During the 850 years that St John’s Foundation has served its community, time has never stood still, and change has unfolded from without and within our organisation to propel us ever forwards in our mission to change lives for good.
So it is, that in our milestone year we close a chapter and open a new one by announcing the retirement of CEO David Hobdey and sharing the exciting news that St John’s Trustee Catharine Brown will take up the Interim CEO position later this month.
Having joined St John’s Foundation in 2016 as Finance Director, David became the charity’s Chief Executive two years later. During his tenure, he was instrumental in developing and launching our current 10-year strategy in 2020, alongside our Board of Trustees.
This extended our work to help under-served children in the region with the ambitious goal of narrowing the academic attainment gap at Key Stage 2 and it has already proven to be making an important difference.
Indeed, early data indicates encouraging progress in literacy levels in primary school age children and improving speech and language development in pre-school age children through our Language for Life programme.
Meanwhile, David has also overseen and built on the charity’s core work to support people at a point of crisis and our community’s older adults, including through our almshouse accommodation, Good Living Service and wider initiatives to foster an age-inclusive community, in collaboration with other local organisations.
The culmination of David’s six years at the helm came earlier this year, in welcoming Queen Camilla in her capacity as Patron of St John’s Foundation in a special service held at a packed Bath Abbey in February. Catharine Brown has been appointed to the position of Interim CEO, and she is no stranger to St John’s Foundation.
She joined the charity as a trustee in 2023 and has extensive experience within the sector spanning more than 20 years. These include long-term interim Director roles at five national charities such as Young Lives vs Cancer and Bath-based charities Ripple Effect (previously Send a Cow), and Designability, where she was permanent CEO for more than four years, delivering transformational change for disabled people across the UK.
In addition to holding several interim Director roles, Catharine has also established a consultancy business working with Trustee Boards and leaders to help them achieve greater impact, making her a perfect fit to take up the interim reins. She has been living in Bath for over 20 years and is well versed with the city’s challenges, opportunities and networks.
David says:
“It is humbling to have played a part in the history of this vitally important local institution. My decision to retire at this juncture has been long in planning and with the extraordinary senior sector experience in my interim successor, Catharine, the transition of leadership couldn’t be smoother.”
Catharine says:
“I am delighted to step into the Interim CEO role at St John’s Foundation and play my part in guiding this important charity as we move into the second half of our strategy. My time as a Trustee to date has allowed me to build up a detailed knowledge of St John’s work and the many stakeholders involved.”
This is an important and equally exciting time for everyone here at St John’s Foundation. Our commitment has and will always be centred on improving the lives of the communities we serve. As we start the next stage of our 10-year plan, we are extremely grateful for David’s significant contribution leading to this point and very much look forward to working with Catharine in this new chapter.
In 2020 we launched an ambitious strategy that focused on narrowing the attainment gap for Key Stage 2 children across Bath and North East Somerset by 2030.
Through our Best Start in Life initiative (formally known as the Foundation Fund) support is provided to children from birth to 12 years old to help them grow into healthy, happy educated members of our community. Interventions have been funded that directly work on improving educational outcomes as well as addressing children’s physical, behavioural, and emotional needs. The Best Start in Life initiative comprises three programmes:
- The Primary Empowerment Programme funds additional support with foundational reading, writing, maths, oracy, and with emotional and behavioural wellbeing.
- The Early Years Programmes funds speech, language and mental health support to children aged 3-5 in pre-school environments, as well as mental health support for new mothers.
- The Nutritious Food and Safe Places Programme funds the distribution of food across the region via schools, food clubs and pantries.
This report contains the evaluation from the year 2022-23
St John’s is passionate about supporting the under-served members of our community. Our work within the Best Start in Life initiative (formally known as the Foundation Fund) ensures that children are supported through a range of initiatives to support them as they learn and grow. It is vital to us that we work with others to provide an environment where children have the chance to live happy, healthy lives and in turn, contribute to our communities for generations to come.
We also focus on providing older people with housing and outreach services. With older adults now outnumbering younger people in our region, it’s more important than ever that we foster an age-friendly community, promoting independent living for longer.
This year, we will be donating all proceeds from our Bath Half run to the people we support through our ongoing work within the BaNES community. With your generosity, we aim to continue the work we’ve been doing for the last 850 years by providing a wealth of support to children, older adults and people in crisis who are struggling due to stark inequality within Bath and it’s surrounding areas.
Together we can work to ensure everyone have access to a fair and equal opportunity in their lives.
Public Notice for the purpose of Section 121(2) of the Charities Act 2011
In a significant collaborative effort, an alliance of determined charities and organisations have come together to kickstart a groundbreaking programme, to make Bath and North East Somerset an Age Friendly Community.
Fuelled by funding from St John’s Foundation and Age UK Bath and North East Somerset, this transformative two-year initiative will drive change in the Bath and North East Somerset region to improve the lives of older people.
The programme will revive a local Ageing Well Forum, that hasn’t existed for over a decade, encouraging older people to speak out about the issues that are important to them and their communities.
The feedback will inform a wider Ageing Well Steering Group made up of local government, businesses, health and care services and charities. This will ensure older people’s needs and views are listened to when decisions are made.
As well as an Ageing Well Forum and steering group, the programme will also collaborate with the existing Ageing Well Network, facilitated by Bath and North East Somerset’s Third Sector Group (3SG). The network has so far welcomed 100 participants from 35 organisations supporting older adults.
Simon Allen CEO Age UK Bath & North East Somerset said:
“As we navigate the journey of ageing everyone’s experiences matter. I believe in giving value and a listening ear to each person, especially when decisions that affect us are being made. I’m excited that we’ll soon have a new Ageing Well Forum, the first in over ten years! This forum will help us all pay attention to what matters most to older people and in turn, take collective action. Together we can make Bath and North East Somerset a great place to grow old!”
David Hobdey, CEO at St Johns Foundation said:
“For the first time in history, adults aged 60 and over are now the fastest-growing group in our population. This has shifted the needs of our society, and individual’s lifestyle expectations. We are thrilled to be part of such an exciting project and are confident that the secured funding will lay the foundation for a great start to the Ageing Well Programme. We look forward to seeing the impact this has on the community.”
Director of 3SG, Becky Brooks said:
“This initiative is a testament to the power of collaboration, and we are so grateful to have so many like-minded organisations coming together with us. An Age Friendly Community means older people are not left behind or forgotten and people can stay living in their homes, be part of activities they enjoy and contribute to their communities for as long as possible. These collective efforts are not just for now, they are paving the way for us all on our journey into later life.”
Councillor Alison Born, Bath & North East Somerset Council cabinet member for Adult Services said
“An Age-friendly Community is a place that supports people to age well and live a good later life- somewhere where people can live in their own homes, stay active and contribute to their communities for as long as possible. So I am delighted that Bath and North East Somerset is now joining this growing movement, and to see so many local organisations committed to making our area a better place to age in. It’s important that all council services- whether that’s our parks, our libraries, or our local transport schemes – help shape more Age-friendly communities.”
As well as the various groups being put in place, next steps for the project include training Community Researchers and creating a ‘State of Ageing’ report which will be fed back to the Network, Local Authority and other decision-makers for discussion and action. The programme will provide an opportunity for many groups to work together to make the area a World Health Organisation recognised Age-Friendly Community.
In 2020 we launched an ambitious strategy that focused on narrowing the attainment gap for Key Stage 2 children across Bath and North East Somerset by 2030.
Through the Foundation Fund support is provided to children from birth to 12 years old to help them grow into healthy, happy educated members of our community. Interventions have been funded that directly work on increasing educational outcomes as well as addressing children’s physical, behavioural, and emotional needs. The Foundation Fund comprises three programmes:
- The Primary Empowerment Programme funds additional support with foundational reading, writing, maths, oracy, and with emotional and behavioural wellbeing.
- The Early Years Programmes funds speech, language and mental health support to children aged 3-5 in pre-school environments.
- The Nutritious Food and Safe Places Programme funds the distribution of food across the region, food clubs and pantries.
This report contains the evaluation from the year 2021-22
Many parents across our communities are struggling to cover the cost of providing breakfast and lunch for their children. Therefore, St John’s Foundation has committed to continuing a scheme to help provide this vital support.
St John’s is currently working with primary schools across Bath and North East Somerset, providing support to help ensure that all children receive the right start in life. Within these schools the level of children who are entitled to free school meals (‘FSM’) is at its highest. However, we are also aware there are children who are not eligible. Given there are many households in receipt of low incomes in the catchment areas served by ‘our’ schools that have been hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis and that the threshold for FSM entitlement is so low we have therefore pledged to cover the cost of children not entitled to FSM to also have a hot lunch each day. This means that over 700 children will have the opportunity to access the same free meals as their peers until July 2025.
A Head Teacher from one of our schools involved with the initiative told us that the amount she was spending on her breakfast club provision had doubled due to the cost-of-living. Clare Greene from St Michael’s Junior Church School added
Some of our parents were not sure if it was real and sent their children in with packed lunches just in case! There were some VERY happy children today and lots of the kids had seconds! I sat and ate with them as usual but there was just so much joy and lots of full stomachs – thank you St John’s
Many families within these seven schools are struggling financially yet not eligible for free school meals.
Nationally the figure for those known to be living in poverty but who are not registered for free school meals sits at 1.6million. The eligibility criteria for free school meals means that children above Year 3 (8 years old) must live in a household receiving income-related benefits, with an annual income – after tax and not including welfare payments – of no higher than £7,400 a year, or £142.30 a week.
About 40% of people who claim universal credit already have jobs and may earn above this threshold.
One parent commented
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to St John’s. I’m starting a new job tomorrow and I’ve gone to pay for my daughters school meals to find out that St John’s are providing it for all the children at Roundhill Primary School who are not eligible for free school meals. This gesture alone has taken a lot of weight off my shoulders, and I am ever so grateful for all the hard work and generosity of St John’s.
BaNES Council revealed the extent of poverty in our community when they shared that 1 in 5 of children in BaNES are living in ‘absolute’ poverty – that’s around 6,000 people under the age of 15 years.
It’s important to remember that behind every statistic is a hungry child in our community that requires our help.
Every young person has the potential to do well at school however we know that a lack of nutritious food inhibits brain development. Since the launch of our Foundation Fund in 2020, we have been working with partners and national organisations to help eradicate the need for emergency food provision and address the inequalities in the educational attainment across Bath and North East Somerset – this funding support is further step towards making this a reality.
Join us for our 2022 Christmas Fair!
Hosted at St Michael’s Chapel on 2nd December, we’re excited to share a range of stalls including wares made by our residents in the workshops from our Good Living activities programme.
Featuring Bath Shed and Stitch Class, we also have lots of local arts and crafts, food, hot drinks and much more.
Prepare for Christmas and support St John’s Foundation at the same time!
The Chapel
St Michaels Chapel, Chapel Court, City Centre, BA1 1SQ
December 2nd, 10am-1pm
