Strategic Principles

The primary duty of our Trustees is to further the Charitable Purposes of Southwark Charities, as contained in the charity’s Articles of Association.  In this respect, the Trustees are guided by the following framework of Strategic Principles:

(i)  To continue to place the welfare of our residents and members at the forefront of all our endeavours;

(ii)  We make safeguarding our land assets a prime objective in all our strategic undertakings;

(iii)  We continue with our buildings regeneration programme to provide high-quality accommodation and services in our almshouses with the aim of being recognised as exceeding present ‘best practice’ across the almshouse movement;

(iv)  We will continue to look for opportunities to meet current need in the community by increasing our housing and related individual support services.  This will require us to define/confirm our target beneficiaries – currently, ‘the older residents of Southwark in need, hardship or distress’;

(v)  We will continue to manage and grow our income streams and reserves in a sustainable manner;

(vi)  We should not be afraid to modernise, innovate, adapt and take measured risks in the pursuit of our Mission. We will thus consider innovative accommodation solutions in line with our Mission and falling within our Charitable Purposes

(vii)  We will continue to develop our internal strengths and capacities in line with our ambitions by continuing to strengthen our management and development team, ensuring adequate staffing levels to cope with our core regeneration strategy;

(viii)  We will continue to promote an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy for all our stakeholders as an essential part in the future success of our charity;

(ix)  Governance: we will continue to improve our organisation generally, guided by updates to the Charity Governance Code and other recommendations of the Charity Commission and The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO).