St Wilfrid’s Hospice is the local hospice for the town of Eastbourne and the surrounding areas of the Sussex Weald, taking in Seaford, Hailsham, Uckfield, Heathfield, Herstmonceux, Pevensey and all points in between, an area of c.300 sq miles. The population living in this area is c.235,000 and Sussex has the highest proportion of over 85s in the country.

St Wilfrid’s provides palliative and end of life care services in its state-of-the-art building on Broadwater Way, to where the charity moved in 2013, and also in people’s homes and local communities. In fact, the majority of its work is done in the community. The charity’s services are wide-ranging, with a 20-bed Inpatient Unit, Living Well Centre and a multi-disciplinary team of Consultants, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Nurses, HCAs, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Social and Spiritual Support Workers and Counsellors. In the year to 31^st March 2022 St Wilfrid’s supported directly 1,510 patients with end of life care. It also supported 464 carers with counselling and other direct support and 120 children through its Seahorse Project counselling service. While the hospice’s clinical services are specifically for people with palliative care needs, in 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, it broadened its counselling support to the whole of the community. Of the 120 children helped last year, 70% were not connected to a hospice patient.

St Wilfrid’s was first registered as a charity in 1981 and so last year celebrated its 40th anniversary. The charity has undergone many changes over this period, in particular since moving from the previous site, a large house in Mill Gap Road, to a new purpose-built hospice in 2013. In 2016/17, the charity launched the Closer to You 5-year strategic framework, with the aim of increasing patient reach and doing so closer to where they live. Another aim was to increase the number of people supported with respiratory, heart, neurological and other non-cancer conditions.

Since 2017, total reach has increased by around 50% and the proportion of non-cancer patients from around 25% of the total to a third. Community-based total activity has more than doubled. The hospice has established a small base in Uckfield Hospital from which to support people in the north of the territory and the Community Nursing Team operates in 5 virtual hubs linked to GP practices and Primary Care Networks. The hospice has also set up a personal care at home service, which is growing steadily. Income has grown by more than 30% over this period to around £9m last year (2020/21 income of £10.7m was exceptional due to additional NHS monies related to the Covid pandemic, as well as a record year for legacies).

The hospice has a current workforce of c.220 and a volunteer base of over 500, which reduced during the pandemic but is now growing again. The current CEO, David Scott-Ralphs, joined St Wilfrid’s in October 2016 and is due to retire at the end of 2022. The current Leadership Team comprises the Medical Director, Clinical Services Director, Patient & Family Support Director, Finance & IT Director (a shared role with St Michael’s Hospice Hastings & Rother) and Development Director.  This team has been stable, with the Finance & IT role the only one to change in the past 5 years. 

The Board of Trustees has overall governance responsibility for the charity. There are up to 12 Trustees who can serve for a maximum of 9 years (3 x 3 years) and at the present time there are 9 Trustees, with 2 new people about to be appointed in September 2022. The Chair of Trustees, Shaun O’Leary, joined as a Trustee in 2021 and took over the Chair’s role from Fiona MacIntyre in January 2022, with Fiona remaining as a Trustee. The Chair can serve for 6 years in total. Each Trustee is also expected to serve on one or more of the governance sub-committees, which are Audit, Clinical Governance, People and Income Generation. These sub-committees may also co-opt other members for their specialist expertise.

St Wilfrid’s is regulated as a charity by the Charity Commission and as a healthcare provider by the Care Quality Commission. It is currently rated as ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC, although it has not been inspected since 2014.

St Wilfrid’s is operating in a changing health care landscape, with the evolution of Integrated Care Systems and Integrated Care Boards being put on a statutory footing in July 2022. This puts much greater emphasis on a whole population approach to health care and on collaborative working across different parts of the system. In anticipation of this, St Wilfrid’s has been working closely with the other Sussex hospices in recent years to build collaborative activity. This is helping the hospices to build greater influence, as well as allowing them to benchmark activity and to share resources. It is expected that this level of collaboration will continue to grow and it will need to be a key focus for the incoming Chief Executive. 

The Closer to You strategic period comes to an end in 2022 and the charity is currently undergoing a strategic review, to develop a new strategic framework for implementation from 2023 onwards. The aim is to align this closely with national ambitions for palliative and end of life care and with a pan-Sussex strategy which is also in development. Linked to this is a new Commissioning and Investment Framework for palliative and end of life care being developed by NHS England to guide ICBs in their commissioning of services. One of the aims is to achieve greater consistency in what hospices offer as core services, in return for (it is hoped) a greater level of statutory funding. At the present time, around 70% of St Wilfrid’s income is raised through local fundraising and legacies.

Values

As employees and volunteers of St Wilfrid’s Hospice, we pride ourselves on a common set of values which steer our behaviour. Each and every team member will conduct themselves with our values at the forefront of everything we do.

• Compassionate – We care about each other, and we will go out of our way to recognise when someone needs our help or support and will respond to the very best of our ability.

• Professional – We use our knowledge and skills individually and collectively to deliver the best service possible for those we support.  We proactively seek to improve and enhance our skills, taking pride in developing ourselves and others.

• Progressive – We’re forward looking and thinking. We pursue opportunities to improve and find better ways of doing things through new ideas and approaches

• Respectful – We treat people with dignity and respect, always acknowledging and accepting people’s individuality.  What make us different makes us better