National Garden Scheme Impact Report 2019
First Impact Report
The National Garden Scheme has published it’s first impact report showing the ‘extraordinary dual impact’ of opening private gardens to the public and raising money in the process. The report shows that the horticultural delights and quality of the gardens offer huge enjoyment and relaxation, confirming what all gardeners know to be a truism that gardening is good for everyone’s health and well being. As well as this, the funds raised through entrance donations and refreshments mean the National Garden Scheme donated £3 million to charity in 2019 ‘helping them make their own important contribution to the nation’s health and care’.
About the National Garden Scheme
Founded in 1927, the National Garden Scheme now gives visitors access to over 3,500 exceptional private gardens in England and Wales and has donated a total of £58 million to nursing and health charities in that time. The National Garden Scheme is now the most significant charitable funder of nursing in the UK and beneficiaries include Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK and The Queen’s Nursing Institute. The National Garden Scheme also promotes the therapeutic benefits of gardens and gardening and in 2017 launched an annual Gardens and Health Week to raise awareness of the topic. They support charities working in this area and grant bursaries to help community gardening projects.
Macmillan Cancer Support
National Garden Scheme have been in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support for 35 years, making them the longest standing partner of this charity. Donations have funded 150 Macmillan Nurses and other professionals enabling the charity to continue to extend its vital work. The National Garden Scheme is currently committed to a £2.5 million investment between 2019 and 2022 for the new Y Bwthyn NGS Macmillan Specialist Palliative Care Unit in the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, Wales.
Marie Curie
The National Garden Scheme has been supporting Marie Curie since 1996 donating over £9 million which makes them the biggest single funder of their work. The 2019 donation of £500,000 supported 26 individuals to study through their bursary fund and core services including overnight at-home care and in-patient hospice care.
Hospice UK
The National Garden Scheme has supported Hospice UK since 1996 donating over £5 million during that time. Current funding is helping Hospice UK achieve it’s five-year strategy to support 200,000 people and their families who benefit from hospice care and to reach 118,000 who need hospice care but don’t currently access it.
Carers Trust
The National Garden Scheme has been supporting Carers Trust since 1996 and has donated over £4 million in that time, helping the Carers Trust to raise the profile of carers’ issues, enable them to further their reach and support more unpaid carers. In particular, a fund has been established to set up the Carers Gardening Fund to help carers centres to make best use of their available space.
Parkinson’s UK
The National Garden Scheme has been supporting Parkinson’s UK since 2012 donating over £1 million in that time to help drive better care, treatments and quality of life for those living with Parkinson’s. In particular, funding has helped two new nursing posts in Bradford and Orkney which previously had no access to nurses.
The Queen’s Nursing Institute
The Queen’s Nursing Institute founded The National Garden Scheme in 1927, which only became independent in 1980. In that 92 year partnership opening gardens has raised more than £4.4 million to support The Queen’s Nursing Institute. Funding helps build the national network of highly qualified nurses and fund top level reports into the university education programmes available to nurses with a special interest in District Nursing.
Perennial
Formerly the Royal Gardener’s Benevolent Fund, the National Garden Scheme has donated £1.8 million since their partnership began in 1986. The scheme provides case workers to help people who have worked in the horticultural sector access debt advisors, signposting to other charities who can help with financial and practical support when times get hard.
Guest Beneficiary
A Guest Beneficiary is a charity that receives funding from the National Garden Scheme over a two or three year period. At the moment, Mind is the beneficiary and in 2019 received a £100,000 donation. This helped fund the growth of their core peer support work including Peerfest, Friends in Need and GetUpSetUp. These programmes aim to reach over 2,000 people by March 2020.
Gardens and health beneficiaries
Horatio’s Garden
Horatio’s Garden is the cornerstone of the gardens and health programme launched with a report commissioned from The King’s Fund in 2016. There are four gardens in London, the Midlands, Stoke Mandeville and Salisbury, aim to assist physical and mental wellbeing for those recovering from spinal injuries. These are deemed so important a second report in 2019 drew comment at the launch from Caroline Dinenage MP, Minister of State for Care:
“This is exactly why community health is at the forefront of the NHS’s Long Term Plan which sets out that integrated out-of-hospital care is needed to provide proactive, preventative and personalised care”
KIDS
These gardens in Basingstoke and Birmingham help disabled children explore nature, play outdoors and grow their own fruit and vegetables in order to improve wellbeing, physical and mental health.
Treloar’s School and College
Funding aided the development of a garden area within a new horticulture and outdoor learning centre at their site in Hampshire. This will serve 165 disabled children and young people at the school.
2019 Summary in numbers
£3 million donated to nursing and health charities
200,000 people and families reached by supporting Hospice UK
62,857 day therapy sessions funded within a Marie Curie Hospice
28,495 unpaid carers and their families reached by supporting Carers Trust
28,000 people living with cancer supported through funding for Macmillan
3,552 gardens open under the National Garden Scheme
1,325 Queen’s nurses supported
556 volunteers supporting the National Garden Scheme
450 additional people living with Parkinson’s able to access the support they need to manage their condition
380 patients benefited from Horatio’s Garden, Oswestry
165 children and young people with disability supported at Treloar School and College
26 clinical bursaries supported for Marie Curie professionals
Thanks to you…
The National Garden Scheme recognises they could not achieve these great results without the huge amount of dedication from gardeners who work so hard on their gardens all year round to open for one or two days a year to raise money for charity. Equally those who visit these gardens, enjoying them and benefiting from the experience but also dutifully donating their £5 entrance money and sometimes more, the results speak for themselves. Everyone benefits.
We are Sculpture at Kingham Lodge are delighted to be able to give some of our entrance donations to the National Garden Scheme making a large contribution to the local branch fund. As ever, we thank our visitors for their generosity and enjoyment, which is why we do it!