Annual report 2019/20

Our 2019/20 Annual Report and Accounts highlights how we tackled urban health challenges in the last year.

We placed a major focus on scaling up our urban health programmes, reaching more than 10,000 people, and launching a third programme on the health effects of air pollution.

And in our role as the charity for Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, we awarded the Trust £10.2 million, including £9.9 million to enhance patient experience and staff welfare.

Foreword from Chief Executive Kieron Boyle

All our work – our urban health programmes, our charitable support for Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and how we manage our endowment – is directed towards reducing health inequalities.

This year we have begun to see real impact from our programmes on childhood obesity and multiple long-term conditions. From investing in new challenger food brands and supporting people’s health through meaningful employment to operating at scale through the nation’s largest investors, our work is at the leading edge of philanthropic practice. We also launched a third urban health programme on tackling the health effects of air pollution while laying the groundwork for a fourth programme focused on children’s mental health.

With our partner Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, we share a deep-rooted commitment to our place. As well as being the biggest healthcare provider in South London, the Trust is also one of the largest employers. This has presented us with opportunities to offer a wider range of charitable support to help them enhance health equity through the exceptional care they provide, their actions as an employer and their environmental impact.

Finally, we advanced our thinking on how to use all our assets to support our mission. This involved further embedding our impact investment strategy by investing in funds that back innovation in life sciences, healthcare and the wider determinants of health, as well as progressing our plans for a billion-pound property development to create a ‘med-tech’ hub opposite St Thomas’ Hospital.

Our work was always important, but now it is especially so. What the pandemic has done is to fast-forward a clock on urban health patterns that were there all along. It has also made evident that our resilience as a society depends on tackling these challenges. I could not be more confident in our team, our Board and our partners’ ability to play a key role in doing so.