Dear J Lowe

Thank you for your email dated 24th August 2014 where you requested information regarding the East of England Ambulance Service.

Your request will be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and we will respond to you within twenty working days. Your request has been allocated the following reference: F18475 and I would be grateful if you could quote this reference in any future correspondence with the Trust.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

FoI Officer
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust

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Dear J Lowe

Further to your email dated 24th August 2014, please find the Trust's response below.

Can you tell me just how many Assistant Chiefs Dr Marsh currently has and how much their combined salaries cost?
The Assistant Chief Ambulance Officer (ACAO) is a title given to senior operational managers within the Trust and is not a stand-alone role. All of those with this title also hold substantive roles within the organisation as part of the restructure. The Trust currently employs an Assistance Chief Executive Officer who will be retiring from the Trust next month and will not be replaced, two senior managers with the additional ACAO title and shares one further ACAO. The salary for these posts fall within the Agenda for Change Band 8 and 9 based upon their substantive posts, the ACAO title itself attracts no payment or benefits.

Is he planning to employ even more as part of his often repeated vow to cut management costs?
The Trust is still undergoing a major restructure, particularly in support services and management. This is to streamline support services and management and reinvest money back into frontline staffing and services. We are currently on track to identify £10M in such savings, money which can be used to recruit more frontline staff.

In the previous structure, there were 10 posts that carried out the equivalent operational functions to those carried out by an Assistant Chief Ambulance Officer. Under the new structure there will be 6.5 posts carrying out equivalent operational functions. In non-operational roles, we had another 9 posts that were equivalent to an assistant chief ambulance officer level. Going forward there will potentially be only 5 of these such posts.

Also, was this particular job advertised and did Mr Moore previously work for the Essex Ambulance Service?
Mr Moore was appointed following a competitive internal recruitment process, which had HR representation on the selection panel. This was advertised in the Trust’s weekly staff vacancy bulletin in June, available for all staff to apply. Mr Moore’s previous post has not been replaced and has been deleted.
Mr Moore previously worked for the Essex Ambulance Service before the three former ambulance trusts were merged to form the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust in 2006.

I am obliged to advise you that if you are dissatisfied with the Trust’s response to your request you have a right to complain to the Trust and should set out your concerns to the Freedom of Information Officer, EEAST, Hospital Approach, Broomfield, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 7WS or by email to [East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust request email]. If you remain dissatisfied following this, you have a right under Section 50 of the FOIA to seek a determination from the Information Commissioner on whether the Act has been properly applied by the Trust. For more information, please see www.ico.gov.uk.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further information.

Kind regards

FoI Officer
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust

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