3 minute read
Members News
Keech Hospice Care
As the Chamber’s Charity of the Year 2020/21, we are once again delighted to update you on the progress we have made this year and how we are moving forward as an organisation.
KEECH HOSPICE CARE like many has seen great changes due to the pandemic. It has been a privilege over the past 18 months to stand shoulder to shoulder with our community, whilst caring for an unprecedented number of patients, including those with Covid-19, at this challenging time. We also continue to provide adults and children living with a life-limiting and terminal illness the end-of-life care that everyone deserves.
We have continued to care for adults and children throughout the pandemic, both at the hospice and in people’s homes. But of course, like you we have had to adapt. Doctors and nurses having to wear full PPE and maintaining social distancing has become the new normal here at Keech. It has been a challenging and exhausting environment for our nurses to care in, but we are positively striving forward as the country begins to open once again. As a charity our fundraising team continues to actively raise funds so that we can keep caring for our patients and their families. It is thanks to generous donations from groups, businesses and individuals who support us through various fundraising events and activities, regular giving, and other charitable donations, that we can provide this service. Our retail shops were also able to re-open in April which saw a huge surge of support in the way of items donated for re-sale. As the warmer months approach, we are very much looking forward to re-uniting with our supporters once again, providing it is safe to do so and to attending some of the scheduled events with the Hertfordshire Chamber, especially the Inspiring Hertfordshire Awards in September 2021. To encourage positivity, wellbeing and to get supporters active again the Community and Corporate Fundraising team have recently launched a campaign called ‘Smile Every Day.’ This campaign offers a collection of fundraising activities and challenges, designed for all to get involved whilst fundraising for the hospice, including:
‘Bake Someone Smile’ and ‘Sport Summer Smile’. If you would like more information or to get involved with supporting our charity please get in touch by emailing letmehelp@keech.org.uk
We are very much looking forward to the future and brighter days ahead and thank you immensely for your continued support.
Accounting your way to a sustainable future
As many individuals move towards making their lives more sustainable, businesses are stepping up and playing their part.
n Faye Thompson
Head of Cloud Accounting at Wilder Coe Chartered Accountants -----------------------------------------------------------
Companies now review their non-finance performance around environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities – which is fast becoming a critical component for building a resilient organisation.
Business owners need to concern themselves with their energy and waste consumption, the impact of their economic activities and their social responsibility to their employees and local communities. Your accountant can be a strategic partner in the transition to a more sustainable future. Faye Thompson, Head of Cloud Accounting at Wilder Coe, explains why. “With most of the country working from home during the pandemic, we have all had to learn new ways of working, which in-turn have had a positive, sustainable impact. With lockdown easing, a lot of these newly adopted processes can remain in play. Many businesses have introduced a cloud document management system to go paperless. Workers are clocking up fewer commuting miles as people work flexibly from home, and meetings via video calls are the daily norm. Your accountant can play a significant role in helping your business become more sustainable. Don’t forget they are at the source of processing your costs and will monitor for reporting on your chosen sustainable business areas. Your accountant can then build into the reporting such metrics for management review. Even making small changes has a positive effect. You don’t need to spend lots to be sustainable, and done correctly can effectively reduce costs.”
