Committed, extremely passionate and dedicated to her volunteers

Nic Dunbar is a consummate professional who is the Head of Department for the Community Engagement Team (CET) within South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS). Since Nic has been the head of department we have seen it grow both in terms of schemes and in scope. Nic has developed their scope of practice so that volunteers have varying levels of competencies that mean we can continue our patient care across the spectrum of emergency calls.

She was Chair of the National Ambulance Services Responder Manager Forum for 7 years. During this time she worked in association with Futurequal to create a national qualification for both CFRs and Co Responders, and is now used by 7 other Ambulance Trusts. This gives some standardisation and allows for a smooth transition when CFR volunteers move to other schemes. She ensures that volunteers have a voice and embraces any change where the volunteers can make a difference.

As CFR numbers grew Nic worked with the company secretary to introduce a CFR Governor to sit on the Council of Governors, beginning in 2019. In April 2017 she ran a pilot for non injury falls and concern for welfare response for our low acuity patients. The aim of the pilot was to evolve and further develop an appropriate and clinically safe response to patients utilising our volunteers. This pilot assisted patients who have been assessed by the Clinical Support Desk (CSD) using NHS Pathways where once it had been determined that the patient has fallen but is not injured and only had a requirement for moving and handling the appropriate CFR’s were dispatched.

After a successful pilot the scheme has continued to grow and five years on those appropriately trained responders are now attending over 200 calls a month. Nic was part of a steering group, led by the CEO of South Central Ambulance Charity to create a Volunteering Strategy which has been adopted by SCAS and brings volunteering to the forefront of how SCAS and the Charity will continue to work and grow volunteers to enhance the services provided both for patients and staff.

Nic has a can-do approach and will always rise to any ask that she is tasked to do. This was shown in the COVID response where Nic re-profiled her volunteers to change from responding to helping SCAS in the delivery of PPE, support with our vaccinations and helping with staff welfare at our acutes with offering a drink and a snack whilst crews waited to handover the patients.

She has also been instrumental in co-ordinating the Military Aid to Civil Authorities (MACA) support to the trust from the military. This enabled them to utilise our Co Responders, military personnel who volunteer in their spare time, to drive our frontline vehicles and assist the paramedic throughout a very challenging pandemic and this did not go unnoticed.

Nic is highly committed, extremely passionate, dedicated to her volunteers and ensuring that they are representing and engaging with the NHS and SCAS.

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