South Central Ambulance Service upgrades recognised in CQC reports
Ratings improve for 999 control room and emergency care services
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has recognised significant improvements at South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) in two newly published reports covering the Trust’s 999 operations and emergency field services.
The reports have been released today (19th December) and acknowledge upgraded ratings for both service areas following substantial efforts to address concerns raised in past inspections.
David Eltringham, Chief Executive of SCAS, expressed pride in the results and thanked staff for their commitment to making changes.
“This is a major achievement, acknowledging the hard work in recent years and giving us a great start to 2026. It has been a huge team effort and on behalf of the executive team and Board I want to say thank you and well done to everyone at SCAS,” Eltringham said.
The CQC inspection found the emergency operations centre service now holds an overall rating of "good," up from "requires improvement." Most domains, including safe, effective, caring, and responsive, were upgraded to "good." However, the "well-led" category remains rated as "requires improvement."
The emergency and urgent care service also showed progress, improving its overall rating from "inadequate" to "requires improvement." While domains like safe and well-led were upgraded from "inadequate" to "requires improvement," effective, responsive, and caring ratings were marked as "good."
Commenting on the improvements, Amanda Williams, CQC deputy director for hospitals, secondary, and specialist care in the South East, highlighted key areas of progress, including addressing a previous warning notice, better staff response times, and innovative approaches such as the 'release to respond' initiative, which significantly improved ambulance response times.
Despite the progress, the CQC also identified areas requiring further work, such as medicines management and creating a culture where staff feel confident to speak up. Helen Young, Chief Nurse and Executive Director of Patient Care at SCAS, acknowledged these challenges.
“It’s right for the CQC to highlight that there’s more to do in these areas. I’m confident that we’ve already made progress since the May 2025 visit, and that there are robust plans in place to deliver further improvements into 2026,” Young said.
Keith Willett, Trust Chair, called the improved ratings a fitting end-of-year boost, adding, “The upgraded ratings are reason to celebrate, and on behalf of the Board I would like to thank everyone involved.”
Nicky Lucey, Chief Nursing Officer at NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight, echoed those sentiments, praising the work by SCAS teams to strengthen patient care and responsiveness across the region.
SCAS’s overall Trust rating will not change until after a Trust-wide well-led inspection is carried out.