King's College Hospital Charity is dedicated to supporting life-changing care at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. King’s patients are at the heart of everything that we do. The Charity is a catalyst for innovation and excellence in the Foundation Trust, supporting advances in its world-leading clinical services (including liver disease and transplantation, neurosciences, foetal medicine, diabetes and sickle cell). King’s is one of London’s largest hospitals handling around 97,000 admissions, 43,000 theatre cases and 8,000 births each year. It is a vital element of the local community health economy, serving a large, diverse, deprived, and an aging community.

As an independent charitable partner to the Trust, the Charity has a clear grasp of how and where to add value by generating voluntary income and making grants that go ‘above and beyond’ NHS- funded services, improving every aspect of healthcare to deliver the very best experience and outcomes for patients. This includes raising money for cutting-edge equipment, ground-breaking research, pioneering treatments, and improvements to the hospital environment.

The organisation became a fully independent charity in 2016, and over the subsequent years has been transformed from a small, mainly reactive grant maker, to an active grant maker and fundraising entity. The Charity currently employs a team of 23, based near the King’s College Hospital site in Denmark Hill, London. This transformation has spurred significant impact both from a grant making and fundraising perspective, and allowed King's College Hospital to provide more expansive, high quality care and innovative research initiatives.

The Charity currently holds approximately 250 charitable funds on behalf of specific wards or specialities within the hospital ranging in size from a few hundred pounds to several million. In 2021/22 the Charity had income of £3.6 million and net assets of over £27 million. With ambitious growth plans to double in size in the coming years, the incoming Trustees will play a vital role in supporting the Charity's grant-making and fundraising strategies.

Up to 12 Trustees serve on the Board, two of whom are co-opted from the Foundation Trust (one being a senior member of staff and the other a Non-Executive Director of the Trust).

The King’s College Hospital Charity Board is collectively responsible for:

• Agreeing the strategic aims, objectives and direction of the Charity
• Ensuring effective performance management and assurance processes are in place
• Protecting the Charity’s assets
• Ensuring that the Charity operates in compliance with its governing document, legal and regulatory requirements and good governance practice

Specific responsibilities of a King’s College Hospital Charity Trustee are as follows:

• To prepare for, and attend, Board and any committee meetings. Each Trustee will be expected to use their specific skills, knowledge and experience to help the Board deliver on its strategy, manage key risks and reach sound decisions
• To contribute actively to the Board’s role in giving firm strategic direction to the organisation, setting overall policy, goals and targets, and evaluating performance
• To ensure that all board decisions are in the best interest of the Charity’s beneficiaries (i.e. patients), and is consistent with the Charity’s values
• To ensure the Charity uses its resources exclusively as specified in its governing documents
• To protect and manage the property of the Charity and to ensure the proper investment of the Charity’s funds
• To ensure the financial stability of the Charity
• To protect the Charity’s reputation
• To ensure the effective and efficient administration of the Charity

The Board delegates day-to-day management of the Charity to the staff team, lead by the Chief Executive. Each Trustee is also a member and director of the King’s College Hospital Charity company.

The Charity is looking for two new Trustees with experience that complements the existing strengths and skills of the Board. They will bring energy, enthusiasm and commitment to the Charity’s mission, and could come from a variety of functions or sectors.

In addition to joining the Board, all Trustees are expected to join one of the Board committees or to join the Fundraising Group (which is not a formal board committee).  

For the Fundraising Group role(s) candidates will either be familiar with charity fundraising or will leverage a strong external network in support of the organisation. They must be comfortable acting as an ambassador to external stakeholders and be willing to introduce King's College Hospital Charity and its work to them.  

Candidates who possess experience in the following areas, in addition to the above, would be particularly competitive for either role: wealth management, finance and investment, or an accounting qualification.  

A strong connection to, or understanding of, the primary communities in South London served by the Foundation Trust, or a personal connection to the work of the Foundation Trust (for example as a previous patient) is welcome but not essential.

The Charity wants to ensure that there is a diversity of perspectives on the Board that represent its local communities. It particularly encourages applications from under-represented groups with the relevant skills and experience, for example, people from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic communities and people living with disabilities across a broad age-range. There is no specific requirement for applicants to have prior charity trustee experience. Above all, the Charity want to increase the Board’s skills, experience, diversity and challenge and to ensure its new trustees have a passion for our work.

Adrian Williams, Chair of the Board
Alison Lewzey, Vice Chair, Chair of Governance, Nominations & Remuneration Committee
Florence Akende, Treasurer, Chair of Finance, Audit & Investment Committee
Professor Jonathan Cohen, Chair of Grants Committee
Rachel Barton
Alan Bolchover
Gillian Burgess
Ian McKetty

This role is unremunerated, and reasonable, pre-agreed travel expenses will be reimbursed. The Board and each of its Committees meets four times per year. There is an annual strategy day. Trustees are also encouraged to support and attend Charity fundraising events. The appointment is for a three-year term, which can be renewed once at the discretion of the Board.

This organisation is based in London and meetings take place during the working day usually at or near King’s College Hospital in Denmark Hill or in Central London. Candidates will therefore be London-based.

King's College Hospital Charity welcomes applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, belief or disability. All appointments will be made on merit, following a fair and transparent process. In line with the Equality Act 2010, however, the organisation may employ positive action where candidates from underrepresented groups can demonstrate their ability to perform the role equally well.