Helping St Catherine’s Hospice in these difficult times

As employers everywhere are coming to terms with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, we’re proud to have supported one of our longstanding clients during the crisis.

Like many other organisations, St Catherine’s Hospice has been in the unfortunate position of having to tell some of its non-clinical staff to stop working.

Our employment and HR team advised the hospice’s management team on how they could use the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to ‘furlough’ some of these workers.

This ensures that affected employees can continue receiving an income and can be quickly re-employed to support the hospice once life returns to some normality.

Our executive chairman John Chesworth, who is also a trustee of St Catherine’s Hospice, explains: “As well as their clinical teams, hospices also employ many other people in roles as diverse as lottery administrators, retail shop managers, and café staff.

“Due to the government’s forced closure of shops and restaurants, the hospice has had no choice but to send some of their staff home. However, the furloughed workers scheme means the hospice can keep these valued team members on the payroll and means they can return to work quickly to support the hospice’s vital fundraising efforts.

“We were able to advise the hospice on how to communicate the changes with staff, how the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme works for their circumstances and how costs for affected employees can be reimbursed by government.”

Susan Clemson, director of finance & business at St Catherine’s hospice, adds: “Given the fast-changing nature of recent events it’s been difficult to know exactly what government support we can access.

“There is a lot of information to digest, so it has been very useful to have advice based on the hospice’s particular circumstances. We’re very thankful to the team at Harrison Drury for their advice.”

Harrison Drury has enjoyed a long relationship with the St Catherine’s Hospice and has been an avid fundraiser over many years.