Supporting
Healthcare
Heroes UK
Annual
Report:
2023 -2024
## **Report of the Trustees for 2023/2024**
## **Table of contents**
|**Table of contents**||
|---|---|
|Reference and administrative details|2|
|Structure and governance|3|
|Objectives and activities|4|
|Achievements and performance|5|
|Financial review|8|
|Accounts|9|
|DRAFT 2||
## **Reference and administrative details**
Charity Name Supporting Healthcare Heroes UK Charity Registration Number: 1205685 Charity Address 27 Station Road, Haddenham AYLESBURY HP17 8AN
## _Charity Honorary Officers_
Chair Dr Alison Twycross RN Vice-Chair Vacant Honorary Secretary Gerard Bolger RN Honorary Treasurer Muhammad Muzzammil Seethamah
## _Trustees_
Dr Alison Mary Twycross Appointed 13/11/2023 Dr Michaela Catherine Barnard Appointed 13/11/2023 Muhammad Muzzammil Appointed 01/09/2024 Seethamah Maria Trewern Appointed 09/09/2024 Gerard Martin Bolger Appointed 01/10/2024 Doloroes Macchiavello Appointed 06/01/2025 Adebola Abdulazeez Badiru Appointed 27/01/2025 Alexander Rosenbaum Appointed 11/02/2025
_Trustees who have left in the report period_
|**Name**|**Appointed**|**Resigned**|
|---|---|---|
|Vanessa Powell|13/11/2023|22/04/2024|
|Lisa Rickers|13/11/2023|07/06/2024|
|Adrian Powell|13/11/2023|14/08/2024|
|Peter David Mashiter|13/11/2023|10/10/2024|
|Amelia Powell|15/03/2023|22/08/2024|
|Marjorie Palanee|12/04/2023|06/11/2024|
|Sarah Cowley|13/11/2023|13/11/2024|
|Sasha Lindsay|30/08/2024|20/11/2024|
## **Banking details**
CAF bank Account no.: 00036873
Sort Code: 40-52-40
## **External Advisors**
Zayn Jaffer – Human Resources. Dr Evonne T Curran – Infection Prevention & Control.
Supporting Healthcare Heroes Annual Report and Statement of Accounts
2
## **Structure and governance**
Supporting Healthcare Heroes UK (SHH-UK) was established on 13[th] November 2023 as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), with its Trustees as voting members. It was established under a constitution that defined its objects and powers.
The Board of Trustees collectively reviews and approves recommendations made to it by its working committees, which are set as four core pillars. The work of these pillars is supported by cross-cutting governance, risk and finance group (Figure 1).
SHH-UK’s Trustee Board is responsible for managing SHH-UK’s business as outlined in the Constitution. The board includes three honorary officers (Chair, Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer). All trustees are appointed by an appointments panel, with the aim being to ensure the right mix of skills and experience and review the process after each trustee recruitment drive.
The Trustee Board is supported by a small number of volunteers who support the activities of the charity under the direction of the Trustees.
Supporting Healthcare Heroes Annual Report and Statement of Accounts
3
## **Objectives and activities**
The Trustees have carefully considered the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance in setting our objectives and planning our activities.
## **The objects of the CIO are:**
_1: The prevention or relief of poverty or financial hardship amongst healthcare workers across the UK who developed Long Covid during the course of their professional duties, whether or not they are still employed, by providing:_
- _a. Financial support with healthcare needs arising from Long Covid that are not provided by the statutory authorities;_
- _b. Financial support to meet a particular need that arises as a result of a drop in income; and_
- _c. Financial support to assist in the provision of education, training and all the necessary support to enable individuals to generate a sustainable income and be self-sufficient._
- _2: The relief of sickness and the preservation of health of healthcare workers across the UK who developed Long Covid during the course of their professional duties, whether or not they are still employed, by:_
- _a. Raising awareness of Long Covid, its treatment, recovery and rehabilitation among health policymakers, healthcare providers and the general public;_
- _b. Making known to healthcare providers and health policymakers the views and lived experience of members of the general public suffering from or affected by Long Covid; and_
- _c. Supporting research into Long Covid, its diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation from it and the dissemination of useful results of such research for the public benefit._
_For the purpose of the objects, ‘Long Covid’ means post-acute Covid-19 syndrome, where symptoms and/or long-term complications occur beyond four weeks from initial infection or symptom onset to include any post-viral illness with a suspected or evidenced link to Covid-19._
Supporting Healthcare Heroes Annual Report and Statement of Accounts
4
## **Achievements and performance**
This first year, the charity has made significant strides in strengthening its fundraising efforts and expanding support for healthcare workers with Long Covid. Key achievements include revamping the original website to make donation options more accessible, such as one-off and regular donations. We’ve also rolled out an information leaflet to guide potential donors on how to support the charity.
A significant milestone was setting up a JustGiving account registered for Gift Aid, enhancing our ability to receive and maximise donations. Additionally, two trustees spearheaded birthday fundraisers raising just over £1000. An online shop launched in May 2024 also provides an ongoing avenue for fundraising, This is further complimented by a _GiftAid_ registration, adding 25% to donations where applicable _._
In terms of grants, multiple applications were submitted, including one to the National Lottery Fund, to ensure financial support for healthcare workers affected by Long Covid. Though the grant awarding process is still in development, efforts have been focused on building a comprehensive fundraising plan to sustain these initiatives.
Collaboration with organisations has been a strong focus, including establishing links with PayPlan, which offers free debt planning, and _entitledto_ , that helps people access benefits. An infographic detailing how to apply for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was added to our knowledge base in October 2024 to assist healthcare workers.
Despite some challenges related to income, the charity remains committed to continuing these important advocacy and fundraising activities, with plans in place to secure the necessary resources for future initiatives.
## _**Public Benefit Activities: Raising Awareness, Supporting Healthcare Workers, and**_
## _**Advocating for Change**_
Over the past year, our charity has continued to focus on raising awareness of Long Covid, providing vital support to healthcare workers, and collaborating with key stakeholders to drive meaningful change. Through our diverse range of activities, we aim to ensure that those affected by Long Covid have access to essential information, support networks, and advocacy opportunities.
## _**Online Knowledge Base & Resource Development**_
We have expanded our online knowledge base so that it is a comprehensive resource for those living with Long Covid with sections addressing key issues, such as:
- Understanding Long Covid and living with the condition
- Navigating work-related challenges, including Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) revalidation
- Accessing financial help and benefits, including ill health retirement
- Preventing new/repeat infections through measures like improved indoor air quality and mask use
Our website has become a central hub for this information, supporting healthcare workers, their families, and anyone affected by Long Covid.
Supporting Healthcare Heroes Annual Report and Statement of Accounts
5
## _**Collaboration with Professional Bodies**_
Our Chair has played a significant role in shaping national guidelines, contributing to working parties developing the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) guidelines for supporting staff with Long Covid and the Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM) guidance for managers. These contributions ensure employers and professional organisations understand and address healthcare workers’ needs.
Additionally, we have promoted a series of blogs on our website, authored by experts like Dr. Evonne T. Curran, focusing on infection prevention and control related to Long Covid. These blogs and summaries of key research studies and review papers have been widely shared across social media, increasing awareness of critical issues.
## _**Engagement with Service Users & Lived Experiences**_
We are committed to understanding and amplifying the lived experiences of healthcare workers with Long Covid. This year, we published several Long Covid stories on our website, sharing personal accounts of the challenges faced by healthcare professionals. These stories have been promoted on social media to foster a deeper understanding of the condition's impact.
Additionally, we ran a series of cognitive dysfunction support groups, offering healthcare workers a space to share experiences, seek guidance and connect with others facing similar challenges. These sessions have helped us gain valuable insights into the difficulties experienced by our service users, guiding our ongoing advocacy work.
## _**Policy Advocacy & Engagement with Healthcare Providers**_
We have actively engaged with policymakers and healthcare bodies to highlight the needs of healthcare workers with Long Covid. This includes meetings with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to explore the challenges faced by registrants with Long Covid during the revalidation process. Our charity also undertook a review of NHS England sickness data. However, inconsistencies in how data were presented meant it was impossible to ascertain how many healthcare workers are affected by Long Covid.
## _**Collaborations & Networking with Key Organizations**_
We have build strong connections with several charities and advocacy groups including:
- Long Covid Support
- Long Covid SOS
- RCN Foundation
- Queen’s Nursing Institute Long Covid Network
- #ThereForMe
- Long Covid Kids
We also collaborate with professional organisations such as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM), and the British Medical Association (BMA) to promote the well-being of healthcare workers and share best practices.
Our trustees have shared their expertise by speaking at various forums, including presenting to the Queen’s Nursing Institute Long Covid group, where they outlined the work of SHH-UK and our efforts to support healthcare workers with Long Covid.
Supporting Healthcare Heroes Annual Report and Statement of Accounts
6
## _**Disseminating Research & Promoting Awareness**_
A core part of our work involves promoting the latest research on Long Covid. We regularly publish research summaries, highlighting key studies and review papers, and share them on our social media channels to ensure that the broader public is informed. Our online Padlet board is a collaborative space for trustees and others to share links to new research, further enhancing our resource base.
## _**Conclusion**_
We remain dedicated to supporting healthcare workers with Long Covid through our online resources, collaborations with other organisations, and ongoing advocacy efforts. Our work focuses on raising awareness, disseminating crucial information, and promoting policy change to ensure that healthcare workers and their families receive the support they need. Our efforts this year have directly contributed to enhancing the lives of those affected by Long Covid, with a clear emphasis on public benefit.
Supporting Healthcare Heroes Annual Report and Statement of Accounts
7
## **Financial review**
The charity has a small operating income, mainly from donations and a small contribution from its online sales in the reporting period. The total revenue for the period was £4,400 with expenditure of £720. At year-end, there is an operating surplus of £3,608. Most income is from fundraising, followed by product sales online in that order.
For its first year, no reserves have been held as the charity is in a period of growth. This will be reviewed by the Trustees in the following year. The charity benefits from purchasing digital services through charity rates, and its operating run rate is low. Thus, there are no concerns about the charity's ability to continue, as it focuses on income generation for the foreseeable future. There are no associated funds or subsidiaries, or custodian trustees.
The following pages are the official accounts for the charity in its first operating year 2023-2024.
Supporting Healthcare Heroes Annual Report and Statement of Accounts
8
**Supporting Healthcare Heroes UK 120685**
## **Receipts and payments accounts**
**CC16**
**a**
**For the To period from 13/11/2023 31/05/2024**
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
**Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Last year funds funds funds funds to the nearest to the the nearest £ £ the nearest £ nearest £ nearest £**
||**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**||**Restricted**
**funds**
**the nearest £**||**Endowment**
**funds**
**the nearest £**||**Total**
**funds**
**to the**
**nearest £**||**Last year**
**nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**A1 Receipts**||||||||||
|**Donations**|**3 138**||**-**||**-**||**3 138**||**-**|
|**Fundraising activities**|**1 262**||**-**||**-**||**1 262**||**-**|
|**Bank interest received**|**1**||**-**||**-**||**1**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total(Gross income_**
**_for_**|**4 400**||**-**||**-**||**4 400**||**-**|
## **A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).**
|||**-**|||**-**||**-**||**-**||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**-**|||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|**_Sub total_**||**-**|||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|**_Total receipts_**|
**4 400**||||**-**||**-**||**4 400**||**-**||
|**A3 Payments**|**15**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**180**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**499**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**35**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**63**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**792**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**15**
**180**
**499**
**35**
**63**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**792**|
|---|---|
|**Bank charges**|**15**|
|**Fundraising costs**|**180**|
|**IT**|**499**|
|**Subscriptions**|**35**|
|**Training**|**63**|
||**-**|
||**-**|
||**-**|
||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|
**792**|
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**||
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|
|---|---|---|---|
||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|
Supporting Healthcare Heroes Annual Report and Statement of Accounts
9
||**_Sub total_**|**-**||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**_Total payments_**|**792**||**-**|||**-**||**792**||**-**|
||**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**|**3 608**||**-**||||**-**|**3 608**||**-**|
|**A5**|**Transfers between funds**|**-**||**-**|
**-**||||**-**||**-**|
|**A6**|**Cash funds last year end**|**-**||**-**|**-**||||**-**||**-**|
||**_Cash funds this year end_**|**3 608**||**-**||||**-**|**3 608**||**-**|
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
|||||**Unrestricted**||**Restricted**||**Endowm**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||**funds**||**funds**||**ent**|
||**Details**|||||||**funds**|
|||||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £ to nearest**|||
|||||||||**£**|
||Cash at bank|||**3 608**||**-**||**-**|
|||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||**_Total cash funds_**||**3 608**||**-**||**-**|
**Unrestricted Restricted Endowment funds funds funds**
## **B2 Other monetary assets**
|||**to nearest £.**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest**|**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Details**||||||||
|Trustee debtor||**77**||**-**||**-**||
|||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|||**-**||**-**||**-**||
## **B3 Investment assets**
## **Details**
|**Fund**
**asset**|**to which**
**belongs**|**Cost**
**(optional)**||**Current**
**value**
**(optional)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**-**||**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|
**B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use**
## **Details**
|**Fund**
**asset**|**to which**
**belongs**|**Cost**
**(optional)**||**Current**
**value**
**(optional)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**-**||**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|
Supporting Healthcare Heroes Annual Report and Statement of Accounts
10
## **B5 Liabilities**
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
||||||||**-**||**-**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||**-**||**-**|
|||||**Fund to which**|||**Amount due**||**When due**|
||**Details**|||**liability relates**|||**(optional)**||**(optional)**|
||Creditors|||General|||**104**|||
||||||||**-**|||
||||||||**-**|||
||||||||**-**|||
||||||||**-**|||
|||Signature||Print|Name||||Date of
approval|
S u p p o r t i n g H e a l t h c a r e H e r o e s U K A n n u a l R e p o r t a n d S t a t e m e n t o f A c c o u n t s
11
I am approving the annual report for the Supporting Healthcare Heroes UK Charity
Gerry Bolger Trustee
S u p p o r t i n g H e a l t h c a r e H e r o e s U K A n n u a l R e p o r t a n d S t a t e m e n t o f A c c o u n t s
12
S u p p o r t i n g H e a l t h c a r e H e r o e s U K A n n u a l R e p o r t a n d S t a t e m e n t o f A c c o u n t s 13