2025-04-05-accounts

The Andrew Rodger Trust

Trustees Annual Report April 2024/2025

Charity Commission Registration 1160141

Context

Formed in 2014, The Andrew Rodger Trust aims to improve end of life care given by generalist frontline care-providers in low to middle income countries (LMIC) with a focus mainly on Africa. It is named after Andrew Rodger, who died aged 24 in 1982 in South Africa following a car accident in Botswana. He was exploring ways of supporting people and churches at the height of the Apartheid regime with plans for work there in the future. He was married to Keri Thomas, who later became the founder of the Gold Standards Framework (GSF) charity used extensively in the UK. See https://www.gsfinternational.org.uk/gsf-founders-story .

Most care for most people at the end of life is given by generalist frontline care-providers, staff or family carers and yet most do not receive training in this important area. Everyone who provides care for people in their final years might benefit from some training and support. There is recognition of the need to train and enable more people caring for those nearing the end of their life across the world, with a rising need in poorer LMIC countries. Access to specialist palliative care is limited in most countries; therefore mobilising the frontline generalist workforce in resource poor countries is of particular importance, i.e. through training, enabling and support for specialists.

The burden of serious health-related suffering is rising fastest in low/middle-income countries (LMICs) and is escalating (Prof Katherine Sleeman Kings EAPC 2019 ). It is estimated that in future there will be increased demand for palliative and end of life care. As predicted deaths in LMICs rise 80% of the need for palliative care is thought to come from resource poor / low and middle income (LMIC) countries in the future .See https://www.gsfinternational.org.uk/andrew-rodger-trust-charity For previous work in Africa see https://www.gsfinternational.org.uk/gsf-africa .

What we do

The objective of this work is mobilising the frontline generalist workforce to provide ‘gold standard’ care for people nearing the end of life.

This is broadly focussed on enabling the generalist workforce to provide high standards of generalist palliative care, supporting and working closely with palliative care specialists, to enable better experience of care and quality of life for those nearing the end of life.

We seek to enable care that is proactive through earlier recognition of decline, personalised to meet clinical needs and personal needs by offering advance care planning discussions, and coordinated to ensure the right care at the right time given by all care providers- a gold standard of care. We therefore use our ‘GSF UK 1,3,5,7 model’ © GSF to include the three key pillars of identify, assess and plan and 7 key tasks to fulfil this that are the basis of GSF accreditation. This is adapted for various settings and situations according to the local context.

We seek to play a role in relieving serious health-related suffering (SHRS) and improve palliative and end of life care either directly or by enabling others, supporting more people to have a better experience of care and quality of life, and to live well until they die.

To do this we share and adapt the expertise and lessons learnt from over 25 years of GSF in the UK and worldwide to their local context and co-design programmes of support to help mobilise and

motivate the frontline generalist workforce. This includes use of tools and resources, academic and research experience, advocacy at national policy levels, as well as an integration of spiritual values.

Outline of the charity’s work in:

1. Training programmes and mentoring for generalists in palliative/ end of life care,

   • sharing lessons from the UK’s GSF (Gold Standards Framework UK)

2. Gold Care pilot preparation, recruitment and planning

3. Research, evaluation studies and academic collaborations

4. Spiritual and religious support and training

The trustees, who remain the same as last year, continue to explore how to support resource-poor countries particularly in Africa provide better care for people nearing the end of their lives. This builds upon the expertise and experience in this area of the UK’s Gold Standards Framework Centre (GSF ) in End of Life care, from its founder and Chairman Professor Keri Thomas OBE , seeking ways that this work, resources, energy and experience can be applied and adapted for work within the context of resource poor countries.

How we do it

We work closely with those involved in palliative care in Africa, notably the African Palliative Care Association (APCA) , through the APCA International Conference and webinar series , and others involved in palliative care there to map out potential collaborations and pilots in several African countries. For example, the possible development of a Palliative/Supportive Care Register of identified patients in one area that could lead to spread in other African countries. Prof Keri Thomas spoke at the APCA International Conference in Aug 2022 (see website), and there were discussions of offering small grants for early pilots, called ‘ Planning Early, Going for Gold’ pilots, working with interested palliative care leads. Prof Keri Thomas received an invitation to speak at the APCA International Conference due in Aug 2022, which was followed up with discussions of offering small grants for an early pilot programme, Gold Care Africa, working with interested palliative care leads. This laid the ground work for the pilot programme of Gold Care Africa from May 2025 onwards, with details, application forms and supported training workshops on line.

The charity received donations from individuals in previous years and a donation from the asset lock of the UK’s GSF Centre CIC, when it became a subsidiary of Hospice UK and later an independent charity. There is a good will relationship between both charities.

The charity has now developed a very comprehensive website www.gsfinternational.org.uk, through which examples from the UK, from Africa and from other countries can be shared, with access to training resources and the GSF Virtual Learning Zone. This will be the platform for further communication and development going forward. Donations to the Andrew Rodger Trust are registered for Gift Aid. Some of the previous work is detailed in the GSF Africa section. https://www.gsfinternational.org.uk/andrew-rodger-trust-charity.

For more details contact:

Keri Thomas at [e-mail] or [e-mail], Mark Thomas at [e-mail], or our admin support at [e-mail].

(HARIIY (OhlM15510N I(￿ Ell(￿N￿AND1¥AlEs The Andrew Rodger Trust 160141 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period from To fW2024 0510412025 Section A Receipts and payments Unrèstrictèd funds tothe nearest Rèstrictèd funds Endo?m￿nI funds Total funds Lastyear tothEnthir•5t£ IL>lhEn•aT•5t£ loth? nTrare5t£ tottmp rnarest£ A1 Receipts Bank InterestRe¢e￿￿d Donation 1.721 50 1.721 50 f.686 100 Sub totsl(Gross income for ARJ 1.T11 1,771 f.786 A2 Asset and investnnt sale$, {s¢e table). Sub total 1,771 1,786 A3 paY￿nts Profetssional fees Èbsite design Just gi¥ing fees Bank Charges Subscripkn'on 100 100 $0 Sub totsl 110 A4Asset and inveslnnt pur¢hases. {see table) Sub totsl 160 Net of receipts/(payments) Transfers betY￿en fvnds £ Cash funds last yèar end Cash funds this year end 1,611 97,195 97,195 *.806 95,569 97.19

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories	Details	Details	Details		Unrestricted funds	Restricted funds		Endowment funds
					to nearest £	to nearest £		to nearest £
B1 Cash funds	Current Account				6,937	-
	Savings Account				91,869	-		-
					-	-
	Total cash funds				98,806	- OK		-
	(agree balances w ith receipts and payments account(s))				OK			OK
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees	Signature				Print Name			Date of approval
	Mark Thomas				MARK THOMAS			26/11/2025
	Keri Thomas				KERI THOMAS			26/11/2025