A year like no other. Introduction from Chair and CEO Thank you for taking the time to read our 2020-21 Annual Report and Financial Statements. This was clearly a year like no other. The world succumbed to the Covid-19 pandemic, and we – like many charities and organisations – were hit with a dramatic shock. The impact of Covid-19 on Meningitis Now was severe. As the pandemic struck, we forecast that our income would be less than half of what we had been expecting for the year. Government restrictions meant that our Head Office closed, all staff began working from home, and for seven months of the year, a majority of staff were on furlough. The imposition of lockdown and social distancing meant that home visits by our Community Support Officers had to stop and our programme of face-to-face fundraising and support events had to be cancelled or postponed. This included activities that are beloved and important to the Meningitis Now family – events such as our Family and Forever Days, the Five Valleys Walk, Believe and Achieve weekends and workshops, and our carol concerts in St Lawrence Jewry Church in the City of London and in Gloucester Cathedral. From a governance perspective, we had to react quickly and with resolve. The Board of Trustees adopted a ‘Coronavirus Strategy’ with three aims: to survive; to protect what is valuable 4
about our charity; and to deliver our charitable objectives, as far as possible. The Board then met regularly throughout the year and supported the CEO and staff team to take any necessary actions. Whilst this was not always an easy task during a pandemic, we hope you can see from reading this Annual Report that we were successful in realising these short-term aims and in adapting to the new world around us. We never lost sight of our vision – a future where no-one loses their life to meningitis and where all those affected get the support they need. For, whilst 2020-21 was a frightening and difficult time, it was also a time when the Meningitis Now family found strength and determination to pull together. We moved quickly to understand how Covid-19 was affecting the people we support. Through our ‘Keep Meningitis in Mind’ survey, we discovered that the pandemic was negatively affecting some people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing, and impacting children and young people’s education, learning and development (see page 9). As a result, we launched the ‘Covid-19 Young Futures Fund’ to ensure that young people and their families had access to emergency financial support to help them during the pandemic (pp 11). We developed specific Covid-19 information and resources, available on
