Welcome from our Chief Executive and Chair
Welcome to our 2024/25 annual report
It has been another year filled with thousands of hours of live music, sharing joy in hospitals, care homes, hospices and community spaces. When reflecting on the year and the live music experiences we have been part of, we were reminded that no two are ever the same. Our musicians take care to create personalised live music that is unique to the places and for the people experiencing it.
This is our second year of an ambitious strategy to ensure people in hospitals and care can enjoy a better quality of life and improved health outcomes. Like many, we have faced the challenges of a difficult economic climate. Increasing costs and an uncertain financial landscape means our fundraising has not grown at the rate we need to keep up with demand for our live music. As a result, we have sadly had to decline requests for live music from hospitals and care homes due to a lack of funding and this will continue into the current year.
Despite these challenges, we are both incredibly proud of what our staff, volunteers and musicians have managed to achieve. Over the last two years we have significantly invested in the organisation’s capability and we are confident that we now have an excellent foundation from which to grow. However, we need to accelerate a growth in income to keep up with demand for our services. We are a small yet ambitious organisation and know that everyone should be able to access and experience the joy of live music, no matter their health and wellbeing. Yet access to high-quality live music remains significantly low; with as little as around 5% of care homes providing it.
On a more positive note and thanks to the funding we have obtained, we have still been able to work on new initiatives such as a pioneering new monthly residency to share live music in oncology and paediatric wards in collaboration with University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire. Our live music continues to spread joy at the most difficult and challenging times.
We continue to believe that our work is crucial to the future of health and social care, and we will both work to maintain a talented Board and an enthusiastic team of staff, volunteers and musicians to ensure that our strategy is delivered.
Thank you to everyone who fundraised, donated or funded our live music this year. Your support really does make a difference. If you are moved by the personal stories and moments of human connection in this annual report, please do whatever you can to support us to keep the music playing.
Maureen Hall
Chair
Barbara Osborne
Chief Executive