… www.collegeofparamedics.co.uk/mentalhealth and of course, you are always welcome to contact the team or me at primarycare@collegeofparamedics.co.uk if there is anything we can do to help.

SEPTEMBER 2021

Making vaccination a condition of deployment in the health and social care sector consultation
In September the Department of Health and Social Care launched this consultation. The consultation proposes that, if introduced, requirements would apply to frontline health and care workers, those with face-to face contact with patients through the delivery of services as part of a CQC regulated activity. It would mean that only those workers that are vaccinated could be deployed (or those with a legitimate medical exemption) to deliver those services. The College of Paramedics has emailed all of its members encouraging them to take part in the consultation, and also to offer the opportunity to share their opinions with the College via completion of a survey by 23:45 on the 4th October 2021. The survey responses received will contribute towards the College of Paramedics consultation submission on behalf of members and the paramedic profession.

New Student Talks
Members of the Chief Executive Group, Paramedic Council members and Student Council representatives have been doing virtual tours of Universities this month, delivering College of Paramedics ‘introduction’ presentations to over 30 cohorts of new 1st year paramedic students.   

Primary and Urgent Care update
The Primary and Urgent Care webpage has now been updated.  There are some useful links to resources which will be updated regularly.  There is also some new CPD content in video format on pathology which an ED registrar has kindly produced for us.  Please send any suggestions for further content in this series. Tony Stone and Helen Beaumont-Waters embark on their ‘Sharing our Vision’ membership engagement roadshow very soon, they are both looking forward to meeting both our critical and primary/urgent care members in Northern Ireland as this trip kicks off their UK tour.  Keep an eye out for short Twitter updates @CoP_PrimUrgCare and do let us know if there are any further resources you would like to see on the primary and urgent care webpage. PrimaryCare@CollegeofParamedics.co.uk

AUGUST 2021

Facilitation of Custody/Prison paramedic forum – The College is facilitating a support forum for our custody and prison paramedics and other members who work in the justice system.  This will offer a platform to share ideas, best practice and to seek advice from others working in the same environments. Please email for further information PrimaryCare@collegeofparamedics.co.uk 

HCPC webinars
The College of Paramedics are working closely with The HCPC to deliver three different sets of webinars over the next few months. One series is aimed at 1st year paramedic students, entitled Professionalism in practice: Becoming a health and care professional. A second series is for international paramedics who are joining the UK workforce. Finally, a third webinar will focus on providing guidance and advice on self-referral, including myth busting and information on the newly published Health and Character guidance. Look out for more info on our social media in September. 

AHP Student Social Prescribing Scheme
The Chief Executive’s Team recently welcomed Sammer Tang, Public Health Lead and his colleague Anya de Longh, OT student and AHP Prescribing Scheme Lead to discuss this subject. Social prescribing is something that all healthcare professionals can support, so developing that awareness and knowledge of social prescribing among AHP students is important. “The valuable role of AHPs in supporting social prescribing has already been outlined by many bodies, including the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) who published ‘Driving forward social prescribing: A framework for Allied Health Professionals’ (2019). Many AHPs are already playing active roles in and around social prescribing, as well as supporting referrals in their practice.” The NHS Social Prescribing Champion Scheme. https://www.spforall.org/ahp-students 

July 2021

Future Workforce Mental Health Project
July saw the launch of this project which brings together a range of expertise and experience from academia, mental health and our Student Council. The project is funded by Health Education England with a key aim to review and improve the mental health and wellbeing offering to student paramedics. There are three key outputs from the project:
1.            Development of curriculum guidance regarding personal mental health and well-being for pre-registration paramedic students.
2.            Development of a wellbeing and recovery support tool for use by paramedic students and early career staff in ambulance services.
3.            Development of a learning and development package for student and preceptorship supervisors. The project will run over the next 12 months.

Royal Charter Status
We have now officially begun the process to seek a Royal Charter. There are many formalities to work through as we embark on this journey but we are confident that we meet all the criteria necessary to be granted Royal Charter status, which if awarded, would strengthen our professional voice and leadership. While we firmly believe that now is the right time to begin this process we are fully aware that Royal Charters are rarely awarded and that our application could be rejected. We will, of course, keep you updated as we move from one stage to the next.  Click here to read more.

JRCALC
The College of Paramedics has two seats on the Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee (JRCALC). Representing the College of Paramedics membership are Tony Stone (Head of Clinical Development – Emergency & Critical Care) and Professor Julia Williams (Head of Research). The committee is responsible for reviewing, updating, and producing the JRCALC guidelines which all members will be undoubtedly familiar with. The committee meets multiple times a year (albeit virtually throughout the pandemic) to discuss and approve changes and/or new guidelines as required. The committee constantly reviews new evidence (e.g. the updated RCUK anaphylaxis guideline) and sub-groups are developed to draft updated guidelines pending committee approval. Currently, the College of Paramedics is supporting in the development of guidelines around steroid-dependent patients, limb Injuries and non-traumatic back pain.

Paramedics and Neonatal Critical Care
Response to Allied Health Solutions who have been commissioned to understand the contribution and potential of Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) in neonatal critical care.
Following the NHSE/I Implementing the Recommendations of the Neonatal Critical Care Transformation Review, Allied Health Solutions (AHS) were commissioned on behalf of the Health Education England national maternity programme to identify and understand the contribution and potential of AHPs, pharmacists and psychologists in neonatal critical care. As part of this work, both the College of Paramedics Maternity Lead and the Head of Clinical Development – Emergency & Critical Care worked with AHS to provide:
• a description of the role of paramedics with neonates,
• an anonymised neonate care case example that paramedics were involved with,
• a summary of the MIST programme.  

The full report is currently undergoing final revision and will be published by HEE in due course.

Strategic Planning Workshop
The Chief Executive Group came together to meet in Leeds in July for a strategic planning workshop. This provided vital time for the team to explore key strategic planning principles and approaches, and to develop a strategy implementation plan to support the organisation to meet the delivery of its current strategic aims by 2024. There will be further workshops to include the staff team at the Bridgwater Head Office to ensure a collaborative organisational approach. This strategy work also aligns and compliments the ongoing governance restructure work to grow a professional body that is effective and robust, but also agile enough for future challenges.

June 2021

Research Database aka CRED coming soon.
We will soon be launching the College of Paramedics ResEarch StuDies (CRED) database where you can register your research studies. CRED is a searchable database open to everyone where people can put in some key details about their research such as the aim and objectives and an abstract with contact details. This will help people to network about their projects and also act as a portal to keep people informed about what research is in progress so that people don’t unnecessarily duplicate work. For this to work well it needed to be something open to all professions so it is not a members only resource. By opening it to anyone, members will benefit from a far more extensive database of information. We are pleased to say that we are almost ready to go live and then we will evaluate its usefulness and develop the database as we move forward. We will let you know as soon as the CRED database is operational!

eLearning for Health research resources
We have submitted a grant application in March for £120,000 to the NIHR to develop on line resources for research education to be hosted on the e-learning for Health platform. We worked with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) on a joint submission and we are delighted to say that we have been shortlisted – so fingers crossed and we should hear more in July.

Regulating healthcare professionals, protecting the public consultation response
The Department of Health and Social Care consultation which sought to seek views on proposals to modernise the regulatory legislation and reform the regulation of healthcare professionals (including the introduction of statutory regulation of physician and anaesthesia associates) closed on the 16th June. This was a comprehensive consultation document with 70 questions covering proposals within Governance and Operating Framework, Education and Training, Registration and Fitness to Practise.

The College of Paramedics broadly supported most of the proposals in the consultation. These have been recommended to provide all regulators with the same powers to carry out their registration function and to facilitate the resolution of fitness to practise cases more quickly, enabling the regulators to better support the professionalism of all their registrants.

However, we have outlined our concerns within our response, the keys ones being: Registrar discretion – we disagreed that all Registrars should be given a discretion to turn down an applicant for registration. The criteria for registration should be clearly set and be measurable and not subjective. We disagreed that separate grounds for action relating to health (and English language) should be removed from the legislation, and concerns of this kind investigated under the ground of lack of competence. To describe a registrant who has a health condition that affects their ability to carry out their professional practice or activities as ‘lacking competence’ is demeaning and offensive. If fitness to practise matters related to ill-health are to be combined with matters relating to professional practice, as proposed in this consultation, then the term ‘competence’ or ‘lack of competence’ is completely inappropriate. We remained unconvinced that there is sufficient case law that has determined what ‘competence’ actually is, and therefore how it is proved to be lacking. We disagreed that case examiners should have the full suite of measures available to them, including removal from the register. Case Examiners should not have the power to remove or suspend from the register without the registrant’s agreement. Notification of a concern raised to the regulator can be devasting to a registrant and render them unable to respond within the 28-day period proposed. The Interim Measures process allows for sufficient protection of the public. We would like to understand further what the training and qualifications are to become a Case Examiner if such serious sanctions are within their power.

You can read our full response to this consultation on our Statements and Consultation webpage.

May 2021

Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report – published 31st March
Tracy Nicholls, CEO, along with members of our Diversity Steering Group have responded to the publication of this report. We do not support the findings of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report, that institutional racism does not exist and is not one of the reasons for the inequalities, that black and ethnic minority people face, in the UK today. We feel that this view bears no resemblance to the lived experiences of those in our group, as well as many other College of Paramedics members, from black and ethnic minority backgrounds, including those that gave evidence to the Commission. Read the full response by the Diversity Steering Group here. 

April 2021

HCPC Health and Character Guidance consultation 
The College of Paramedics submitted a response to the proposed changes outlined in the HCPC Health and Character Consultation, which closed on the 12th April 2021. We believe that merging the Health and Character Policy document with the Health and Character Guidance (2017) to produce the new Guidance on Health and Character seems a sensible way forward that should be simpler and easier for applicants and registrants to follow. Other improvements highlighted in our response included the inclusion of case studies, in particular ones that outline potentially complex, but realistic circumstances are welcome additions, the inclusion of the ‘Do I need to self-refer to the HCPC’ infographic was another welcome addition. However, we did highlight several grammatical errors and provide further suggestions on how to improve this section for clarity. We felt that incorporating Standard 9.5 (Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics) into the Health and Character Guidance, aligning the two, is entirely appropriate. It is also appropriate to align the criteria for character declarations for both applicants and registrants. Finally, separation of the advice for education providers away from the applicant/registrant guidance we also felt was appropriate and a step in the right direction.  

Reforming the Mental Health Act white paper consultation
The College of Paramedics submitted a response to the Reforming the Mental Health Act White Paper Consultation, which closed on the 21st April 2021. This was a comprehensive document with some areas requiring specific knowledge and expertise. Our response was based on comment, conversation and collaboration with Paramedic Mental Health and Wellbeing Steering Group members, the National Ambulance Mental Health Leads Group and Mental Health and Ambulance Stakeholder Group colleagues. We commented on several areas of this document including supporting the need to embed the newly proposed principles into the MHA and the MHA code of practice, and that these principles should also be included in the undergraduate education of healthcare professionals, within postgraduate/advanced practice curriculum and embedded in training of the existing healthcare workforce also. We gave response to a range of questions on topics such as the MCA, detention, advanced choice documents, the introduction of a ‘nominated person’, the use of police custody and ambulance conveyance.  

There are several other consultations currently open that we are formulating our responses to, including the Regulating Healthcare Professionals, protecting the public (DHSC) and the Duty of Candour and Being Open (DoH, NI). To read our responses to all the consultations in full go to the Statements and Consultations webpage.  

March 2021

National Ambulance Clinical Supervision Framework
Following a recommendation by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) to the College of Paramedics, and a recommendation from the ‘Carter Report’ to the Association Ambulance Chief Executives the Ambulance Clinical Supervision Steering Group was formed. This Steering Group tasked a national working group to develop a framework for clinical supervision for all ambulance service staff and paramedics in all clinical settings. The working group has representatives from all 4 nations and St John Ambulance, and aims to publish this framework in 2021.

The Medical Management of Post-conducted Energy Devices (CED) in Police Custody – at a glance guidance.
The College of Paramedics has recently reviewed the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine guidance on the management of patients that have been subject to conducted electrical devices to ensure that it is robust and pertinent from a custody paramedic profession perspective.

Primary and Urgent Care Update
Now Health Education England’s First Contact Practitioner Roadmap to practice for Paramedics document has been published, a few enquiries are trickling through from those who have struggled to access some of the necessary e-learning modules. The link for the personalised care modules is here. The primary care specific modules are on the e-LfH website, don’t be put off or offended that the title is related to MSK and still has some heavy physiotherapy focus, this was the template for all professions, and it is the principles that are important, as outlined in the recent INSIGHT article, this cannot be changed quickly nor without significant cost. The College is developing further resources to support our members navigating the Roadmap, keep an eye on the Primary and Urgent Care webpage.

The College is also exploring some hurdles our members have encountered in Primary Care such as eligibility to undertake sample-taker training for cervical screening, also, if the College could or should contribute or influence any discussions in terms of employment issues relating to, for example redundancy or maternity pay? Although you should always speak to your Practice Manager first. The College would like to remind members that union representation (if you are a member), normally taken for granted within Ambulance Trusts should always be considered if or when transferring into Primary Care roles. You may wish to discuss continuing your union membership or sourcing an alternative. We strongly advise you give this serious thought.

Clinical Development workstream survey.
Finally, please ensure you look out for the Critical Care, and the Primary and Urgent Care questionnaires that are currently running, this will help shape our workstreams to ensure all our members in these areas are supported and given development opportunities. The results will be presented at the National Conference in May.

NHS England (NHSE/I) have recently informed the College their ’Looking After You’ team have expanded upon their free health and wellbeing coaching offer, #LookingAfterYouToo, to create a second initiative #LookingAfterYourTeam, offering dedicated coaching support to all those who lead, manage and coordinate teams in Primary Care settings in England. Follow this link to Primary Care Coaching NHS England » Looking after your team to access a range of resources, including social media assets, a video, PDF case studies and posters, website and email banners. Take a look here also, there are some great resources Primary Care coaching - assets.zip - Google Drive  

Ambulance Service Suicide Prevention workstream
For several months the College of Paramedics have been involved with a NHSEI led workstream aimed at suicide prevention in the ambulance sector. This work is includes colleagues from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives and their member organisations, The Ambulance Staff Charity, The University of East Anglia, Health Education England and Public Health England. Several documents have been produced and are due for publication in the coming months, these include a national Consensus Statement on suicide prevention, ‘What Next’ and ‘Implementation Guidance’ documents and a comprehensive Postvention Guidance produced in collaboration with The Samaritans specifically for the Ambulance Services.

February 2021

RCUK draft 'Emergency treatment of anaphylaxis guidelines for healthcare providers'
The College has undertaken a review of the latest Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK) guidelines on the emergency treatment of anaphylaxis guidelines for healthcare providers. Following a wider request for views, the College has made several recommendations which included:
• To include non-doctor roles (e.g. Specialist / Advanced Paramedic) within examples of those who may have the experience and knowledge of the safe use of IV vasopressors.
• To seek clarification on the RCUK position that to administer adrenaline as an emergency drug, you must be “working within the standards of the relevant regulator (e.g. Nursing & Midwifery Council; Health & Care Professionals Council)”. This statement appears at odds with schedule 19 of the human medicines regulation. The College of Paramedics recognises non-registered ambulance colleagues play a vital role in the prompt management of anaphylaxis in the community and therefore should not be excluded by the RCUK guidelines.

Response to HSIB ‘Thrombolysis Consultation’.
Following an investigation completed by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) the College of Paramedics was asked to comment on the draft report into heart attack care which includes the issue of thrombolysis and its place in the care of patients within ambulance services. Working with colleagues from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) the College has submitted its comments to HSIB and we await further communication on the publication date of this report.

Consultation response for the final recommendations on the urgent and emergency care (UEC) standards from the Clinically-led Review of NHS Standards (CRS).
Following a review by NHSE/I around the four-hour target for EDs, a set of recommendations were drafted and were circulated for comment by all the relevant organisations and interested parties, of which the College of Paramedics was one. The new recommendations are set to include ambulance response times, metrics on non-conveyance & hospital handover delays amongst others. The College provided a detailed response to the consultation which highlighted both areas of support and aspects of concern for the various proposed recommendations. In particular, the College welcomes measures that strive to improve ambulance response times, support appropriate non-conveyance to hospital and reduce hospital handover delays which clearly benefits both our members and our patients. However, the College highlighted that it is vital that new targets do not place unnecessary pressure on paramedics and ambulance clinicians to not convey patients to hospital. The College feels that safe non-conveyance is only possible with increased education, training and clinical feedback processes for paramedics and ambulance clinicians, coupled with 24/7 access to appropriate community treatment / social care pathways which are supported by access to senior clinicians for shared decision making.
Click here for more information. 

National Institute of Health Research Incubator for Emergency Medicine - update
I represent the College of Paramedics on this incubator which really has not been in existence for very long and, added to that over the past 15 months it has been relatively inactive due to COVID-19.

It is hosted by RCEM but involves researchers involved in emergency medicine from allied health professions, nursing, and medicine.

Click here for more information.  

Professor Rick Body has led the Incubator from the beginning and has decided to stand down so two new Co Chairs have been appointed this year:
• Professor Heather Jarman
• Dr Ed Carlton
Rick has done an amazing job getting this incubator up and running and we are grateful for all of his hard work and, we now look forward to working alongside Ed and Heather.

We had a meeting this week and are looking to get the activities of the Incubator back on track. This forum will offer future opportunities for people from a variety of healthcare professions interested in research in Emergency Medicine. I will keep you up to date with developments. Please note I am also looking for opportunities to collaborate with organisations who we can work with to develop resources for paramedics working in non-emergency medicine settings.

Professor Julia Williams FCPara, Head of Research, College of Paramedics

January 2021

The new year has started like any other for the College of Paramedic’s staff, with the writing of the Annual Report for the previous year. This report will detail all activities, achievements and the financial situation of the College at the end of 2020. It will be published later in 2021 to coincide with our AGM. January 2021 also brings a renewed focus on Covid19, building on the work that occurred in 2020. The College of Paramedics continues to make its position clear through press engagement, social media and corresponding with national organisations and government, on a range of issues such as PPE, vaccinations, ambulance handover delays and the need for adequate support for the mental health and wellbeing of ambulance staff and paramedics in all settings. Our Education Team are also committed to continuing to support our student member colleagues in all four nations of the UK, who are experiencing interruptions to their academic studies and clinical placements due to the ongoing pandemic. An update letter has been sent to all student members. Our Covid19 webpage has more information and updates, click here to read.

Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities
We are working in collaboration with the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities who are seeking the opinions of doctors, nurses and paramedics, to help them identify and understand the drivers behind disparities within the health service. As part of their ongoing work the Commission is currently running focus groups for the professions above, which will include a number of College members from around the UK. Click here to learn more.

Launch of Health Education England’s ‘A Roadmap to Practice’ for paramedics in primary care
The Roadmap identifies the standards of practice expected for those paramedics wanting to work in primary care roles and those who already do so. It outlines the route from entry into primary care to the First Contact Practitioner role, and on to Advanced Practice, whether by an academic route or by the development of a portfolio. The roadmap for paramedics will guide our primary care paramedics to evidence their skills, knowledge and attributes to demonstrate such capabilities, and to thus work towards recognition and inclusion on HEE’s Centre of Advancing Practice Directories. Click here to learn more. 

Any enquiries on the work of the College of Paramedics should be directed in the first instance to enquires@collegeofparamedics.co.uk