“Being a Trustee has never been more important” – Meet Karen Warden, Chair of the Board of Trustees at Pilgrims Hospices

To celebrate Trustees’ Week 2024 at Pilgrims Hospices, we caught up with Karen Warden, Chair of the Board of Trustees, who shared what she enjoys about her role.

With so much in the news about the future funding of hospice care, the need for Trustee Boards to support, as well as challenge their leadership teams at their hospice, has never been more important.

I have been a Trustee at Pilgrims Hospices for over six years, and Chair of the Board for four years. I am aware that trustees will always think that their charity is the most important, or their cause the most vital, and that can sometimes make it hard to share views or seek out opinions on challenges faced. My experience of the hospice community has always been very different.

Everyone involved in hospices, from Trustees to CEOs, clinicians and volunteers alike, have open and honest dialogue, share challenges and triumphs, and we collaborate as much as we can. This is because we are all ‘in it together’ to provide more and better end-of-life care to every patient, every family, every time they need us.

During my time as a Trustee and Chair of the Board, I have learnt a lot from my fellow Trustees, CEO and Executive Management Team, and staff and volunteers right across our charity. I have also had the privilege of joining and attending the regional Hospice UK’s Chair’s Group, of which I now am now Chair, I sit on Hospice UK’s Board of Chair’s Council and attend Hospice UK’s Annual Conference.

From discussions both within Pilgrims Hospices and those externally, it is clear that hospices still need to remember that people don’t always understand what a hospice actually ‘does’, or indeed the range and scope of the charity, thus a potential trustee may not always be aware of the contribution that they could make to a hospice.

I also strongly believe that trustees should have planned development and support during their term in office, just as they would have if they were employed by the charity or by another organisation. At Pilgrims Hospices, we strive to offer this development to trustees. We have an annual meeting with the Executive Management Team to set strategic objectives, which gives the Board an opportunity to understand how our strategy becomes reality. We have regular Board Walks at each of our three hospice sites, when trustees can talk to staff on an informal basis about their work and their daily challenges. These Board Walks also give us, the Trustees, invaluable insight into the work of the charity. Many of us take part in and support our fundraising events, donate and buy in our shops and play our lottery, so we better understand how three quarters of our income is generated. Although none of these are the formal training that some may recognise from the “workplace”, we learn a lot about the hospice through these interactions. As such, I am better informed and am able to contribute to Board-level decisions that are right for my hospice.

The number of opportunities and potential collaborations are increasing for hospices, as are the range of day-to-day challenging operational issues such as the future funding of hospice care I mentioned at the beginning of this article, and in addition to attracting qualified, dedicated staff and volunteers to keep our services running, it seems fair to say that, for our trustees, ‘wanting to do good’ is not enough anymore. Certainly in 2024 and beyond, hospices, indeed all charities, need trustees who are prepared to be accountable.  To do this appropriately, I believe trustees should be actively engaged with their charity and informed by interacting with a range of a charity’s stakeholders. As such, I’m indebted to my fellow trustees for their commitment, hard work and insightful support, often undertaken in addition to a demanding day job!

In summary, I think that being a Trustee and also Chair of Pilgrims Hospices has never been more important, interesting, or rewarding, but, if I am honest, in the current political and economic climate, it can be challenging.

Trustees’ Week is a time for us to come together to celebrate the achievements of nearly one million trustees across the UK. We thank them for the time, commitment, and effort they bring to their charities to help them thrive.