Helping the older people who need us the most This is now, that was then Report of Trustees and Annual Accounts 2019/20 Overview Thank you At Age UK we are only able to make later life better for older We are Age UK people because we act together with others. We rely on hundreds of thousands of individuals. Those who choose to donate to us, We exist to help the older people who need us. fundraise for us, or remember us in their wills. Those who stand with older people as campaigners, volunteers, employees, or decision-makers. And those who look We’re focusing on helping the older people out for or care for the older people in their lives. Thank you for your generosity, your determination, and your compassion. who need us the most. We rely on donations from our corporate partners, trusts, foundations and public sector We can’t do it without your help. bodies, and the staff who work for them, as well as the skills and expertise they provide in kind. Thank you for your trust, your enthusiasm, and your support. Our funders are It’s that simple. listed on pages 146 and 147. No care. No money. No one to turn to. We rely on the Age UK network of local and national partners in the UK and, through Age International, a global network, as well as like-minded organisations up and down A life led by too many older people. the country. Much of what we achieve depends on these partnerships. Thank you for Age UK is here to help. your friendship, your collaboration, and your commitment to our shared purpose. While this report documents our work in 2019/20, we cannot but reflect on the A friend. A champion. A voice. catastrophic effects the coronavirus pandemic has had on older people’s lives, and its In person, in communities. consequences for Age UK and its partners in the UK and internationally. The pandemic represents an unprecedented challenge, and we have risen to the occasion. On the phone. Online. We are deeply proud of Age UK’s staff and volunteers who have shown incredible levels We are Age UK. of commitment. Our team has worked tirelessly, consistently achieving the kind of results which usually take months of hard slog in record time. Thank you We have been truly moved by the levels of support we have received in recent months – from large corporate businesses who stepped in to assist our pandemic response programme, to individuals who were moved to give us money for the first time. A special thank you needs to go to those who supported older people in their communities, not least our fantastic local, national and international partners who have been at the forefront of helping older people during the pandemic. And, of course, we need to thank older people themselves, many of whom have seen their lives turned upside down but have continued to strive to help in any way they can. Your stoicism and compassion is a lesson for us all. We are facing the biggest test we have ever faced. It’s vital that we not only survive, but we adapt, and thrive, to ensure that older people aren’t left behind as we enter a new way of living. We’re hopeful about the future and proud of all who stand by Age UK and older people. Thank you from everyone at Age UK. Report of Trustees and Annual Accounts 2019/20 | 3 Overview Contents Overview 6 This is now: the 2020 pandemic 6 Message from Age UK’s Chair and Chief Executive 8 Strategic report 11 How we work 12 Age UK’s three-year strategy 14 How we raised our money 18 How we spent our money 19 Charitable activities: We campaign and research 22 We provide information and advice 26 We transform health and care services 30 We deliver wellbeing programmes and services 36 We support the Age UK network 42 We work internationally 46 Our people and our organisation 52 Fundraising 56 Trading 62 Financial review 64 Funding and finance 68 Risk management and assurance 72 Governance 76 Section 172 statement 82 Trustees, Executive Directors and Professional Advisers 84 Further information 86 Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities 88 Independent auditors’ report 89 Report to the members of Age UK 90 Financial statements 93 Group statement of financial activities 94 Balance sheet 96 Group cash flow statement 97 Notes to the financial statements 98 Thank you 146 Report of Trustees and Annual Accounts 2019/20 | 5 Overview Overview This is now: the 2020 pandemic The situation for older people This year has been catastrophic for older people. Considerably more older people Overview have died in the UK than in most comparable nations, many of whom might have been saved if we had managed the pandemic as well as we could and probably should have done. The facts of the pandemic speak for themselves. So far, with the pandemic far from over: • Over 40,000 people have died from COVID-19 across the UK Strategic report • 9 in 10 of those who died were over the age of 65 • More than 1 in 4 had dementia • 2 in 5 were living in a care home at the time – most of whom will have died without seeing their family again. Throughout the pandemic the UK’s national Some older people died painfully and in distress for Older People, no cross-cutting unit of officials, there has to be a proper process of refinancing response has been ‘too little, too late’. With care in care homes because NHS support was not no strategy for older people, and no Commissioner and reform, especially given the suffering and loss homes especially, we were slow to appreciate the forthcoming. Hundreds of thousands of care home either. Experts on old age are almost entirely older people and care staff have experienced in strategic risk, despite the unfolding evidence from residents were cut off from family and friends for absent within Government and were not engaged recent months. abroad; slow to source enough PPE and testing months, with particularly disastrous consequences in any of the scientific advisory committees for residents and staff – problems still not entirely for those with dementia. And unknown numbers of until recently. It hasn’t been all bad though. The response from the public to the plight of many older people during Independent auditors’ report auditors’ Independent resolved; and negligent early in the pandemic in others were subject to blanket ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ It is no real surprise either that so much has allowing – indeed encouraging – older people to be orders, unable to exercise choice over one of the the pandemic has frequently been magnificent. gone wrong within the social care system since discharged to care homes from hospitals without most important decisions any of us will make. Communities have rallied round in many places to knowing whether they had coronavirus or not. the pandemic started. It is a vital but chronically support older people trapped in their own home Some of what has happened has been neglected and underfunded service on which during lockdown with friendship and practical The challenge posed by coronavirus is of course unacceptable and shameful. Worse still, it has millions of older people depend. Care workers have assistance. They have also given very generously to unprecedented; we are learning about the sometimes seemed that behind the missteps and generally risen magnificently to the challenge Age UK’s Coronavirus Emergency Appeal, enabling behaviour of the virus as we go along; and we poor decisions has been ageism, in the sense of and several hundred lost their lives as a result. us to help many more older people nationally and are certainly not alone in the UK in seeing many an institutionalised disregard for older people and However, the system in which they work has been locally than would otherwise have been possible. deaths, especially in care homes. Decision-makers, enormous ignorance about their lives. At a time of found seriously wanting; this includes, crucially, as well as front-line staff, have undoubtedly been national crisis, it is important to have a voice within its accountability to Government and interface confronted with a challenging task – but it has not the corridors of power: older people have not had with the NHS. The pandemic has revealed just been enough, especially when set against the very this, and their needs and interests have sometimes how inadequate our social care system is and Financial statements real suffering of older people and their families. been overlooked. Nationally, there is no Minister now, surely, despite the many economic pressures 6 | Report of Trustees and Annual Accounts 2019/20 Report of Trustees and Annual Accounts 2019/20 | 7 Overview Overview However, this is now and that was then. While Our network of 130 partners in England, Scotland, all the pre-pandemic challenges faced by older Wales, and Northern Ireland have throughout the people still exist today, they are deeper, are pandemic been lifelines for older people in their more widespread, and for those older people communities. We have been truly humbled by the experiencing the most disadvantage are more extraordinary efforts of their staff and volunteers harmful than perhaps ever before. under very difficult circumstances. This makes our strategic priority, to help more Older people, especially those shielding, have of the older people who need us the most, seen their links to the world diminished or Overview more important, and more urgent. Last year, we severed almost completely. Worries about the launched our new three-year strategy and it has practical life essentials of food shopping and proved to be a guiding light during these dark collecting medication have caused deep distress, times.