Our Strategy Plan For 2026-31
Introduction
CWCF was introduced to the world in July 1998 by a small group of family and friends who had two main things they were passionate about: children and cancer, so they married them together to form ‘Children With Cancer Fund’. Seventeen years later, in 2015, we were honoured to be presented with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
Welcome to Children with Cancer Fund’s (CWCF) strategy plan for 2026-31.
This plan will guide us for the next five years and the goals we set will allow us to measure our success in our quest to improve the lives of families in East Sussex, Brighton & Hove who have a child with cancer. We are a small charity which receives no regular government funding.
As a fairly small/medium charity that is predominantly volunteer-led, run by passion and with limited resources at free reserve level, it can be difficult to focus on anything other than constantly reacting to clients’ needs and fire-fighting to maintain the level of support we give to our families. This is why our strategy plan is so important; it will ensure we focus on our overall vision and keep our activities in line with our key aims and strategic objectives.
Our Purpose
Is to put the smile back on the faces of children who have/ have had cancer in East Sussex/Brighton & Hove, and their families. We know how dramatically the siblings and parents are affected during treatment and ongoing hospital visits.
To do this we provide wishes, offer holiday breaks, invite families to group events, and even take the Mums or Dads out for a treat with other parents who 'get it’. Basically, doing things that are fun, which the families would perhaps not be able to afford to do due to financial restraints.
Our Purpose Strategy
- We support children and their families in East Sussex, Brighton and Hove
- We help families with a child or children with cancer
- The support we give is driven by the income we have; services can and will be adjusted in light of income variations
- Our underlying principle is sustainability so that we will be here today, tomorrow and for as long as we are needed by children with cancer and their families.
Our strategy is driven by our Mission, Vision, Values and Aims.
Our Mission
Is a simple one: for the families we support to have the sort of lives we all have or hope to have, and for the hospitals/hospices who support them to have the equipment they need.
Our Mission Strategy
Our strategy is built on 5 pillars:
- Family Support
- Daily Operation, Staff and Premises
- Volunteers
- Marketing and Fundraising
- Plan for the future of CWCF/ Succession Planning
Family Support
- Provide respite- families need quality time together.
- Reduce isolation- meeting other people on the same journey will allow families to share their experiences and realise they are not on their own.
- Build community- creating opportunities for families to connect.
How we will achieve this:
- Host a minimum of two social events per month.
- Provide a hardship fund each year to support families when they are in need.
- Provide wishes and knowledge of the support available from CWCF to families within 3 months of diagnosis.
- Provide holiday breaks in the form of:
- Caravan breaks at our caravans in Hastings and Pevensey Bay, with the option to rent one more.
- Lansdowne weekend breaks for those who have been unable to access our other holiday options.
- Brighton weekend breaks to allow families in the west of our area to stay close to their own hospital.
- Isle of Wight break for 10 families once per year.
- Provide a trip to the Isle of Wight for 10 families once per year.
- Provide connection events for small cluster groups within our areas.
- Maintain contacts with hospitals on a personal level.
- Send birthday cards to all the children and siblings we support every year.
- Send beravement/thinking of you cards to families who have lost a child.
- Set up a small sub-office/ desk share in Brighton to gain a better understanding of how we can engage with families in the area.
Staff, Premises & Daily Operation
- Make the operation of running CWCF possible
- Maintain the integrity of our office space and building
- Make our data secure and accessible
How we will achieve this:
- Maintain 9 part-time members of staff to ensure the smooth running of CWCF.
- Possibly employ an additional two members of staff to meet the growing demand.
- Undertake a rolling maintenance plan for our building.
- Streamline and reduce costs of cyber security by forging connections with experts.
- Set up a staff security plan to secure specific posts via 3-year funding cycles.
- Assign each member of the team a volunteer to cover minor jobs or holidays.
Volunteers
- Deliver services in line with the strategy and ethos of CWCF.
How we will achieve this:
- Have a volunteer co-ordinator in place to provide stability to all volunteers
- Carry out in-depth induction and training sessions for all volunteers
- Host an annual volunteers’ celebration event/social.
- Send out a volunteer specific e-newsletter each quarter, in addtion to our monthly e-newsletter.
- Increase our regular volunteer base by at least 20.
- Aim to have at least one volunteer to assist each area of the charity.
Marketing and Fundraising
- Achieve sustainable services – we aim to secure funding from a variety of sources to ensure the longevity of CWCF.
- To drive referrals to contact us.
- To recruit and retain volunteers.
- To raise awareness and increase CWCF’s profile.
- Sign up 26 new Dream Makers for the year 2026, and 27 for the year 2027.
- Increase our number of Google reviews.
- Grow our Facebook and Instagram followers to top over 5,000.
How we will achieve this:
- Attend at least two community events per month.
- Run at least 3 larger fundraising events, plus a supporters' dinner.
- Grow the number of runners at our Run to Run by at least 10% year on year.
- Widen our networking groups with Ambassadors.
- Increase the number of Patrons and work together to plan ways in which they can become more active in supporting and promoting the work of CWCF.
- Engage with large companies to gain support via their corporate social responsibility.
- Secure the wages of staff by grants obtained.
- Give training to Ambassadors on the needs of the charity.
- Increase our advertising budget where possible.
- Increase support staff for media to allow better focus on our on-line donations.
Plan for the future of CWCF/ Succession Planning
- Look at the continued growth of the charity and the needs of our families.
- Constantly look at the resources of the charity and maintain its reserves to an acceptable level.
- Plan staff succession and look at likely increases in staffing to allow for this.
- Look at staff support with volunteers.
- Plan for increasing Trustee board and Trustee succession.
- Implement Founders board.
- Re-look at staffing levels and see whether work can be combined if hours are increased.
Our Vision: For the Families
To give and allow families who have a child with cancer in East Sussex, Brighton & Hove some normality through:
Activities & holidays they wouldn’t be able to afford due to leaving their job or spending the money they have on hospital visits / petrol, etc.
Meetings in a fun or relaxed environment with other families who understand what they are going through.
Phone support with someone that can point them in the right direction and listen.
Our Vision: Professionals
For all levels of professional (from consultant to ward staff) to realise there are simple referral systems in place to give the families all the above support.
To support the professionals with things that they don’t have the budget for, but which would make the families’ stay in hospital nicer.
To support the community team with equipment which would enable the child to have treatment at home, removing the stress of travelling.
Our Core Values
Being a very personal and passionate charity, we are committed to putting the needs of the families first; actively seeking their feedback and involving them in our work and decision making.
Openness:
We are committed to integrity and honesty, being transparent and only acting in the best interest of our families, staff and volunteers at all times.
Equality:
At Children with Cancer Fund, we pride ourselves on our open equality stance in accordance with the Equality Act 2010.
Accountability:
We are committed to being held accountable for our actions and the decisions we make, the way in which we regulate and how we use the charity’s funds.
Quality:
We aim to provide accessibility, a high-quality service and support to all our beneficiaries.
Support outside the families:
This will be for the use of families under our remit only, to ease the workload of the nursing staff using it and benefit the quality of life for the families involved, for instance, we supply treat boxes for the cancer children (rewards for having injections, etc).
Our Aims
Children with Cancer Fund (CWCF) pledges:
- To increase awareness of CWCF and the work we do in its community and surrounding area.
- To improve the physical and emotional health of the children and their family affected by cancer.
- To promote access for short and long term management/rehabilitation of people living with childhood cancer and their families.
We are the only charity supporting families in the way we do and believe working together with others to raise awareness is the route to the long term support/wellbeing of all involved.
