Support from trusts and foundations

The BSO is the UK’s oldest school of osteopathy. We educate osteopaths, conduct research and treat patients, including some of the most socially excluded people in our community. We do not cover the costs of treatment and are extremely grateful to have consistently received support from trusts and foundations towards our work.

We aim to be a centre of excellence, maintaining and driving forward standards in every area of our operations. Our faculty and associates are among the leaders in their field; writing standard texts, lecturing and teaching around the world, sitting on professional bodies such as the General Osteopathic Council and innovating in education and practice.

In addition to our Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, the BSO is privileged to have a distinguished group of Vice Patrons who actively support our fundraising efforts.

January 2010:

The British School of Osteopathy (BSO) is delighted to have been awarded £55,992 from the Government’s Hardship Fund towards its outreach community work.

A registered charity, the BSO educates osteopaths, treats patients and pursues osteopathic research. A central part of this mission is the BSO’s growing portfolio of outreach community clinics, which offer osteopathy that is free to groups who might not otherwise be able to afford or access it.

Benefitting from this funding will be the BSO’s outreach community clinics at:

• 1st Place Children’s and Parents’ Centre. In the summer of 2007 the BSO opened and osteopathic clinic for children from birth to five years old at the 1st Place Centre, which is situated near Southwark’s Aylesbury Estate, in an area that has experienced great social disadvantage and exclusion. This clinic aims to help the children of vulnerable local families with a range of physical problems.

• The Manna Centre for homeless people at London Bridge. Lifestyles such as sleeping out take a heavy toll on the body, which osteopathy can help to address. This weekly drop-in osteopathy clinic also serves people who may have basic accommodation, but who either can’t look after themselves or who aren’t receiving the care they need.

• The Ian Charleson Day Centre for people with HIV/AIDS at The Royal Free Hospital in north London. In this clinic, teams of senior BSO degree students are supervised by qualified osteopaths who have a specialist interest in HIV/AIDS, drug therapies, associated pathologies and the musculo-skeletal presentation of HIV/AIDS. Osteopathic treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS can bring improvements to quality of life by addressing the particular musculo-skeletal dysfunction they often experience. It also complements the drug therapies used to manage HIV/AIDS and may also help in coping with the side effects they can bring.

"Fundraising in these difficult economic times is proving challenging so to receive this grant from the Hardship Fund is a wonderful boost and we are extremely grateful to them," says BSO Principal and Chief Executive Charles Hunt. "This money will help us to continue providing free osteopathic treatment in the community to those who could not normally access it. The demand for this has grown and without financial support like this we would not be able to carry on seeing more and more patients year on year."

The Hardship Fund is funded by the Office of the Third Sector within the Cabinet Office, and is administered by the Community Development Foundation (CDF). As part of the Cabinet Office, the Office of the Third Sector leads work across government to support the environment for a thriving third sector (voluntary and community groups, social enterprises, charities, cooperatives and mutuals), enabling the sector to campaign for change, deliver public services, promote social enterprise and strengthen communities. For more information please go to: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector/

July 2009:

The BSO is extremely grateful to the Peter Moores Foundation for making a further generous grant of £20,000 towards our work to provide osteopathy for people with HIV/AIDS. This follows a June 2008 grant of £20,000. Click here for further details in our "BSO osteopathy for people with HIV/AIDS gains continued funding" news story.

We have also recently received £20,000 from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation towards the work of our outreach community clinics and £20,000 from The Tudor Trust. Our outreach community clinics cost the BSO over £100,000 per year to run.

The BSO would also like to acknowledge the support of The Alan and Sheila Diamond Charitable Trust, The London Masonic Charitable Trust, the Enton Hall Foundation and Gillian Lynne CBE who have named treatment rooms in our new clinical centre on Southwark Bridge Road.

We are also very grateful to the following trusts and foundations for their support:

• Baily Thomas Charitable Fund
• The Coutts Charitable Trust
• Fishmongers’ Company’s Charitable Trust
• Frances and Augustus Newman Foundation
• Ganzoni Charitable Trust
• Goldsmiths’ Company Charity
• Helen Hamlyn Trust
• Hospital Saturday Fund
• Hyde Park Place Estate Charity
• Joseph Strong Frazer Trust
• J S F Pollitzer Charitable Settlement
• Oakdale Trust
• P F Charitable Trust
• Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation
• ShareGift
• Sir Jeremiah Colman Gift Trust
• Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust
• Sir William Coxen Trust Fund
• The Hobson Charity Limited
• The Princess Anne’s Charities
• The Rayne Foundation
• The Sobell Foundation
• The Swire Charitable Trust
• The William Allen Young Charitable Trust
• United Charities of The Parish of St George The Martyr
• Vintners’ Gift Charity
• Westminster Amalgamated Charity
• Worshipful Company of Launderers Benevolent Trust Fund