St Wilfrid's Hospice Annual Report 2021-22

Message from our Chief Executive and Chair of Board of Trustees

As 2022 started, we reflected on the 35 years of expert care and compassion that St Wilfrid’s has given to our local community.

The previous two years had consisted of reacting to and overcoming challenges that the global pandemic presented. As the UK started to relax COVID restrictions, it became clear that hospice services will be impacted for at least the next 2 to 5 years.

The healthcare system has been stretched, regular appointments missed and diagnoses have been made later. Sadly, some people will not recover from their illnesses and more people will need hospice care and support. Our mission of providing high quality specialist end of life care and bereavement support has never been needed more.

This year’s Annual Report will give you an insight into what we have done to keep delivering our services to local people who need us. We continue to be innovative and resourceful in our approach, in order to give the best care to our patients and their loved ones.

We have asked our community to share their memories of St Wilfrid’s through the years and you will read some of these in this Annual Report.

My husband, Alan Simpson, went to St Wilfrid’s Hospice on 29 September 2016 for 3 weeks. The care and attention he had was incredible. We were not expecting him to come home. However, he lived for another 14 months and finally passed away in the Hospice on 5 October 2017. Such an amazing place.

Susan, patient’s wife

St Wilfrid’s is an independent charity, and while this year we have received some further oneoff funding to help us during the pandemic, we have to raise the majority of the £8million it takes to run our organisation annually through the generosity of our supporters, donors and shoppers.

Thank you to all our supporters, we simply could not provide end of life care to people in our community without your generosity.

Alison Moorey, Chief Executive

Soline Jerram, Chair of the Board of Trustees

Heather’s story

From Dan, Heather’s husband and Lewis, Heather’s eldest son

Heather was a normal woman, a normal mum, hardworking with two jobs. She gave us an amazing life, just a great mum. She got breast cancer, and it was like she was two different people, before and after the diagnosis, in a good way. She was just taking life in.

We sat down and wrote her bucket list together and we had so much she wanted to do. In 2019 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and got the all clear in 2020, but then it came back and we were told she was terminal at the end of 2020. Because of the lockdowns and her having chemo, we spent lots of time just chilling together.

She did lots on her bucket list; we went to the Grand Hotel in Brighton for afternoon tea, she fed giraffes, we stayed at the Shard, and she went to the Dorchester Hotel as a guest of honour. She was inspirational. She just kept going and didn’t let the illness stop her. She wanted to share her story on her Instagram page @heathers_cancer_ journey, and make sure people knew about the signs of inflammatory breast cancer.

Heather’s last party was at Selsey Golf Club and that was called her ‘Wake me up before I Go Go’ party. It was a night to remember with all our family and friends.

The St Wilfrid’s team were a massive comfort to us. You knew you weren’t on your own. The nurses helped us to create a plan with Heather. They really listened, just little things like she didn’t want her teeth brushed by someone else, so she felt like she had choices.

Heather

Heatherfeedinggiraffes

One time, Heather had her syringe driver changed. The team finished and left, but we were worried about her breathing. We called the Hospice and they came straight back, within 15 minutes,

withherfamilyatherlastparty

phone, but things like that made our time with Heather easier.

Heather’s last outing on her bucket list was to Victorious Festival in Portsmouth where she met her favourite singers backstage! She really wanted to go – it was mind over matter for her. She passed away just a few weeks later.

The Hospice team have really helped us as a family too, they’ve always been there if we needed to talk. It’s just nice to offload to someone who doesn’t know you. The grief is like something I’ve never experienced before and I have had to develop ways of coping with it. As a family, we think it is so important to support our Hospice. You never know when you’ll be in our position.

Heather was so young at just 41, and is so missed by us all.

Measuring our impact in 2021-22

Every year, we track a number of different measures to make sure we are achieving our strategic goals. This year, COVID-19 has continued to affect most of our work, but we have still delivered care and support to people with a life limiting illness.

1 Strategic Goal One: Extending our reach to more people in the community

We received 931 patient referrals to our services in 2021-22

We marked our 35th year of expert care and compassion, and have received over 20,000 patient referrals to our services since 1987

We have supported an estimated total of 60,000 patients and their loved ones since we first opened our doors

97% of eligible patients were registered on echo (the nurseled phone hub, a collaborative Sussex service)

The Community Support Team and Bereavement Support Team made 1267 phone calls to support patients and loved ones in 2021/2022

We work closely with other charities and support agencies in our area, and for example have created close links with Stonepillow to support homeless and vulnerable people with life limiting and terminal illness

We work closely with local charities The Apuldram Centre and Think 18 by supporting volunteering opportunities for local people in our community with learning disabilities

2 Strategic Goal Two: Improving and enhancing the quality of our care

We have taken steps to becoming a research active hospice and have been selected as a site to recruit patients to a national portfolio study

Our teams worked in Personal Protective Equipment, followed strict infection control procedures and undertook COVID testing regularly as part of our 7 Safety Steps, and continue to do so

The Hospice Community Team have been supporting patients with complex physical and psychological needs whilst working with other services who are under increasing pressure

Living Well Services have been reduced throughout the pandemic, with staff working in the community and inpatient teams. The service will now be gradually opened up, with Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy being a key resource as we continue to develop the rehabilitative approach to end of life care

The role of the Family Support Services team developed through the year and they continue to deliver psychological support including bereavement care

Our Housekeeping team ensured regular deep cleaning of Hospice buildings and materials

We applied the ‘right person, right place, right task’ approach, for example ensuring best use of our highly skilled Non-Medical Prescribers to benefit our patients, and the further development of the Community Support Team volunteers

We developed the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion steering group, and collected baseline data about our teams to support our action plan

We participated in Project ECHO, which is a tele-mentoring network, facilitated by the Sussex Hospices Group collaboration. This has so far supported care home teams with specialist palliative care training

Our education and medical teams have formed a new partnership with Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Medical students have undertaken placements at the Hospice and the teams have delivered a number of teaching sessions at Brighton University

3

Strategic Goal Three:

Ensuring long term sustainability

As the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic gradually eased, volunteers once again demonstrated their flexibility and commitment to the Hospice. Feedback from volunteers has continued to be very positive, with 98% of volunteers agreeing that they would recommend volunteering at St Wilfrid’s

The number of active volunteers has risen from 97 to 173 by March 2022 in the Hospice and from 214 to 282 in the shops, an overall increase of 50%. The annual total of hours volunteered was 17,618 hours at the Hospice, 27,612 in the shops and 1,456 supporting

Fundraising

The income generated from our retail operation has been the strongest year in our charity’s history, which was always going to be a year of uncertainty especially after COVID

Sales were achieved through a high level of donated items given to the charity by our supporters, over 258,000 customer transactions in our shops, and over 7,000 transactions on our online platforms. We are extremely grateful for the support that the charity is given by our customers and donors in all local communities

In September 2021 we adapted our flagship mass participation event Moonlight Walk and delivered a hybrid event, offering a physical option alongside the virtual option. This was a success and raised over £100,000 with over 500 walkers

The Christmas Tree Recycling Project had its third year, and in 2021 971 trees were collected and recycled across the county. 920 people used the service, 279 were new supporters to the Hospice and we retained 54% from the previous year. Trees were recycled for use as mulch on local farms; a positive action and a signal to demonstrate our environmental commitment

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the importance of digital use and skills and this has been responded to as the Trustees recognise this as a critical area of development

We rebuilt our website, stwh.co.uk and launched in October 2021. This has given a better experience for visitors and made the site more reliable and easier to manage. Since launch an accessibility

tool has been added to allow users with additional needs such as visual impairment or translation requirements to access information more easily

To mark our 35th year, we developed messaging of ‘Needed Now More Than Ever’ to show the pressures on the healthcare system as a result of COVID and how as an independent charity we need our community’s support

Throughout early 2022, we went through the planning and preparation phase for an innovative online 35 hour fundraiser (launched July 2022)

I remember the kindness and compassion that I was shown at the time of my dad’s death. He had been cared for in the hospice for about a week before he died and the care he received was exceptional. I was especially touched by a nurse, Julie, and the chaplain, Julie, who supported me through one of the toughest days. The hospice gave us a space to be with dad and support in the early stages of our grief. I will never forget the kindness and support we received, the humanity and understanding that we were shown. Thank you.

Rebecca, patient’s daughter

As an independent charity, in a usual year we receive 14% of our costs from a small NHS grant, and raise the remainder of our running costs through the generosity of our donors, supporters and shoppers. This year our financial summary looks somewhat different, as we received some one-off funding to support the organisation through the pandemic.

As reported last year, NHS England (NHSE) funding towards hospice care continued and had a positive impact at year end.

This funding is shown as a restricted fund and was fully utilised by year end to support patient care. The local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) also granted some additional funding for the increase in community nursing.

Legacies remain an essential source of funding for the Hospice, and gifts left generously by donors in their wills amounted to over £2.2m.

Retail and fundraising income continues to be vital to the funding of the Hospice. Fundraising by our supporters was maintained at a constant level, and retail income performed very well after COVID to show the best income in the Hospice’s history.

teams have worked hard at continuing to keep costs under control and make efficiencies where we can.

How we work together

Working together

We are part of the Sussex Hospices Collaboration Group, where seven hospices in Sussex work together strategically to learn from each other and work towards better care for patients across Sussex

In April 2021, we enlisted and fast tracked our volunteers to support the NHS with the vaccination programme in Chichester

Looking after our environment

Our Facilities team have supported our aim to reduce our waste and recycle as much as possible

We send no waste to landfill, instead work with our local council and waste services to recycle as much as possible. We send our food waste for anaerobic digestion recycling, our garden waste for composting, and our general and clinical waste is sent for incineration, which is used to generate electricity and heat

We recycle any textiles that we cannot resell in our shops to generate additional income for the charity

We continue to work on preserving our resources for the environmental benefits and to save the charity money

Looking after our people

We have developed workforce plans to counteract reduced staff availability

We have continued our cross functional Wellbeing group, signposting resources and support such as our Employee Assistance Programme, and holding a Wellbeing Week

We have trained and implemented Mental Health First Aiders within the organisation

We have offered Resilience training for all clinical staff

We have developed our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion steering group to shape our ways of working and learn from our teams and community

We have developed online induction and development training modules for all volunteers

If you have a comment or query about this Annual Report, please contact editor@stwh.co.uk

Our fondest memories of St Wilfrid’s Hospice were of unhappy times as with most hospices, but your kind and helpful staff and other visitors somehow lessened the heavy burden of heartache. Our friend managed to enjoy his last days with a smile, a good joke and laugh hidden behind his thin and masked face. It was a beautiful smile that said “everything is okay” and left us with a lasting memory knowing his sense of humour and kind demeanour would be forever with him.

Ken and Dee, patient’s friend

South Downs

SussexHampshire

Chichester

Bosham

Making a difference to local lives Chidham

Regis Felpham

Wittering