Home

About Us

FAQs

Press Releases

AGM Reports

Future Events

Donations

Contact Us

AGM REPORTS

Chairman’s Speech AGM 2009

It seems incredible that it is now 10 years since we launched the Lawrence Home Nursing Team in a packed Chipping Norton Town Hall in May 1999. Last week, during our annual street collection, we made available on our stall all the original documentation. It is always an inspiration to reread the original blue print, written by Dr Martin Lawrence just three weeks before he died, but it was also very sobering to read about our earliest meetings and the immense goodwill shown by so many that the LHNT should be a success.

The most overriding and pressing issue was that we had to be sure of raising between forty and seventy thousand pounds every year into the future to ensure our long term viability. This was a daunting prospect and one which most people simply said could not be achieved. We were all understandably reticent about starting something so potentially worthwhile; only to eventually have to face the very realistic prospect of having to wind it up, because it was not financially sustainable. Many were at that inaugural meeting and I was given the job of presenting our plans to the several hundred people in the Town Hall. I remember being big on vision and enthusiasm but rather less certain on concrete practicalities. There was heartfelt goodwill and support from everyone and at the end of the night we had raised close to one thousand pounds. I remember Cicely Maunder saying that if this was the start she was determined to make sure that all would be well… and Cicely is never defeated!

Ten years on, no one present at the Town Hall that night could have imagined how successful we would be. Over the past decade we have established a stable workforce of magnificent nurses and have achieved a sustainable and stable financial basis. We have been able to offer our service and meet the needs of nearly every patient referred to us and now stand as a beacon and model for the shape of community palliative care for the future. Martin Lawrence would have been immensely proud of what we have achieved.

Jenny Nolan has been our nursing co-ordinator from the start. It is a very demanding role and nationally the turnover of similar services is high. Jenny has a fantastically pragmatic, practical and reassuring approach; so essential to families and patients. She has achieved so much for us. We now have 18 nurses and tremendous goodwill and commitment from them. We have all the support we need and are working increasingly closely with other related services to bring a wider range of options to the care of our patients. The nurses are our public face and do so much to ensure we achieve the highest possible standards.

Our work is only made possible by the unstinting work of our fundraising group headed by Nikki Knott and with the immense support of Lesley Stobart. Again Nikki has been on board from the start and is completely tireless in her commitment to raising funds and organising events. The Carol Concert at Ditchley Park this Christmas was an excellent example of the exceptionally high quality events that she puts on and the enthusiasm she can generate. Nikki has said so often how exceptional Lesley Stobart is in supporting her; as a relatively new trustee Lesley’s contribution has been outstanding and invaluable.

We continue to have support from the community and it was a wonderful surprise that the “Nortonians” put on an excellent concert in memory of Robert Brain, all proceeds to us. The evening raised a good four figure sum and illustrates the initiative shown by people to raise money on our behalf. We hugely appreciate such events and do encourage people to support us in original and innovative ways. Our supporters, spearheaded by Jill Mavin, clubbed together this year to produce an excellent cookbook which has been a great success. We continue to aspire to the creation of smaller geographical fundraising groups to support Nikki and her team. We would love it if people could volunteer to make this a reality in the near future. Cicely Maunder is amongst our most energetic and effective fundraisers. We are so pleased that, despite an exceptionally difficult year, she remains so committed to us and we thank her for all her support over the years.

Robin Coates is our treasurer and does the tremendous, but often unacknowledged, job organising and managing our finances throughout the year. Although we are no longer brand new a steady income remains vital and being a local charity we continue to rely heavily on the local community as our major source. We have made leaving a legacy to us very simple and would like people to carefully consider this option, as over the years this has been our most valuable source of income. I remain amazed and deeply appreciative of the wide range of places and people from whom we receive donations.

I am sorry that one of our original Trustees, John Cutter is standing down this year. He could not be with us today but sends his apologies. At the very beginning he immediately gave us his support and time by volunteering to be a Trustee. As a successful businessman he has offered some very useful contacts and has been helpful with advice and support at various times. We wish him all the very best for the future. I am delighted that Dr Rosemary Williams has agreed to become a trustee in place of Dr Peter Davison and that Jane Cannon is going to take over the nursing trustee role vacated by Rosemary Moss last year. Both have been involved with the LHNT during the past 12 months and we are extremely grateful to them for committing to support us. In addition Dr David Edwards from Whitehouse Surgery and Dr Helen Bayliss of Charlbury Medical Centre have agreed to attend Trustee meetings with a longer term view. We greatly appreciate this medical interest from two of our key practices.

Unfortunately, our guest speaker tonight Valerie Stangoe, End of Life Co-ordinator for the Oxfordshire PCT had to send her apologies and could not be with us tonight. We will be having a Q&A session to replace this. Nationally we are moving closer to a community based palliative care programme and in the near future PCTs will be obliged to organise such services. We look forward to working with Valerie and her team to ensure that this is supported throughout the county. Jenny Nolan and I have had a number of meetings with senior officers at Katherine House to help them with their recently launched community service. It is great to help them after all that they have done for us over the years. At the end of March we had our Commission for Social Care Inspection and again did extremely well.

As we move into the next 10 years we can be proud of what we have achieved but also reassured that our model of care is likely to be the gold standard that is aspired to nationally. As the End of Life Strategy is rolled out I am keen to support others in achieving the quality of care we can provide. As ever our core and simple ideals remain at the heart of all that we do. In developing for the future we wish to work with other organisations, both locally and nationally to integrate additional services into our core role.

I so appreciate the tremendous support that we are receive.

Dr Jonathan Moore

Chairman's Speech AGM 2008

I would like to warmly welcome you to the 2008 AGM of the Lawrence Home Nursing Team. We have again enjoyed a successful 12 months and this is likely to be one of our busiest years to date. Fundraising continues to flourish and we have been fortunate recipients of several large fundraising events this year; including the Conservative Party Summer Social Event attended by our Patron David Cameron. We benefited from an extremely generous "Auction of Promises" which raised a five figure sum and also an outstanding effort from a team of the Witney Harriers who all ran the London Marathon on our behalf. We enjoy widespread and committed support from all quarters of the community and there continues to be a steady income from a very wide diversity of sources. We all appreciate so much the efforts made on our behalf.

Community based palliative care continues to grow in profile nationally and is set to become the gold standard model of care for the future. In April the Oxfordshire PCT announced its commitment to support such services and I understand that under the leadership of Bernadette Ross, Katharine House Hospice is setting up a pilot scheme to offer home nursing care for patients in Banbury and surrounding areas. Having been established now for nearly 10 years we are seen as an important resource to future developments and after all their help it has been a joy to lend some of our experience back to Katharine House!

This year I am sad to announce that two of our most pivotal Trustees have decided that now is the right time for them to step down. Both Rosemary Moss and Peter Davison have been very actively involved with the service from its earliest inception and were key to getting the service off the ground to the very well established organisation we see today.

Rosemary had already retired from her position as manager of Chipping Norton Community Hospital , but brought with her a wealth of experience which was vital to our early success. I have always been immensely impressed how up to date Rosemary's knowledge of all aspects of nursing have remained, both in the clinical & political areas, despite having been retired from front line nursing for a long time. She has offered us invaluable advice and practical help in so many ways during the past nine years and her influence will be greatly missed. I am delighted that Jane Cannon, a practice nurse in Stow-on-the-Wold, and very well known to many of us, has agreed to join our medical group with a view to taking over Rosemary's role when and if the time is right.

Dr Peter Davison was senior partner at Whitehouse surgery when we founded. We were extremely fortunate that he had a special interest in Terminal Care and during his sabbatical in the run up to his retirement, used the time to develop his skills and undergo further training in palliative care in New Zealand . For several years after finishing in General Practice he continued to work as a Clinical Assistant in Palliative Care for the Sue Ryder Hospice just outside Cheltenham . Peter has always been a wise and steadfast influence both in matters clinical but also for the many other aspects of running a charitable organisation. We valued his time as Chairman and his advice and sound judgement, at difficult times, has been greatly appreciated by all of us. He has promised to continue to support us and we all wish him well for the future.

It has been a very difficult year for our nursing co-ordinator Jenny Nolan with the unexpected death of her father and recently further family sadness. We all greatly appreciate her tremendous professionalism and continued commitment to staff and patients despite these personal challenges. On a lighter note I was very pleased by the news that our local Rotary has successfully nominated Cicely Maunder and Nicky Knott for awards for their outstanding contributions to the work for the Lawrence Home Nursing Team. These are so richly deserved as both have been EQUALLY (...an absolute dead heat!!!) towering influences and hugely contributed to the fantastic achievements of the past nine years. I would also like to thank the many other people who year by year make regular but vital contributions. In particular Mr & Mrs Blake and Ronald Speirs who collect the collection boxes from the many far flung locations.

As I continue to maintain our primary objective remains being in a position to rapidly respond to any referral in our catchment area and, wherever possible, to allow that person to die at home with the very best possible quality of nursing care. However, we continue to wish to work with any group or organisation that can help us achieve or improve our service. I am therefore delighted that George Hedges from ROSY has agreed to share with us the work that his organisation does. We look forward to hearing from him. There is no question that there is increasing desire to see community based palliative care services as the preferred model for the future. Although the PCT have pledged support, and despite being an ideal blueprint for this sort of care, we have as yet not been approached to help implement this service more widely. We would be very happy to share our expertise to enable others to emulate our achievement.

Last month I was interviewed on Radio Oxford about the Lawrence Home Nursing Team. Although I was promised it would not be a John Humphries style experience the interviewer did ask me a question that I feel very passionate about: "Why do you think you should be responsible for all the effort of raising money for a service that should rightly be provided by the NHS". My answer remains unequivocal: If the LHNT had to compete for resources in the same way that other NHS services do then we simply could not guarantee the standard of care that we provide. Due to the exceptional fundraising of this fantastic community we are in the wonderful position of providing exactly the care we want, without the possible financial constraints often experienced by other health services. This is something the team, nurses, family members and patients, all deeply appreciate. It is the key to our success and something we cherish beyond anything else.

My thanks for all your support and my very best wishes again this coming year.

Dr Jonathan Moore