St John Ambulance is a charitable non-governmental organisation dedicated to the teaching and practice of first aid and the support of the national emergency response system in England.

[11] Workers rarely had ready access to a doctor in 19th-century workplaces, and since accidents were frequent, death or disability from injuries was common.

[12] In 1887, trained volunteers were organised into a uniformed Brigade to provide a first aid and ambulance service at public events.

[10] In 1998, members of a paedophile ring that operated from within the St John Ambulance Brigade for several decades were arrested by police.

[citation needed] SJS opened its doors at St John's Gate in Clerkenwell on 12 February 1879, and was originally known as The Stores Depot.St John Ambulance also provides first aid cover in events such as the London Marathon and Hyde Park concerts, as well as smaller events such as fetes and local fairs.

St John Ambulance can also provide cycle responders as well as mobile treatment centres and other medical provision.

[26] St John Ambulance runs courses in first aid and health and safety for members of the public, training 254,000 people in 2013.

CFRs were dispatched to attend Category 1 "immediately life-threatening" calls such as cardiac arrest, diabetic emergency, unresponsive patient, breathing difficulties and seizures.

Those volunteering to provide event first aid services begin by attending a four-day Operational First Aid (FA) course covering common injuries and illnesses, over-the-counter medication administration, in addition to organisation-specific elements such as safe discharge and patient report forms.

The Community First Aider role is intended for small, low risk, non-licensed events that require simple first aid provision (e.g. village fetes).

The Emergency Responder role is intended to become the new minimum standard for first aid provision at medium and large events.

[33] St John Ambulance has based the scope of practice for this role on the Advanced First Aider competencies, including basic life support, with bag valve mask ventilation, catastrophic bleed management, along with additional skills such as Ten Second Triage.

St John Ambulance retains a very small number of ACA volunteers and staff, primarily centred around a geographic need to fulfil urgent care and hospital discharge contracts.

The EAC course has been internally developed by St John Ambulance and is not listed on the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF).

The Health Practice Associates Council (HPAC) align EAC to the Emergency Care Assistant role.

Some NHS Ambulance trusts choose to deploy EACs at the grade of Emergency Care Assistant (thereby restricting the call types they are dispatched to).

St John operational deployments of HCPs are based on the individuals' expertise, and assigns professionals to a "pillar of practice".

Healthcare professionals wear coloured rank slides to distinguish them from internally trained first aiders and ambulance personnel.

St John Ambulance teaches first aid to young people through programmes, including Badgers (for seven- to ten-year-olds), Cadets (ten- to seventeen-year-olds), Student Volunteering Units (based in colleges and universities)[39] and RISE, a specialist project aimed at those not in education, employment or training.

The award is presented at the Young Achievers' Reception hosted by Anne, Princess Royal, Commandant-in-Chief for Youth.

[citation needed] Its 2013 Save the Boy campaign, demonstrating how to put a casualty in the recovery position, reached 15 million people through television and online media.

These have taken many and varied forms, beginning with horse-drawn ambulances and even went into the late twentieth century with some centralisation of control and classification of vehicle types such as Motor Ambulance Units (the title arising historically as a distinction from horse-drawn units), First Aid Posts and Rapid Deployment Vehicles.

An early assessment suggested that 100 of the Crusader ambulances (costing, at that time, £40,000 each) would be required immediately, representing an investment of £4 million.

[52] By 2004, the national St John Ambulance emergency vehicle fleet has the following standard vehicle types:[53] St John Ambulance also maintains specialist response options in particular locations, such as Cycle Response Units, Control and Command Units, Rapid Response Cars (Specialist Contracts), Community Support Units as well as larger vehicles or trailers used as static first aid posts.

Many older vehicles were retired from service with a gradual replacement with newer models based on the MAN TGE 3.5-tonne chassis.

Two-tone yellow-and-green tabards (accepted to denote medical personnel) are only worn when the risk assessment of the event calls for it.

St John Ambulance personnel serve alongside the British Red Cross, whose members also undergo advanced training in first aid and event cover.

However, the British Red Cross no longer has an event first-aid (EFA) department due to lack of profit and funding.

[70] Between July and September 2022, St John Ambulance sought an additional 5,000 vaccination volunteers to support the programme.

The Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMP) said that it had not received sufficient vaccine stock to "meet demand".