The Tavistock and Portman Charity was newly established in 2020-2021. Before this there was a related charity, the Tavistock Clinic Foundation. The Foundation had funded a number of developments outside the scope of the NHS over the years.
These have included innovative clinical services, the financial support of minority ethnic and other disadvantaged applicants for training, the establishment of the first British academic chair in child psychotherapy, and the expansion of advanced training for mental health nurses, which had historically been a neglected professional group.
The strategy of the Foundation was to support developments which might reasonably be expected to attract core NHS or other statutory funding once their value could be demonstrated. This aim proved broadly successful.
- We have been grateful recipients of NHS Charities Together funding, which we have used to support staff, students and service users recover during the global pandemic.
- The Monroe Young Family Service, originally established on the basis of a gift from Gloria Steinem arising from her book about Marilyn Monroe, grew into a highly-regarded specialist assessment service for severely troubled families with young children whose future placement had to be planned – Could they safely stay with their parents, or was substitute family care needed? What kind of treatment and support would enable the family to stay together?
- The nursing discipline within the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust has grown enormously from its initial base of one staff member, and is now fully integrated into clinical teams in all directorates while continuing to provide courses and conferences to mental health nurses in many other settings.
- The proportion of students from minority ethnic backgrounds has substantially increased and issues of equality and diversity are now firmly embedded in the Trust’s structures.