Sue Ryder (charity)

The Sue Ryder care centre within Chantry Park Ipswich, Suffolk.
Sue Ryder shop in Camden, London
Sue Ryder shop at Moreton-in-Marsh

Sue Ryder is a charity (originally called the Sue Ryder Foundation and more recently Sue Ryder Care) which was founded in 1953 by Sue Ryder, with the creation of a nursing home in Suffolk, UK. Sue Ryder supports people with complex needs and life-threatening illnesses across the UK and internationally.

The charity is headquartered at Upper Woburn Place in London and is a registered charity in England & Wales.[1] It dropped the word "Care" from its operating name in April 2011 after a public consultation suggested that it sounded unclear, corporate and distant.[2]

In 2011/12 Sue Ryder had an annual expenditure of £81.9 million, placing it in the top 60 of UK voluntary organisations ranked by expenditure.[3]

Main activities and centres

The charity supports people living with life-limiting and long-term conditions including brain injury, cancer, dementia, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease and motor neurone disease.[4] It operates specialist palliative care centres, care centres for people with complex conditions, homecare services and a growing number of community-based services.

Care Centres are currently located in the following areas:

Sue Ryder's name is also associated with services in 12 countries across the globe. Since 1953, the charity has played a role in influencing national and international policy debates and stimulating the evolution of care services in developing countries. The charity's overseas partners, in places including Albania and Malawi, provide palliative care, residential care for disabled people and older people, and community-based nursing for people with chronic conditions.[6]

Fundraising

Sue Ryder needs to raise approximately £13 million each year to supplement its statutory income to continue providing four million hours of care a year, which is raised from fundraising and through Sue Ryder shops, of which there are around 400 in the UK. In November 2013, its shops and online store were said to generate over £36m a year for the charity's work.[7]

Sue Ryder also relies on volunteering support and currently has 9,000 volunteers across the UK supporting its work.[8] The charity has a large range of volunteer roles listed on its website, ranging from administration, finance and retail to research, befriending and bereavement support.[9]

Sue Ryder launched its Prisoner Volunteer Programme in 2006. It works with around 40 prisons nationwide offering work experience in 100 locations, including offices, shops and warehouses.[6] The programme has won a number of awards, including the education and training award at Civil Society's Charity Awards 2013.[10] In 2014, the charity opened a store in Slough – said to be its biggest charity shop in the south of England – offering staff roles to homeless people in partnership with the organisation Slough Homeless Our Concern.[11][12]

Workfare controversy

In February 2013 Sue Ryder was criticised for taking part in the UK Government workfare schemes. This criticism came in the light of a broader reaction against the government's workfare policies where people living on benefits are instructed to attend unpaid work at various companies and charities, at the risk of losing their benefits if they do not comply. Sue Ryder promised a "phased withdrawal" from the scheme.[13][14] An article originally published in The Guardian noted that the charity had withdrawn to protect staff from an online campaign of harassment.[15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Sue Ryder". Charity Commission. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  2. ↑ Tania Mason, Sue Ryder wins five-year county-wide care contract, Civil Society, 7 April 2011. Accessed 23 September 2011.
  3. ↑ "Which are the largest voluntary organisations in the UK?". NCVO Civil Society Almanac. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  4. ↑ "New Sue Ryder shop opens in Bury St Edmunds". Bury Free Press. 30 April 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  5. ↑ "What we do". Sue Ryder. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  6. 1 2 Finnegan, Lydia. "An evaluation of the Sue Ryder Prison Volunteer Programme November 2012" (PDF). PDF report. Bromley Trust. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  7. ↑ Staff (25 November 2013). "Analysis: Charity shops change direction". Third Sector. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  8. ↑ Morrish, John (30 August 2012). "Charity shops cash in". Management Today. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  9. ↑ "Volunteering". Sue Ryder. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  10. ↑ "Charity Award for Sue Ryder". e-hospice, UK edition. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  11. ↑ staff. "Sue Ryder shop to use homeless volunteers". BBC News. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  12. ↑ Staff (22 May 2014). "Biggest Sue Ryder charity shop in south to open in Slough tomorrow". Slough Observer. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  13. ↑ "Sue Ryder position statement". Sue Ryder. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  14. ↑ Jones, Roswynne (22 May 2013). "Enforced volunteering of workfare is against ethical nature of charities". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  15. ↑ "Activists are intimidating charities into quitting work scheme, says DWP". Welfare News Service via The Guardian. 27 February 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sue Ryder (charity).
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, February 28, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.