The Care Quality Commission has today (Friday 19 December 2025) published two reports covering our 999 control room and field operations.
David Eltringham, Chief Executive, said: “I’m very pleased to confirm that the CQC are upgrading their assessment of both services, recognising the significant work our teams have done. 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.”
The CQC inspection reports confirm ratings across the five domains for each service:
- Emergency operations centre service
Overall rating of good, upgraded from requires improvement.- Safe has been upgraded from requires improvement to good.
- Effective, caring and responsive have all been re-rated as good.
- Well-led had been re rated as requires improvement.
- Emergency and urgent care service
Overall rating of requires improvement, upgraded from inadequate.- Safe and well-led upgraded from inadequate to requires improvement.
- Effective and responsive have both improved from requires improvement to good.
- Caring has been re-rated good.
Our overall CQC rating will not change until after a Trust-wide well-led inspection is completed.
Commenting on the two service reports, Amanda Williams, CQC deputy director of hospitals, secondary and specialist care in the South East, said:
“When we inspected South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, we were pleased to find the service had made important improvements since our last inspection, and that the requirements of the warning notice we previously issued had now been met.
“In the two emergency operations centres, we found staff understood the emotional impact that delays had on people’s wellbeing. They were well trained and responded professionally to help people receive the care they needed. The service was performing well at answering 999 calls, and staff could access interpretation services in 240 languages to support people.
“In emergency and urgent care, we saw leaders had introduced an innovative ‘release to respond’ initiative, which enabled ambulance crews to safely leave hospital emergency departments within a 45-minute window, allowing them to respond to people in the community. This initiative made a significant difference to response times. The time taken to reach someone who called 999 with an emergency dropped from 38 minutes in October 2024 to 22 minutes by March this year.”
As always, the CQC identify areas where further improvements are still needed. These include medicines management safety and staff feeling free to speak up. Recognising this feedback, Helen Young, Chief Nurse and Executive Director of Patient Care, noted:
“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.”
Keith Willett, Trust Chair, added:
“This is a welcomed and well-deserved boost at the end of 2025. The Board has witnessed the improvements already delivered across the Trust and sees the ongoing commitment on the outstanding areas to deliver the best possible patient care. 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, said:
“We’re really pleased to see the progress made by South Central Ambulance Service reflected in today’s CQC reports. These improvements demonstrate the commitment to strengthening patient safety, experience, and responsiveness across the region. We will continue working closely with SCAS to ensure the highest standard of urgent and emergency care for our communities.”
The full CQC reports will be available on their website: South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust – Overview – Care Quality Commission