Annual Performance Ratings
Each year the Care Quality Commission (CQC) - the independent regulator of health and social care services in England - carries out Annual Performance Ratings which aims to provide an overall assessment of the performance of all NHS organisations in England. Two main areas are evaluated - how effectively an organisation manages its finances and the quality of its services.
Use the links below for further information about the Annual Performance Ratings, how Yorkshire Ambulance Service performed in this year’s assessment and subsequent action plan for improvement in the future:
Yorkshire Ambulance Service - Annual Health Check 2009-10
Like other NHS Trust Boards, Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) is responsible for making a self assessment and public declaration on the extent to which we have met the Core Standards for Better Health. This will form part of our Annual Performance Rating for 2009/10.
From 1 April 2010, all NHS healthcare providers in England will be regulated by registration with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and will not need to make any further declarations on compliance with Core Standards. As part of the transitional arrangements, the CQC has asked all NHS Trusts to submit an interim Core Standards declaration for 2009/10, as at 31 October 2009.
View a copy of the YAS 2009/10 interim declaration (PDF, 1Mb).
YAS 2009-10 Core Standards Update Form
Yorkshire Ambulance Service - Clinical focused, continuously improving
The Trust’s aim is to provide an excellent, clinically-focused ambulance service which continuously develops to meet the needs of patients, now and in the future. To further this aim, the Trust has invested significantly in improving the quality and safety of its services over recent years.
For the 2008/09 performance ratings, the CQC confirmed our self assessment of Standards for Better Health when it inspected us on four of the standards in June 2009, making no change to our Core Standards declaration.
As part of the overall quality rating in 2008/09, the CQC also assessed performance in our achievement of the Clinical Performance Indicators, relating to the quality of care for patients with myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, stroke, hypoglycaemia and asthma. The Trust was rated excellent in this clinically-based element of the assessment process, ranking second out of the 11 ambulance services in England.
In 2009/10 YAS has continued to make considerable improvement, year on year, in the Standards for Better Health. From a position in 2007/08 when the Trust declared that it had not met 14 of the 42 standards, we can now confirm that all but four were achieved for the full year during 2009/10. By April 2010 we believe that only one standard may require further development and we confidently expect to achieve compliance with this remaining standard by early 2010/11.
During January 2009, YAS was required to register with the CQC for its arrangements for the prevention of a Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAI). In July, the CQC performed a comprehensive and unannounced inspection of our HCAI compliance and reported not only that we had complied with all the requirements of the Hygiene Code, but that we were the only ambulance service in England not have been given recommendations for improvement.
The Trust and its workforce will maintain this commitment to the delivery of safe, clinically- effective care and we will continue to drive further improvements during the coming year.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service Self-assessment and Public Declaration 2008-09
Like other NHS Trust Boards, Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) is responsible for making a self-assessment and public declaration on the extent to which we have met the core standards. These declarations are supplemented with comments from stakeholder organisations such as:
- Strategic Health Authority (SHA)
- Local Involvement Networks (LINks)
- Overview and Scrutiny Committees (OSCs)
- Local Safeguarding Children Boards and
- Learning Disability Partnership Boards.
View a copy of the YAS 2008-09 Declaration (PDF, 500Kb) including stakeholder comments
Annual Health Check 2007-08 Action Plans
On 16 October 2008 the Healthcare Commission published the annual performance ratings for all NHS organisations in England. Two main areas were evaluated – how effectively an organisation uses its resources and the quality of its services.
In the ratings the Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) received an overall assessment of “Fair” for ‘Use of Resources’ and “Weak” for ‘Quality of Services’ for the period April 2007-March 2008.
The improved ‘Use of Resources’ rating compared to 2006-07 reflects the Trust’s improved financial position following a successful turnaround period. It indicates that YAS is better managing its finances and that internal governance controls have been effective in improving the organisation’s financial standing.
Where the ratings showed we still have improvements to make in terms of ‘Quality of Services’ the Trust is absolutely committed to addressing the areas of weakness identified. Our action plans for improving our position on core standards and national targets are attached below and show the measures we are taking and the significant progress we have already made. Also attached is our Hygiene Code action plan as we refer to this in both documents.
These plans were presented to our Board on 21 October and will be discussed again at the Public Trust Board meeting on 18 November when our 2007-08 annual health check rating is reviewed in detail.
Progress on implementing the plans is tracked through our Performance Dashboard. This is formally reviewed on a monthly basis by either our Integrated Governance or Audit committee as well as by the Trust Board. We will also be reporting regularly to Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority who will be performance managing our progress.
Supporting Documents
Core Standards action plan (PDF, 24Kb)
