Chief executive officer’s report - February 2026

Meeting: Trust Board – Public Meeting

Date: 11 February 2026

Report Title: Chief Executive’s Report and Regulatory Update

Agenda Item: PUB26/02/1.6

Author: Liz Cunnell - Chief of Staff

Lead Director: Neill Moloney - Chief Executive officer

Purpose:

Link to Strategic Risk:

Equality Impact Assessment: No negative impact identified

Previously considered by: N/A

Purpose: The purpose of the report is to provide an update from the Chief Executive to the Board of Directors on the activities of the Trust since its’ last meeting.

Recommendation:

Board members are asked to note the report.

Personal Reflection:

As expected, the last few months have been exceptionally busy, with demand for our services reaching the highest ever recorded between 21st to 28th December 2025. The number of incidents recorded over the last 24 months are 10% higher. Despite this our mitigations and winter planning has ensured that our C2 performance and service to patients is significantly better than the festive period in 2024.

This would not have been possible without the exceptional hard work of our people. I am extremely grateful for the increased shift cover over Christmas, meaning our people gave up time with their families to provide a safe service for our patients. I wanted to say a huge thank you to them all and their families – it is really appreciated. I hope that you have now had the opportunity to celebrate.

I know our teams will continue to work hard together to deliver outstanding care to our patients and communities in 2026.

Operational Performance:

During the winter months we have increased our Patient Facing Staff Hours by over 10,000 ambulance hours per week. Our Category 2 performance for December 2025 is 20 minutes faster than December 2024, 36 minutes versus 57 minutes. This is 2 seconds variant to our operating plan target of 35:58 minutes agreed with NHSE.

Across our Clinical Assessment Service (CAS), we have continued to see positive improvement in Hear and Treat performance, demonstrating the impact of our ongoing work to strengthen clinical intervention within our Emergency Operations Centres (EOC).

In December 2025, EOC clinicians (including A2S and UCCH) assessed 18.09% of calls. This follows 17.10% in November 2025, with both months performing ahead of the respective Hear and Treat targets.

This improvement reflects our commitment to increasing early clinical input into 999 calls. Clinical validation and enhanced triage help us better identify unmet needs, provide appropriate advice, and safely divert patients to alternative care pathways. This not only improves patient outcomes through right care first time principles but also helps protect our frontline emergency resources for the sickest and most time critical patients.

To sustain and further strengthen this performance, we continue to recruit additional EOC Clinicians into our Control Rooms. This expanded workforce is central to managing demand, reducing conveyance where clinically appropriate, and supporting the wider system through safe, effective Hear and Treat models.

Our EOC team continues to demonstrate strong performance in 999 call-answering times, reflecting sustained improvement in operational resilience and workforce stability. During October and November 2025, the mean 999 call answer time was 2 seconds, improving further to 1 second in December 2025. All three months met and exceeded both national and local standards for call-answer performance.

Similarly, our mean 95th percentile call answer times (representing the longest waiting calls) were 4 seconds in October, 1 second in November, and 0 seconds in December. These figures reflect a high level of consistency and delivered national and local standards for call-answer performance.

Over the last few months our teams have committed to reducing our Vehicle Off Road (VOR) rates to ensure we can increase PFSH to meet the additional demand. Our average VOR rate over winter has been 18%, 11% lower than January last year. I am extremely grateful to all our colleagues in operational support teams for their hard work to achieve this.

Our performance was impacted by an increase in hospital handover delays and a significant increase in demand. The average handover is at 39 minutes for the year, 9 minutes above the agreed target. Initial data for January shows an average above 1 hour for each week that data is available. We will continue to work with regulators and providers to address this implement Handover 45.

Regulatory update:

NHS England

In early January NHSE met with the Trust to review our performance and discuss medium term planning arrangements. They acknowledged the improved performance for Category 2 patients and strong financial position. With their support the Trust will continue to support improvements in response times for our patients.

In addition, we are continuing to engage with other providers of care to improve performance and quality.

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

The Trust is still awaiting publication of the final CQC report relating to the visit in November 2024, although this is understood to be in the coming weeks.

Time to Listen:

The campaign continues to progress with senior leaders now attending listening events across the organisations routinely each month. In December and January senior leaders visited all our key sites and 130 feedback forms were submitted.

Data from our FTSU and previous listening events demonstrate that policies and processes are the most common area for concern from our people. We therefore prioritised this line of questioning at the January listening event by asking “What rule or policy gets in the way of you undertaking your role to your best potential”. The results were grouped as per below:

The key areas for action were as follows:

Engagement:

Essex Twin CFRS Two identical twins from Essex who volunteer for EEAST have been recognised for their service in the 2026 New Year's Honours.

Dean and Ryan Appleton, 37-year-old identical twins, have each been awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for their outstanding voluntary service as Community First Responders (CFRs).

Dean and Ryan both began their journey with EEAST in 2013 when they established the Clacton-on-Sea CFR group. Their dedication to supporting local communities continued as they moved to Colchester in 2015. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, both stepped up to provide vital assistance to patients during an unprecedented time of need.

Julie Jaciuk Certificate of Recognition Congratulations to Julie Jaciuk, Senior Call Handler in Norwich, who was presented with a certificate of recognition on Friday for her recent selfless good deed.

Believing a local toy drive would go ahead this year, Julie generously spent around £500 on toys to donate. When she became aware that this drive was unfortunately not taking place in her area, Julie selflessly donated the toys directly to the Salvation Army, on behalf of EEAST.

Military Co-responder MBE A volunteer military co-responder from RAF Henlow in Bedfordshire has received an MBE in recognition of his outstanding commitment to public service and emergency care.

Sergeant Gareth Jones, Team Leader of the RAF Henlow Military Co-Responders, was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the King's Birthday Honours last year. Last week he travelled to Windsor Castle to receive his medal from Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, the Princess Royal.

In his day job, Sergeant Jones is a Survival Equipment Technician with 7 Squadron at RAF Odiham in Hampshire. He has also been a volunteer co-responder with EEAST for 15 years. During that time, he has responded to more than 7,000 emergency calls, providing critical support to patients across the region.

In 2025 alone he volunteered over 830 hours as a co-responder, responding to 999 calls and supporting EEAST crews to improve outcomes for patients.

Engagement

I am committed to spending one day each week travelling around the organisation meeting with our people, listening to ideas and getting to know the patch. Thank you to all those I have met for the very warm welcome. I have visited the following stations:

• Chelmsford EOC, Witham, Clacton
• Stansted, Stevenage, West Herts, Harlow
• Cambridge
• HART Great Notley
• Waveney Depot, Norwich EOC
• Bedford EOC, Luton
• Billericay, Chelmsford EOC, Chelmsford
• Chelmsford, Basildon
• Peterborough, Cambridge
• Southend, Basildon, Thurrock
• Cromer, King's Lynn
• Felixstowe, Ipswich, Saxmundham, Bury St Edmunds

Given the extensive political changes across the region, I have also been meeting a number of our MPs to share information and build relationships. I have met with the following MPs:

• David Taylor MP
• Daniel Zeichner MP
• Haverhill Council
• Winter Briefing to all Regional MPs
• Jen Craft MP
• Jenny Riddell-Carpenter MP
• Norfolk HOSC Chair
• Essex MP meeting