DIRECTOR OF FUNDRAISING & COMMUNIATIONS

APPLICANT INFORMATION 2015

CONTENTS

Welcome Letter from the Chair of the Trustees
Background
Our Mission, Vision and Values
Organisational Structure
Job Description
Person Specification
Terms of Appointment
Application Process and Recruitment Timetable
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WELCOME LETTER FROM THE CHAIR OF THE TRUSTEES

Dear Applicant

Thank you for your interest in this exciting new role of Director of Fundraising and Communications at Weston Hospicecare.

Founded by the community in 1989, Weston Hospicecare is a Registered Charity which provides physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual care to local people with life-limiting illnesses such as cancer, motor neurone disease and heart or lung failure. The Hospice’s care reaches out to local people in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset and border areas of Somerset providing a safe haven and source of comfort and guidance to every single person who needs it.

The Hospice consists of a day hospice, a ten bed In-patient Unit, a team of Hospice Community Nurse Specialists, Hospice at Home, chaplaincy and bereavement services. These services work in harmony to ensure patients receive excellent specialist care, be that at home or in the Hospice, and that they and their families are cared for and reassured throughout the toughest experience they will ever face.

All of this is provided free of charge and it costs nearly £3 million every year to keep the Hospice doors open, of which only 19% is funded by the NHS. The rest is raised each year through the generosity of the local community, fundraising events, partnerships with local companies, the hospice lottery and via the network of 18 Hospice shops, online trading, logistics hub/warehouse and house clearance business.

The Director of Fundraising and Communications is a Senior Management position that leads the voluntary fundraising strategy which is critical for providing excellent palliative care and end of life services tour community. The position also leads our communications work so that a wide range of audiences understand the impact of our work and how they can help.

We hope you will seriously consider this opportunity to contribute to our future and I look forward to meeting you.

Yours faithfully

Judi Driscoll

Chair of the Trustees

BACKGROUND

Weston Hospicecare is an independent charity, founded in 1989 to provide free specialist palliative care for people with life-limiting conditions and their families in North Somerset and the bordering areas of Somerset. The area we serve covers Weston-super-Mare and the surrounding area extending to Congresbury and Yatton to the north; Cheddar and Axbridge to the east; and Burnham on Sea and Highbridge to the south. This year we will work with approximately 1,300 patients, ensuring that they are pain-free, supported to lead an independent and rewarding life for as long as possible, and are able to live and be cared for in a place of their own choosing.

We are the only organisation locally providing free comprehensive specialist-palliative care to anyone with a life-limiting illness living in our catchment area. We work in partnership with local health and social care providers and related voluntary organisations to ensure that our specialist expertise is used where it is most needed.

Since 1989 Weston Hospicecare has brought compassion, confidence and creativity to end of life care locally and transformed the lives and deaths of many, many local people. The care and services we offer are unique and personal from the staff and volunteers who provide them to the patients, families and friends who rely on them. Our staff and volunteers aim to make every day count with expert and compassionate care which puts patients’ needs and wishes first.

Our care not only takes account of people’s physical needs but looks after their emotional, spiritual and social needs too, together with those of their family and close friends, both during the person’s illness and beyond into their bereavement.

Why we are different:

  • Our care focusses on the patient’s comfort and quality of life when curing their illness is no longer a realistic possibility, by preventing, treating or eliminating discomfort and pain
  • We recognise that a terminal illness affects the entire family not just the person who is ill and so the entire family becomes the focus of our care.

Our care is provided in a wide range of settings, not just the hospice building itself, with the majority provided in people’s own homes. While each person’s Hospice journey is different our focus is always on the person, not just their disease.

We meet these aims through a variety of core services

Our core services:

  • Our In-patient Unit consists of ten single bedrooms – seven of which are used for the short term care of patients who need specialist palliative care for symptom control or care in the last days of their life and a further three are for patients with complex needs who require longer-term care in the last weeks of their lives. Last year there were 196 admissions to the Unit – with a third of patients able to return home after a period of care for symptom control
  • Our Day Hospice currently runs for three days each week and provides up to 14 patients a day with practical care, emotional support and opportunities for socialising and mutual support alongside an often much needed break for family carers
  • Our team of eight Community Palliative Care Nurse Specialists work closely with GPs and other community nurses to co-ordinate patient care, ensure patients have effective pain and symptom relief and are supported to live as active a life as they can. They also help to formulate a plan which will allow them to live and die in the place of their choice. The team works with an average of 300 patients at any one time and supports over 800 patients each year. In addition, Hospice at Home Service provides day and night care in patients’ own homes for those in the last days of their life
  • Our Chaplaincy Service provides emotional and spiritual support to patients and families of all faiths and none and our Bereavement Service offers emotional and psychological support to patients and their families, including children.

Alongside all of these services volunteers play a crucial role, supporting every element of the care we provide. Our Companion Sitters support patients who are very isolated or are experiencing acute distress. Support takes the form of sitting with a patient, holding a conversation if the patient so wishes, or simply “being with” and alongside the patient as a reassuring presence if they do not want to be alone. Our Community Companions are volunteers whose main emphasis is on providing support to carers. They provide a listening ear and emotional support and help carers to access help with a range of simple, practical tasks from within their network of family, friends, neighbours and local community.

How we are funded

It will cost over £3 million pounds this year to provide all of our services of which only 19% will come from the local NHS Clinical Commissioning Group.

To raise the rest we rely on the generosity of our local community together with income from grants from charitable trusts and foundations, unrestricted individual donations, fundraising events, trading and legacy income as we do to support all of our services. We continue to pursue a strategy of diversifying our funding base which has recently included developing new fundraising events and challenge activities, maximising income from our charity shops and providing a house clearance service.

OUR PEOPLE

We care about our staff and believe in investing in them. In 2014, we achieved the Investors In People Silver Standard.

FUNDRAISING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Fundraising for a hospice that provides high quality specialist care to its local community is among the most rewarding roles in the voluntary sector. Each day, you will need to manage the fine balance between entrepreneurial and business-like income generation and compassionate engagement with those whose lives have been touched by the Hospice’s work.

We run a broad fundraising programme that raises c. £1.6 million a year though donations and regular giving, events, community fundraising, corporate support, charitable trusts, a lottery, legacies and in memoriam giving. We monitor the effectiveness of our work through a series of financial measures, while recognising that we want to build long-lasting relationships with our supporters and that keeping their goodwill is vital to our future.

There are new opportunities to engage with our local community by working in partnership with our clinical colleagues. Examples are giving talks about bereavement and loss to secondary schools and encouraging them to fundraise for the Companions who help families cope with the death of a loved one; and working with the Chaplain and nursing staff to develop in memoriam tribute funds and in memory events.

The communications strategy has two objectives; to increase our communities’ knowledge of palliative care and options for end of life care; and to encourage people to support our vital work, whether that is by donating, fundraising, volunteering or giving gifts in kind. We have excellent support from our local newspapers and radio stations and it is important that we feed interesting and relevant content to them that shows the impact of what we do. We aim to increase our profile and followers on social media.

The Fundraising and Communications Team employs 8 staff and is supported by over 100volunteers.

OUR MISSION, VISION AND VALUES

Our mission, vision and values are the guiding principles which define the work and culture of the Hospice.

Vision

Our vision is that every person living within Weston-super-Mare and the surrounding areas with a life limiting illness has the best possible quality of life.

Mission

Our mission is to provide high quality specialised palliative care to people with life-limiting illnesses in Weston-super-Mare and the surrounding areas. By attending to their physical, emotional and spiritual needs we enhance their quality of life, enable patients to die with dignity in the place of their choice and we support their families and carers during and after their illness.

Values
  • We believe there should be appropriate support for all those with specialised palliative care needs, regardless of personal circumstances.
  • We respect the right of the patient to make decisions regarding their care.
  • We are committed to the motivation and development of our staff.
  • We believe our core services should be free of charge based on clinical need.
  • We work in partnership with statutory healthcare providers and others to provide the best care and support available, combining professional care and community support.
  • We respect patients’ religious, spiritual and personal beliefs and provide appropriate support.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

Job Description

Job Title: / Directorof Fundraising and Communications
Line Manager: / Chief Executive Officer
Professionally Accountable to: / Chief Executive Officer
Hours of Work: / 37.5 per week (to include unsociable hours and weekend work where required)
Job Purpose:
  • To provide inspiring leadership to the fundraising and marketing functions of Weston Hospicecare, implementing a fundraising strategy that will build voluntary income from its current level of £1.6 million pa.
  • To implement a communications strategy that will raise the profile of Weston Hospicecare’s work and financial needs and improve people’s awareness of palliative care and end of life options.
  • To build a high performing fundraising and communications team with excellent working relationships throughout the organisation, through effective and decisive leadership, coaching and developing existing staff and recruiting new talent to take the activity forwards.

Responsibilities:
Lead the development of Weston Hospicecare’s fundraising and communications strategy by:
  • preparing a strategic framework and annual three-year plans to achieve business objectives that are discussed and agreed with Weston Hospicecare’s Directors and Board
  • monitoring progress and providing regular management reports to share with the Directors and Board
  • building trusting and effective relationships with senior staff and volunteers, community and business leaders and senior contacts within the sector in order to maximise the value of personal networks for Weston Hospicecare
  • ensuring that Weston Hospicecare’s staff and volunteers understand the fundraising objectives and know how they can support them within their own roles and ensure that the fundraising and communications staff and volunteers support the work of the retail division and clinical teams
  • keeping up to date with trends and new opportunities in the hospice sector and in the South West and making effective plans to benefit from them
Manage the performance of the fundraising and communications team by:
  • supporting the team to prepare, implement and monitor robust plans that will achieve agreed performance targets
  • provide experience-based advice to encourage the team to seize opportunities, be entrepreneurial and behave collegiately
  • brokering effective working relationships between the team and other staff, volunteers and users of the Hospice, including Trustees, to support fundraising and communications work
  • overseeing contracts and partnerships with suppliers, agencies and other organisations for the purposes of fundraising and communications
  • fully meeting senior management responsibilities in the recruitment, support, training and performance management of all staff and volunteers
Managing the fundraising plan by:
  • recruiting and supporting a team of fundraisers to prepare robust plans that will achieve agreed performance targets for individual giving, legacy and In Memoriam fundraising, charitable trusts, community support, fundraising events, corporate fundraising and lottery
  • monitoring and evaluating fundraising initiatives to ensure an effective balance between long term activities that build sustainable support and short-term activities that recruit new supporters
  • seeking opportunities to improve cost-effectiveness across the fundraising programme, including working with other hospices
  • taking personal responsibility for major donors and negotiating high value and/or high profile fundraising partnerships
Lead the development of Weston Hospicecare’s communications strategy by:
  • recruiting and supporting communications staff to prepare robust plans that will build awareness among generalist and specialist audiences of the Hospice’s clinical and fundraising work
  • ensure there are effective and enabling procedures for PR and communications activity across the Hospice
  • act as a spokesman for the Hospice and ensure other staff, volunteers and users are supported in any contact with the media
  • produce a clear and compelling case for support for ongoing and specific work, illustrated by patient stories and examples of what donations of different amounts can achieve
  • acting as Brand guardian to protect and enhance the value of Weston Hospicecare’s public profile
  • sign-off significant print and online communications, taking responsibility for ensuring the privacy and sensitivity of patients, their families and friends
As a Director, ensure Weston Hospicecare continues to deliver an excellent service for its patients and stakeholders by:
  • fully meeting senior management responsibilities to contribute to the wider strategic development of Weston Hospicecare
  • representing supporters’ views in discussions about future plans
  • exploring the feasibility of raising additional income for new capital and/or revenue schemes
  • taking personal responsibility for procedures to protect Weston Hospicecare’s reputation

Professional Responsibilities:

  • To maintain confidentiality
  • To work within the policies and guidelines of Weston Hospicecare
  • To be familiar with fire, emergency and safety regulations, ensuring attendance at statutory updates
  • To maintain good working relationships with all members of the hospice staff and volunteers
  • Undertake any in-service training in line with Weston Hospicecare policies

Educational Responsibilities:

  • To participate in the orientation and development of new staff members and volunteers
  • To keep up to date with current practice and legislation
  • To maintain and extend personal knowledge and expertise in all aspects of the role and to share information
  • To attend all statutory and mandatory training as required

Health and Safety

Under the provision of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, it is the duty of every employee:

  • To take reasonable care of themselves and others at work
  • To co-operate with the hospice as far as is necessary to enable them to carry out their legal duty
  • Not to intentionally or recklessly interfere with anything provided, including personal, protective equipment for health and safety or welfare at work

Data Protection

You are required to obtain, process and/or use information held on computer. This must be undertaken in a lawful way. Data held must not be disclosed in a way that is incompatible with such a purpose. Breaches of confidentiality in relation to data will result in disciplinary action, which may result in dismissal.

Additional Job Facts:

  • To maintain a smart, professional appearance at all times in line with Hospice policy.
  • To maintain a responsible attitude towards economy and care of equipment and other resources.

Scope of Job Description