Going it alone

In early 2011, the Department of Health held a review of NHS charities to consider how their governance might be deregulated, to avoid dual regulation through NHS legislation and the Charities Act. This led to a thorough examination of all aspects of the regulation and governance of NHS charities, with a focus on any barriers charities faced in fulfilling their roles. Formal consultation on Department of Health proposals started
in November 2012 and finished at the end of January 2013.

Best interests

In March 2014, the Department of Health formally announced a change of policy. This allowed NHS charities, if they wished, to reorganise themselves as independent charities regulated solely by the Charity Commission.

The trustees of the NHS charity that supported Alder Hey Children’s Hospital decided that this would be in the charity’s best interests.

The first stage of the process required setting up a new charitable company. This was given the same name as the NHS charity – Alder Hey Children’s Charity. Its charitable objects included the charitable objects of the NHS charity, but also had wider health-related objects which could apply to future donations and so facilitate the new charity’s flexibility of working, not only in connection with medical research but also in the fast-changing area of NHS provision.

These objects were agreed with the NHS trust to ensure the future support given by the charity would match the hospital’s aspirations for future development.

The second stage was for the department to rescind the power of the secretary of state to appoint trustees to manage the charity assets associated with Alder Hey; this was done by an amendment to a statutory instrument.

The third stage was to transfer the undertaking of the NHS charity to the new charity; this was achieved by a combination of a transfer agreement, a Charity Commission scheme, and various Charity Commission orders, and also involved a Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) transfer of the current charity staff.

The restructuring was seen as an opportunity to, at the same time, review and rationalise other charities associated with Alder Hey Children’s Charity. This included two former appeal charities (Imagine and the Rocking Horse Appeal) which merged with the new charity and a number of special purpose funds, which were found to have fully expended their funds and could therefore be removed from the Charity Commission register.

Formal agreement

A crucial part of the restructuring was a formal agreement between the trustees of the NHS charity, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, and the new charity as to how the new charity’s relationship with the Foundation Trust was to work in future.

This gave the Foundation Trust some assurance as to the new charity’s use of the NHS charity’s existing funds, which were being transferred out to the new charity. It also set out guiding principles as to future cooperation, as well as giving the new charity assurance that any legacies or donations received via the trust would continue to be received by the new charity.

On 1 April 2015 the process was completed and the new Alder Hey Children’s Charity became operational. SJ

Lynn Hitchen is the head of operations at Alder Hey Children's Charity