Amelia Foster, CEO of Sobell House Hospice shares a week where big things are happening. A new campaign, meetings and showcasing work-life balance.
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Monday

Though this is the start of a big week for Sobell House Hospice Charity, it begins as usual with me walking my younger daughter to school and then cycling on to the Hospice. I know how lucky I am to live so near to where I work, and this is only one of the many ways in which my job is such a privilege. Seeing the difference that excellent palliative and end of life care makes to people at such a difficult time in their lives is both humbling and uplifting.

Today we have our final check-in before the launch of our public sculpture trail, OxTrail, produced with the support of Wild in Art. This is Oxford’s first ever trail, and we are very ox-cited to be bringing 31 life-sized oxen to iconic locations in such a beautiful city. One of the really lovely things about OxTrail has been the engagement with schools and youth groups, as well as care homes. We have over 100 mini oxen gathered in herds across the county, so it feels like a real community effort.

Once we have been through all the last-minute details for the installation of the oxen, ably assisted by the RAF and Darcica, our sustainable logistics partner, we move on to the details of the launch at the beautiful Divinity School, part of the Bodleian Library. We can't wait!
Next is my fortnightly catch up with our Director of Finance, at which we discuss cash flow, our investments, and work together on our three-year forecast. Have invested significantly in staff over the last two years, including becoming an Oxford Living Wage employer (95% of the Real Living Wage for London), we need to ensure that we have a plan for growth. This year we are giving £1 million more to the NHS to support our services.

Tuesday

On Tuesdays I work from home, which gives me a chance to focus on bigger pieces of work, as I much like to have my door open so colleagues can talk to me about whatever is on their minds when I am in the office. Unusually for a hospice charity, we do not deliver services but rather fund our NHS Trust’s palliative and end of life care services. Founded in 1976, Sobell House is one the early modern hospices and has always been an NHS hospice.

This morning, I have a meeting with the Chief Financial Officer of our division and the new deputy at which we discuss plans for longer-term funding of our innovative and very successful RIPEL project, co-funded through a Social Finance bond with Macmillan and a grant from us. The Rapid Intervention for Palliative and End of Life Care project offers people the chance to die at home, if that is their choice, with the support of a Home Hospice Care Team, as well as offering early supported discharge from hospital. The project is now in its third year and has helped many patients die at home, supported by our teams. We have just launched the final phase – our Virtual Hospice – and early feedback is good.

In the afternoon we have our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion steering group meeting. We have made good strides in working with lived experience groups at our local homelessness service and have managed to get funding for a link nurse to work specifically with the shelter and the GP service that cares for those experiencing homelessness. Having developed a three-year strategy for EDI, we are now looking at the various strategic objectives including patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE), which can be more challenging for our service as patients have less time to engage. We also discuss the results of the staff, patient and supporter survey about the renaming of what was once called our Chapel. It has been agreed that we will now call it The Sanctuary and that it will feature decorations for the major religious festivals. We are also interrogating our data to ensure that those that we look after in our service reflect the demographics of our community. There is still much work to be done, as we need to ensure everyone who needs us feels able to access our services.

Wednesday
For many years in various CEO roles, I have had Wednesdays off, first to care for my children, and latterly to care for my ill and elderly parents. Both my parents died in Sobell House in 2023 and so I know first-hand what a valuable and incredible service we provide. Though I sadly no longer have my parents to care for, I still work reduced hours, doing 0.9 FTE across four days. Having a day in the week to undertake life admin, see friends and look after myself is invaluable and again, I know what a privilege it is. Today, however, I am working, as it is the launch of OxTrail. I make a trip into town to sign off the risk assessment at the OxTrail Hub shop in the Westgate Centre (the big shopping centre in Oxford) where visitors can grab a map, take a selfie, buy some fabul-ox OxTrail merch and enter our raffle for a mini ox. Soon it is time to head home to get ready for the launch.

We are so lucky to have the Divinity School at the Bodeliean library for our launch and there is a real buzz about the place as we wheel Oxley and Manu (two of our life-sized oxen) into the venue. Oxley our ‘hero’ ox has been on the road with my colleague Nikki for the last year. Manu is decorated with Medieval French manuscripts from the Bodleian. Guests are treated to some delicious canapes and drinks from Oxford Fine Dining and Hundred Hills vineyard and then it is time for me to speak – one of my favourite parts of the job! As well as thanking colleagues, sponsors and artists, I reflect on our community, and why hospice and palliative care services are so special. We also hear from one of our Trustees and Bodley’s Librarian – a very august-sounding title for the Chief Librarian of Oxford University.

Everyone has a fantastic time and there is so much ox-citment for the trail to go live.

Thursday

General Election Day. Hospice UK provided us with a very useful briefing on the main parties’ stances on Hospice care and funding. Unfortunately, it is very much a postcode lottery in the UK currently and with the need for hospice care to increase by up to 55% in the next three to five years, it is likely that the funding crisis that we have seen over the last few years will continue. Whoever wins will certainly be hearing from hospice leaders.

For us at SHHC, this is the day before everything starts and some of us are headed back to our pop-up shop in the Westgate to have a health and safety induction. Today is filled with last-minute fixes and it is all hands-on deck – sorting SumUp machines or printing colouring sheets; whatever is needed, we all muck in!

Friday

Installation day dawns and with it comes torrential rain as well as a new Government. While my colleagues are busy loading oxen onto the vans and setting them out across Oxford, I have a morning of meetings. The first is with our People Manager. I meet with her every week, because we know that people are our most important asset, and we strive to be a ‘people first’ organisation. As well as chatting through recruitment, training and updates to policies, we discuss any colleagues who need support, whether in relation to work or issues outside of work. It's very important to me to know how everyone is doing and that we are doing what we can to support them.

Next, I have a catch up with our Marketing Manager whose team has done so much in the last few weeks, launching our new-look website, producing all the collateral for OxTrail and its app, as well as managing the filming for our new Hospice video. After that, I have a meeting with our catering company and our new Chef who is already getting rave reviews for his food from our patients and their families. We discuss exciting plans for the future and sort out any snagging in the kitchen we have just fully refitted.

In the afternoon, I have cleared my diary in case I am needed to support the installation. We have been getting regular updates and even watched Oxford Blue being installed at the Churchill site where we are based. Despite being drenched, the teams are in good spirits and progress is being made. After a quick dash to Screwfix with a colleague for more glue, which we drop off at our Paintshop partners – MINI – I produce some documentation for the collection tin volunteers who are going out over the weekend and then head home.

The installation teams are still going, and I keep in contact with them until they finish around 10:30pm. Despite a few dramas involving locked University Churches and of course the pouring rain, OxTrail is LIVE. My colleagues are incredible; I am so grateful to be a part of this team!

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