Report: The Road Ahead - Outlook for UK Charities in 2020

Published by the NCVO on the 27 January 2020, the Road Ahead  is the annual analysis of the changing operating environment for organisations in the voluntary/charity sector.  It identifies and explains drivers and trends that are likely to present opportunities and challenges. The report includes questions that may help Trustees and Directors explore what these issues mean for their charity and how to move forward.
View online or download the PDF

Hospice UK Benchmarking Report 2019

The annual benchmarking report from Hospice UK draws together information from the statutory accounts of 193 independent UK hospices, plus two national charities, Marie Curie, and Sue Ryder.  Areas covered include income; income generation; cost of raising funds, lotteries, expenditure, staff costs, key management personnel, high paid staff, available reserves and deficits and falling reserves.
View here or contact the library for a copy.

News piece and report: Children's Palliative Care - a workforce in crisis

Together for Short Lives CEO, Andy Fletcher sums up the current crisis in the children's palliative care workforce.  For more details download the report "A workforce in crisis" published October 2019.

Article: Nursing Rotation Programme: Children's Hospices and the NHS

In 2018, Children's Hospices Across London (CHaL) launched the Burdett Nurse Rotation Programme.  Working alongside hospice teams, statutory services and academic partners, the project provides opportunities for nurses to rotate between hospice, community and acute care facilities.   Katie Stevens the Project Manager writes about the highlights and challenges of managing the project.
Contact the library for a copy of the article and power point presentation given at the Hospice UK 2019 conference.

Report: Children's Hospice Across Scotland (CHAS) launch ambitious volunteer strategy

In 2019 Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) launched a new strategy demonstrating the key role volunteering will play in their ambition to reach every family in Scotland who needs their services. Head of Volunteering Morven MacLean explains how it was developed in partnership with volunteers.
Read more from the Hospice UK web site

Article: Reserves policy and their link to strategy, resilience and income risk

From Hospice UK, and written for Hospice Trustees, this article takes a look at one of the biggest issues in managing the finances of a charity - committing to and planning its strategy and how this then feeds into budgets, income risk and profile.
Read more here

Article: Understanding income risk

From Hospice UK, and written for Hospice Trustees, the article discusses income risk and the key areas that need to be considered.
Read more here

Article: How can reserves and the reserve policy help?

This final edition of this three-part series for Hospice Trustees considers how reserves and reserves policies can benefit charities and what a trustee board should consider.
Read more here

15 seconds 30 minutes - empowering staff at all levels to improve the workplace

15 Seconds 30 Minutes (15s30m) is a quality improvement initiative encouraging staff to identify small tasks which can take a few seconds but will save someone else 30 minutes later.  The aim is to "increase joy in the workplace, reduce frustration and improve patient experience".  Originating from Bradford NHS Trust, and winner of the 2017 NHS Improvements award, it's being adopted across many NHS organisations, encouraging staff at all levels to feel empowered to make small changes.
Read more here

Charity Finance Yearbook - a summary of key topics for charity governance

The 24th edition of the Charity Finance Yearbook is now available, summing up the key developments of 2019.  Covering 65 areas, each chapter of 2-3 pages sums up the last year and developments on a topic.  This includes:

• VAT updates: cases affecting charities from the last 12 months
• Fraud: how much of a problem is fraud for charities?
• Risk appetite: practical advice for trustees considering and documenting their charities risk appetite
• Trustee recruitment: a practical guide to identifying and acquiring new trustees
• Fundraising and corporate partnerships: weighing up the legal and ethical issues
• Charity law and regulation update over the last 12 months
• Employment law round up: the main developments affecting charities
• Property law update: a year of treading water waiting for developments
• Charity shops: how charities are swapping traditional shops for superstores
• Model terms of references including: the finance committee, audit committee, investment committee
• Model code of conduct for charity trustees

Contact the library for a copy of any of these

Report: Charity Spotlight investment report

This report examines the investment performance of the UK's top 5,000 charities in terms of income and assesses the size of the charity investment market over the past 10 years.

Contact the library for a copy

Article: How resilient is your charity?

A good overview from Charity Financials of the issues to be considered by trustees when considering the long term resilience of a charity.  Areas include finance, purpose, plans and governance.
Read here