St John Ambulance - Homeless Service

Updated 28 September 2022

St John Ambulance Homeless Service (SJAHS) is a community health service that provides care and treatment for those who are homeless or vulnerably housed in Brighton and Hastings.

They have been providing healthcare to the homeless population in Sussex for over 20 years.

The service operates from a mobile treatment unit in both Brighton and Hastings and a community building in Hastings called the Seaview Centre.

SJAHS provides health and outreach services which are delivered by highly trained staff and volunteers to people whose needs are not easily met by regular GP services.

Services provided include specialist wound care, treatment for skin disorders, minor ailment assessment, advocacy of health services and GP registration, first aid, harm reduction, flu jabs every winter, smoking cessation, Blood Borne Viruses (BBV) support and signposting, mental health first aid and signposting, pregnancy testing and signposting to sexual health clinics. SJAHS works closely with the rough sleeping initiative team (teams set up by the government in various councils who have been given funds by the government to provide local support for those living on the streets). They provide homeless people with sleeping bags and get people into temporary accommodation.

In 2021 SJAHS gave 1200 presentations to service users across Sussex, with less than half of these registered with a GP.

The provider’s website describes the service as a ‘roving health outreach service’. At the time of the inspection there were 45 volunteers and four employed staff.

The service registered with the Care Quality Commission in December 2019 and this was the first inspection.

The service is registered to provide the treatment of disease, disorder or injury, and diagnostic and screening procedures regulated activities. There was a registered manager in post at the time of the inspection.

The provider had a training team which provided first aid training to professionals and the homeless community, but this service did not fall within scope of regulation by CQC.

Updated 28 September 2022

This was the service’s first inspection. We rated it as good because:

• Staff provided good care and treatment. Staff worked well together for the benefit of service users, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information.
• Staff controlled infection risks well. Staff assessed risks and acted on them by signposting service users appropriately to GPs and other services as needed.
• Staff treated service users with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to service users.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of service users’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for treatment.
• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of service users receiving treatment. Staff were clear about their roles and accountability. The service engaged well with the service users and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However:

• The provider was in the process of recruiting to a new nurse and a podiatrist post. The manager told us they had contacted some recruitment agencies and posted the vacancies on various websites.

• The provider needs to improve on the staff mandatory training compliance because only 69% of the staff had completed their mandatory training This meant that the provider could not always be assured staff were suitably skilled and competent to carry out their role.

• The provider was not routinely completing audits of their supplies in both Brighton and Hastings and therefore several first aid dressings were out of date or about to go out of date.

Updated 28 September 2022