Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20 Please note that most of the photography used in this report was taken before the coronavirus pandemic. Our staff are supplied with Contents the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) and wear this as appropriate, according to the government’s national guidance. Welcome 4 Year at a glance 6 Who we are 8 Our vision for the future 10 Our targets for the coming year 12 and achievements targets Our Our response to the coronavirus pandemic 14 Starting the conversation about end of life 16 Nursing 18 Hospices 22 Information and support 26 Policy and campaigning 30 Research 34 Fundraising 38 People 44 Managing our charity as effectively and efficiently as possible 48 Our finances and governance finances Our Financial review 50 Working with our stakeholders: s172 statement 56 On the cover Our commitment to the environment 59 How we’re governed 60 Arth Daniels, Untitled, 2020, digital illustration. Principal risks and uncertainties 62 The cover of this report features a portrait of Marie Curie Nurse Fiona Morton, Infection Control Lead and ward sister at the Marie Curie Hospice, Hampstead. Drawn by British portrait artist Arth Daniels, it Statement of responsibilities 64 captures an honest and unflinching moment that takes on new resonance in light of the coronavirus pandemic. This piece was created to mark the World Health Organization’s International Year of the Independent auditor’s report 65 Nurse and Midwife 2020. Our financial statements 68 To help support the vital work done by Fiona and all her colleagues, framed prints of this striking image are available to buy for £350. Please call 0800 716 146 or email [email protected] for more details. Who’s who 92 Our patrons 94 Our thanks 95 2 Marie Curie Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20 Marie Curie Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20 3 This is my first full year report as Chief Telephone Bereavement Support Service launched Executive, and I’m incredibly proud of all that at the beginning of March 2020, with a range of we’ve achieved as an organisation in that time services to support people affected by the death Welcome in the face of some unprecedented challenges. of a loved one from a terminal illness, whether the bereavement happened recently or otherwise. from our Chair and Chief Executive In the last two weeks of March 2020, our plans had to be adapted and refocused in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Our response as an Thank you for taking the time to find out more about Marie Curie. organisation has been phenomenal. This year, our nursing, hospice and other teams We rapidly embraced new ways of working right Despite the immediate challenges of securing continued to provide amazing care for patients through Marie Curie with the majority of non- PPE, we established an internal distribution system and their families across the UK, even in the clinical staff working from their homes across the for all clinical teams and launched an emergency face of the coronavirus pandemic. country. The IT systems work already underway appeal. Thanks to the extraordinarily generous before the crisis to enable agility and collaboration response of our supporters, we were able to was put to the test much sooner than anyone re-stabilise the charity financially so we could could have predicted. These systems have enabled focus our efforts on supporting more patients us to work effectively during the lockdown without at the end of their lives. This was not without missing a beat. significant cost – both emotionally and in many other ways – to the Marie Curie staff supporting As we look ahead, we see the enormity of the Katie Hyams/Marie Curie dying people on the front line. challenge of providing palliative care for a growing number of people in our ageing society while We reviewed our strategy through 2019, ready for It has been an amazing privilege to lead Marie being prepared for potential recurrences of the the start of new strategic period in 2020. I’m very Curie through the coronavirus crisis. Thank you to pandemic. We recognise that our fundraising grateful to all the Marie Curie staff and volunteers all my team for their courage, agility, dedication ability will be constrained for some time, especially I met who contributed to what is now our shared and commitment at this incredibly difficult time. in the uncertain economic climate we are now and bold vision for the future of end of life care The emergency has reiterated as much as ever in. Nevertheless, our goal will be to enhance the for everyone in the UK. I’m hugely inspired by the need for excellent end of life care in the UK, impact we are able to have, even in these new the passion, ambition and commitment of my and the cost to society, families and individuals challenging circumstances. colleagues. We’ve now set about harnessing this when this is not available. We’ve been as horrified drive and turning our ambitions into a reality. We’re engaging with the NHS and other as others at the disproportionate effect that organisations to work out what can be done to There’s growing demand for end of life care in coronavirus has had on people with black, Asian The pandemic heightened the need for our structurally enhance the delivery of palliative care the UK, as the challenges faced by the people we and minority ethnic backgrounds, for example, and services and we strove to do as much as possible in the UK, including in the care home sector. We support also continue to grow. Together, we’ve set reiterated our drive for social inclusion and equity to support the NHS and the social care sector will restructure and reprioritise our activities to a new strategy for Marie Curie which highlights our in end of life care. The coronavirus pandemic has during this critical time. It was heartening to see be more efficient. We will innovate and leverage commitment to ensuring the best experience for given us a foretaste of what we can expect within the commitment of our nursing and hospice staff, technology to enhance the impact we are able to everyone, as well as our passion for social justice a few years, as we see an increasing number of doing everything they could to be as effective as have on the delivery of care. And we will continue and inclusion. people approaching the end of their lives. possible on the front line right across the country. to find new ways of raising the funds needed to Our strategic focus and intent is therefore Providing them with the knowledge, guidelines support the delivery of the work we do. One of the most fundamental ways we can shift and personal protective equipment (PPE) to work the focus to end of life and tackle those injustices reconfirmed, along with our resolve to make sure as safely as possible was paramount. On behalf of Marie Curie’s Trustees, I would like to is by encouraging people to talk more openly that everyone in the UK has the best possible end express our thanks for the generosity, dedication about dying and death with those they love to of life experience. Collections for The Great Daffodil Appeal, our and hard work of our staff, as well as our many break down that longstanding taboo. We have a robust and resilient network of largest annual fundraising campaign, were partners, supporters, volunteers and staff that supporters, colleagues, Trustees, volunteers cancelled. In addition, we foresaw several other have made this possible. Our ‘Talkabout’ public awareness campaign, which events and avenues of fundraising compromised launched in November 2019 across TV, radio and and partners that will do everything in their for several months putting our fundraising income online, reinforced the power those conversations power to ensure Marie Curie is able to continue under threat. We reacted rapidly to ensure our can have and showed how Marie Curie can support championing this. Thanks again. financial stability. We cut back on all non-essential people to have them (see page 16). costs and made use of the government job retention scheme. Our fundraising teams focused Delivering high-quality care will always remain at the heart of what we do. Extending our on online activities and launched an emergency Vindi Banga, support to those experiencing any kind of grief or fundraising appeal with good results from current Chair of the Board of Trustees Matthew Reed, and new donors. We also benefited from funds bereavement is something we feel is increasingly Chief Executive from the Treasury. important. This has proved prescient in the months since those initial discussions. I’m proud that our 4 Marie Curie Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20 Marie Curie Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20 5 Last year we helped more than 60,000 people Year at a glance directly and reached over two million more. people cared for, people cared for, 8,781 35,999 a 6.8% increase a 6.1% increase on last year Hospices on last year 9 hospices with 2,057 nursing staff 1,065 staff Nurses 98% of patients and families likely to of patients and families recommend us to 99% likely to recommend us friends and family to friends and family Ben Gold/Marie Curie Kate Stanworth/Marie Curie Charitable donations 45% 55% NHS funded NHS funded 35% 65% Charitable donations volunteers generously enquiries via phone 9,373 15,078 gave their time to Marie or web chat, a 32% Volunteers Curie during 2019/20, increase on last year contributing an estimated £15 million 2.3m+ views of online in time and skills information*, a 41% increase on last year 1,768 individuals were supported by volunteer Information Information and support Helpers or Companions, of callers rated the 87% a more than 50% service as excellent increase on last year Kate Stanworth/Marie Curie Kate Stanworth/Marie Curie 100% Charitable donations 100% Charitable donations *includes the Palliative Care Knowledge Zone 6 Marie Curie Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20 Marie Curie Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20 7 Who we are At Marie Curie, everything we do from expert care and funding ground-breaking research to providing practical information and emotional support, helps dying people and their loved ones to make the most of the time they have together.