BSO’s charitable works
As well as being a higher education institution, the BSO is a registered charity (no. 312873). Our charitable work encompasses the education of students and osteopaths, as well as access to healthcare within the community.
Our aims as a charity are to promote osteopathy and osteopathy's contribution to the provision of contemporary health care for the public benefit by:
- Providing access to osteopathic healthcare for the community, including our outreach clinics providing free of charge treatment at source to a number of different groups.
- Providing accredited and validated courses as well as short continuing development courses for undergraduate and postgraduate students. These courses include an Access course and the M.Ost degree through to a Professional Doctorate.
We also maintain a commitment to support research and facilitate continuous improvement in professional practice and contribute knowledge to the wider community.
The BSO provides services which benefit a number of different groups, including:
- Undergraduate students
- Postgraduate students
- Academics in osteopathy and manual therapy
- Patients - including the elderly, children, expectant mothers, people with sports injuries and patients with HIV/Aids. We provided over 38,400 treatments on-site this year and all our fees are at a significantly reduced cost compared with average fees of £42 in London; over 45% of our patients only pay £10 for each treatment.
- Our outreach community clinics make treatment more accessible for a number of the population within the London Borough of Southwark and the wider London community. These clinics continue to be free at the point of contact so providing equity in access to osteopathic care for some of the most vulnerable groups within the community; 4,933 treatments were delivered in these settings in the 2010/11 academic year.