Our tenth anniversary

During 2023/24, the Point of Care Foundation is celebrating ten years since launching as an independent charity. 

The Foundation began life as a research project (the Point of Care) within the King’s Fund from 2007, before launching as an independent charity in 2013. 

Our mission is to humanise health and care. We do this through a dual approach encompassing the experiences of patients receiving treatment, and its essential precursor, the wellbeing of health and care staff delivering care.

During the research phase of the Point of Care programme, the team visited the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare in Boston, USA, after which they introduced the concept in UK hospital trusts for the first time. Over the past decade, we have promoted the steady expansion of Schwartz Rounds within NHS trusts, health boards and an increasing range of other organisations in the UK and Ireland.

Alongside our staff experience work, the Foundation runs a Patient Experience programme, supporting clinical teams to improve their services for patients and families through the key methodologies of Experience-Based Co-Design (EBCD) and Patient and Family Centred Care (PFCC). Today, alongside commissioned projects, we offer open access training in EBCD for practitioners around the globe, as well the Foundations in Patient Experience course, a CPD-certified course accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management. 

Reflecting the organisation’s growing reputation as a partner for large-scale projects, and our ambitions to effect change at a system level, we launched a third programme in 2022. ‘Implementation Support’ focuses on the application of expertise in staff and patient experience within large health organisations or regional systems. 

Having launched in April 2013 with support from a grant from the Department of Health, we have worked to increase the proportion of our income derived from the services we provide. In our audited accounts for 2021/22, 92% of income was generated from charitable activities. 

Chief executive Bev Fitzsimons, who served as head of improvement at the Foundation’s launch, commented: “We’re all very proud to have reached this milestone for the Foundation. This past decade has seen the impact of austerity and the pandemic – both of which continue to have a big impact on health and care services. While we are pleased that our organisation has shown itself able to withstand these challenges, the context for health and care remains incredibly tough, both for patients and their families and for the staff delivering care. Sadly, our mission to humanise care has never felt so urgent.”

Plans

Alongside a celebration event in summer 2023, we are marking the anniversary with two substantive pieces of work:

• Humanising Care fellowships: A scheme to support emerging leaders develop approaches to humanising health and care.
• The Care Experience Symposium, held in November 2023.