Public benefit The Trustees have complied with the duty under the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission which can be illustrated as follows: Under the list of descriptions of purposes in the Charities Act 2011, KSS falls under the description of the advancement of health and saving lives; a broad description which extends beyond treatment and provision of care to the provision of items or services and facilities to ease suffering or assist recovery of people or provide comfort for patients. The main activities undertaken to further purposes for the public benefit is the provision of expert pre-hospital emergency treatment and care. The nature of our work means the missions are often of a highly traumatic nature and we are proud of our world-class team of highly specialised doctors and paramedics who are driven every day by our purpose of saving lives and ensuring the best possible patient outcomes. This wide public benefit is inclusive of all. As well as the direct public benefit for those who have required our services, the wider public are reassured that the service is available in their area. Our fleet of helicopters and rapid response vehicles can transport our doctors and paramedics to our patients 24/7, 365 days per year. There are times where transporting our specialised teams via ground response is more appropriate as we cover very highly populated areas of Kent, Surrey and Sussex. Weather also affects if an aircraft can be deployed, and so having the option of rapid response vehicles ensures we continue to challenge ourselves to provide the best method of service delivery.
70
As a part of the patients, often long, recovery, we facilitate base visits and ongoing dialogue to enable patients to gain a greater understanding of our intervention with them. Our crews are specialists in pre-hospital emergency care and KSS offers training opportunities through secondments and employment opportunities to ensure this highly specialised knowledge is shared within the wider medical community. KSS participates in clinical audit and research to ensure the public benefit from pre-hospital interventions is led by science and to ensure a continuous cycle of improvement and innovation. This research is shared widely across other pre-hospital service providers ensuring KSS has an impact and public benefit on both a national and international platform. KSS, in alignment with our collaboration value, advocates for partnership working across the sector and regularly attends Air Ambulances UK facilitated groups to come together with other Air Ambulance charities sharing learning to enhance public benefit. KSS offers a wide range of volunteering opportunities which are known to have a public benefit with regards social contact and learning new skills. We engage with our audiences and communities through our social media channels, to share key educational messaging (e.g. in support of Restart a Heart Day) and raise the profile of our service.
