Holding tight as The Air Ambulance Service dies*

It’s a weird thing being a whistleblower and still having none of your colleagues realise who you are, especially after serious allegations have broken in the press. Whenever can I reveal my identity? Will I ever be able to? Should I even want to?

Somehow it’s almost two months after the front-page Sunday Times article. Frustratingly, those responsible for this mess are still in charge and show no signs of going voluntarily. It was alleged that the trustees and in particular the chairman are too close to the CEO and his trusty deputy to take sufficient action to resolve a situation which places the charity in peril.

Indeed, I’ve heard wilder rumours that they are compromised from how previous allegations submitted to the Charity Commission – such as the one involving a five-figure ‘loan’ to deputy CEO Alexandra Pope – were resolved. Whether or not there is any truth in that, I know that neither myself nor any of my colleagues have been contacted by the trustees to get some sense of the internal mood.

These is the trustee board listed on the Charity Commissions website for The Air Ambuance Service for the financial year ending 2016.

• John Leonard Williams (Chair)
• Michael Burgoyne
• Paul Wilson
• Chris Faircliffe
• Royston Jones
• Philip Holdcroft
• Neil Bandtock

If these people are still on the board – if any of you aren’t just contact me on Twitter so I can remove you – then they should be seen as culpable for the death of the charity if and when that occurs. And if there is continued inaction then it will die, let there be no doubt about that.

Apparently there is an internal inquiry to look into the health of the internal culture. However, if that’s the case then those leading the inquiry have only spoken to a very limited amount of people within the charity. It now also turns out that they have been contacted to produce marketing material for us. How can they be trusted as objective when it’s in their financial interest to maintain a good relationship? A depressing but recurring feature of The Air Ambulance Service is people being brought in at expense to seemingly serve the purposes of the top team rather than the actual charity. (For those conducting the inquiry, be assured that we await the final report with very keen interest, and shall report to the Charity Commission if a whitewash takes place.)

On that note, it turns out that Crisis PR support to keep a lid on the Sunday Times scandal cost the charity a whopping £21,000.

How would those who donated that large sum of money feel if they knew it had been used to ensure that the reputations of Andy Williamson and Alexandra Pope were protected as much as possible? That £21,000 given to us in good faith didn’t help us fly any missions. It didn’t rescue anyone or provide vital medical treatment. It didn’t even help the charity take steps to clean up before the Charity Commission reports back and potentially damages our reputation even more.

How are the remaining staff who aren’t responsible for this grotesque farce? We’re in a holding pattern. Well, some of us anyway. Over half a dozen more have resigned from marketing and fundraising alone this year. They include the In Memory Manager whose department brought in a large proportion of income, the Digital Head — that area supposedly the ‘future’ of the charity – and the Corporate Partnerships Manager, who could have arranged national corporate partnerships which are necessary if Children’s Air Ambulance is to survive once its two new helicopters arrive at the cost of an extra £32 million over seven years. Instead the biggest corporate partner has suspended its previous relationship with us after the Sunday Times investigation, which is the exact opposite of what is needed.

Financially we will struggle to make as much this year as in 2017, given the loss of so many skilled and experienced staff, never mind the idea of raising several million more. Our income at the end of 2016 was £16.3 million. Splitting the £32 million over seven years would mean that this year we will have to spend an extra £4.57m, which would be a 28% increase in income.

Here’s a simple question which I beg everybody reading this to email Andy Williamson — andy.williamson@theairambulanceservice.org.uk — and Alexandra Pope — alexandra.pope@theairambulanceservice.org.uk — and ask: where is the extra £4.57m going to come from this year?

Because one of the worst things of this whole sorry mess is that none of us working for the charity has heard an answer to this that makes any sense. I don’t believe that they do have an answer. Instead I think they are just preparing themselves to weather the next storm and get through that, without any thoughts about the long term. Even if the ‘long term’ is rapidly looming into view. Each day that they remain at the helm, and those supposedly overseeing them refuse to remove the pair, increases the risk that The Air Ambulance Service won’t survive beyond one or two years. For those of us at the charity who wish to move on, it’s a tragedy playing out in slow motion that we are helpless to stop.**

* In terms of the use of the word ‘dies’: I don’t believe that this has to be the case, but if nothing is done by the trustees or anyone in a position of power — such as the Charity Commission — then let’s be blunt about it, that is the situation we face. Our colleagues, those who support us, and those we have helped and could help deserve much, much more.

** If you want to help, then please sign our petition which now has over 200 signatures mainly from current and ex members of staff.