A year of action and growth

I’m pleased to announce the release our Annual Report for 2022-23. It’s been a huge year of action and impact right across the Foundation and we’re proud to be sharing some of it in this year’s report.

When I joined the Foundation as Interim Chief Executive in May 2023, it was immediately clear how much progress the Foundation is making in achieving our mission across all areas of our work. During 2022/23 the Foundation accomplished an enormous amount through our role as an active and responsible investor through our £1bn endowment, and through Impact on Urban Health and our NHS charities – Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity, Guy’s Cancer Charity and Evelina London Children’s Charity.

At a time when our nation’s health faces such significant and complex challenges, our mission to build the foundations of a healthier society has never been more important.

The real-life consequences of these challenges to our health are seen every day across the work of Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation. They are visible in the striking health inequity found in communities across Lambeth and Southwark and in the growing demands placed on the brilliant NHS Trust that we support.

Following the launch of Impact on Urban Health in 2020, this reporting period is the first full year since our three NHS charities launched. This year we have continued to build on progress to date and strengthen our different routes to impact;

• As Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation we have continued to use our endowment to invest in a healthier society, using our assets to achieve financial returns, increasingly alongside improved health impact. For example, this year continuing to use our assets to support our vision for life sciences in South Central London, through achieving key planning milestones on our Royal Street development.
• Through our NHS charities, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity, Guy’s Cancer Charity and Evelina London Children’s Charity, we have continued to support Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, their incredible staff and the exceptional healthcare they provide in Lambeth and Southwark. This year we raised the profile of our charities to achieve greater fundraising potential to directly support patients and staff.
• Through our Impact on Urban Health programmatic work, where we seek to make Lambeth, Southwark and urban areas in the UK and beyond healthier places to live by addressing systemic health related issues which perpetuate health inequity. This year the team supported us all to be happier and healthier, be that by influencing our health through the things we eat in our Children’s Health and Food Programme, or improving the air we breathe, through our Health Effects of Air Pollution Programme.

This is just a small insight into our achievements as a foundation over the last year.

Last year we awarded charitable grants totalling £33m which enabled us to support initiatives and projects that drive better health for all and to address the real and urgent health issues of today.

Our endowment has continued to deliver on its dual mandate for health impact and financial returns across our portfolio. It has been big year for our property portfolio. We reached key milestones in our two flagship life science developments at Royal Street and Snowsfields Quarter and sold our site in Cambridge. Not only do the profits from these assets go straight back into the endowment to help us keep doing the amazing work we do – they play an important role in advancing life science innovation in South Central London as part of the SC1 partnership. This is where we see medical research, innovation and development coming together to find solutions to the biggest health challenges of today and support a healthier future for everyone.

As a foundation we have grown by more than 50%. Investing in people, systems and processes is essential to delivering our ambitious strategy over the next five years.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is an enabler to the Foundation’s mission; it is embedded into all aspects of our work – as an employer, in the way we partner, with suppliers and in who and what we invest in – to allow us to contribute to a more equitable society in practice as well as in mission.

We have continued our journey to embed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion values across everything we do – we know we have further to go and are committed to do what it takes to make our ambition a reality.

Finally, I would encourage you to take a look at the Annual Report and I want to thank the people that make the Foundation the brilliant organisation it is. The people that work for us, our trustees, partners and the incredible team at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and beyond.