- London Ambulance Service Charitable Fund (£142,000)
The London Heart Starters Campaign will use a data-driven approach to provide access to life saving equipment and training within 150 priority neighbourhoods across London.
The programme has the potential to reduce health inequalities given the targeted nature of the campaign and aims to:
- Install at least 200 defibrillators over two years.
- Recruit and support 200 public access defibrillator guardians.
- Train local communities in performing CPR and defibrillation.
- Scottish Ambulance Service Endowment Fund (£142,000)
The Young Minds Save Lives (YMSL) project will build on the success of Phase One (initially funded by an NHS Charities Together Ambulance Grant) which engaged primarily with schools to equip 600 young people aged 13-14 years in Glasgow with lifesaving skills.
Phase Two will enable this work to expand into communities across the Greater Glasgow area, reaching more and a wider range of young people living in areas with high levels of deprivation and health inequalities. The project focuses activities to meet local needs, and will develop bespoke training with young people, that can be sustained in communities.
- South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust Fund (£142,000)
Building community resilience through volunteering and community services has two areas of focus:
- Availability, Accessibility and Readiness – increasing community preparedness to health emergencies, with particular attention to underserved areas by enhancing the reach of Community First Responders, and extending a Defibrillator Project Manager’s role to develop work programmes that will help increase the number of Public Access Defibrillations in the South West of England.
- Confidence and Competence – looking to improve individual capability and community preparedness through the development of a Community Ambassador volunteer role to deliver basic life support training within the community.
- East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust Charitable Funds (£142,000)
The EEAST Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Improvement programme is designed to enhance and optimise the chain of survival with an innovative and novel approach by:
- Piloting a UK first use of live video by Advanced Paramedics, through the GoodSAM Instant On Scene app, to support bystanders and rescuers to deliver high quality CPR and use a defibrillator prior to an ambulance.
- Introduce a Community Defibrillator Administrator to ensure rescue-readiness of defibrillators across the region, support guardians and increase registrations on The Circuit.
- Develop an Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest data registry to support with real time intelligence on cardiac arrest and support with identifying areas of inequality.
- Implement a Cardiac Arrest Rescuer Engagement (CARE) support and aftercare service to provide vital support to bystanders, co-survivors and survivors involved with a cardiac arrest.
- Isle of Wight NHS Trust Charitable Funds (£97,305)
This project focuses on their Small Island, Big Heart Project comprising of three areas of focus:
- Delivering CPR training to the local community – ensuring that the local community has the skills, knowledge and confidence to respond in the event of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).
- Improving public access defibrillator (PAD) Governance – ensuring that the community has the tools required to perform effective CPR in an emergency such as well maintained, unlocked, emergency ready defibrillators.
- Pilot of a Life After Cardiac Arrest Group- to support the development and delivery of a strategic recovery and support group of survivors of and bystanders to an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
- South Central Ambulance Charity (£142,000)
Community First Response and Local Community Impact funding will deliver a 19-month project that aims to improve outcomes for patients experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, focusing on two areas:
- Upgrading older defibrillators in Volunteer Responder kits and purchasing four CFR vehicles to ensure on-going reach into rural and underserved communities.
- Expanding basic lifesaving skills training into deprived communities where health inequalities are prevalent and demand on the NHS is most significant.
- Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health & Social Care Trust (£142,000)
Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Data Development and Register Building
The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust is focused on responding to locally identified needs by developing an OHCA registry to understand response times, bystander response, defibrillator availability to inform an evidenced based improvement programme.
The project will look to identify and respond to areas of inequality and be delivered through a Clinical Practice Lead for Acute Care.
The data drawn from the OHCA registry will identify hot spots, defib deserts and evaluate coverage of CFRs to better build links with community groups.
- South East Coast Ambulance Service Charitable Fund (£142,000)
Community Resuscitation Officer Project
The South East Coast Ambulance Charity will employ two Community Resuscitation Officers to support two strands of activity including Basic Life Support and defibrillator training in the community.
The project will focus on geographical communities, charity-based groups, schools and other educational environments, youth groups, and faith groups.
It will also focus on improving Community Public Access Defibrillator (CPAD) governance.
- West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust General Charity (£141,970)
The ‘Improving survival from cardiac arrest project West Midlands’ takes place between September 2025 – March 2027 and involves funding for a Band 7 Community Ambassador for 18 months.
It supports two strands of activity including basic life support and defibrillator training in the community. Strong links already exist with places of worship, and this project hopes to build and expand on these strong relationships.
The project will additionally focus on improving community public access defibrillator (CPAD) governance.
- Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust Charities (£142,000)
Through the recruitment of a new two-year Community Resilience and Engagement Officer (CREO) – a role inspired by the North East Ambulance Service’s Positive Action Officer – YAS will be equipped with dedicated resource to expand existing programmes into underserved communities, establish train-the-trainer partnerships and increase community public access defibrillator coverage in priority areas.
- North East Ambulance Services Trust Fund (£142,000)
Expansion of Community First Responder schemes in North East England
The project will take place over two years between April 2026 – March 2028 and will respond to recommendations from their Trust funded CFR Review and implementation planning taking place between May 2025 – March 2026.
The aim is to increase recruitment, training, diversification and utilisation of CFRs as well as improving support structures for CFR schemes.
- North West Ambulance Service NHS Charitable Fund (£142,000)
Maximising the effectiveness of community defibrillator coverage in the North West
Taking a targeted approach to bring ‘offline’ defibrillators back into use, the NWAS Charitable Fund project will work with existing guardians to provide support and equipment. Basic lifesaving skills training, delivered by trusted community groups will result in a sustainable increase in skills and confidence to respond to health emergencies in areas experiencing health inequalities across the North West.
- Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust Charity (£142,000)
A Nation of Lifesavers – supporting early CPR and defibrillation across Wales
The project will involve the recruitment of two posts to tackle health inequalities:
- The project will pilot a new approach to cardiac arrest review, by employing an OHCA Clinical Review clinician to ensure learning and opportunities for improvement are identified across the chain of survival.
- A new “train-the-trainer” model amongst WAST’s volunteer cohort will be piloted to provide bystander CPR sessions for the public. These sessions would be delivered by WAST volunteers, with the project delivered by a new Training Support Officer.
