Sue Ryder is a British palliative neurological and bereavement support charity based in London. Formed as The Sue Ryder Foundation in 1953 by World War IISpecial Operations Executive volunteer Sue Ryder, the organisation provides care and support for people living with terminal illnesses and neurological conditions, as well as individuals who are bereaving the loss of a loved one. The charity was renamed Sue Ryder Care in 1996, before adopting its current name in 2011.
Care centres
Sue Ryder supports people living with life-limiting and long-term conditions including brain injury, cancer, dementia, strokes, multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease and motor neuron disease. It operates specialist palliative care centres, care centres for people with complex conditions, homecare services and a growing number of community-based services. The charity also offers support to people who are bereaving the death of a loved one, through face-to-face services in its centres and also as an online service, as part of a bespoke online community. Sue Ryder care centres are currently operated in the following areas:
Sue Ryder's income was £49.6 million during the year ending 31 March 2018, which included £26.9 million from NHS and local authority funding, and £20.7 million from fundraising campaigns and retail sales. The income was used for providing 2.5 million hours of care to over 97,000 people in the UK. In addition to full-time staff, the charity currently has more than 11,000 volunteers supporting its work across the UK, which in 2017/18 accounted for an estimated £30.2 million worth of work. Volunteering roles cover many areas of the charity's work, including administration, catering, transport, gardening, fundraising, finance, retail, photography, events coordination, cleaning, research, befriending and bereavement support. Sue Ryder launched its Prisoner Volunteer Programme in 2006. It works with around 40 prisons nationwide offering work experience in 100 locations, including offices, shops and warehouses. The programme has won a number of awards, including the Education and Training award at Civil Society's Charity Awards in 2013. In 2014, the charity opened a shop in Slough which offered staff roles to homeless people in partnership with the organisation Slough Homeless Our Concern.
Controversy
In February 2013, Sue Ryder was criticised alongside other charitable organisations for taking part in the UK Government's workfare scheme, in which people living on benefits were instructed to attend unpaid work at various companies and charities, at the risk of otherwise losing their benefits. After enlisting "around 1,000" volunteers as part of the scheme, Sue Ryder later promised a "phased withdrawal" due to online protests. The charity later released a statement explaining that they had chosen to withdraw in order to "protect staff from an online campaign of harassment".
