The Air Ambulance Service raises funds for Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance and the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance, as well as the Children's Air Ambulance.

The Commission found that a London fundraising event held in 2012 resulted in losses to the charity of around £111,000. It found that the event was poorly planned and failed to apply proper project management methodology, while the charity had failed to make adequate risk or due diligence assessments. 

The Commission also looked at the circumstances in which a loan totalling £27,000 was made to a senior employee at the charity. It was not clear on what legal basis the loan was made, while the arrangement had been put in place by the CEO and chair, with the wider trustee board only informed after the event.

While the trustees insisted the loan was in the charity’s best interest, as it helped to retain a high performing member of staff, they were unable to demonstrate that trustees made the decision properly and collectively at the time. The staff member in question is repaying the loan and payments are up-to-date.

 In addition, the Commission said the trustees did not exercise sufficient controls over the CEO and did not appear fully aware of their responsibilities to act as a collective body. There were also serious governance failures when the CEO and chair failed to sufficiently involve the trustee board as a whole in making strategic decisions.

As a result of the Commission’s intervention, the trustees have agreed to an action plan which is being monitored and includes better induction for board members and strengthening governance controls, including better budgeting for fundraising events, written job descriptions and performance monitoring.

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