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Devon Air Ambulance Trust ANNUAL REPORT 2009

real people saving real lives

Contents P3 P4 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P12 P13 P14 P15

Real people Saving real lives Objectives for 2009 Achievements in 2009 Communications and publications Community and volunteers Summary financial information With thanks Giving with confidence How you can help Vision, mission, values

Introduction The Devon Air Ambulance Trust (DAAT), a registered charity, is responsible for funding Devon’s two Air Ambulances, which provide the relief of injury or sickness through rapid treatment and transport to a hospital or other care facility.

The service is available to anyone and everyone in Devon and neighbouring counties, resident or visitor. There is a set criteria, with the decision on whether to deploy the helicopter or not depending on factors including clinical need, urgency, accessibility and distance to hospital.

Our deep gratitude goes to the countless members of the public, the business community and professional services who provide a constant source of inspiration through such a wide range of fundraising events and other supporting activities and who truly value the service and raise money to keep the Devon Air Ambulance helicopters flying.

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2009 DEVON AIR AMBULANCE TRUST

Real people The Devon Air Ambulance Trust is clearly an essential service in and around the county of Devon. Less obvious are the wide range of medical, operational, fundraising and voluntary activities that form a series of interdependent and highly supportive relationships, combining to achieve the goals of the Trust.

Our two Air Ambulances each have a team of six specially trained, highly skilled paramedics and two pilots – all experienced in dealing with the most challenging and traumatic circumstances. This is the frontline of the service but they receive essential support from the HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Services) despatch team who identify the 999 calls most suitable for Air Ambulance deployment, therefore maximising the efficiency of the operations.

The day-to-day work of the Trust is carried out by a small dedicated team, overseen by a senior management team. The management team in turn is supported by a board of Trustees who ensure good governance, best practice, accountability and transparency. This all contributes to DAAT being recognised as one of the best managed charities in the country.

Operationally, the Trust is supported by a number of external companies: • Bond Air Services, from whom we lease our North Devon helicopter.

• Devon & Cornwall Constabulary, who maintain and pilot the purpose-designed EC135 owned by the Trust, based in Exeter.

• Eurocopter UK, the helicopter manufacturer.

• South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust who employ our superb team of paramedics and deploy the service on a day-to-day basis.

No reference to ‘real people’ can be made, however, without mention of our amazing volunteers who give us the gift of their time and anchor the service to the community we serve.

DEVON AIR AMBULANCE TRUST ANNUAL REVIEW 2009

We fly an average of

5

missions per day

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“It is difficult to express my gratitude in words. The presence of the Air Ambulance and the crew made a potentially life-threatening situation safe and controlled. I will always be in your debt. Thank you. ”

Fiona

Fiona Fiona had been walking for just over three hours with a group of Ten Tors trainees from Westlands School. In open moorland about 4 kms away from any roads, she lost her balance in mud and fell over, breaking her left leg.

Fiona recalled: “The crew were so calm and professional that I had no opportunity to be afraid.

It was a nasty break which needed to be treated quickly and this swift treatment would not have happened without the Air Ambulance. It is difficult to express my gratitude in words. The presence of the Air Ambulance and the crew made a potentially life-threatening situation safe and controlled. I will always be in your debt.”

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2009 DEVON AIR AMBULANCE TRUST

Saving real lives Tammy Dad Shaun wrote to DAAT, saying: "Hi, just wanted to say thanks to the people that were involved in saving the life of my 6 year old daughter Tammy of Minehead. On a Monday evening after she had a very high fever, she fitted, turned blue and stopped breathing. She is now fine and back to school thanks to yourselves and everyone involved with her recovery.”

Wayne Hazel Dean, Wayne’s mother, contacted DAAT by email to say: “In March 2008 your helicopter kindly flew my son, Wayne Burton, from Exeter Race Course to the local hospital. Wayne, a jockey, had taken a bad fall and with a suspected back injury and loss of consciousness, time was of the essence. With your help he was able to receive immediate attention, which proved vital at that time. Wayne suffered a broken T4 in his back and is currently in a wheelchair. But, he is still here with us and I am so grateful to everyone who has made that possible.”

Wayne

Braydon Braydon was just two days old when he became extremely poorly. He was initially airlifted from Honiton to Exeter before being transferred to Derriford in Plymouth. Needing specialist medical treatment, he was then airlifted by Royal Navy helicopter to Glenfield Hospital in Leicester.

Braydon was diagnosed with Streptococcus Pneumococcal and Septicaemia and also treated for Meningitis. After nearly a week of intensive treatment he was transferred back to the RD&E Exeter’s neo natal unit. After five long weeks in hospital, Braydon was able to go home.

Sarah

Sarah

The total cost of a mission averages

£3,300

Sarah was involved in a head-on collision on the A35. She was cut out of her vehicle and airlifted to hospital. She said, “If it wasn’t for the crew, I can safely say I would not be here today. I recall little of my accident, but when I was semi-conscious the only voice, which was calm and reassuring, was that of air paramedic Adrian Parker. The 11 minutes it took to fly from Axminster to Exeter went by in a blur – thank god!

Visiting the airbase was a very emotional day for me. While I knew it would be a tough visit, meeting everyone involved in my rescue was one of the best things I could have done to help me get over the emotions I had been feeling. I couldn’t believe how at ease they made me feel.

How they deal with things like my rescue, every day, must be amazing... which is just what they are. Thank you so much.”

Braydon

DEVON AIR AMBULANCE TRUST ANNUAL REVIEW 2009

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“You airlifted my son Conor.

We were involved in a road traffic collision and he was flown to hospital.

I wanted to thank you all for the wonderful service you provided to him and we will be forever grateful.

Thank you. ” Natasha, Conor’s mum

Objectives for 2009 • Official launch of the Steve Ford Air Base.

• Maintain the Trust’s fundraising income through the economic downturn.

• Develop a full and fresh programme of events in conjunction with the BBC Radio Devon Air Ambulance Appeal including one for National Air Ambulance Day. • Develop a social media strategy including staff training to maximise the potential of Twitter, Facebook etc.

• Celebrate the ‘coming of age’ of Devon Air Ambulance Trust, 18 years after the first flight.

• Develop Phase 2 of the Junior Crew Club website area.

• Review office requirements of the Trust with a view to streamlining operations and improving workflow.

• Review data processing and establish clear operational guidelines and training.

• Establish a team of lottery canvassers.

Strategies for achieving the objectives • Further improve communications capability and develop a meaningful, effective programme of executive meetings.

• Improve engagement with potential donors through clarity of requests and means of communications.

• Clearly identify staff training requirements and source training opportunities.

• Streamline business processes to ensure the best use of resources.

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2009 DEVON AIR AMBULANCE TRUST

Achievements in 2009 The Steve Ford Air Base – plans for a dedicated Air Ambulance base in North Devon came to fruition in 2009 with the completion of a purposebuilt facility named in honour of a former DAAT pilot in time for an official opening in January 2010. Thanks to a commendably collaborative approach the building was completed on time and in budget.

After lengthy negotiations and an indepth presentation by the charity, BBC Radio Devon agreed to support the Trust as their adopted charity of the year. The joint appeal, aimed at raising £600,000, was announced at the official opening of the Steve Ford Air Base.

Air Ambulance Charity of the Year Awards – DAAT was short-listed for the Air Ambulance Charity of the Year Award at the Business and Health Awards.

DAAT Lottery – our own in-house lottery is growing from strength to strength and 2009 saw us sign up our 18,000th member.

Business process – an investment was made in cleansing the main database to ensure all contact details were up to date.

Website – launched in 2009, this incorporates interactive features, an online shop, links to social media and a members-only area for the Junior Crew Club. DAAT personnel played a significant role in designing the site, ensuring a future development capability.

Board of Trustees – Long-standing trustee Jackie Dawkins was appointed Chairman of the Trust in October 2010 with Jack Lomas becoming Vice Chairman. During the year the trustees received specialist governance training.

In 2009

1106 people were flown to hospital

Volunteers’ Manager – Philip King was appointed as DAAT’s first Volunteers’ Manager in recognition of the importance volunteers play in the charity’s success.

New crew – 4 new crew members joined the service, to replace retiring crew and maintain the 12-strong paramedic team.

The press office – placed a number of extensive, high quality articles about the service and its personnel in the national media, as well as carrying on the busy day-to-day duties.

Flying experience for HEMS despatch team – during the year SWAST increased the time available for clinical governance training enabling us to provide invaluable operational flight time for the Air Ambulance despatch team.

DEVON AIR AMBULANCE TRUST ANNUAL REVIEW 2009

Philip King

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“Without their help I’m sure I would not be here today.

I’m proud that they came to my help in my hour of need. ” David

Paramedics Paul Robinson and Nigel Hare

Communications and publications • One of the biggest developments in communications over the past year has been the charity’s increased profile using social media. Through our Facebook group we have made contact with many patients who had not been aware that, because of patient confidentiality, we do not automatically know who has been treated or airlifted. Through Twitter we have been able to generate donations and in kind support as well as raising the charity’s profile to a completely new audience.

• Following a tender and selection process, we appointed Devon-based Optix Solutions to develop our new website at www.daat.org which we were delighted to launch in August 2009. The results have been outstanding, with significantly higher visitor numbers and a big increase in income from the online shop and donations.

• Our HeliPad magazine is produced every quarter, with Junior HeliPad three times a year.

• We regularly give talks to schools and youth groups and run a Junior Crew Club.

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2009 DEVON AIR AMBULANCE TRUST

Community & volunteers Ask any chief executive of a charitable organisation and they’ll tell you they can’t do without the support of the people who “donate the gift of time.”

At a time of economic downturn the importance of our volunteers and community fundraising teams is essential in helping us maintain funds and ensure we keep our two lifesaving helicopters in the air.

Our volunteers come from many walks of life and the work they do for us takes on many guises – from working in our local charity shops, to looking after collection boxes, giving talks and running stalls at the rural shows. The work they do is invaluable. Having volunteers all over the county means we are able to reach out into the community and gain access to people with great local knowledge, who spread the word about Devon Air Ambulance and galvanise further support.

Community fundraising is absolutely vital to the sustainability of the charity and in uncertain economic times it is even more so.

Again, the range of activities is vast, from traditional fundraising events like fun runs to the more unusual and obscure local challenges like worm-charming and bolving (imitating the sound of a rutting red-deer stag!).

We can’t put a price on the invaluable work of our volunteers and supporters all over the county but we know we can’t do it without them!

There can be no better example than Ian Shere Massey who gives talks on behalf of the charity, attends events and receives cheques and helps around the office picking up any job that needs doing.

46%

of missions are to medical emergencies such as heart attacks or strokes

Ian said recently “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do a job I love and enjoy. I can’t think of doing a job that’s more rewarding and enables me to meet such fantastic people!”

DEVON AIR AMBULANCE TRUST ANNUAL REVIEW 2009

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Summary financial information We were very pleased to maintain our income during a tough year, economically. Primarily this is because we have stuck to our core fundraising strategy of providing as many straightforward ways to support the charity at all levels as possible and our primary focus remains on encouraging and supporting fundraising by the community rather than trying to do it all ourselves.

Overall income in 2009 was £4,530,000, a 9% increase on the previous year. Excluding unpredictable legacy income, all other streams were in aggregate 6% higher than for 2008. This is most encouraging and exceeded our expectations.

Income from donations, excluding legacies, together with funds raised by community groups increased by 10% in 2009 to £1,650,000. Legacy income increased from £986,000 in 2008 to £1,189,000, which was above the £800,000 forecast for the year.

A new lottery sales team was appointed in 2009 and this paid dividends both in a rise in player numbers and in the percentage paying by standing order. Although the year’s figures show an increase in the cost of sales as a result, it is anticipated this investment will result in a steady improvement in the return on investment as the rate of recruitment outstrips the attrition rate. The contribution to the Charity increased to £569,000 against £556,000 in 2008 equating to 66p from every £1 played. We regularly benchmark our performance against similar lotteries run by other charities through our membership of the Lotteries Council and on this basis believe we achieve a rate of return that compares very favourably with the best performers.

Gross income from shops and merchandise sales in 2009 increased by £47,000 (7%) over 2008. Net income increased by 57% from £61,000 to £96,000. In part this was due to the introduction of Gift Aid on donated goods part way through the year but also to improvements in shop layouts and staff and volunteer training.

Benchmarking against data available from the Association of Charity Shops indicates our performance is in line with national averages so it is our aim to improve on this.

Whilst the Charity’s outgoings are fairly predictable, the sharp rises in fuel costs during the year led to a steep rise in operating costs for a while, adding more than £100,000 to expenses during the year. Even so, this was well within the parameters of the worst case scenario planning we undertake to test our ability to weather unanticipated drops in income or cost increases and there was no danger of having to cut services thanks to a prudent reserves policy.

The Trustees deem it prudent to have the security of reserves to enable improvement and development of the service to be made with confidence where there may be a timing delay between implementing more costly operational activities and the response from the public to any fundraising appeal.

The Trustees have reviewed the level of reserves (that is those funds that are freely available) that the Charity ought to have in light of the intention to purchase a replacement aircraft in 2013 and re-affirmed that the minimum level of free reserves of £700,000 be maintained. This is based on worst case scenario projections such as a dramatic reduction in legacy income and a 20% fall in all other income streams. This minimum level of cover will give a lead time of 8 months in which to implement appropriate action.

We are looking forward to a very exciting year following our successful bid for the BBC Radio Devon charity appeal, launched in January 2010. This awareness and fundraising partnership will span the next 12 to 18 months and presents a fabulous opportunity for the charity to increase understanding of what we do and how we operate.

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2009 DEVON AIR AMBULANCE TRUST

Gross income (£000s)

2009

2008

Legacies Community fundraising Lottery Shops & merchandise Donations Investments & interest DAAT run events

1189 1196 858 680 454 72 81 4,530

986 997 803 633 498 145 80 4,142

Fundraising return per £1

2009

£3.22

2008

£3.25

Gross income £000s 1200 2009

1000

2008

800 600 400 200

er Sh ch o an ps di & se Do na tio ns In ve st m e DA Int nts e AT re & ru st n ev en ts

M

Lo tt er y

Le ga c

ie s Co fu mm nd u ra ni isi ty ng

0

Expenditure Cost of income generation

2009

Helicopter

2008

Governance

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

£000s DEVON AIR AMBULANCE TRUST ANNUAL REVIEW 2009

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“I recall little of my accident, except the reassuring voice of an Air Ambulance paramedic, who was calming and reassuring. The 11 minutes it took to fly from Axminster to Exeter went by in a blur – thank God!” Sarah

With thanks It’s impossible to be able to thank every single supporter, whether that be individual, club, association or company, but we wanted to take the opportunity to say a BIG thank you to everyone who has and continues to support the charity. There would not be one Air Ambulance in Devon, let alone two, if it were not for your generosity! As well as dozens of clubs and associations, here are just some of the organisations who made a real difference in 2009.

• • • • • • • •

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Bovey Castle El-Nashar Dental Practice Eurocopter UK Lloyds TSB Commercial, Barnstaple Lord Haldon Hotel Marks & Spencer, Plymouth Mazda UK Mickey Evans Testimonial

• • • • • • •

Mid Devon Gazette Miller Countrywide Pencarrie Plymouth & South Devon Co-operative South Hams District Council West Devon Borough Council Vospers

Giving with conf idence The people of Devon contribute over £4 million each year to keep their two Air Ambulances flying and are entitled to know how their money is being spent. The Devon Air Ambulance Trust (DAAT) and its employees are members of many professional bodies, including: •

FundRaising Standards Board

•

The Lotteries Council

•

Association of Air Ambulances

•

Association of Charity Shops

•

Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)

•

A number of local business associations and networks.

Other affiliations include: •

DAAT’s Chief Executive is a Member of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations.

•

The Fundraising Director is a Member of the Institute of Fundraising.

•

The Finance Manager is a Member of the Charity Finance Directors’ Group (CFDG).

Every £1 lottery membership gives back

66p

to the charity

DEVON AIR AMBULANCE TRUST ANNUAL REVIEW 2009

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How you can help Put on a fundraising event Would you like to hold your own fundraising event? We can support you by providing posters, publicity and general advice. Or if you would prefer to do a sponsored event such as a headshave, parachute jump, slim or swim to name just a few, we can help with a sponsorship pack too.

Become a volunteer We really couldn’t do without our fantastic band of volunteers. Our volunteers’ roles vary from servicing our collection boxes, attending events, helping in our charity shops and cheque presentations, to giving talks to groups about the work we undertake. If you have time on your hands, either on a regular or occasional basis, why not find out about donating the gift of time?

Visit our charity shops Our charity shops are essential in not only raising funds, but also as a base in the heart of the community which we serve. The goods we sell in our shops are predominantly donated. This could be good quality new or second-hand clothing, bric-a-brac, CDs, DVDs, or furniture, to name just a few examples. We do offer a collection service for large amounts and for furniture.

Join our lottery If you are a tax payer, Gift Aid means an additional 28p in every £1 back to the charity

We run a successful in-house lottery, which costs only £1 a week per entry.

This has a top weekly prize of £1,350, with second and third prizes of £135 and a further 10 runners-up prizes of £50. Since it started in September 2001, it has contributed over £4.5 million to the charity.

Recycle for us

28p

We pride ourselves in being able to make money from items that are no longer wanted. As well as our shops, mentioned above, we can also turn the following into cash: • Mobile phones • Used stamps • Used printer cartridges

Corporate support If your company makes charitable donations annually or on a regular basis why not consider supporting us? Do your staff choose a charity of the year?

Please consider us. You may be a Trustee or involved with a charitable trust which makes regular gifts. Again, why not contact us and find out more?

For information on any of the above and more, please get in touch.

See contact details on the back page. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Mission, vision & values Vision Our vision for Devon is to have an outstanding, independent and efficient air ambulance service, available to all, 24 hours a day.

Mission Our mission is to relieve sickness and injury in the county of Devon by assisting in the provision of an Air Ambulance Service.

Values All our activities are informed by our values, which include community, voluntary service, professionalism, independence and availability to all.

Community – the Trust’s roots are firmly planted within the needs and wishes of the community we serve.

Volunteers – the Trust recognises that its volunteers are essential to the charity through their contribution to fundraising, community involvement, public relations, administration, practical support and campaigning and will invest in training and developing our volunteer force.

Professionalism –the Trust is committed to professionalism in all aspects of its work in order to ensure it delivers the best possible service within the resources available.

Independence – the Trust is completely independent of central or local government.

Availability to all – the Devon Air Ambulance service is free of charge and available to everyone.

DEVON AIR AMBULANCE TRUST ANNUAL REVIEW 2009

If everyone in Devon donated just

£3.65

it would pay for the service for a year

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Registered Office Devon Air Ambulance Trust 5 Sandpiper Court Harrington Lane Exeter Devon EX4 8NS

Telephone: 01392 466666 Fax: 01392 464329 Email: info@daat.org Website: www.daat.org

Charity Reg. No. 1077998

Company Reg. No. 3855746

Photographs contained in this Annual Report courtesy of: Tony Cobley (www.tonycobley.com), Eurocopter UK, Nicola Courtier, Gerry Gleadall, Billy Griffiths, South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust

We would like to thank Ashley House Printing Co Ltd for their generous support with the printing of this Annual Report.

Telephone: 01392 202320 www.ashley-house.co.uk Designed by www.diane-robertson.com