Ambulance staff suicide prevention fund launched to strengthen NHS wellbeing support 

Ambulance staff, volunteers and learners across England will be able to access expanded suicide prevention and wellbeing support after AACE and The Ambulance Staff Charity secured £348,000 in national funding. 

The funding, awarded through the Workforce Wellbeing Programme, a partnership between NHS Charities Together and NHS England, will establish the Ambulance Staff Suicide Prevention Fund.  

The fund is designed to support people working across ambulance services, where exposure to trauma, burnout, sickness absence and work-related stress remain significant workforce wellbeing risks. 

Anna Parry, managing director of AACE, said: “This new funding is excellent news and will be targeted where it is needed most. It will help sustain a vital suicide prevention helpline, expand preventative support and strengthen local initiatives, such as suicide prevention training and wellbeing programmes that can be embedded for the long term.” 

The investment will help maintain the Ambulance Staff Crisis Phoneline, expand preventative support and strengthen local suicide prevention training and wellbeing programmes. The phoneline is open to anyone serving, or who has served, in an ambulance service, including control room workers, paramedics, technicians, fleet crew, office staff and managers.  

It builds on existing work across the ambulance sector, including trauma and neurodiversity projects funded through the Workforce Wellbeing Programme and AACE’s employee wellbeing and suicide prevention group. 

That group has introduced sector-wide tools, guidance and a central suicide register, reflecting a wider shift in how workplace wellbeing is being managed in high-pressure frontline roles. 

The Workforce Wellbeing Programme has already invested more than £5m in 61 local projects across England, in response to rising burnout and work-related stress.