Annual report 2023

It has been a year of significant growth and impact across our family of organisations, united by our collective mission to build the foundations of a healthier society.

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 – Evelina London Children’s Charity, Guy’s Cancer Charity and Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity.

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

In 2023 we remained focused on the following priorities:

• Making a step change in the impact we have on complex health issues prevalent in urban and diverse areas.
• Unlocking civic contributions that support patient experience and staff welfare at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
• Delivering effective returns on our endowment and using our assets to support health impact.
• Growing our effectiveness.
• Acting on our wider commitments to become a more responsible Foundation.

Foreword from Chief Executive Laurie Lee

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. Yet, when I joined the Foundation in May 2023, it was immediately clear how much progress we are making in achieving our mission across all areas of work.

During 2022/23, the Foundation accomplished an enormous amount through our role as an active and responsible investor of our £1bn endowment, and through our NHS charities and Impact on Urban Health.

Supporting better health and patient care

In total, this year we committed £46m (equating to £40.8m expenditure for the year) to the work of Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity, Evelina London Children’s Charity, Guy’s Cancer Charity, and Impact on Urban Health. We awarded charitable grants totalling £33m, together with a further £13m of contract and other commitments. This enabled us to support initiatives and projects that drive better health for all and to address the real and urgent health issues of today. Through our NHS charities, and thanks to our donors, we supported better patient care and staff wellbeing across the Trust.

We backed talented people and bold ideas and leveraged global corporations to support us to live healthier lives, from the food we eat to the air we breathe.

Using our assets for health

We continued to deploy all our assets for health. We reached key milestones in our property developments at Royal Street in London and in Cambridge. We also allocated a further £20m towards our £100m impact investment goal. Our practical, real-world work in Lambeth, Southwark and beyond gives us unique insight into what works. This year, we continued to apply what we have learnt across our programmes, initiatives and partnerships. We have used this knowledge to influence and to drive change at a much wider level in the health and global investor systems that impact all our lives. For example, we helped to launch a new global investor network prioritising health, and the Mayor of London cited our research when announcing the one-year roll-out of free school meals for all primary school aged children in London.

Investing in people

In the years ahead, a core focus for the Foundation will be investing in our people. Over the next 10 years, we will use all the tools we have to help our people succeed. We can contribute to creating hundreds of the leaders needed to build a healthier society from within the Foundation and wider society.

At the heart of this will be a shared commitment to our mission, our values and to embedding principles of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) more deeply across all our work. We will prioritise investing in our culture, refining how we work together, developing our team and focusing on mission impact.

At this point I want to acknowledge that this annual report covers the final year of Kieron Boyle’s leadership of the Foundation. I am very proud to celebrate these achievements, but both credit and thanks must go to the leaders and team in place last year. Throughout his seven transformative years as CEO, Kieron led the Foundation to the position it holds today.

It is an organisation well placed to meet the health challenges ahead and to seize opportunities to create a healthier society for us all. I look forward to working alongside the amazing team at the Foundation, and with our valued partners. Together we will work to reduce health inequalities in Lambeth and Southwark. We will share and connect with others working on better health globally, and support the Trust’s incredible staff and patients.