The Health Foundation is a relatively new organisation, having been relaunched in 2003 with a with a focus on improving health and the quality of healthcare. However, it has been around in various guises since 1983, when it was first launched as the PPP Medical Trust. The following are some of the key milestones in the organisation's history.
1983: The PPP Medical Trust Ltd was formed, initially as the corporate charitable donations function of Private Patients Plan Limited (PPP), a commercial private healthcare insurance company. It was financed by a covenanted donation from the PPP Company of £350,000 p.a. for three years.
1986: The Eynsham Trust transferred its assets and income to the PPP Medical Trust, comprising about £70,000 and a legacy of £23,000.
1987: The PPP Company entered into a new deed of covenant in favour of PPP Medical Trust for £150,000 p.a. for a period of four years. Subsequent periods were financed by similar deeds of covenant for amounts up to £250,000 p.a.
1996: The PPP Medical Trust changed its name to PPP Healthcare Medical Trust Ltd.
1998: The PPP Healthcare Medical Trust Ltd became a significantly endowed, fully independent healthcare charitable trust, as a result of the sale of the PPP Healthcare group of companies to Guardian Royal Exchange (GRE) Insurance. The Trust was endowed with the proceeds of the sale, amounting to some £540 million. Sir Peter Gadsden became the Trust's first Chairman. Robin Stephenson, who was appointed Company Secretary in December 1997, became its first employee. Later in the year, David Carrington was appointed as the first Chief Executive. The Trust's first offices were located at 13 Cavendish Square, London. Its Board was formed, consisting of six Governors and 28 Members, of whom eight were nominated by the Royal Colleges, one by the British Medical Association and one by the King Edward’s Hospital Fund for London.
1999: The Trust launched its first four grant programmes, focused on children and adolescents (mental health and learning disabilities), older people (preventing the onset of disabling conditions or the need for long-term care or acute hospitalisation), mid-career awards (supporting healthcare professionals to take time out to undertake specific projects) and medical student awards (support for one year intercalated BSc degree courses). Around 5,300 outline application forms were sent out and £4.8 million in grants were approved during the year. The Trust launched its first website. By the end of 1999, it had received £428 million of its total endowment. Mark Sheldon succeeded Sir Peter Gadsden as Chairman of the Trust, the Board expanded to 17 Governors and the staff to ten employees.
2000: The Trust launched additional new grant programmes focusing on learning resource facilities, conferences and seminars, patient support organisations, post-graduate training and international funding.
2001: The Trust changed its name to ‘The PPP Foundation’. At the end of 2001, the value of the Foundation’s endowment was £537 million and it employed 19 staff. Mark Sheldon remained its Chairman.
2002: A fundamental strategy review was undertaken, resulting in a new focus based on four pillars: supporting the development of leadership; capacity building; encouraging service improvement; policy influencing. 128 charitable awards were made, totalling £19.3 million. Stephen Thornton became Chief Executive in February, joining from the NHS Confederation. Directors Kristin Mears and Deborah Rozansky also joined the Foundation. By the end of 2002, the value of the Foundation’s endowment was £408 million, it employed 17 staff and there were 20 Governors. Sir David Carter became Chairman, succeeding Sir Keith Peters midway through the year.
2003: The Foundation relaunched in July 2003 with a new name ‘The Health Foundation’, a new logo and identity, and new offices at 90 Long Acre, Covent Garden. It announced a focus on four main programmes of activity: leadership, quality, capacity building and international. The final awards for the Children & Adolescent and Older People grant programmes were made; and in a year of transition, a total of 80 charitable awards were made to the value of £12m. At the end of 2003 the value of the Foundation’s endowment was £480m, it employed 21 staff and there were 15 Governors. Sir David Carter remained Chairman.
2004: The Foundation adopted a new five year strategic plan for the period 2005 – 2009, with a core purpose of improving health and the quality of healthcare. This focused on five key strategic aims: building and making public the knowledge base; developing leaders; supporting organisational efforts; engaging clinicians and engaging patients. The first Safer Patients Initiative was launched, as was the Engaging with Quality initiative. Vin McLoughlin joined the Foundation as Director of Programmes and Policy. Charitable awards were made to the value of £12.6 million. By the end of 2004, the value of the Foundation’s endowment was £538 million, it employed 32 staff and there were 13 Governors. Sir David Carter remained Chairman.
2007: We launched Engaging with Quality Primary Care and our programme supporting self management, Co-creating Health. Jo Bibby, Director of Improvement Programmes, Martin Marshall, Clinical Director and Director of Research and Development and Jonathan Sheldon, Director of Finance and Administration joined the executive team.
2008: Safer Clinical Systems design phase launched. The first round of Closing the Gap opened for applications in late 2008. Sir David Carter retired as Chairman in December 2008.
2009: We launched Shine a new fast track innovation award which opened for applications in late 2009. The award scheme supported clinical teams to tackle the challenge of improving high quality care and reducing costs. The first round of GenerationQ, our new leadership fellowship, opened for applications. It aims to create skilled and effective leaders for quality improvement by providing interventions which are effective and grounded leadership development and improvement science best practice. The Safer Patients Network launched, building on the work of the Safer Patients Initiative, developing and testing new approaches to patient safety in acute care. We also extended our work to improve patient safety with programmes launching in maternity services, mental health, primary care and community care. Sir Alan Langlands joined as Chairman in January 2010. Helen Bradburn joined as Director of Public Affairs and Communications. Charitable awards were made to the value of £23 million. By the end of 2009, the value of the Foundation’s endowment was £675 million.
2010: Our early improvement and research programmes are reaching conclusions, meaning we have important learning to share. We are also stepping back to consider what is needed next to improve quality. We have expanded our research and development programme and we are testing new ideas in a wide-ranging programme of award schemes.
Our new identity launched on 30 March 2010, to help more people understand what we do and encourage people, organisations and systems to take up ideas, learning, knowledge and experience from across all our work to improve the quality of health services. We will implement a new research and development strategy and communications strategy to reach out to people with our learning.